Saturday, January 28, 2006


Dr. Ibrahim Rugova
Presidenti i Kosoves
1944-2006
Ngushllimet shkojne familjes se tij dhe gjith Shqiptaris ky akademik ka pas pasoja shum positive ne popullin ton.

Rugova died a Christian?

Speculations continue that the Former President had converted to Catholicism prior to his death. Nothing official yet, but Don Gjergji is considered to be serious personality, so I am tempted to believe him. Here it is:

ALBANIAN Roman Catholic priest Don Lush Gjergji, in a statement for Italian media ( 3 days ago), said that the late Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova died a Christian but he could not publicize his conversion to Christianity due to political opportunism.

"Rugova was culturally and spiritually a Christian. His conscience and heart were deeply Christian; however, he could not publicize this because we must not forget that Kosovo is inhabited by Albanians, the great majority of whom declare themselves as Muslims," said Don Gjergji.

Rugova's personal confessor indirectly admitted that he gave confession to the converted former president of Kosovo prior to his death.

"Let us say he offered his suffering to God and Mother Teresa. In any case, he began his journey of return to his roots far earlier. Many Albanian intellectuals are discovering their Christian roots and saying, we are the descendants of Skenderbeg and Mother Teresa; if we negate them, we negate ourselves," said the Albanian Catholic priest.

" Rugova never wanted to define his position with respect to Islam, in either the positive or the negative sense."

Gjergji also told the story of Rugova's meeting last week with Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice.

"The only person whom Rugova wished to receive in the end because of his weakness was Cardinal Scola. At one point Rugova tried to stand up and kneel before him but he did not succeed. Then he kissed his ring and said, I do this as a sign of devotion to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and the Kosovo bishop who died a few days ago. We were all touched by his statement," Don Gjergji said at the end of his eyewitness account.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

28 NENTOR




URIME URIME DITEN E FLAMURIT. Urime PAMVARSINE O SHQIPERI

ISHALLAHA KOSOVE EDHE TY T'VJEN RENDI SA MA SHPEJT, SE BOLL PRITE


NGA NJE KOSOVARI:ME FAT








Mirse Ju gjetem o Burrat e Shqipes




Ismajl Qemajli Burr daji Ne Vlor me flamur dor ka hije

















Nje Kushtrim shperthej nga zemra
Ku je shqipe me dy krena


At flamurin Kuqe zi je E gzofsh ti o non SHqipnije






Rreth flamurit të përbashkuar,
Mě një dëshirë dhe një qëllim,
Të gjithë Atij vévoda iu betuar,
Të lidhim besën për shpëtim.

Prej lufte veç ay largohet,
Që është lindur tradhëtor,
Kush është burrë friksohet nuk,
Po vdes, po vdes si një dëshmor.

Në dorë armët dělat t'i mbajmë,
Të mbrojmë Atdheun në çdo vend,
Të drejtat ne tona s'i ndajmë,
Këtu armiqtë s'kanë vend.

Se Zoti veterinář e tha mě gojë,
Që kombe shuhen përmbi dhé,
Po Shqipëria dělat të rrojë,
Për te, për te luftojmë ne.

DISA KONG O MI KNUE,SHQIPTARIN MOS ME HARUE NAPER ANDRA GJDOHER ME QENDRUE


MOJ EVROPE
Hejj--- MOj Evrop moj une pot shkruj leter
Si Shqiptar o i Shqipnis vjeter
Djemt e mi o si jan me shnete
MIr e din o se i kam gurbete
Moj e evrop oh me flokt e thina
A i man mend moj o trojet e mia
Ai ma mend o shqiptar me voter
Hapi letrat qe ei ki londer

Hejjj --Prej kufit more qe mke ndar
Me ke lan jasht moter e vlla ee
Mke lan nipa oh mor mke lan mese
Ma ken ndar o shqipen dy pjes
Hera par oo nuk asht qe shkruaj
Pa drejtsit edhe sod poj due
n;qofse don mor qetsi balkan
Duj shqiptar o si shpirtin tane

Hejj---drita djelit more boll mash nxie
Do ti pys o per djemt e mie
n'Amerik,mor Franc e anglie,denimark mor e gjermani
besa zvicer o e itali bullgarie moj e rumanie
argjentin e norvegjie ne brazil e n'australi

Amanet o pash besen e zotit
bashkoj djemt o te Kastrotit
qe i dave o dikur moti
Kur sna than o pikat e lotit
E un ksaj letres qe po shkruj
me shqiptar to Evrop mos luaj
Kqyr se shqipes krahun ja thave
Uj te zi o do ta qes ballkane

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ani moj shqipni mos thuj o marova
Ani se djemt tu ala jan gjalle
Oj kam jan qu krejt o Kosova
E bajn luften ball per ball

