TIRANA, June 8 – A two-day meeting of the Open Balkans initiative was held in Ohrid, North Macedonia, with the participation of the leaders of Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia while prime minister of Montenegro and the chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina attended it as observers.
Kosovo was not represented at all in Open Balkans criticizing it over Serbia’s domination of the initiative and its ties to Russia. In his letter of rejection to the invitation of Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said Kosovo is committed to the Berlin Process, which was approved by the six Western Balkan countries at the Sofia summit in 2020 and supported by the European Union. The initiative, according to its organizers, aims to establish freedom of movement of people, goods, capital and services in the region.
PM Edi Rama said in the meeting that he was pessimistic about the June Summit of the European Commission regarding the enlargement process. He told citizens and politicians of North Macedonia not to take much stress because the progress of the talks with the EU is delayed.
According to Rama, it was important that the countries of Open Balkans do things in the frame of the initiative.
Speaking of the importance of peace in the region, Rama touched on the relations between Albanians and Serbs: “We are here to stay. Albanians are not going anywhere … Serbia is not going anywhere, same as Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians. We are all going to be here. So we have to solve out (issues) and finally grow up and forget all the mess that we have created for each other,” he stated.
Serbian troops have committed the first and only genocide in Europe since World War II – the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina – which was recognized by international tribunals but still denied by Serbia and its President Aleksandar Vucic.
Rama’s assessments of a “mess caused to each other” raised a few eyebrows in Albania, with many accusing him of catering to Vucic, who was a minister of propaganda for the Balkan Butcher, Slobodan Milosevic, when Serbs committed numerous massacres against Albanians in Kosovo.
During the break-up of Yugoslavia, Serbs waged brutal wars against Croats, Bosniak and Kosovo Albanians, killing tens of thousands civilians between 1992 and 1999, causing mass deportations, massacres, and a horrendous genocide.
In their last war in 1998-1999 against Kosovo Albanians, the genocidal government of Milosevic and Vucic killed over 10,000 Albanians and displaced nearly 90 percent of the population.
The approach towards Serbia by the Albanian governments in Tirana and Pristina remains the most contentious issue between prime ministers Edi Rama and Albin Kurti. The latter calls for Serbia to be held responsible and apologize over crimes committed against Albanians.
Prime Minister of Montenegro Dritan Abazovid was quoted by Telegram on Tuesday that his country was not going to Ohrid to join the ‘Open Balkans’ but to express together with the EU partners and NATO allies the attitude towards a regional initiative, so that in the end to have more understanding and good cooperation.
Serbia, which represents the largest country and market in the initiative, maintains strong ties with Russia and China. It is the only country in the Balkan region that has so far refused to join sanctions against Moscow over its aggression in Ukraine. A day earlier, Serbia’s three neighbors, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Bulgaria, forced the cancellation of a Russian foreign minister’s visit to Belgrade, barring his plane from passing through their airspace.
The Russian foreign minister blamed the West for canceling the visit, stressing that no one would be able to destroy Russia’s relations with Serbia.
“They probably did not want us to express support for Belgrade’s initiative to carry out the Open Balkans project in the interest of healthier and stronger relations among all countries in the region,” the Russian minister said on Monday.
American analyst Janusz Bugajski said the Kremlin sees the Open Balkan initiative as a useful tool for dividing Europe. “Pro-Western governments should abandon the scheme and not pursue the Moscow-Belgrade agenda,” he wrote on social media.
Four cooperation agreements for the fight against tax evasion, recognition of higher education diplomas, cultural cooperation and cooperation in the field of tourism were signed on Wednesday. /Argumentum.al
