Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti visited Tetovo and Skopje’ Cair district, in a semi-official visit meant to show his support for the Albanian opposition parties in Macedonia, while the DUI – SDSM Government remains close to his rival, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Kurti was welcomed as royalty in Tetovo, with Albanian flags, children in Albanian folk costumes singing Albanian songs, as he presented a plan to build a road through the Shar Planina mountain to link Tetovo to Prizren. The iconography at his events included maps of Greater Albania – encompassing large chunks of all countries that border Albania.

Kurti also had a message for the Macedonian foreign policy – he urged that the country maintains close ties with Kosovo, Albania and Bulgaria, and remains further away from Serbian influence. “Serbia did not distance itself from Milosevic, or from Putin. The further Macedonia is from Serbia, the more secure the Balkans will be”, Kurti said.

Kurti’s dispute with Edi Rama is largely over his refusal to bring Kosovo in the Open Balkan initiative, where Serbia has an important place, and to refuse the request for the creation of an association of majority Serbian municipalities in the north of Kosovo.
VMRO-DPMNE responded to the visit focusing on the event in Cair, where local authorities renamed a street. The street was named after the 2nd Macedonian Brigade – a unit that fought against the Nazi aligned Bulgarian forces in World War Two – and is renamed after Kosovan pro-independence dissident Adem Demaci.

Demaci has no connection to the history of Macedonia, or with Skopje. He had nationalist ideas linked to other countries. We ask the SDS members of the municipal council, did they know what they voted for? The SDS pawns will remain remembered for their destruction of the Macedonian history, VMRO-DPMNE said in a statement.