Written by: Ag Apolloni
On February 17, Kosovo turns 18. It has the right to drive a car, smoke and drink alcohol, travel without a parent, get married, sign contracts, and many other things that were not allowed under this age. However, in fact, Kosovo is not a person and is not that young. Ethnicity, statehood, and independence are three different things that come together under one name: Kosovo.
This anniversary of maturity (legally) finds the state with a new government, which is no longer allowed the infantilisms of the previous government, which, drunk on taking power, did not understand the problems of the state. It had a great focus on sovereignty and with that won not only the hearts of the people affected by the war, who are the majority, but also the hearts of the diaspora, since most of the Kosovar families who are today mainly in Europe and America have fled their country due to Serbian repression. For them, it is only important that Kosovo is safe. If you guarantee this to them, you have no reason to doubt their vote. And it will be like this for some time.
However, the new government of the 18-year-old state, if it does not add the word prosperity to the word sovereignty, will not seem serious.
This 18-year-old state needs new acquaintances (friends). Some of them (members of the European Union) still do not accept to go out with it, because they consider it immature. There are two acquaintances that it needs very much (not because they are superpowers, but because we are not more closely connected with any other country than with them in history): Greece and Romania. Greece has never had any conflict with Kosovo, but has had a thousand-year-old friendship with the Albanians (who are the majority in Kosovo), a historical and cultural friendship. Even the great patriot and prominent Albanian folklorist, Thimi Mitko, in the preface to "The Albanian Bee", feeling the cultural closeness with the Greeks, said 'Mother Greece'. As far as I know, to this day we have not made any effort to nurture this friendship, except that we have gone and asked them for acquaintance, as if they almost owe us. 'Mother Greece' does not recognize us, not because of its friendship with Serbia, because its friendship with us is older, but because of 'Mother Albania', with which it has had political 'disagreements', without even considering the reckless statement of the current Albanian prime minister about Greek identity.
The same is true of Romania, which has helped us throughout history to declare independence and document the antiquity of the language (it was the Romanian Nikolla Jorga who discovered the oldest document in the Albanian language, the Baptism Formula). However, our relationship with Romania is from the perspective of football. Therefore, looking at this 'foot logic', I do not see recognition on the horizon.
Also, recognition from Spain should become a goal. But we don't have the luxury of ignoring Slovakia and Cyprus either.
What needs to be done to secure these recognitions? Visits, exchanges, joint projects, normalization of relations, and, above all, cultural diplomacy need to be developed. We need to convince some of these countries that we are not barbarians, we are not vassals, we are not radicals (although in fact, and unfortunately, we are, not only in Kosovo, but also in the diaspora), in short, Albanian, we are not what they fear (and often rightly so) that we are.
Of course, recognition does not come only from diplomacy, but recognition from Greece and Romania can never be secured without the help of diplomacy, especially cultural diplomacy, which convinces those states of their readiness and desire to revive the three-thousand-year-old friendship with one, and hundreds of years with the other. Perhaps recognition cannot be secured in any way, but if there is a way, it is this one that I have mentioned.
How is this done? By forming a kind of 'senate', in the Roman sense, with people who know these things. A senate at the service of the state, which is helped and not abused by the government. The 'senate' (I am calling it that because of the model I am considering, but it could be called something else) would protect (intellectually) the state. If the state is left to be protected only by the army, then we are getting the 'straits' ready and running as far as we can. If it does not protect the country with intelligence, with knowledge and evidence, it is in vain to invest in the army.
This means that the vocabulary of the state's 'driver' must change. "Last year's words belong to last year's language, and the words of the new year await another voice," says TS Eliot. Therefore, dear winners, if you continue with the same voice, you may even reach the 99 percent, and benefit the state even more, but the goal has been for the state to benefit you.
Therefore, in conclusion, I will close with a quote from a writer who has been widely attacked by politicians, and who is still relevant today, Miguel de Unamuno: 'You can win, but you cannot convince us'. You must convince us that you are mature and that you know how to 'run' the state. I wish you luck, because I do not want you to be our misfortune. We had enough of such people.
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