Serbian PM voices readiness for talks with Albania

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that he is ready to talk with representatives of Albania, underscoring that all attackers on small shops owned by ethnic Albanians have been arrested in Serbia following the incident in the recent football match between Serbia and Albania.

In an interview to the weekend issue of the Belgrade-based daily Danas, Vucic said that he has not heard that any Albanian official actually condemned the incident that led to the Serbia-Albania match being abandoned because a drone carrying a map and other symbols of so-called Greater Albania appeared above the pitch.

"We take pride in the fact that we arrested the attackers and hooligans, and they take pride in their ghost flags as they are now calling them in the interviews in connection with the incident. They are telling us that this is the map of a Greater Albania, but that this has never been their national project. Then they are saying that they would like to join the EU united," Vucic said.

To a Danas journalist's remark that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that his policy is not the policy of a Greater Albania, Vucic said that he would like to believe in that.

As I would like to have seen the condemnation of such a serious provocation as the appearance of the drone with a Greater Albania map certainly is. And I have not heard that from any Albanian official. As you know, no Serbian official has approved of the pitch incursion by our fans, and all those who threw stones at ethnic Albanian shops have been arrested, the prime minister said.

When the journalist pointed to the fact that the stands reverberated with anti-Albanian chants, Vucic said that the shouts of hatred could be heard in...

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