Kosovo’s tennis federation has accused Serbia’s Novak Djokovic of aggravating an already tense scenario after he wrote that Kosovo was “the heart of Serbia” on a digicam lens following his first-round win on the French Open.
Some 30 NATO peacekeeping troopers had been injured on Monday in clashes with Serb protesters within the northern Kosovo city of Zvecan, the place Djokovic’s father grew up.
Serbs, who comprise a majority in Kosovo’s north, have by no means accepted the nation’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.
They nonetheless see Belgrade as their capital greater than twenty years after a Kosovo Albanian rebellion in opposition to repressive Serbian rule. Ethnic Albanians make up greater than 90 per cent of the inhabitants of Kosovo as a complete.
Monday’s clashes got here as ethnic Albanian mayors took workplace in Serb-majority areas following elections that the Serbs had boycotted.
“Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence,” 22-time grand slam champion Djokovic wrote in Serbian on a TV digicam on the French Open in Paris.
He later defined that he was in opposition to battle however defended his assertion and described Kosovo’s scenario as a “precedent”.
“As a son of a man born in Kosovo, I feel the need to give my support to our people and to entire Serbia,” he instructed reporters.
“My stance is clear: I am against wars, violence and any kind of conflict, as I’ve always stated publicly. I empathise with all people, but the situation with Kosovo is a precedent in international law,” he mentioned.
Kosovo tennis federation president Jeton Hadergjonaj mentioned in an announcement: “The comments made by Novak Djokovic at the end of his Roland Garros match against Aleksandar Kovacevic, his statements at the post-match press conference and his Instagram post are regrettable.”
Hadergjonaj accused Djokovic of utilizing his standing as a widely known persona to stir tensions.
“Novak Djokovic was already the author of similar actions in the past,” the assertion added.
“Despite a general message against violence, the statement ‘Kosovo is the heart of Serbia’ and further statements after the match, made by such a public figure, on the occasion of a worldwide event like the French Open, directly result in raising the level of tension between the two states, Serbia and Kosovo.”
A supply instructed Reuters the French Tennis Federation didn’t see Djokovic’s motion as “detrimental to the best interests of the tournament”, as per the Grand Slam rulebook.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
