KoSSev Portal Launches New Column „Kompas“ with Saša Janković and Ilir Deda

PHOTO: KoSSev

Starting this week, the KoSSev portal is introducing a new column, „Kompas“ (Compass). Our new contributors are Saša Janković and Ilir Deda.

The ongoing dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo has unfolded over the past four years in what seems like several antagonistically created realities.

1. International Mediation: Two key agreements have been achieved through international efforts: the European Agreement on the Path to Normalization of Relations between Kosovo and Serbia, accompanied by the so-called Ohrid Annex. Significant progress has also been made on freedom of movement, culminating in this week’s decision to lift the ban on Serbian goods entering Kosovo.

2. Technical Dialogue: The technical-level dialogue, largely shielded from public scrutiny, has been ongoing, resulting in the above-mentioned changes on the ground.

3. High-Level Dialogue: The political-level dialogue is widely seen as unsuccessful. Since 2020, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić have met nine times, though most of these meetings lacked direct interaction and were largely unproductive. Kurti focuses on domestic affairs, pushing actions in the North that have reignited the frozen conflict—or, as interpreted by Pristina, establishing sovereignty by expelling Serbian institutions and making significant changes on the ground. Vučić distances himself from responsibility for the withdrawal of Serbs from Kosovo institutions and the attack in Banjska, shifting the blame to local Serbs while publicly accusing Kurti of terror and occupation. Both leaders send out populist messages to their respective audiences, marked by mutual accusations.

4. Serb-Albanian Relations: Relations between Serbs and Albanians have deteriorated, marked by heightened antagonism. The public discourse is poisoned by hate speech, propaganda, and populism, which have become mainstream. Younger generations are particularly vulnerable to these violent communication models and the growing trend of radicalization. The Serbian community in Kosovo, especially in the North, is feeling especially abandoned—left by Belgrade and de facto handed over to Pristina, which they perceive as oppressive, discriminatory, and threatening. The role of Serbian authorities in resolving the Kosovo issue is retrospectively seen as a failure.

For nearly a decade, prominent Serbian and Albanian intellectuals have contributed to our portal with reflections on the Kosovo issue. In hundreds of columns, they have exchanged thoughts and messages on the past, the present, the dialogue, the challenges burdening Serb-Albanian relations, and possible solutions. This week, Saša Janković and Ilir Deda join their ranks.

Biographies

Saša Janković is best known to the public as Serbia’s first Ombudsman, but also as an independent candidate in the 2017 presidential election, where, as Vreme magazine described it, he finished second in an „perfectly unfair battle.“ In the 1990s, Janković worked as a journalist and later as a civil servant, before transitioning to a governmental role in 2000. He worked for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2003, and in 2007, he was appointed Serbia’s first Ombudsman. In 2012, he was reappointed to this position by a consensus in the National Assembly of Serbia—a precedent for any parliamentary appointment to an office. He resigned in late 2016 to run for president in 2017, supported by many prominent public figures and opposition parties, though Janković himself was not a member of any. Following the election, he founded the Movement of Free Citizens, engaging in politics for two more years before withdrawing in 2018. Prior to that, he had publicly proposed a plan for resolving the „Kosovo issue,“ which he later claimed bore significant resemblance (exception being the extraterritoriality of churches and monasteries) to the so-called „Frenco-German“ proposal. Since 2018, Janković has worked as an independent international consultant in human rights, security sector oversight, and institutional development. He holds a law degree from the University of Belgrade and a specialization in national and global security from the Faculty of Political Sciences. Born in 1970, he lives in Belgrade with his wife and has one child. In 2015, he was awarded the French National Order of Merit at the rank of knight. On his Twitter account, followed by over 180,000 people, his bio simply reads: „A free man.“

Ilir Deda has over two decades of extensive experience of work in national, regional and international public and non-governmental institutions. His work has influenced decision-making and policy development both at national and international level in Kosovo, and of the Western Balkans within the framework of the Berlin Process and EC implementation of the Common Regional Market (CRM), when he lead and successfully concluded the negotiations on three mobility agreements between Western Balkans Six. He has extensive and deep experience in national, regional, and international affairs, EU enlargement, democratic governance, security, education and overall institution building and multiethnicity in Kosovo.

Ilir worked at the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC); was a two term elected MP at the Assembly of Kosovo; led KIPRED Institute in Prishtina; was a researcher at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy; Analyst for the International Crisis Group (ICG) in Kosovo, and shortly worked for UNDP HQ in New York. He also served as chief of staff of President Jahjaga. Deda has been a consultant for Council of Europe, ESI, Europe Institue of Peace, ERSTE Foundation and other organisations. Ilir Deda has an MA in International Affairs and a BA in Political Science and is Europe’s Futures Fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.

Follow their regular contributions in the „Kompas“ column on our portal.



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