but we don t want to have these barriers, we want to remove them all together, but they have to get used to reciprocity measures and not any more to asymmetric situation where we have to pay for their aggressiveness. 22 years ago, 19 countries got together and nato bombed yugoslavia serbia at that time. it must have been very bad then, and of course it was very bad because there was genocide in kosovo. at that time, president of serbia that you ve mentioned was minister of information of milosevic s government. so i think that when he says such allegations, you should take them with a certain reserve. isn t there a simple truth here which is that if we look at your political record, you basically seem to believe kosovo is better off in a state of permanent hostility with serbia.
with the albanian flag behind you and that is because you re quite open when you say that albania is one nation divided across two states and you believe kosovo s destiny is to be integrated into albania. how can you be the leader of your own state and yet telling your people you don t believe in the future of your state? to outsiders, that seems incredible. well, i believe in the republic of kosovo and thanks to republic of kosovo, i m prime minister of kosovo, here to serve republic of kosovo, but when we declared independence over 13 years ago, we did not do that in contrast to albania, but as an expression of liberation from serbia, and liberation from serbia made possible for us as albanians to restore our dignity and our civic and human rights. now, towards a serb of kosovo, i m not first of all albanian, i m citizen of the republic. but historically, whenever serbia attacked kosovo, then albanians always united because serbia was a small imperialistic power, very closely linked
6, kosovo is top country regarding the extent of vaccination of the population. we have managed to administer 1.6 million doses and we have, of all population who are over 16 years old, it s 55% with two doses and 64% with one dose. so we are doing much better than before and eu knows this as well. yeah, but i m putting myself in the position of a young kosovan, maybe in their early 20s. they look at your unemployment rate for young people which is nearly 50%. they look at the fact that they can have a much better life if they can make it to croatia or still better for some of them, make it into the eu, to germany. you have a brain drain
you say you do want better relations with serbia, but isn t the truth that the serbian president, mr vucic, when he last spoke with you, he said, you know what, i thought that relations with kosovo couldn t get any worse but i now realise they can always get worse. the serbs see you as a troublemaker, they point to the fact that you just demanded, what, a month ago, that all serbs crossing the border into kosovo change their license plates. that was just regarded as petty and aggressive. why are you playing these games? i m just using reciprocity measures because we are an independent country. for ten years, citizens of kosovo have been paying five euros every time they cross the border towards serbia to get their temporary car plates. now with the expiring of this agreement on mid september this year, we started to implement the same measures, so they take temporary car plates in kosovo once they enter our territory.
now on bbc news, it s hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk, i m stephen sackur. kosovo has enjoyed independent statehood for 13 years, but almost half the world doesn t recognise it. poverty and corruption is endemic and its own prime minister seemingly has doubts about the desirability of independence. and that prime minister is my guest today. albin kurti has had a turbulent career. he s been a political prisoner, he launched five tear gas attacks on his own parliament and he has a vision of kosovo unifying with albania. so is he a source of instability in the balkans? theme music plays.