One by one, Bojan Stamenkovic carefully pronounces the letters that make up the word ‘apple’ (molle) in Albanian. His speech is fluent and accurate, and it is difficult to notice that he is not speaking his native language.

On a cold Wednesday afternoon in January, Stamenkovic held his first Albanian-language class as a teacher. There are 37 students in the class, of different ages and ethnicities, although most of them are Serbs.

Teaching is not the only job Stamenkovic has in the small, ethnically-mixed eastern Kosovo town of Kamenica – he is also the deputy mayor.

“Until we started, I hadn’t noticed a great interest among Serbs here in learning Albanian. In the beginning, we had registered 20 participants. Today we have more and there are others who want to come,” he told BIRN.

Kamenica, Mamusha, Dragash, North Mitrovica and South Mitrovica are five Kosovo municipalities which have benefited from an International Organisation of Migration project, which is supported by the British embassy in Kosovo, to offer free language courses in Albanian and Serbian.

Courses in Kamenica are held each day, in two shifts, in the municipal assembly hall, and the organisers have compiled textbooks which provide basic knowledge of the Albanian and Serbian languages.

Stamenkovic, 35, who was born in town of Gjilan/Gnjilane, 45 kilometres east of Pristina, feels that ethnic animosities in this part of the country are fading, following two decades of frozen relations between the two major local communities.

“People need to communicate and they are realising that learning the other’s language helps both sides. Away from this course, they [Serbs] will have Albanians all around them and this will make it easier for them to learn more,” he explained.

Albanian and Serbian are the two official languages of Kosovo, according to the law. Other languages like Turkish and Roma are in official use in municipalities in which the people who speak them make up at least five per cent of the local population.

Stamenkovic said he is not satisfied that the law is being implemented properly, or with the quality of Serbian translations provided by institutions, and suggested that a department of Serbian language department should be opened at Pristina University.

“In Belgrade, an Albanian language department has existed for a long time. Of course the same should happen at Pristina University too because it would help to establish professional translators,” he said.

Stamenkovic graduated with a degree in economics and worked for 14 years as a Kosovo customs officer before he was approached by the mayor of Kamenica, Qendron Kastrati, to become his deputy when he won the 2017 mayoral elections.

The two young municipal leaders spared no time in voicing their coexistence goals.

In April 2018, Kastrati and Stamenknovic addressed a joint letter to foreign embassies and the EU office in Kosovo, asking for funds for the construction of a joint school for Albanian and Serb children.

“To build genuine inter-ethnic relations, it is very important to focus on our youth. It is imperative that young people of all communities, without exception, spend their daily lives together in a common learning and recreational environment,” Kastrati and Stamenkovic wrote.

Sitting in the improvised classroom in the municipal assembly hall, Stamenkovic said thinks that people learning their neighbours’ language would help them get closer to each other.

“The concept of coexistence and inter-ethnic communication here is better and more tangible than in other municipalities in Kosovo,” he argued.

Stamenkovic said he thinks that reducing the gap in inter-ethnic relations between Serbs and Albanians is possible if people can communicate more easily. “The key is communication without any prejudice. It is the time now to start to communicate more freely, more openly,” he added.

Divided educational systems