TIRANA, Aug 12 (Balkan View) – Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama hit back at nationalist critics in Kosovo over his intervention in the dispute with Serbia over the Ibar River, saying attacks against him reinforced his conviction that Albania had taken the right position.
In a post on X, Rama described what he called the “army of nationalist turbofolk trolls of Pristina” as a “laboratory” for measuring the accuracy of his positions whenever he speaks about Serbia.
“Whenever that army is unleashed on social channels to vent blind hatred against me, I consider my task as prime minister of this country successfully completed, whether towards Albania, Kosovo or regional peace and cooperation,” Rama said.
His comments followed an increasingly sharp diplomatic exchange between Albania and Serbia over Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s remarks that Belgrade was examining possible changes to the course of the Ibar River.
‘Serbia Lost Kosovo Is Simply a Fact’
Rama said criticism intensified after his earlier statement that “Serbia lost Kosovo”, despite his broader intervention opposing any Serbian action that could affect the river and Kosovo.
“Yesterday the laboratory worked perfectly,” Rama said, referring to critics who branded him a “traitor” despite his defence of what he called the inviolability of the Ibar.
“That Serbia lost Kosovo is simply a fact,” Rama said, arguing that the statement irritated nationalists in both Belgrade and Pristina.
He described the convergence of criticism from both sides as “another compliment for Albania’s diplomacy”.
Rama Defends His Intervention
The Albanian prime minister said his earlier intervention had been aimed clearly against what he described as a Serbian provocation over the Ibar.
Rama also cited support from British lawmaker Alicia Kearns, whom he described as a strong advocate for Kosovo in Britain, saying she had welcomed his position.
He accused his Kosovo critics of isolating a single sentence from a much broader statement and using it to portray his intervention as hostile to Kosovo.
In that earlier statement, Rama rejected Serbian accusations of “Greater Albania”, said Kosovo was an independent state and argued that Serbia could not treat the possible cross-border consequences of changes to the Ibar as solely an internal matter.
“The Ibër is a transboundary water system,” Rama said at the time, arguing that rivers follow geography rather than political narratives.
Ibar Dispute Widens
The controversy began after Vučić said Serbia had brought together engineers and other experts to examine possible changes to the Ibar’s course, linking the issue to what he described as pressure on Kosovo Serbs.
The remarks prompted criticism from Kosovo and Albania.
Albanian Foreign Minister Ferit Hoxha said transboundary waters could not be used as an instrument of political pressure and that any action with consequences for another territory must comply with international obligations.
Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric rejected Albania’s intervention, saying Tirana was not part of the Ibar basin and invoking concerns about “Greater Albania”.
Rama subsequently responded that Albania had no territorial claims against Serbia and that supporting Kosovo did not require any project for ethnic or territorial unification.
The United States and European Union have since urged a focus on normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia, with Brussels saying statements about potentially changing the river’s course did not support that objective.