Kosovo’s parliament on Saturday passed a resolution banning ethnic Serbs from voting on Kosovan soil in Serbia’s national referendum on constitutional amendments.

Serbia will hold a referendum on Sunday on amendments to the constitution that would change how judges and prosecutors are elected, a move the government says is aimed at securing an independent judiciary, a condition for EU membership.

Kosovo’s independence backers—the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and the EU mission—urged Prime Minister Albin Kurti to allow Serbs in Kosovo to vote in the referendum.

But in an extraordinary session on Saturday afternoon, 76 out of 120 deputies voted in favor of a declaration banning Serbia from opening polling centers in Kosovo.

Kurti told parliament that establishing polling stations in majority Serb areas of Kosovo would be against the constitution, and that ethnic Serbs could vote by mail or in Belgrade’s government liaison office in Pristina.

“Kosovo is an independent and sovereign state and should be treated as such,” Kurti said.

Serbia, which still considers Kosovo part of its territory, has been organizing elections for its ethnic kin since the Kosovo War ended in 1999.

Serbia refuses to recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence but has pledged to normalize relations with its former breakaway province before joining the EU.

The head of Serbian Office for Cooperation with Kosovo said the ban was aimed at “annulling political and civic rights of Serbs [in Kosovo].”

“Kurti and his extremists should not think that in the future they will succeed in banning Serbs in Kosovo from voting, notably in April 3 elections,” Petar Petkovic said in a statement.

Serbia is holding presidential and parliamentary elections on April 3. Early on Saturday, Kosovo police confiscated two trucks of the Serbian election commission transporting ballot papers as they crossed the border at Merdare to head towards Serb-majority areas.

“We call on the Kosovo government to allow Serbs in Kosovo to exercise their right to vote in elections and electoral processes in accordance with this established practice,” Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, United States and the EU said in their joint statement Friday.
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The U.N. human rights office condemns the rise of hate speech in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, warning it could incite violence between Serbian and Muslim ethnic groups that fought a devastating war following the breakup of Yugoslavia. 

Religious holiday celebrations in the autonomous Serb Republic of Srpska last weekend unleashed a torrent of nationalistic rhetoric and hate speech targeting certain communities.

U.N. human rights officials say individuals in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia glorified atrocity crimes and convicted war criminals, including Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.   

U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell calls the incidents an affront to survivors, including those who returned to their homes after the conflict.

“The failure to prevent and sanction such acts, which fuel a climate of extreme anxiety, fear, and insecurity in some communities, is a major obstacle to trust-building and reconciliation,” said Throssell. “As we have repeatedly highlighted, the rise in hate speech, the denial of genocide and other atrocity crimes and the glorification of war criminals in the Western Balkans highlight the failure to comprehensively address the past.”   

About 100,000 people were killed in the Bosnian war between 1992 and 1995.  More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered in July 1995 in the Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide.  The killings were perpetrated under the command of Ratko Mladic, who led the Army of Republika Srpska.

Elections are due to take place in Serbia in April and later in October in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Throssell warns failure to prevent and sanction inflammatory hate speech will exacerbate the already extremely tense political environment.

“We stress once again the need for the authorities in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina to abide by their international human rights obligations to ensure the rights to truth, justice, and reparation,” said Throssell. “They should also adopt measures to prevent recurrence and to promote further reconciliation efforts.  We call on them to condemn and refrain from any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred.”   

She says all perpetrators and instigators of such acts must be held accountable.   

The U.N. human rights office is calling on political and religious leaders to speak out against intolerance and discriminatory instances of hate speech.

 
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Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly will visit Kyiv next week to reaffirm support for Ukrainian sovereignty and reinforce efforts to deter “aggressive actions” by Russia, Ottawa said Saturday.

Moscow has stationed more than 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine and the United States said on Friday it feared Russia was preparing a pretext to invade if diplomacy failed to meet its objectives.

Canada, with a sizeable and politically influential population of Ukrainian ethnic descent, has taken a hard line with Moscow since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

“The amassing of Russian troops and equipment in and around Ukraine jeopardizes security in the entire region. These aggressive actions must be deterred,” Joly said in a statement.

“Canada will work with its international partners to uphold the rules-based international order.”

Joly will meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal and travel to the west of the country to speak to a 200-strong Canadian training mission that has been there since 2015.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday and “emphasized that any military incursion into Ukraine would have serious consequences, including coordinated sanctions,” Trudeau’s office said.

Canada has imposed punitive measures on more than 440 individuals and entities over the annexation of Crimea.

Joly, who starts a weeklong trip to Europe on Sunday, will visit Brussels to see NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

She will also go to Paris for talks with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the statement said. 

 
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The mayor’s office in Lisbon has been fined $1.4 million for sharing the personal data of protest organizers with embassies of countries targeted by the protests, Portugal’s data protection commission said on Friday.

The mayor’s office came under fire in June 2021 when Ksenia Ashrafullina, a Russian-Portuguese organizer of a protest rally in Lisbon, said she had received an email showing the city hall had shared data on her and fellow organizers with the Russian Embassy.

