Vujanovic is conditioning an exchange of ambassadors on recognition of Montenegrins as a minority and on their authentic representation in the Kosova parliament.
On Thursday he said that Atifete Jahjaga, Kosova’s President, had pledged to meet his demands soon.
Slobodan Vujicic, chairman of the Association of Montengrins from Kosovo, said that according to the last census which Kosovo’s authorities recognize, in 1981, over 27, 000 Montenegrins lived in Kosova.
Out of 120 seats in Kosova’s parliament, 20 are guaranteed for minorities - namely the Serbian, Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian, Turkish, Gorani and Bosniak communities.
At the beginning of the year, the Kosova authorities promised that Montenegrins and Croats would obtain the same status.
The Hypocrisy of Vujanovic's demands are blatant; Montenegro has systematically denied Albanians their inherent and guaranteed rights to equal education, property, language, self-government, employment and preservation of culture, yet Podgorica is holding hostage diplomatic relations with a country that does more in respecting its minorities than any other nation in the Balkans.
The question that needs to first be asked is, "Who are the Montenegrins in Kosova?" A significant majority of Slavs in Kosova that refer to themselves as "Montenegrin" have been assimilated to the point where there is absolutely no cultural, social, and/or linguistic differences between them and the Serbian/Bosniak communities. They only exist as ""Montenegrin" by name; they have only recently created this identity when Serbia and Montenegro split in 2006, and much the like Montenegrin alphabet (where two letters were added to differentiate it from the Serbian), the Montenegrin individual in Kosova is a recently re-manufactured variant of the Serb.
Atifete Jahjaga should carefully consider this request because Vujanovic is walking a thin line with the Albanians community in Montenegro, and a clear double-standard is present in these negotiations.
4 comments:
Podgorica is definitely playing a dangerous game. If they believe they can run over Albanians en route to EU Stardom, they will be surprised in the near future.
I am very surprised Albanians in Ulqin and Malesia have not rebelled yet!
But Albanians are a recognized minority, are they not? Everything else aside in your hyperbolic post, isn't he really only asking for reciprocity of a really narrow issue?
Yes, they are recognized, albeit not as a "national minority," which poses issues on another angle -- minorities that are autochthonous deserve special rights in efforts to preserve their identity and thwart assimilation. Montenegrin in Kosova are a recent phenomenon, while Albanians in Malesia and Ulqin have been there since antiquity.
hypocrisy
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