Kosovo's sovereignty cannot be challenged because it became independent based on the same model as Croatia, Albanian minority MP Ermina Lekaj-Prljaskaj said on Monday in a comment on President Zoran Milanovic's statement that Kosovo was "taken by force from Serbia". Pročitaj više

“The Republic of Kosovo was established during the process of dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), just like the Republic of Croatia,” Lekaj-Prljaskaj said, stressing that under the SFRY Constitution of 1974 the autonomous province of Kosovo was not just part of Serbia but also “a constituent element of the federation.”

Those powers were taken from Kosovo by force and its autonomy was abolished due to Slobodan Milosevic’s pressure, she said.

“The autonomous Kosovo was degraded to an administrative unit with a police regime in force and mass persecution of the majority Albanian population,” said Lekaj-Prljaskaj, who represents the Albanian, Bosniak, Montenegrin, Macedonian and Slovenian minorities in the Croatian parliament.

“Due to the danger of an impending disaster and violation of international humanitarian law, all of that led to the humanitarian intervention in Southeast Europe that is well-known in the international community,” said Lekaj-Prljaskaj, adding that denying statehood to Kosovo would be the same as denying statehood to present-day Greece or Bulgaria.

“The 1974 SFRY Constitution and other legal acts and citizens’ democratic decision-making were legal and factual bases for Croatia’s independence and the same model was applied to the case of Kosovo’s independence,” she concluded.

Earlier in the day, President Zoran Milanovic said that “Crimea will never be Ukraine again“, an allusion to the international community’s having already set such a precedent in Kosovo’s case.

Milanovic said that he stands by and supports Kosovo, but that it was “taken by force” and “extracted” from Serbia without its consent.

“Serbia was not our friend at the time and we could not care less about it,” he said.

“I’m not questioning Kosovo but rather the entire concept where one thinks they can do anything when it suits them, but when the other side does it, then it’s a crime,” said Milanovic, whose statement about Kosovo drew a lot of media attention in Serbia, with local media outlets approving it.