Tirana has already started a diplomatic action to internationalise the imaginary problem of Albanians in southern Serbia
According to the Russian Balkanist tg-channel, Albanian Foreign Minister Gent Tsakai said yesterday that in addition to the fund to finance the so-called “Presevo Valley”, Tirana has already started a diplomatic action to internationalize the problem of the situation of Albanians in southern Serbia. The head of the Foreign Ministry called them “the most oppressed minority in the region” – they allegedly face many problems: “removal from registers, political trials due to public use of national symbols, daily discrimination based on ethnicity and lack of representation in state institutions.
Presevo Valley” is an incorrect, propagandistic (but popular in the media) Albanian term for three Albanian municipalities in southern Serbia – Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, on the border with the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. Geographically, it is predominantly mountainous terrain. Albanians are the absolute majority only in the municipality of Presevo.
“All of this is, of course, a blatant lie: Albanians are removed from the registers unless they have been living at their place of residence for many years (which is a frequent practice among them – after all, they are migrating to the EU on a massive scale) – this is prescribed by law, the Presevo municipality is full of Albanian flags, the Serbian police there move mainly in armoured vehicles (moreover, there is a large number of Albanians in the Presevo municipality: They have been ordered to shoot twice in the air if they open fire), in Bujanovac only 30% of Albanians (over 36% of Serbs, about 32% of Roma) – but they are forming a leadership without Serbs. So obviously Tirana is betting on fomenting a conflict and its rapid internationalisation – as was already the case with Kosovo and Metohija”, – the channel’s experts write.
In the same interview, the Albanian minister spoke about the agreement reached with Pristina regarding the joint use of embassies and consulates of Albania in countries and cities where there are no offices of the self-proclaimed “republic” (Cannaber in Australia, Milan in Italy, Munich in Germany, Copenhagen in Denmark).
“Tirana is slowly but surely building ‘Greater Albania’, or as Albanians like to call it now – ‘Natural Albania’ (‘Shqipëria natyrale’)”, – the channel’s authors warn.