After an internal investigation, it was revealed that data on organizers of 180 protests has been shared with embassies since 2012, 52 of which occurred after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation — which bans such data sharing — came into force in 2018.

The city hall, then led by Socialist mayor Fernando Medina, shared data of protesters in front of the Cuban, Angolan, Venezuelan, Israeli embassies with the targeted institutions.

The decision by the data protection commission (CNPD), published on its website, said that between 2018 and 2021 there were a total of 225 data breaches committed by the mayor’s office related to sharing protesters’ personal information with embassies and other entities.

In a statement, the mayor’s office, now headed by Social Democrat Carlos Moedas, said the decision was a “heavy legacy the previous leadership … left to the people of Lisbon,” adding the fine now posed a challenge for the budget.

“We will evaluate this fine in detail and how best to protect the interests of citizens and the institution,” it said.

Medina did not immediately respond to a request for comment Ashrafullina, who organized the rally in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, told Reuters she was satisfied with the CNPD’s decision: “We have been waiting for it, and it finally came.”

But Ashrafullina is still scared about the consequences of the data-sharing.

“I’m worried about what would happen if I ever needed to go back to Russia,” she said. 

 
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Denmark’s former defense minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said on Friday he has been charged with violating a section of the penal code which includes treason for leaking state secrets.

Frederiksen, who served as defense minister from 2016-19, was charged with the rarely used section 109 of the code, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, although it was not clear exactly what he was accused of.

Section 109 covers any “person who discloses or imparts any information on secret negotiations, deliberations or resolutions of the state or its rights in relation to foreign states.”

A statement published by Frederiksen on Friday did not specify what the charges against him referred to or whether the charges related to his time as a minister.

“I have spoken out as a member of parliament on a political issue, and I have nothing further to add at present. But I could never dream of doing anything that could harm Denmark or Denmark’s interests,” Frederiksen said in a statement.

It was not clear which comments Frederiksen referred to in his statement.

The state prosecutors office and the Ministry of Defense declined to comment on Frederiksen’s statement.

The news come after the head of Denmark’s foreign intelligence unit last month was detained, charged under the same section of the law over his suspected involvement in a case of “highly classified” information leaks. Lars Findsen has denied wrongdoing, describing the accusation as “completely insane.” 

 
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Taiwan has pledged $1 billion to Lithuania in its latest move to counter China’s pressure on the small Baltic nation — the first European Union member to allow Taipei to use its name on a de facto embassy.

Taiwan’s promise made Tuesday will help fund joint projects in half a dozen sectors and comes after a January 5 agreement to invest $200 million in Lithuanian industry. 

The combined $1.2 billion investment aims to counter China’s increasing pressure on Vilnius since November 18, when Lithuanian authorities allowed Taiwan to open a representative office in its capital under the name “Taiwan” instead of “Chinese Taipei.” 

That gesture upset China, which views Taiwan as part of its territory. In the past two months, China has recalled its ambassador from Vilnius while ordering Lithuania’s ambassador to leave Beijing, and it has implemented an embargo against Lithuania, boycotting all of its exports as well as any EU products that use Lithuanian-made components.  

In a press conference Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the $1.2 billion investment “the Taiwan authorities’ attempts to expand space for Taiwan independence activities with dollar diplomacy.” 

China sees Taiwan eventually returning to its control, even though many Taiwanese perceive themselves as a self-governing nation. 

“None of us thought the trade volume between Lithuania and China was that large, so we figured China wouldn’t use economic sanctions against them,” Chang Fu-chang, an associate professor with the Graduate Institute of European Studies at Tamkang University in Taiwan, told VOA Mandarin. “But we were wrong.” 

Bor Yunchang, an economics professor at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, is pessimistic about Taiwan’s investments. He told VOA Mandarin: “Any investment made for political gains will be on thin ice. It just can’t be as effective in connecting the two countries as capital flows among private sectors.”

China’s revenge   

In most European countries and the United States, Taiwan uses Taipei, the name of its capital, for its foreign offices that are embassies in all but their official designation. Lithuania’s move came as many governments are exploring expanded ties with Taiwan, a high-tech industry powerhouse, even as Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign and military policy in the region has caused uneasiness worldwide. 

Taiwan’s presence in Vilnius is its first new representative office in Europe since the Taipei Representative Office opened in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2003.  When the office opened, China’s Foreign Ministry accused Lithuania of “undermining Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity” and told Vilnius to “correct the mistakes immediately.” 

“This development is really striking,” Timothy Heath, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, told VOA’s Russian Service, referring to the Vilnius office. “It is the first time a European country has expressed formal recognition of Taiwan in decades. It’s a pretty big development, and understandably China is very angry at this change.”    

Relations between the two countries were fraying before Taiwan’s newest office opened. In August, Beijing stopped approving new permits for Lithuanian food exports to China and halted direct freight train service to Lithuania. Then, in November, China began pressuring companies in the EU to stop using Lithuanian components.  

