Serbian PM’s Visit to Tirana Divides Albanians

Serbia’s Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, will visit Tirana on Wednesday – the first visit at this high level and a historic event in the context of the traditionally difficult relationship between Serbians and Albanians.

The visit is aimed at improving regional cooperation in the framework of the EU’s diplomatic push to normalize relations between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo.

Police have put in place stringent security measures for the two-day visit, including blocking traffic in several roads in Tirana.

The Serbian leader is expected to meet the Prime Minister, Edi Rama, the speaker of parliament, Ilir Meta, President Bujar Nishani and the head of the opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha. Vucic will also take part in a regional economic forum on 28 May.

Ordinary Albanians appear divided on the visit, with opinions ranging from hostility and indifference to cautious praise.

“I see this visit as a positive step between the two countries. Good relations will help our integration into the European Union,” Vasili, a taxi driver in Tirana, told BIRN.

Others were much more skeptical. “The Serbian Premier’s visit was dictated by Europe; I don’t see any importance to it,” Kisida, a translator, told BIRN.

“Vucic may want to take revenge for the provocative statement issued by our premier, Edi Rama, in Belgrade,” she added.

Rama conducted an abortive visit to Belgrade last November last year at a time of high tension, after a soccer match between the Serbia and Albania national teams in October had ended in chaos.

It was the first visit of an Albanian Prime Minister to Belgrade since 1948. However, Rama angered his host when he called on Serbia to recognize the fact that Kosovo is now anindependent state.

Vucic called the statement a provocation, since when the Serbian word “provokacija” has entered Albanian day-to-day talk as a synonym for something amusing.

Alda, a self-employed inhabitant in Tirana, agreed that Vucic was visiting Albania for Serbia’s sake, not Albania’s.

“The Serbian leader is visiting Tirana for his own good, to show that Serbia is fulfilling the conditions for [its own] European integration,” she said.

Both Serbia and Albania aim to join the European Union, although Serbia is head of Albania on the path and hopes to open formal membership talks shortly.

Agimi, owner of a convenience store, said he was actively against the visit because of Serbia’s views on Kosovo.

“I don’t like this visit, as Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo as an independent state, so a seemingly good relationship with this country does not help our own national interests,” he said.

“Our government should make our own difficulties the priority,” Monda, a retired factory worker in Tirana, offered.

“As long as people are poor and youngsters are jobless, we shouldn’t think of doing favors to others,” Monda added.

Relations between Albania and Serbia or Yugoslavia have traditionally been poor, dating back to the early years of the 20th century when Albania was part of the Ottoman Empire and Serbia sought to grab much of the land that Albanians claimed as their own.

After the Albanians declared independence in 1912, Serbia did its best to ensure the new state was a small as possible, gaining Russia’s important support to annex the mainly Albanian Kosovo region.

Quarrels over Kosovo have dogged relations between the two peoples ever since.

In the 1930s, Albania had to take in thousands of refugees fleeing prosecution in territories that had become part of the new Serb-dominated Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

During the Second World War, Yugoslav Communists played a leading role in the creation of the Albanian Communist Party, which briefly brought about a period of warmer relations between the two countries after their respective Communist takeovers.

Even then, however, the Albanians resented what they saw as Yugoslav domination – fearing that matters would end with the absorbtion of Albania into Yugoslavia. They took the opportunity offered by the quarrel between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in 1948 to end the Yugoslav connection.

The Albanian Communist government saw an internal struggle for power in 1948 that ended with the execution of scores of members of the Politburo who were deemed pro-Yugoslav.

Relations remained frozen till the 1970s when Yugoslavia gave more rights to the Albanians in Kosovo.

Belgrade signed an agreement with Albania to secure textbooks for newly opened Albanian language schools and teachers from the University of Tirana started an exchange program with the newly founded University of Pristina.

Relations deteriorated again after 1981, however, after Albanians staged protests in Kosovo, demanding more rights, and the enmity climaxed in the late 1990s when outright war erupted in Kosovo.

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