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August 8, 2010 - Taken from the “Politika” daily

8. August 2010.

WE NEED A FACULTY IN BUJANOVAC

The solving of several great problems in the field of education is the priority of the Albanian National Council, which was recently registered at the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights. Galip Beciri from the Party of Democratic Action, which at the June 6 elections won 24 out of the total of 29 seats in the Council, was elected the first President of the Albanian national Council. Mr. Beciri said that he expected that the Council would become fully operational in September. He also expects to receive the first funds from Serbia’s budget this September. In the meantime, he will try to solve the accommodation issue, since the building that was allocated to the Council by the Bujanovac self-government should be renovated.   

What are the largest problems with education in Albanian?

First of all, textbooks in Albanian aren’t printed in Serbia, but are imported from Kosovo and Albania, so that they fail to meet the requirements of Serbia’s curricula.

We are going to try and reach an agreement with the Ministry of Education on accepting such chemistry, physics or math textbooks. Another serious problem is that Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo university diplomas, so that there are around 100 young university graduates that can’t find employment anywhere.  

But how can you expect from Serbia to recognize university diplomas bearing the seal of the independent state of Kosovo?

I think that if there is some good will, then there is a chance to reach a solution that would be acceptable to everyone. Linked to this topic is the third issue, which we are going to discuss with the Ministry of Education and which has to do with the opening of a faculty in Bujanovac.   

Apart from education, what else should the Council deal with?

When it comes to the use of the language, there are no translators/interpreters for Albanian at the governmental institutions, although they are envisaged by the law. Then, there is a lack of cultural events of all kinds. Performers from Belgrade or from Pristina don’t visit this region.  Providing information in Albanian is also a grave problem, which is considerably associated with a shortage of the funds. In the beginning, we are planning to launch the issuing of newspapers in Albanian. Naturally, we are aware that all these plans need time and that they can’t all be carried out at once.

The Albanian National Council is currently made up of representatives of two parties. Only five members of the Council are from the list of candidates of the Democratic Union of Albanians, while other members are from the Party for Democratic Action (PDA). The other parties didn’t take part in the election. How does this affect the legitimacy of the Council?

We represent around 15,000 voters. However, you know that every party has its own policy and its own way of operating, whereas the Albanian National Council should work for the benefit of all the Albanians, as well as for their future. It should be a link between the government and the local self-government. That is why I believe that if we work well and achieve concrete results, we’ll manage to win over those who didn’t participate in the election.   

Do you expect any obstructions to occur in the meantime?

No, I don’t. For the time being, there are no obstructions. They simply don’t support the operation of the Council, but they don’t obstruct it. I expect that they might, in time, get involved in the operation of the Council. We are open to cooperation with all the parties.  

Albanians don’t only live in South Serbia. Is the Council going to take care of the interests of the Albanians living in the other parts of the country?

Of course, I am a representative of all the Albanians and each and every initiative of theirs is welcome.

And what is your communication with the Albanians, for instance with those from Belgrade, like?

We are trying to connect with them, and the government could provide us a lot of  help with it. For instance, if there were TV programs in ethnic minority languages at the national level, it would mean a lot if each ethnic minority could have at least a ten to fifteen minutes’ long program in its own language. Let me remind you that the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) used to broadcast news in Albanian, and there used to be an entire editorial office in Albanian. Now, apart from Vojvodina, there are no television programs in ethnic minority languages at all.