Albanian parties in the Serbian Presevo Valley signed an agreement in the Albanian capital on joint participation in parliamentary and local elections in Serbia, which will be held at the end of April this year.
Balkan media reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
An agreement between several political parties located in the south of Serbia and the Presevo Valley bordering Kosovo (communities of Presevo, Medveja and Bujanovac) with a predominant Albanian population was concluded through the mediation of the head of the Albanian Foreign Ministry, Gent Cakaj, and the head of the Kosovo Foreign Ministry, Glauka Konjufca.
Konjufa and Chakay after signing the agreement in Tirana
“As foreign policy leaders of the Republic of Kosovo and Albania, we reaffirm the importance of supporting the coalition of Albanian political parties in the Presevo Valley,” Konjufeca wrote on his Facebook page. “This coalition is necessary to enhance national spirit and protect the political rights of Albanians in the Presevo Valley.”
Among the signatories of the agreement were such prominent Albanian leaders of the Presevo Valley as the mayor of Bujanovac, Shaip Kamberi, and the mayor of Presevo, Skiprim Arifi. Only the mayor of Presevo, Ragmia Mustafa, refused to take part in the coalition, calling it a “mystifying manipulation.” It should be noted that each of the mayors heads his own political party.
Albanian parties, with the exception of Riza Halimi's Democratic Action Party, which was relatively loyal to Belgrade, boycotted the previous elections, supporting the course of secession from Serbia according to the Kosovo scenario. Then 16 thousand people voted for the SDA and it received one seat in the Assembly.
The newly created Albanian political force of the Presevo Valley received the preliminary name “Albanian Democratic Alternative – United Valley”.
The Presevo Valley is a traditional problem region in Serbia, where, with the support of Albania and Kosovo, the separatist sentiments of the local Albanian community, which makes up the majority of the population of this territory, are strong. From 1999 to 2001, a local terrorist organization - the Army for the Liberation of Presevo, Medvedzhi and Bujanovac - waged a guerrilla war here with the Yugoslav army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the hope of realizing the Kosovo scenario.