Today (August 11) an article was published by the Belgrade-based news agency “Tanjug.rs” titled “Vučić: Priština wants to attack northern Kosovo and Metohija, preparing the liquidation of Serbs”. The article published on “Tanjug.rs” is based on statements made by Serbian President, Vučić, who claims that “Priština wants to attack northern Kosovo, preparing the liquidation of Serbs”.
These comments from the Serbian head of state came after interviews by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, given to several international media outlets, about the "presence of a high risk of a new conflict between Kosovo and Serbia." (see here)
Hibrid.info, after verifying the facts, has assessed that the Serbian president's statements are unfounded and considered a conspiracy theory.
Link to the article published on the news agency "Tanjug.rs":
http://www.tanjug.rs/full-view.aspx?izb=745566
Excerpt from the article published on "Tanjug.rs":
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said today that Pristina is using the situation in Ukraine to campaign against Serbia and that it is a lie that Serbia wants to attack anyone, but quite the opposite – it is Pristina that wants to attack the north of the country. Kosovo and Metohija and is preparing the liquidation of our people under the guise of fighting crime, so he warned them not to do this.
Commenting on Albin Kurti's statement that Belgrade is pursuing an aggressive policy with accusations that Belgrade could cause conflict, Vučić said that this is somewhat ridiculous, because we have been hearing similar lies for 170 days, adding that "thousands and thousands" of lies have been published in the world media about how Serbia is attacking someone, somewhere?
The claims of Serbian President Vučić, published in the article of the news agency "Tanjug.rs", are not based on concrete facts. Vučić builds his claims by linking them to the interviews of Albin Kurti given to international media (The Republic, Radio Free Europe and Reuters), and interpreting them as a campaign against Serbia, and that not Serbia but Kosovo is planning an attack to liquidate Serbs.
This article, with the claim of the Serbian president, has also been published and translated in several Albanian language media (see here and here)
Analyze:
Serbian President Vučić's statements, related to Albin Kurti's recent interviews with international media, appear to have been misinterpreted as accusing Pristina of an attack to liquidate Serbs.
Albin Kurti, in an interview given to the international news agency Reuters, states that: "the possibility of new tensions and conflicts cannot be ruled out", a statement that leaves no room for interpretations of any attack on Serbs. Such claims by Vučić turn out to be a fabricated political narrative not based on concrete facts.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info evaluates Vucic's statement as 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.