Prishtina, 12 June, 2024
As part of the state agenda for marking the 25th anniversary of the Liberation of our country, today the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo held a solemn session, which was attended by heads of state, deputies of the Assembly of the Republic and dignitaries, invited guests, leaders and numerous delegations of local and international institutions.
Prime Minister Kurti’s complete speech:
Your Excellency, Ms. Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu, President of the Republic of Kosovo,
Your Excellency, Mr. Bajram Begaj, President of the Republic of Albania,
The Honorable Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, Mr. Glauk Konjufca,
Honorable Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania, Mrs. Lendita Nikola,
The Honorable Lord George Robertson, former NATO Secretary General,
Your Excellency, Mr. Stjepan Mesiq, former President of the Republic of Croatia,
Your Excellency, Ms. Micheline Calmy-Rey, former President of the Swiss Confederation,
Your Excellency, Mr. Mate Graniq, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia,
Honorable Ambassador William Walker, former head of the OSCE mission in Kosovo,
Dear Mr. Rifat Jashari,
Dear members of the Assembly of the Republic,
Deputy Prime Minister and Government Minister,
Dear Commander of our army, Lieutenant General Bashkim Jashari,
Excellencies ambassadors and international friends and guests,
Dear families of martyrs, invalids and veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army,
Dear representative leaders of state institutions, mayors of municipalities,
Dear religious leaders,
Dear citizens of Kosovo,
Ladies and gentleman,
Dear attendees,
In the continuous flow of time as everyday life, there come some special days, like today, when it is very important to focus on the present to reflect on the road we have traveled so far. To unite physically and spiritually as we have united today here in the Assembly of the Republic, and then in the squares of the cities among our citizens, to mark a historical event that has brought us the present and determined our future. Today is exactly one of those days, as it is the Liberation Day of Kosovo.
June 12, 1999, is fixed as the Day of the Liberation of Kosovo, because on that day, tens of thousands of NATO military troops began to cross the border and entered the territory of Kosovo as infantry troops. This came after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign over Yugoslavia, in an effort to stop the ethnic cleansing and genocide that the Serbian state was perpetrating against Albanians in Kosovo. But just a few hours earlier, unexpectedly and treacherously, a contingent of about 200 Russian soldiers detached from the SFOR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina had arrived at midnight in the center of Prishtina.
Thus, between June 11 and 12, 1999, Kosovo, and especially the area of Prishtina, became the arena of developments that received global attention. In one part of the city, Serbian and Yugoslav military and police forces had not yet fully withdrawn from Prishtina; in the other part, in the northeast of Prishtina, units of the Kosovo Liberation Army from the Operational Zone of Llap, had entered the city by raising the Albanian national flag at the “Zenel Hajdini” school and on Bled street; further, after passing through Prishtina, Russian troops went and stationed themselves at the airport of Prishtina in Sllatina, occupying and blocking it; meanwhile, thousands of British soldiers were advancing towards Pristina. Confrontation between the parties, whatever form it might take, seemed inevitable.
The eventual scenarios of that situation were as unpredictable as they were terrifying. From the risk of failure to implement the Kumanovo agreement, which provided for the withdrawal of all Yugoslav and Serbian armed forces from Kosovo before June 20, but which did not provide for any involvement of Russian troops, and, up to a military clash that could take the form of a kind of World War III, conditionally speaking. It seemed as if the dice had already been cast, but NATO and the United States of America were not playing with dice. Both NATO Commander, American General Wesley Clark and KFOR Commander, British General Michael Jackson, were determined to fully realize the mission assumed by the political leaders of NATO, by the American President, Bill Clinton and by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Beyond military technicalities and international law, the de facto result of that mission was the liberation of Kosovo from Serbian troops.
Further details and recorded facts of the events of those days belong to history and historians. But it is precisely from this history that lessons should be learned, as we have done from then until today. And this is best understood by the geopolitical and geostrategic alignment of our countries today. As then and now, Serbia stands behind Russia, just as Russia stands behind many of Serbia’s actions. And our country Kosovo, and its people together with Albania, has continuously strengthened its ties and alliance with the United States of America, with Great Britain, with Germany and Turkey, with France and Italy and with the countries of other western partners. The European Union is our target political family, while NATO is our military destiny.
So today we are marking the 25th anniversary of the liberation of Kosovo, standing together with our allies, just like on June 12 and just like in the first days of liberation. Since the beginning of 2023 and until the middle of this year, day after day, as long as the Kosovo war has lasted, we have commemorated the martyrs and freedom fighters and the glorious battles of the Kosovo Liberation Army on their 25th anniversary; we commemorated the killed and the victims of all those massacres; we have commemorated the disappeared by violence, victims of rape and torture, prisoners and hostages of war; we remembered the damage and destruction, looting and burning; we have commemorated and denounced war crimes and crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide that Serbia committed in Kosovo.
Exactly why we have suffered and lost so much, now we want all citizens to enjoy and win in the democratic Republic of Kosovo, the Albanian majority together with the Serbian, Bosnian, Turkish minorities, the Ashkalis, the Roma, the Egyptians, but also the Croats and Montenegrins. They want good European neighborly relations, with mutual recognition and multiple cooperation throughout our region, without attacks and aggression, without discrimination and exploitation.
Today, with the highest political awareness and the clearest collective memory, we are remembering June 12, 1999, the day of the liberation of Kosovo.
From that day to today, a total of 25 years have passed, i.e. an era of a quarter of a century in the modern history of Kosovo, a time during which the people of Kosovo have lived in freedom more and more qualitatively than in any other historical era . We have never been freer and more independent, and we have never been more determined than today to protect our freedom and independence: at all costs, with everything, with everything, everyone.
Congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the liberation of Kosovo! Deep respect and gratitude to each person and group of each generation, each organization and each warrior; to each state and ally, who over the decades have contributed to Kosovo’s liberation day on June 12, 1999 and to its people, to our common national, European and progressive future, to freedom and peace, to the Republic of Kosovo, to today, for life and weather.
Congratulations and thank you!
Last modified: June 12, 2024