Most citizens believe that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina should be continued

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The need to publicly discuss relations in the triangle Belgrade-Pristina-Tirana is present and these relations should be seen as part of a security dynamics in the region, said the President of the BCSP Executive Board Miroslav Hadzic at the opening of the conference on Serbian-Albanian relations, regional security cooperation and human security in Serbia, Albania and Kosovo.

Nils Ragnar Kamsvèg, the Norwegian Ambassador in Belgrade, with whose support the project is realized, said that only a year ago it was thought that the ruling elites in the Western Balkans are not ready to overcome its troubled past, but that the Brussels agreement disputed such claims. He pointed out that in the discussion on these topics must not be included only the decision makers.

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Majority of Serbian citizens believes that dialogue will improve the relations within the Belgrade-Pristina-Tirana triangle, and the most contributing to, but also most harming for the inter-ethnic cooperation are political leaders, said BCSP Director Sonja Stojanovic Gajic. She added that the most optimistic about the dialogue are older, better educated people with higher incomes. The results also show that one in ten citizens believe that the international community both helps and hinders this process.

“Half of the citizens believe that the international community has not improved relations. Despite this attitude almost 60% of respondents believe that it should remain in Kosovo”, said BCSP Director. She added that the citizens of Serbia stressed the increasing of security as the most important precondition for improving future interethnic relations between Serbs and Albanians.

Public opinion findings from Kosovo and Metohija showed that nearly half of respondents believe that peaceful coexistence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo is possible, but it also showed that the Serbs in the north Kosovo are a bit skeptical about that. Executive Director in Kosovar Center for Security Studies (KCSS) Florian Qehaja pointed out that more than half the population in Kosovo considers that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will improve relations between Serbs and Albanians, while 60% of Serbian nationality in Kosovo believe that the dialogue will contribute to the improvement relations.{image3}

Most respondents from Albania information about Serbia and Serbian people acquire watching television, said Arjan Dyrmishi, Head of the European and Security Research Department Institute forDemocracy and Mediation (IDM). He pointed out that only 7% of respondents have ever been in Serbia. Dyrmishi noted the large number of those who have no opinion about the relationship between Serbia and Albania, stating that this is a consequence of insufficient information on the subject in Albania.

A comparative analysis of the results shows that the citizens of Serbia generally feel safer than residents of Kosovo and Albania. BCSP Researcher-Associate Isidora Stakic said that more than a third of the respondents from Kosovo are relying on police protection while in Albania it is the case with one of four citizens, and in Serbia only every fifth. As the biggest threats to local security in all three communities were identified robbery, violent incidents and car accidents.

The public opinion research “The Citizens on the Serbian-Albanian Relations and the Regional Security Cooperation” was based on the same questionnaire and it was conducted in Serbia, Kosovo and Albania during the first three weeks of October 2013. It covered representative samples of citizens.

In Serbia, a number of 1200 citizens was interviewed, including a sub-sample of 200 citizens in Southern Serbia (the municipalities of Preshevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja). The survey in Kosovo encompassed 1119 respondents including 100 ethnic Serbs residing in Northern Kosovo. In Albania, 1100 citizens were interviewed.