Albanian NGOs discuss territory exchange in the Balkans
Albanians NGOs from the region met in Skopje and discussed the issue of territorial exchange in the Balkans.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, August 31, 2009
They concluded that this would be against the interest of the Albanian nation as a whole since the exchange would concern land that "already belongs to Albanians" or that it up to Albanian grabs.
The event brought together 20 ethnic Albanian NGOs from across the region.The conference saw a presentation of a six-month report on the current events in Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo.
The province's ethnic Albanian Self-Determination Movement leader Albin Kurti was present, to say that Albanians' "pulse is being measures" when it comes to "exchange of territory" that would involve northern Kosovo and southern central Serbia, which he referred to as "eastern Kosovo".
"On the one hand, they won't let us have our army, our sovereignty, the international community has the last word, and on the other, they pull out the card of exchange of territories that should in fact be ours, but we currently control neither territory," said Kurti.
Macedonia's Wake Up association representative Artan Grubi said that "Albanians have nothing to exchange". Rather, he continued, "there are only things they can take".
Grubi also called for the Ohrid agreement, that ended clashes between Macedonia's security forces and the country's ethnic Albanians, to be implemented
