Albanian MP in Montenegro defends Kurti: Entry bans are a matter of sovereignty

Ilir Capuni, an MP from the Albanian Alliance in the Parliament of Montenegro, has reacted to the recent debates over the ban on several Montenegrin officials entering Kosovo, stressing that the decisions of Kosovo’s institutions should be treated as those of a sovereign state.

In a Facebook reaction, he said he had not gotten the impression that any representative of the Republic of Kosovo had intended to damage relations with Montenegro.

“As a representative of the Albanian Alliance, I did not have the impression that anyone from the Republic of Kosovo wanted to damage relations in Montenegro. On the contrary, my understanding is that Kosovo’s competent authorities assessed that there were security reasons for preventive action regarding the specific individuals,” he wrote.

According to Capuni, there can be debate over whether the assessment by Kosovo’s institutions was right or not, but this, in his view, remains in the hands of the authorities of a sovereign state.

He added that Kosovo had acted through its institutions and within its proper jurisdiction.

“While we expect everyone to respect the decisions of Montenegro’s institutions, so too should the right of other countries to make decisions in accordance with their own laws be respected,” Capuni concluded.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Parliament of Montenegro, Andrija Mandiq, said that behind the decision to ban the mayor of the Municipality of Niksic, Marko Kovaceviq, and the president of the Berane Municipal Assembly, Vidi Ivanoviq, from entering Kosovo is Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

According to a statement from the Nova Srpska Demokratija (NSD) party, led by Mandiq, he claimed that MPs from Albanian parties in Montenegro had also understood that “someone wants to damage relations between Serbian and Albanian politicians in Montenegro.”