Petkovic: We did not write Balkans border change "non-paper" and have nothing to do with it

Photo: Tanjug/Tara Radovanovic

The director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, says that a "non-paper" on changing borders is not a document of the state of Serbia, which is why he thinks it's strange that President Aleksandar Vucic is being attacked in connection with that.

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It is interesting, he says, that those who attack the president of Serbia do not belong to the past, but are fighting for the past.

"A strong and successful Serbia doesn't suit them, Serbia which is a leader in the region. How many papers and documents have there been about 'Greater Albania' and no one stood up to oppose that, to say that is a dismemberment of Serbia and the redrawing of borders. It's not clear to me who those who think they can decide on the future of Serbia, the Serbian people and the Serbian state are," Petkovic told RTV and added that without Belgrade, there is no solution for Kosovo and Metohija.

It's important, he says, that we understand that thanks to President Vucic the issue of Kosovo and Metohija has been internationalized once again, that without Belgrade there is no final solution for Kosovo and Metohija, and that a solution should be found within the dialogue.

He added that the moment when the issue of Kosovo and Metohija was brought up, internal dialogue was initiated as well, which lasted for almost a year and during which Vucic said that demarcation was a possible solution.

"But that proposal was rejected. The proposal on delimitation was the contribution of the Serbian side to find a solution at the negotiating table. That's why the dialogue exists, to try a solution. If they had let us reach agreement, we would have agreed, but there is a third party," said Petkovic and confirmed that there is an agenda that should be negotiated.

The issue of property should be discussed, but Pristina has been refusing to do that for seven years, he said.

"When you negotiate about property, it's an issue that you cannot solve in 20 days, when you negotiate about the missing, you cannot solve such an issue in three meetings and in five sentences that you will put on a paper," stated Petkovic.

He stresssed, however, that normalization of relations cannot happen because of the warmongering rhetoric of Albin Kurti and Vjosa Osmani.

"Serbia knows what threats mean. In ten days, temples in Kosovo and Metohija, in Strpce, Klokot, Pasjan, Gornja Gusterica got desecrated. When there is no dialogue, there are incidents on the ground and it is in our interest to talk," said the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and recalled that Serbia managed to rebuild 45 Serbian Orthodox temples and monasteries that were destroyed between 1999 and 2004.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)