Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Djurić: 2018 – year of development for the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija

The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Djurić, stated tonight that the year 2018 has to be the year of development for the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, both in political, economic and cultural sense.

This has to be the year during which our institutions will be revitalized in all segments, Djurić declared in an interview for Zvečan based “Most” television, and wished for improved and higher quality of life for the citizens of Serbia in the province and for 2018 to become the year in which the children will be the most important and the greatest priority.

“We managed to save the core of our system in Kosovo and Metohija, to save jobs of our people in Kosovo and Metohija, and to increase the number of job posts in Priština’s system. Therefore, we stabilized the existential conditions, whereas, normality – to us, would mean that those conditions are further improved in 2018”, Djurić stated while answering the question what would “the normalization of the relations” in 2018 encompass.

“For us, the normalization of the relations means that we want to live in peace, to live as people who can plan their future and to feel like we belong there – that constitutes normality for us. Normalization should encompass everything that leads us to the accomplishment of this goal”, Djurić explained.

Whilst noting that some political structures in Priština have in mind something different when it comes to the normalization of relations, Djurić said that two concepts of normalizations must come to terms in a way that would protect the interests of Serbs and other citizens of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija.

As he remarked, the last year was the year of struggle for the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, aiming at the reinforcement of political capacity and creating political unity of their representatives.

“What do we need in order to persevere here? One of the first preconditions is the political unity of Serbian representatives, to be organized and to act as an army, in a political sense. We came close to this goal in 2017, even though we have much more to do”, Djurić observed.

According to him, in relations to the Priština’s provisional institutions, Serbian representatives seem more harmonious and more compact today, in line with the Serbian state policy, and having the so-called golden voice in these institutions creates a potential to achieve even more significant results in 2018 in defense of Serbian state and national interests.

As noted, Serbian political representatives are being treated with much more seriousness and respect in Priština today, largely due to the fact that it is clear to everyone that their actions are based on the cooperation with the Government of Serbia and the state of Serbia.

“Until there is Serbia, there will be our Kosovo and Metohija with our people and institutions in it, with our struggle to remain and subsist here. We will strive to strengthen our vitality in Kosovo and Metohija, to use everything provided by both systems so there can be more of us here”, Djurić said.

He expressed his belief that, thanks to the internal dialogue, the Serbian positions on Kosovo and Metohija will strengthen in 2018.

“The internal dialogue initiative of President Vučić provoked far more people than ever before to start dealing with Kosovo and Metohija and I believe that this is very important for our overall capacity to deal with this issue.

The initiative of President Vučić encouraged creativity and creative work in finding a solution and mobilizing our public to begin to take more interest in Kosovo and Metohija”, Djurić said.

He also pointed out that the internal dialogue also showed who doesn’t have a stance and who has a complete absence of politics on this issue.

“Some political representatives from the opposition literally fled the debate, thus demonstrating that they were hiding behind slogans and mottos this whole time”, Djurić noted.

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