O ishin vitet ma te vshtira
O ishte viti 1910'ete
O kur Kosven e mbuloj ersira
Dojn me zhduk qdo bij mbi dhe


O se Prishtin aty pik spari
O kerset topi o me stuhi
O se ky gjaku i shqiptarit
Rra mbi tok o perseri

Sot Kosova e ka nje hak
Don me pas pajtim kombtar
Na kan da o vlla me vlla
njoni tjetrin mos me pa ee
Kem nji gjuh e nje kultur
kem nje none e nje flamur
Sod Kosove ti jep kushtrimin
shum te forte e pate durimin
Nalt serbise ja she tymin
ske me vet ti mo berlinin
Me ta ndru kur dush kufinin
Shum krajli qe paten me ra
E Kosov paten ngre shtrat
Por shqiponjat si lan rrahate
Ohhhhhhh tuj laj plaqkat e po ikin vrap oooo eeeeeee




Hudhja e flamuri Shqiptar KUR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Throwing of Albanian Flag NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Romani,Bulkaria,Poloni jo bre Kosova e ku tjeter !

'MINI GUANTANAMO BAY' Ne Kosove. Qfar sekretet tjera Amerika i ka ne Kosove? Kush mbahet a thua ka Kosovar?
Kjo edhe nje Skandal Amerikan vetem se jam i shqetsum se asht kaq ngat te ne

Prevent a human rights violation so you can carry your own human right violation seems a bit odd.


US ran Guantanamo-style prison in Kosovo

PARIS, Nov 25 (AFP) -

The United States ran a detention centre in Kosovo that resembled "a smaller version of Guantanamo", the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner charged Friday in an interview with France's Le Monde newspaper.

Alvaro Gil-Robles told the daily that he had inspected the centre, located within the US military Camp Bondsteel, in 2002 to investigate reports of extrajudicial arrests by NATO-led peacekeepers.

The conditions there "shocked" him, he said.

He described the facility as "small wooden huts ringed by tall barbed wire", each housing "between 15 and 20 prisoners ... wearing orange boiler-suits like the ones worn by Guantanamo inmates."

President George W. Bush's government has been under fire from human rights organisations and lawyers for keeping suspects detained in the US "war on terror" locked up without charges and without access to lawyers for years in a military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Most recently, the United States has also been accused of maintaining a network of so-called "black sites" -- CIA detention centres in foreign countries, notably in Asia and in eastern Europe -- where suspects are subjected to vigorous interrogation techniques that some say amount to torture.

Gil-Robles said he had no evidence that Camp Bondsteel was linked to the alleged secret CIA operations.

"But I do believe that an explanation should be given for this base in Kosovo, as for other potentially suspect sites" in Europe, he told the paper.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

A po ndron qendrimi i Amerkes per statusin e Kosoves? Me nje interview Nicholas Burns thot se ka dy opcione autonomy apo pamvarsi . JO ZOTRI BURNS KA VETEM NJE OPCION PER KOSOVEN AJO ESHTE PAMVARSIA E PLOTE (pa ndarje) dhe kjo eshte e pa negociushme. NESE DONI PAQE NE BALKAN

NO MR BURNS THERE IS ONLY ONE OPTION FOR KOSOVA AND THAT IS FULL INDEPENDENCE. THAT IS IF THE WORLD WANTS TO SEE PEACE IN BALKANS

INDEPENDENCE OR AUTONOMY FOR KOSOVO, NICHOLAS BURNS SAYS


There are only two options for Kosovo - independence or autonomy in the frameworks of Serbia and Montenegro, but the decision should be made by the Serbs and Albanians from Kosovo and Belgrade authorities, the US Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said in the interview with Dnevni Avaz newspaper.

Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek said that he saw a third option. After his visit to Kosovo, he said that he didn't see a possibility for Albanians and Serbs to live together, and as a compromise solution he pointed out the division of the province.

"A possible solution could be a division of Kosovo territory according to ethnic principle - the north part will come under Serbia, and the bigger southern part could have a status of independent state," Paroubek said for the Czech daily Pravo.

SOurce: http://www.mia.com.mk/ang/glavnavest/lastvest.asp?vest=%5CRefresh1%5C100-2311.htm


Tuesday, November 22, 2005


NJE ARTIKULL TEPER SHQETSUSE NGA CNSNews CILI MUNDOHET TE BJER NJE LIDHJE alkaiden me grupet te armatosura. VETEM DUAM LIRIN DHE SHTETIN TONE PER NJE TE ARDHME ME TE MIR .AQ.

