Peter Handke, an Austrian writer, received the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019. Such a decision has been criticized by well-known figures because Handke is a pro-Serbian figure in the massacres of the former Yugoslavia.
Albania's Foreign Minister, Gent Cakaj, wrote on Twitter that the decision is a shame and given to a "genocide denier".
"I would never have thought that I would vomit because of the Nobel Prize," Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote.
Kosovo President Hathim Thaci said: "The Nobel Prize brings tremendous pain to countless victims."
"The Nobel Committee also praised the anti-Albanian Handke, the glorifier of Slobos. I don't understand what kind of humanity Nobel has found in these anti-Albanian elaborators and lovers of butcher dictators ... Tokarchuk [Olga Tokarchuk, Nobel Prize winner in literature for 2018] is a brilliant writer, ?said writer Agron Tufa.
Emir Suljagic, a survivor of the Sebrenica massacre, said: ?A Milosevic supporter and denouncer of the notorious genocide receives the Nobel Prize in literature. What a time to be alive. "
British author Hari Kunzru also criticized the decision. He told The Guardian: "More than ever, we need public intellectuals who are able to make a strong defense of human rights in the face of the indifference and cynicism of our political leaders. Handke is not such a man. "
The Kosovo Academy of Sciences and Arts responded by sending a letter to the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. The President of the Academy, Mehmet Kraja, wrote among other things: ?We received with great indignation the news that the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2019 is the author Peter Handke, a prominent exponent of fascist ideas of subjugation and enslavement of peoples and passionate supporter of Milosevic and his genocidal wars in the Balkans, including Kosovo [...] The idea that political commitments and convictions should be separated from the work of a writer does not work in the case of Peter Handke. On the contrary, his aggressive ideas became so prevalent as they sought to fluctuate the foundations of the values of civilization and humanity. "
The Kosovo Academy calls for the annulment of the decision as an act of understanding and solidarity with all the peoples of the world who fight for freedom and democratic values.
The Academy of Sciences and Arts of Albania has not responded, but has been satisfied with the publication of a letter from Kraja.
PEN America, the American association defending freedom of expression worldwide through literature, wrote that they felt disappointed with the selection of a writer who used his voice to deny historical truth and offered public support to the perpetrators of genocide.
As you may have read in this article , Handke has taken a pro-Serbian stance on the Yugoslav War and the NATO bombing that brought the independence of Kosovo and other countries under Serbian leadership, which has influenced his image. to be seen with criticism being described as representative of extreme Serbian nationalism.
Milosevic was charged with genocide (complete or partial extermination of a population) and other war crimes in the 1991-1995 period by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia before he died in 2006.
The former Yugoslav president, known as the "butcher of the Balkans", demanded that Handke be summoned as his defense witness to the former Yugoslavia Criminal Court for War Crimes, but the writer declined. He went to court as a spectator.
Handke attended Milosevic's 2006 funeral, where he gave a speech:
?The world, the so-called World, knows everything about Yugoslavia, Serbia. The world, the so-called World, knows everything about Slobodan Milosevic. The so-called World knows the truth. That is why the so-called World is missing today, and not only today, and not only here. I don't know the truth. Yes I see. I listen. I feel. I remember things. That's why I'm here today, close to Yugoslavia, close to Serbia, close to Slobodan Milosevic. "
