The parliamentary group of non-Serb ethnic minority MPs warned they will leave the ruling coalition if the deputy foreign minister is not sacked for allegedly “promoting inter-ethnic hatred” in a Facebook post.
Six MPs from the non-Serb ethnic minority parliamentary group 6+ have asked Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj to dismiss deputy foreign minister, Gjergj Dedaj, after he referred to Turkey and Serbia as “cruel rulers” who are seeking to regain their influence in Kosovo, one of then told BIRN on Tuesday.
Fikrim Damka, a lawmaker from the Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo, KDTP said that 6+, a parliamentary group with six MPs, sent the request to Haradinaj on Monday.
“We will sit with the PM and will talk about the next steps because there cannot be a deputy minister in the government cabinet when he promotes inter-ethnic hatred in Kosovo,” Damka said.
He warned that the 6+ group would leave the government if the request is not acted upon.
“We as a group have given our votes for this government, and this government, which had the support of the six MPs, will come into question [it loses their support], I believe,” Damka said, suggesting that the government could lose its parliamentary majority if the 6+ lawmakers quit.
Deputy foreign minister Dedaj, the leader of the Liberal Party of Kosovo, accused Turkey and Serbia of meddling in Kosovo in a Facebook post on Saturday.
“Turkey and Serbia are aiming for a strategic return to Kosovo, each through their emissaries, who have remained rooted in the centuries-old rule of these cruel rulers, and who must be uprooted from Kosovo and the lands of [15th Century Albanian nobleman] Gjergj Kastrioti [Skanderbeg],” Dedaj wrote.
PM Haradinaj responded on Tuesday by criticising Dedaj’s comment without making a direct reference to the demand for the deputy foreign minister’s dismissal.
“Statements containing insulting language against the Republic of Turkey, by anyone, are unacceptable and do not represent the official policy of the Haradinaj government, not even when they are made by any official of this government or anyone else,” Haradinaj wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
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