Maroc - EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 24/Dec 23:20

Armenia Clarifies Hasn’t Recognized Kosovo, Despite Passport Deal

Armenia has not formally recognized Kosovo as an independent state despite agreeing to accept its passports, the Armenian Foreign Ministry clarified on Monday, December 23. The former Serbian province’s deputy foreign minister, Kreshnik Ahmeti, announced on Friday that Yerevan has “officially recognized Kosovo passports, including regular, diplomatic, and official ones.” “This is a significant step toward strengthening ties and relations between the citizens and institutions of both countries,” Ahmeti wrote on X. The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan essentially confirmed this. In a statement to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, it said Armenia and Kosovo have agreed to issue visas to holders of each other’s passports. “The existing dialogue between Armenia and Kosovo is maintained on various platforms through bilateral meetings and discussions. Steps are being taken to invigorate tourism ties and people-to-people contacts, which does not mean recognition [of Kosovo’s independence,]” the statement said, adding that many other countries have adopted the same policy. Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign to stop Serbian forces killing and expelling ethnic Albanians making up the vast majority of the territory’s population. Kosovo declared independence in 2008 and has since been recognized by more than 100 states. Armenia’s former government reacted positively to a 2010 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that upheld the legality of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia. It said the UN court thereby backed the principle of peoples’ right to self-determination. Yerevan stopped championing that principle in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in 2022. In 2018, then Kosovo President Hashim Thaci visited Yerevan to attend a summit of the Francophonie organization. Thaci, who is currently standing trial in The Hague for war crimes, was received by his Armenian counterpart Armen Sarkissian at the time.