Territorial claims to neighboring countries of the so-called Greater Albania idea supporters have been nothing new to the Serbs for a long time. This is how one of the Kosovo Serbs representatives, ex-chairman of the municipality of Štrpce Zvonko Mihajlović commented to EADaily on a statement of the separatist Kosovo "parliament speaker" Kadri Veseli, who rejected the possibility of exchanging the territories between Belgrade and Pristina, but stated that he had nothing against joining two the southern Serbian municipalities, Presevo and Medvedja, to Kosovo.
According to Mihajlović, the Kosovo Albanians have been adhering to this idea since the League of Prizren founding in 1878 (in the city of Prizren (Kosovo and Metohija), an ethnic Albanian organization was established to counteract implementation of the Congress of Berlin decisions - EADaily). "This idea is driven by two sources. One of them is the Western countries’ patronage rendered to the Albanians. While supporting fully the separatists in their activities, the countries of the West thus fuel separatism in the heart of Europe," Mihajlović said.
"The second source is the weakness of the countries whose territory was under the separatists’ sights. Here I am first of all talking about Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. These three states in the past were the ethnic space of the Serbs, but thanks to external influence today they ceased to be such," the expert said.
The Serbian ethnic space is under attack, and Serbia should be the first to react to what is happening, but this is not what occurs in practice, Zvonko Mihajlović said.
"In its foreign and domestic policies, based on the utopia of accession to the EU, the leadership of Serbia surely leads the country to the loss of part of its territory. It is useless that the Serbian leadership mourns its fate and complains to those who are just inciting the spread of the Greater Albania idea. Belgrade, if it retains even a drop of dignity, should react sharply to such statements and make it clear that it is ready, if necessary, to defend its interests even through militarily means, and not only in the south of the central Serbia, but also in Kosovo and Metohija," he stressed.
According to Mihajlovic, when it comes to the Kosovo issue resolving, Serbia should wait for a more favorable situation on the international scene, strengthening its economy, finances and the army during this time.
