The US diplomatic mission in Kosovo has published a campaign appeal to the residents of the region with an appeal to vote in early elections to the parliament of the unrecognized republic.

“On this Valentine's Day, show love for your country and family.

Vote!

The future of Kosovo is in your hands, ”urged the American Embassy on Facebook.

This Valentine's Day show your love for your country and your family.

Vote!

Kosovo's future is in your hands.

🗳️🇽🇰🇺🇸 # KosovoVotes2021

Posted by US Embassy Pristina, Kosovo Saturday 13 February 2021

In unrecognized Kosovo, early elections to a unicameral parliament are held on February 14.

According to local opinion polls, the most popular is the extreme right-wing Self-Determination movement of ex-premier Albin Kurti.

He is followed by the Democratic Party of Kosovo faction, led by former president of the rebellious province, Hashim Thaci.

It is worth noting that Thaci, along with his associates, is now in The Hague awaiting trial for war crimes.

Extraordinary elections

Early parliamentary elections in Kosovo are being held due to the political crisis - at the end of December 2020, the constitutional court of the unrecognized republic invalidated the vote in parliament, following which the government was headed by Avdulah Hoti.

This vote took place last June - 61 out of 120 MPs voted for the Hoti cabinet. The Constitutional Court ruled that MP Etem Arifiy, whose vote for the new government became decisive, had no right to vote, as he was convicted of embezzlement.

It should be noted that the basis for the consideration of this issue by the constitutional court was the appeal of the above-mentioned movement “Self-determination”.

It had previously won the elections in 2019, but then went into opposition after passing a vote of no confidence in the government of Albin Curti.

It was then that Hoti became prime minister without the necessary dissolution of parliament and new elections, so Hashim Thaci (who was then still the head of the unrecognized Kosovo) and representatives of the political forces of the region came to an agreement that due to the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, new elections would not be held.

Elections in the unrecognized republic are being held without the participation of OSCE observers.

History of "independence"

Let us recall that in 1998 the Kosovar Albanians initiated an armed conflict against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in order to achieve the independence of Kosovo and Metohija.

Against the background of biased coverage of events by the Western media, the North Atlantic Alliance intervened in the conflict.

On March 24, 1999, under the pretext of protecting civilians in Kosovo, NATO troops began bombing military and civilian targets in Yugoslavia.

The military operation was carried out without the appropriate sanction of the UN Security Council, which was a flagrant violation of international law.

  • NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

  • © Wikimedia / Darko Dozet

The bombing continued from March to June 1999.

According to the Serbian side, as a result of the air strikes, more than 2.5 thousand people were killed, including children, and about 12.5 thousand people were injured.

Yugoslavia was unable to withstand the military might of NATO, and she had to agree to the withdrawal of troops from the territory of the rebellious region and to accept the settlement plan imposed by the Western countries.

Despite the fact that the process of peaceful settlement of the situation, which was led by the UN Security Council, did not provide for the secession of Kosovo, in 2008 most Western states recognized the independence of the region.

In response, Belgrade declared that it would never recognize the sovereignty of this territory.

"Some radicals replaced others"

From the point of view of experts, now the United States by any means, including agitation, is trying to give the unrecognized Kosovo legitimacy.

“These parliamentary elections are a necessary stage to give Kosovo a new status, to fix it as an absolutely recognized state.

This means that, according to the US plan, Serbia and anyone else should not have any controversial issues over Kosovo.

We can assume that this process and the call for it from the United States means consolidating the state of affairs in such a state of affairs as it is now, "political analyst Alexander Asafov noted in an interview with RT.

It is important for Washington that the vote be as massive as possible, so that afterwards it can be announced that it was the will of the people, therefore, this state is legitimately on the political map of the world, he explained.

“In fact, the international community and Western countries are well aware that Kosovo is an illegal, artificial construction.

The West in the international legal field simply turned a blind eye to the observance of international laws, recognizing Kosovo in this form, and therefore now does not pay attention to the participation of war criminals in the elections.

These inconvenient circumstances are put out of brackets, since the goal is to secure the Kosovo state on the political map of the world, ”Asafov said.

In turn, in a commentary to RT, the director of the Progressive Policy Foundation, Oleg Bondarenko, noted that the current appeal of the US Embassy in Pristina clearly demonstrates that Kosovo was endowed with state functions solely thanks to the will of the United States.

“The issue of relations between Washington and Pristina is practically an internal political issue for the White House administration, so the US Embassy made a similar appeal.

In addition, over the past twenty years, none of the countries except America has been able to become a political player in Kosovo, ”the expert noted.

Oleg Bondarenko notes that "not a single convocation of the Kosovar parliament has sat to the end."

“Therefore, we can expect that the next“ parliament ”will face a similar fate. During this time, some radicals replaced others, in this case it will be the same. The international community and Western countries do not react to the participation in the elections in Kosovo of political forces led by war criminals. This is the case when "friends" - everything, and enemies - the law ", - concluded Bondarenko.