Milos Pavkovic, an associate of the European Policy Center, stated that the technical problem experienced by President Vjosa Osmani in Skopje had escalated into a diplomatic scandal between North Macedonia and Kosovo.
“Essentially, this was a technical procedure that resulted in a diplomatic dispute and scandal between Kosovo and Macedonia. It is a procedure that is foreseen at all international airports, but it seems that there is a tendency, in my opinion, among Vjosa Osmani and generally among political representatives of Albanians in the Balkans, to simply not consider themselves subject to the same procedures as all other passengers at the airport. They may think that by using the VIP exit and special procedures, they can avoid baggage checks. This is the case when it comes to pre-arranged state visits. However, since Vjosa Osmani was not on an official visit to Skopje but was traveling from Paris back to Pristina, the airport security, according to procedures, wanted to subject her to checks, which she refused. So, that is the essence of the whole problem. A technical issue that grew into a diplomatic scandal and conflict,” Pavkovic told Kosovo Online.
Commenting on speculations that the incident was provoked by the authorities in North Macedonia or that it involved “Serbian influence,” Pavkovic said there is no evidence for either of these claims.
“We have no evidence for either claim. We don’t know who the specific officials were, but it seems they tried to adhere to official procedures. Therefore, it is difficult to interpret whether there was any influence. Also, the Albanian factor and the political division among Albanian parties could have had an influence,” Pavkovic said.
As he added, similar diplomatic incidents have not been recorded in the region in the recent past.
“It is interesting that there have been no such examples in the recent past. So, this is not something that has happened before. Now the question arises why Vjosa Osmani behaved this way, why she wanted to avoid control, thereby creating a diplomatic scandal. The essence is that, generally, governments try to maintain good relations and avoid creating such scandals and problems for each other. However, this did happen, and now the damage is already done,” Pavkovic emphasized.