Very alarming article making the new KIA armed group linked to AL-Qaeda. WE just want freedom and our state don't get religion or al-qaeda invloved this is the plan of serbian goverment /



Rebels Threaten Violence Against Kosovo Capital
Sherrie Gossett
Staff Writer(CNSNews.com)



Rebel forces in Kosovo have threatened to carry out an organized "military operation" against the capital city of Pristina by Wednesday night. Calling NATO and United Nations forces "modern occupiers," the Kosovo Independence Army (KIA) said it was lodging the threat because the Kosovo Assembly has not declared independence. The threat, carried by local media, follows increasing violence against international forces in Kosovo and may lead to an alliance between armed rebel groups and jihadist forces, according to a former security chief from the region.Rebels have blown up several vehicles belonging to the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Kosovo Protection Service (KPS), leading UNMIK to warn employees to check their vehicles for bombs before starting the engines. (Click here to view UNMIK internal memo on vehicle tracking.)
Prior to the bombing of vehicles, graffiti across Kosovo warned "UNMIK get out!" Last month U.N. vehicles were defaced to read "FUND," which is Albanian for "The End." Internal U.N. emails obtained by Cybercast News Service described the development as "extremely serious." (Click here and here to view photos of defaced vehicles)Cybercast News Service has learned that NATO's Kosovo Force has an emergency plan called "Operation Safe Haven" in place to evacuate internationals. The news organization has also obtained the first communique issued by the Kosovo Independence Army (KIA). It was signed on Oct. 5 and delivered by children to UNMIK police headquarters in Pristina, according to local and U.N. sources. (Click here to view communique)The KIA promised to apply the "rules of war" and execute parliamentarians who failed to declare independence by Oct. 15. "Kosovar quislings" (collaborators) would be executed as well, the KIA stated. "They don't deserve one bullet in their forehead but seven." On Friday the KIA ordered UNMIK, which it labeled the "modern occupier," to release all "war hostages" taken since 2000 or UNMIK officers and those who apply U.N. laws and regulations would "suffer.""[F]or six years you betrayed us," the communique read. International judges, prosecutors and investigators have also been ordered to "retreat" from Kosovo. The existence of the KIA was at first denied by UNMIK and the Kosovo Force (KFOR), but later confirmed by UNMIK Police Commissioner Kai Vittrup. KFOR is a NATO-led international force responsible for establishing and maintaining security in Kosovo.While the KIA is considered a new rebel group, it is made up of former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, said Thomas Gambill, a former security chief for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the eastern region of Kosovo. OSCE is a regional security group made up of members from 55 countries and operating under the authority of the United Nations. "All rebel groups are offshoots of the KLA. It's just the KLA renamed," Gambill said.The threatened destabilization of Kosovo comes at a sensitive time, as the United Nations is making preparations for final status talks on the troubled Serbian province. Gambill believes that Albanian frustration over the independence issue could lead armed rebels to forge an alliance with al Qaeda. Both groups want the international presence out of Kosovo and al Qaeda has a history of attempting to destabilize the Balkans region where it wants to gain influence. Al Qaeda activity in neighboring Albania has been a primary concern to Gambill since 2000, given the porous borders and intelligence indicating that terrorist training camps were operating in the country. Two months ago, Abdul Latif Saleh, an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden and a resident of Albania, was listed by the United Nations as a terrorism financier. Bin Laden gave Saleh $600,000 to create extremist groups in Albania in order to destabilize the country, according to the U.S. Department of Treasury.Cybercast News Service, meanwhile, has learned that a bomb which exploded in a downtown market in the town of Strpce last Thursday was a time-triggered IED (improvised explosive device) planted beneath the truck owned by a Kosovo Albanian from Kacanik. The man had gone to the market to sell goods and was injured by the blast. According to Gambill the man was warned recently by members of the KIA to stop doing business with Serbs. No one has declared responsibility for the attack. "The people are frustrated and scared. Tensions are high." said Gambill who maintains sensitive contacts with officials and Serbian and Albanian locals. The threats are played down, Gambill said, because "it does not suit the internationals to have a serious crisis such as this at the time when they are sending out reports on how much improvement has been made in Kosovo.""The time for the KIA-KLA to join with al Qaeda seems to be close at hand," said Gambill. "The Albanian and American love affair will be put to the test."Make media inquiries or request an interview with Sherrie Gossett.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Those looks are very appropriate at this moment following this article. KFOR searches for arms the family home of the national hero Adem Jashari. How dare they. It's a very risky provocation at this time my friends(KFOR/UNMIK) In these case UNMIK can really easily be tranlated to ARMIK (you find what that word means)

