Prishtina, 5 March 2026
As part of the programme of the state commemoration marking the 28th anniversary of the Epic of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, participated in the ceremony of the formation of units of the Kosovo Security Force, held at the “Adem Jashari Barracks”.
Full Speech of Prime Minister Kurti:
Honourable Ms. Vjosa Osmani Sadriu, President of the Republic of Kosovo,
Honourable Ms. Albulena Haxhiu, Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo,
Dear Baca Rifat,
Honourable former Presidents of the Republic of Kosovo, Fatmir Sejdiu and Atifete Jahjaga,
Honourable Commander of the Kosovo Security Force, Lieutenant General Bashkim Jashari,
Honourable Deputy Prime Ministers, ministers and members of parliament,
Mayors of the municipalities of Kosovo,
Honourable Mr. Gazmend Hoxha, Director of the Kosovo Police,
Honourable Mr. Petrit Ajeti, Director of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency,
Honourable ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives of friendly countries,
Honourable religious representatives,
Dear families of the martyrs of the nation,
Honourable invalids and veterans of the liberation war,
Honourable soldiers of the Kosovo Security Force,
Dear citizens of the Republic,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Sisters and brothers,
Honourable participants,
In the modern history of Kosovo, the Epic of the Kosovo Liberation Army represents the tradition through which we refer to the most comprehensive and defining event in the course of the battles of Albanians for freedom in Kosovo throughout the twentieth century. The people have the KLA, and the KLA has its Epic, which has been built and centered around the armed resistance and sacrifice of the Jashari family on 5, 6 and 7 March 1998, as an exemplary event demonstrating the power of resistance born from courage and the readiness to sacrifice everything for freedom.
From the end of 1997, after open armed confrontations with the enemy forces of Serbia, the Kosovo Liberation Army also appeared publicly on 28 November. Armed war in Kosovo, from a possibility oscillating between risk and threat, was turning into a reality that could erupt from day to day. The second police attack against the Jashari family in Prekaz, on 22 January 1998, exposed them as an active target of the Serbian police. Although the resistance of the Jashari family that day reaffirmed their position and resistance demonstrated during the first siege on 30 December 1991, armed resistance against the criminal state of Serbia was still widely perceived as a path with little chance of success.
Even three months after the public appearance of the KLA and one month after the second attack on the Jashari family, many still believed that war could be avoided. However, while the massacres in Likoshan and Qirez on 28 February 1998 openly revealed Serbia’s genocidal project in Kosovo, the third siege of Prekaz five days later marked the complete crossing of the boundary between the path of peaceful and diplomatic resolution and the path of war and armed liberation uprising.
The entry of the Kosovo issue onto a path of no return became clear when, on 5, 6 and 7 March 1998, thousands of Serbian police and military forces, in a multi-layered siege in Prekaz, fired thousands of shells and bullets of various calibers and weapons, while the Jashari family resisted with arms despite the heavy price. In the end, as many as 59 people died from the bullets of the weapons of the Serbian state—martyrs of the armed struggle of the Albanians of Kosovo for the freedom sought through liberation from occupying Serbia.
Among them, Adem Jashari and Hamëz Jashari were the two prominent names upon whose figures the glory of that resistance and the inspiration from their struggle for the freedom of Kosovo would be carried. More than thirty years ago, Adem and Hamëz Jashari, together with their comrades, began the first organizational efforts for an army of Kosovo, which would later be called the Kosovo Liberation Army. Within only a few years, the KLA managed to become a partner of the largest military alliance in the world, NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which through Operation Allied Force concluded the war for the liberation of Kosovo by removing Serbia’s forces from our homeland.
Today, the successor of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Kosovo Security Force, has developed into a military force that deploys alongside NATO armies in missions that build and maintain peace around the world.
And all of this has happened, dear participants, and continues to unfold under orders and commands issued from a military barracks bearing the name of Adem Jashari—here where we have gathered today on 5 March 2026, on the first day of the KLA Epic, to remember and honor the resistance of the Commander-in-Chief Adem Jashari and his family.
Before us stand the formations of Kosovo’s army, just as Adem Jashari must once have dreamed of them, at a time when the army of Kosovo was merely an idea believed in by very few people. Facing them are all of us—citizens of our country and officials of our state—who are increasingly witnessing the growth, development and progress of Kosovo’s army. This is also the result of multi-million investments by the Government of the Republic in equipment and weapons systems, in the training and education of our soldiers at the best academies of NATO countries, as well as in the structure and infrastructure of the KSF—to defend Kosovo’s territory and preserve its integrity, to export security and peace together with our allies around the world, and to ensure the freedom and peace of our homeland with security and prosperity.
Twenty-eight years have passed since the day when thousands of Serbian police and military forces surrounded Prekaz of Drenica and encountered armed resistance from the Jashari family. On that day, 5 March 1998, around midday like now, during the fighting one of those surrounded miraculously managed to escape that iron siege imposed by Serbian police and soldiers. His name was Bashkim Jashari, then a 20-year-old, and today the Commander of the Kosovo Security Force. The life story of Lieutenant General Bashkim Jashari—from a freedom fighter of the KLA to a leading military officer of the KSF—can also be read as the history of Kosovo’s own liberation and state-building.
Therefore, under these symbols, let us remember and honor all those who fell and those who survived the KLA Epic—today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, every year and forever.
Glory to Commander-in-Chief Adem Jashari!
Glory to those who fell in Prekaz on 5, 6 and 7 March 1998!
Glory to the martyrs of freedom!
Long live the army of Kosovo, and may we stand together with it and alongside the soldiers of our homeland!
Thank you!
