Haxhiu: Kaçanik Constitution, the foundation that paved the way to statehood

September 7, 1990, when delegates of the Assembly of Kosovo adopted the Kaçanik Constitution, was commemorated by Albulena Haxhiu, who is serving as Kosovo’s acting president.

She stressed that the adoption of the Constitution took place under conditions of oppression and political persecution, calling it an act that provided a constitutional basis for the will expressed on July 2 to proclaim Kosovo a republic. In her statement, Haxhiu recalled that on September 7, 1990, the delegates gathered in Kaçanik and adopted the document there, giving constitutional grounding to that will.

According to Haxhiu, the adoption of the Constitution came in response to Serbia’s efforts to dismantle Kosovo’s autonomy and suppress the political will of its citizens. She added that while Serbia was destroying autonomy, closing down its institutions and attempting to impose its political will on the citizens by force, the Kaçanik Constitution was the response of a people who refused to give up their right to decide their own fate.

Haxhiu said the document’s significance goes beyond the legal text adopted on September 7, 1990. She emphasized that it shows that even under occupation and repression, Kosovo had the people, knowledge and will to give legal form to its political determination.

She also praised the work of the jurists and the courage of the delegates who took part in adopting the Constitution. According to Haxhiu, the document reflects the work of jurists who, under extraordinary circumstances, built a constitutional order based on the will of the people of Kosovo, while the delegates’ vote reflected the courage of a generation that took on the responsibility of giving the demand for a republic the form of a constitutional act.

Haxhiu went on to recall Kosovo’s political journey, from the July 2 Declaration and the Kaçanik Constitution to liberation and the declaration of independence. She wrote that the path that began with the July 2 Declaration and took constitutional shape on September 7 continued through the resistance of the citizens, the liberation war and the sacrifice of many generations, leading to the liberation of the country and the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008.

In conclusion, the acting president said that on this anniversary, all those who contributed to keeping the demand for a republic alive should be honored. She declared that today, on the anniversary of the Kaçanik Constitution, its drafters, the delegates who adopted it and all those who kept the demand for a republic alive during the most difficult years are being honored. Haxhiu concluded that what took constitutional form on September 7, 1990, was a political determination that Kosovo’s history would carry forward to independence and statehood.