Albin Kurti’s eight fundamental problems

(Author is a senior official of a friendly country of Kosovo)

1. We are not Kosovo’s adversaries.
There is no way around saying this: Kurti is probably the only Kosovo Albanian politician who perceives the Western Community as an adversary. Unfortunately, Kurti is also the first Kosovo politician to persuade parts of the Kosovo public that the Western Community, including some of Kosovo’s key allies, are somehow plotting to undermine Kosovo’s statehood. It is unpleasantly remarkable how Kurti’s propagandists are slowly removing from the collective memory of young Kosovans the crucial role of the Western Community in Kosovo’s recent history. Fighting Milosevic’s armada, billions of dollars for Kosovo’s reconstruction, the decisive support for Kosovo’s independence and the nation-building process all appear insufficient to merit Kurti’s trust.

2. Someone has to be good enough.
Kurti did not like President Trump’s policy on Kosovo. Therefore he favoured and campaigned for Biden. Ironically, he is not happy with President Biden’s policy on Kosovo either.
Kurti claimed that Chancellor Merkel supported autocrats in exchange for stability. Some say he, and his people, were thrilled with Chancellor Scholz’s rise to power. Now, Kurti is not happy with Scholz’s policies as well.
Someone has to be good enough!

3. Unnecessary complications succeed only in eroding trust.
Upon their consent, implementing the Basic Agreement is now integral to the EU accession path for Kosovo and Serbia. Establishing the Association of Serb majority municipalities is an international obligation for Kosovo, reaffirmed in the Basic Agreement. There is no way around it. No blame game or feeding of tensions can relieve the parties from the obligation to implement the agreement. Unnecessary complications succeed only in eroding trust.

4. Hostage of his design.
The Western Community took the extra mile in providing numerous guarantees, on several occasions, that it would not allow the repetition of the Republika Srpska scenario or anything else that
undermines the unitary character of Kosovo. However, we don’t need an international agreement or a tiresome negotiation stretching for a decade to create an NGO-type organisation. Kurti, and other Kosovo officials, deliberately neglect that even the existing legal framework provides the base for vast inter-municipal cooperation and coordination.
Kurti knows that the Association of Serb majority municipalities must have a distinct character and legal capacity and provide a reasonable self-management framework for the Kosovo Serb
community. By giving public guarantees that ASMM should not undermine Kosovo’s unitary character, the Western Community did more than enough. It is not our task to untangle Kurti from the political plots of his design. That is between him and the Kosovo people.

5. Lack of fairness, the supposed fault of the international community.
Should we be harsher towards Serbia? Is the Western Community’s policy due for finetuning? Probably yes. However, that is not for Kurti to decide, and that is not Albin Kurti’s problem. Kurti’s problem is that he needs to do his part. Due to Kurti’s deep creativity to complicate everything, the dialogue process downgraded into something revolving around Kosovo’s strategic mistakes rather than Kosovo’s needs.

6. Western naivety is not the real problem.
The war in Ukraine is not just about Ukraine. It is about the direction of where the world tomorrow is going. If Kurti is our ally, he should start acting as one and not lecture on things beyond his job description. Every minute lost in unnecessary complications in Kosovo is a plus for our adversaries.

7. Ignoring Kosovo’s limitations is dangerous.
As Prime Minister, one should know his country and people’s limitations. No one disputes that Kurti is a knowledgeable individual with vast and diverse knowledge. However, running a nation requires more finesse and far less arrogance than chairing an intellectual debate. Democratizing Serbia, correcting the Western community’s policy course, and similar affairs, are hardly part of Kosovo’s Prime Minister’s job description.

8. Kosovo is not a superpower.
Unless Kosovo has a secret nuclear arsenal, Kurti, and others like him, should try to find Kosovo on the world map. It might be an eye-opener.