Wrote: Festim Rizanaj
An article claimed that Kosovo's Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, threatened war during the electoral campaign.
Kurti's promise of one billion euro in investments has been interpreted by the Serbian media as "Informer.rs" as a threat of war and bloodshed and that with those weapons the Serbs will be expelled from Kosovo. The article was published on February 2 with the title "Very dangerous goals of the extremist from Pristina - Kurti threatens war again: We will buy weapons for one billion euros!"
What is the truth?
Albin Kurti, leader of the Vetëvendosje Movement, has not threatened war and bloodshed as alleged. He also did not say that one billion euros, as he promised, will be used to purchase weapons to expel Serbs from Kosovo. He has stated that Kosovo is arming itself to defend itself in the event of a possible attack.
Article entry on "informer.rs":
"The extremist Albanian and Prime Minister of the Provisional Institutions of Pristina, Albin Kurti, has once again threatened war and bloodshed, saying he will spend a billion euros to buy rifles with which to expel Serbs from Kosovo."
The article is based on Kurti's statement at the Vetëvendosje Movement rally in Suhareka, on January 28, as part of the campaign for the February 9 general elections.
But what did Kurti say?
"In the next mandate, one billion euros for defense, for the Kosovo Army... I would have liked that we were not forced to give one billion euros for defense for the army. But dear citizens, we have been shot by the bad neighbor. And when you have the bad neighbor, there is only one solution, a good rifle. But not only a good rifle, but also a full rifle. Therefore, in addition to having purchased the 'Bayraktarë TB2' combat drones from Turkey and the 'Javelin' anti-tank system from America, and we are buying 'Black Hawk' helicopters from America, we will also have our own ammunition factory and we will also start producing 'made in Kosovo' drones that will be part of the Kosovo Security Force. That's how it is when to be protected from corner to corner, when we have the border guarded by our army and police, with this modern weaponry, with this much ammunition, without a doubt even the bad neighbor will think twice about whether to attack us or not, and when he thinks twice about it, he will not attack us at all, and believe me, this is good for both us and them. It is good for us because we do not need to fight, and it is good for them because they will not need to die. (See here)
So Kurti did not threaten that Kosovo would expel the Serbs. He said that Kosovo is arming itself to defend itself. And Kurti has repeated this statement on other occasions. On June 30, 2023, at the graduation ceremony of the class of 2023 cadets of the Center for University Studies of the KSF, Kurti said that "We do not strengthen the army to attack others, but to be strong enough to defend ourselves."
Serbian media and officials have on several occasions claimed that Kosovo aims to expel or intimidate Serbs. No evidence has ever been provided for this claim. (See here and here)
The "informer.rs" article was also distributed by the media "alo.rs".
Analyze:
The Serbian-language media outlet "informer.rs" has claimed that the promise of the Vetëvendosje Movement and Albin Kurti to invest 1 billion euros in the Kosovo Army is made with the aim of causing bloodshed and expelling Serbs from Kosovo.
The published article is not based on facts. Kurti has said that Kosovo wants to defend itself and does not invest in attacking others.
Based on the working methodology, hibrid.info evaluates this article as a "conspiracy theory".
Reasoning:
"Conspiracy theories" are considered to be informational content that contains a false or unverifiable description of a phenomenon, event or person, presenting it as part or the result of a secret plan ("conspiracy"). The characteristic of these contents is that they present a series of claims, presented as facts, between which cause-effect relationships are established, without providing any reliable evidence.