Serbia Accuses Kosovar Prime Minister Of Forcefully Promoting Idea Of 'Greater Albania'

Serbia Accuses Kosovar Prime Minister of Forcefully Promoting Idea of 'Greater Albania'

The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, is buying weapons, sending Kosovar police units to Serbian regions and promoting militaristic ideas of creating a "greater Albania," Petar Petkovic, the head of the Serbian Office for Kosovo, said on Monday

BELGRADE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th April, 2022) The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, is buying weapons, sending Kosovar police units to Serbian regions and promoting militaristic ideas of creating a "greater Albania," Petar Petkovic, the head of the Serbian Office for Kosovo, said on Monday.

On Sunday, Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin said that the supply of Javelin and NLAW anti-tank systems by the United Kingdom to Kosovo is an unfriendly step toward Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic then accused the West of hypocrisy for condemning Serbia's purchase of Chinese FK-3 air defense systems, while supplying weapons to Kosovo.

"If Kurti had wanted to establish peace and coexist in Kosovo, Metohija, and the western Balkans, he would have ensured the formation of the Commonwealth of Serbian communities in the province and contributed to stabilization, showing respect for the collective rights of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija. Instead, he sends ROSU special forces to Serbian districts and continues to express dangerous militaristic intentions and ideas, among which is the formation of a 'greater Albania'," Petkovic said in a statement.

In early March, Kurti requested NATO membership amid Russia's military operation in Ukraine.

In 1999, an armed confrontation between Albanian separatists from the Kosovo Liberation Army and the Serbian army led to a bombing of what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, by NATO forces. The operation was undertaken without the approval of the UN Security Council and was based on allegations by Western countries that the Yugoslav authorities were allegedly carrying out ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians. NATO airstrikes continued from March 24 to June 10, 1999 and claimed the lives of over 2,500 people, including 87 children.