Serbian official Ivica Dačić’s claim that Prizren was the first Serbian capital, as well as his statement that the Serbian flag will once again fly over the city, have sparked reactions and reopened debate over Kosovo’s past.
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Among those who responded to Dačić is commentator Gani Mehmeti. In a reaction for “Bota sot,” he casts doubt on the Serbian official’s historical claims and says that the history of these lands goes back much further than the period of the medieval Serbian state.
Mehmeti asks Dačić whom Prizren belonged to before it became what the Serbian official calls the first Serbian capital. He urges him to read more about history and not view it solely from a Serbian perspective, adding that if Serbian history begins in that period, then Serbs arrived very late.
According to Mehmeti, Kosovo’s history cannot be reduced solely to the period when the medieval Serbian state extended its influence over these territories. In support of this position, he reminds Dačić of the Serbian expression “Janko arrived late in Kosovo,” emphasizing that the country’s past predates the establishment of medieval Serbian rule.
The commentator says that Albanians see Kosovo as their historic homeland and rejects portraying its past solely through Serbian claims. “History does not begin with you, Dačić,” Mehmeti says, asserting that Albanians have been in these lands for thousands of years, were born and raised there, and regard Kosovo as their cradle. In the end, he tells Dačić that Serbs left their cradle somewhere in the Caucasus and should look for it there.
