Unfounded news that falsely claims that Albin Kurti is an agent of Serbia, infiltrated into the political scene of Kosovo, has been spreading in recent months on dubious portals.
This claim was first made by Serbian conspiracist Dejan Lucic in an interview given to a YouTube channel "Ras Televizija", which broadcasts content in the Serbian language.
In this interview published on April 22, 2020, this Serbian conspiracist claims without evidence that Kurti, through the Serbian secret service, had infiltrated the Political Office of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Pristina, led by Adem Demaçi, during the war, in the capacity of secretary.
Parts of the interview, translated into Albanian:
Adem Demaçi has accepted this Kurti from our service as his secretary. While Kurti is in a relationship with Sokolovic's daughter... While Kostunica had released Kurti... Nothing accidental, Albin Kurti is our agent.
While speaking about the Kurti family's origins, he claims that their ancestors are Roma from the Zhupa region in Croatia (as can be understood), who are known for magic and are very smart.
Lucic goes even further, calling two other politicians, agents of Serbia, former presidents Hashim Thaci and Behgjet Pacolli. While speaking about the ethnicity of these two, Lucic says that Thaci's family has Serbian roots, while for Pacolli he says that he has Russian ancestry.
Link to this interview in Serbian:
Dejan Lučić is known in the Serbian world as an author of conspiracy theory publications. He is also known as a close friend of the former head of the Serbian Secret Service, Jovica Stanišić, and the former head of the Special State Security Units, Franko Simatović – Frenki, with whom he was also a faculty colleague (see here).
Hibrid.info has reached this interview of this Serbian conspiracist, during the process of researching several articles published on dubious portals that publish content in Albanian, which had partially published this interview of Luçiqi. (See the publication links) here, here and here).
This Serbian conspiracist does not base his other claims on any facts. He does not present any evidence regarding Kurti's or Pacolli's ethnic origin.
In this interview, Luçiq bases the claim that the former head of state, Hashim Thaçi, has Serbian roots on an earlier conspiracy, which hibrid.info has previously treated, assessing it as disinformation. (see here (Hibrid.info analysis done in July 2020)
Stories about Albin Kurti's origins have also been told in media reports, which feature his extended family who still live in the village of Katerkollë in the vicinity of Ulcinj, where his father also comes from (here).
This baseless claim of Luçiq is also refuted by scientific studies that deal with the origin of Albanian surnames in Kosovo. One such study has been published by the University of Prishtina, by Ali and Nebi Caka, entitled “Surnames of Albanians in Kosovo – Origin and Regional Distribution” (link). Publication).
Analyze:
Serbian conspiracist, Dejan Lucic, makes these claims without being based on any facts.
Based on the fact-checking conducted by hibrid.info, this claim broadcast on this show, but also published on dubious portals, is considered a "Conspiracy Theory".
Reasoning:
"Conspiracy theories" are media reports that disseminate a false or unverifiable description of a phenomenon, event, or person, presenting it as part of or the result of a secret plan ("conspiracy"). A characteristic of these reports is that they present a series of claims, presented as facts, between which cause-effect relationships are established, without providing any credible evidence.