Mantas Adomenas, Lithuania’s vice minister for foreign affairs, told Reuters in December that China had “been sending messages to multinationals that if they use parts and supplies from Lithuania, they will no longer be allowed to sell to the Chinese market or get supplies there,”   

In a videoconference with Taiwan’s National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-Hsin on Tuesday, Aušrinė Armonaitė, Lithuania’s minister of the economy and innovation, said Vilnius was already seeing companies cancel contracts with Lithuanian providers because of pressure from Beijing. 

“I think China is very worried that Lithuania is setting a precedent and more countries in Europe could follow Lithuania’s example. I think this is the reason why China has reacted so harshly,” said Heath.    

Future unclear  

Chang of Taiwan’s Tamkang University said China’s targeting of multinational companies in EU member states outside Lithuania is particularly effective because the enterprises value the lucrative Chinese market. 

He said Lithuania’s biggest trading partners include two other Baltic countries — Estonia and Latvia — and Russia and the EU.

Chang added that while “Taiwan has stepped up its efforts in developing trade relations with Vilnius, Lithuania’s export structure is unlikely to change in the short term.”

There are also different opinions among Lithuania’s leaders over their nation’s trade policy with China. In early January, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said it had been a “mistake” to allow use of the Taiwan designation. 

Chang said external pressure and internal disputes are hampering efforts by the Lithuanian government to obtain public support for its policy on China and Taiwan. Within the government, diverging views of the president and the prime minister have triggered a confrontation between pro-China and anti-China factions, he added.  

“So the big question is how long can the Lithuanian government stand by Taiwan,” Chang told VOA Mandarin. “That $1.2 billion isn’t a big amount, so, long term, it’s hard to say where the economic relationship between the two countries will be.”  

Heath of the Rand Corporation said that many countries are taking a “wait and see” attitude on whether they might want to consider the path Lithuania has taken.   

“I think in the near term, the EU recognizes the importance of the trade relations with China. The larger countries — France, Germany, Italy — are not in a rush to destabilize their trade relationship with China,” he told VOA Mandarin.

Heath continued: “Nevertheless, I think countries in Europe and around the world are watching closely: What happens to Lithuania? Does it back off its relationship with Taiwan? Or does it maintain it? Whatever it decides, many countries in the world will be watching carefully and thinking about what that might mean for their own relationship with Taiwan.” 

VOA Russian Service reporter Vadim Allen contributed to this report originated by the VOA Mandarin Service.
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Turkey and Armenia on Friday said a first round of talks in more than 10 years was “positive and constructive,” raising the prospect that ties could be restored and borders reopened after decades of animosity. 

Turkey has had no diplomatic or commercial ties with its eastern neighbor since the 1990s. The talks in Moscow were the first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord. That deal was never ratified and relations have remained tense. 

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries said Friday the talks were held in a “positive and constructive” atmosphere, adding both sides were committed to a full normalization without any pre-conditions. They said special envoys had “exchanged their preliminary views regarding the normalization process.” 

The neighbors are at odds over several issues, primarily the 1.5 million people Armenia says were killed in 1915.

Armenia says the 1915 killings constitute a genocide, a position supported by the United States and some others. Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One but contests the figures and denies killings were systematic or constitute genocide. 

Tensions again flared during a 2020 war over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Turkey accused ethnic Armenian forces of occupying land belonging to Azerbaijan. Turkey has since called for a rapprochement, as it seeks greater influence in the region. 

In separate but similarly worded statements, the foreign ministries said a date and location for the next round of talks would be finalized later. 

Turkish diplomatic sources said the discussions between the delegations lasted for about 90 minutes. 

Russia’s TASS news agency cited Armenia’s foreign ministry as saying Thursday it expected the talks to lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations and opening of frontiers closed since 1993. 

Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe, said in November opening borders and renovating railways to Turkey would have economic benefits for Armenia, as the routes could be used by traders from Turkey, Russia, Armenia, Iran and Azerbaijan. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last year the two countries also would start charter flights between Istanbul and Armenia’s capital Yerevan under the rapprochement, but that Turkey would coordinate all steps with Azerbaijan. 

The flights are set to begin in early February. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday Armenia needed to form good ties with Azerbaijan for the normalization effort to yield results. 

No easy breakthrough 

Despite strong backing for normalization from the United States, which hosts a large Armenian diaspora and angered Turkey last year by calling the 1915 killings a genocide, analysts have said the talks would be complicated. 

Emre Peker, a London-based director at Eurasia Group, said a cautious approach focusing on quick deliverables was expected on both sides due to the old sensitivities, adding that the role of Russia, which brokered the Nagorno-Karabakh cease-fire and is the dominant actor in the region, would be key. 

Cavusoglu also has said Russia contributed to the process of appointing the special envoys. 

“The bigger challenge will come from the question of historic reconciliation,” Peker said, adding that the fate of talks would depend on “Ankara’s recognition that it must right-size its ambitions.” 

 
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