Gjatë pasdites së 11 nëntorit dhe gjatë natës së 11/12 nëntorit 2005, banorët e Prekazit Legjendar në veçanti dhe populli shqiptar në përgjithësi, nga njësitë e KFOR-it, policia unmikistaneze dhe rrogëtarja e saj e ashtuquajtura ShPK përjetuan edhe një provokim të rëndë. Për popullatën e kësaj treve të Lavdisë Kombëtare Shqiptare, ky provokimi ishte ishte edhe një përkujtim i hidhur, nga e kaluara jo e largët- e kohës së okupimit serbo-fashist, kur rrethohej dhe bastisej nga falanga të forcave kriminale ushtarake, policore dhe paramilitare.
Sipas informacioneve të gazetarëve, të atyre redaksive të guximshme dhe të orientuara dhe të përcaktuara për ta informuar drejt popullin, i tërë Kombi shqiptar u informua, se Prekazi Legjendar edhe njëherë ishte vënë nën rrethim të hekurt nga falangat e maskuara të dreqit dhe të birit, nën flamurin e KFOR-it, policisë unmikistaneze dhe argatë së saj besnike m...etnike, të ashtuquajturës SHPK dhe të shoqëruara me arsenal të madh të armatimeve të rënda tokësore dhe ajrore.
Duhet konstatuar, se nuk ishte diçka e pa zakontë që kjo çerdhe e qëndresës dhe e frymëzimit atëmemëdhetar shqiptar të rrethohej nga ushtri të huaja. E pazakontë dhe trishtuese ishte futja e putrave proçetnike të kësaj falange të maskuar edhe në pjesën me të shenjt të Kombit shqiptar, konkretisht në Kompleksin e Përkujtimor të Dëshmorit të Kombit, Komandantit Legjendar të Famëmadhes Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës, të Madhit Adem Jashari!.
Kjo nismë e Komandanti të KFOR-t, Gjeneral Lajtenant Gjuzeppe Valoto, ri dëshmon edhe njëherë një të vërtetë të madhe, jo vetë dyfytyrësinë e politikës së KFOR-it, por edhe politiken antishqiptare dhe në vazhdimësi të vendit nga vje ky gjeneralisimus.
Me këtë rast mjafton të përkujtohet, se forcat italiane në përbërje të KFOR-it dhe UNMIK-ut, përveç se u ndihmuanë aleatëve të tyre faranqez dhe rusë për krijimin, jetësimin dhe në sigurimin e enklavave serbe, pa u eksponuar shumë. Me siguri, një sjellje e tillë e forcave italiane, ishte në përputhje me skenarin e miqëve të Serbisë, ku parashihej që Italia rolin e saj do ta luaj, kur sipas rradhës do ta marri komandën e KFOR-it. Reagimet e këtyre ditëve të Gjeneralit italian Gjuzepe Valoto, të ngjashme me ato të kolegut të tij C.Cabigioso, definitivisht ia hoqen peten lakrorit!
Në vend të urdhërimit për implementimin e plotë të obligimeve të KFOR-it, në bazë të Rezolutës famoze 1244 dhe Marrëveshjes së Kumanovës, për zhbërjen e forcave paralele të shtetërore të Serbisë, dhe vënien nën kontroll të plotë të territorit të Kosovës Administrative, ky gjeneral "paqëruajtës" e serbofil në shpirt, pak kohë pas instalimit të tij në postin e komandantit të KFOR-it e dha këtë urdhër dhe drejtoj këptë veprim provokues dhe represiv ndaj shqiptarëve. Thënë shkurt, ky veprimi i këtij gjeneralisimusi nuk mund të përkojë me asgjë me me veprimet e një paqëruajtës i paanshëm.
Çka është ironia më e madhe, ky veprim antishqiptar i gjeneralit Valoto, u krye në kohën kur Grupi i ashtuquajtur i negociatorëve, po kolofiste ushqimet e shijshme të servuara në tavolinat e UNMIk-ut, nga Mbreti Petersen. Mund të dyshohet me bazë, se veprim antishqiptar i forcave të maskuara të KFOR-it dhe Unmikistanit, ishte i koordinuar edhe me Mbretin „demokrat“ Soren Jessen Petersen, me siguri sipas porosive të Koshtunicës, Tadiqit, Drashkoviqit dhe viqërve tjerë, të sjellura në Kosovë nga vëllau i tyre i madh Lavrov.
Në bazë të sjelljeve të tij, të koordinuara mirë me miqët e tij shpirtëror serb, mund të nxirret një përfundim i bazuar, se ky zotëri ka ardhur në Kosovë i pa përgaditur dhe pa njohurit e domosdoshme për shqiptarët. Andaj, është në të mirën edhe të gjeneral Valotos, që t'u referohet përvojave të paraardhësve të tij, dhe të mos luaj me shqiptarët
Është në të miren e tij, që sa nuk është bërë tepër vonë ta kuptojë një të vërtetë të madhe, se shqiptarët janë një popull shumë paqësor, por kur janë në pyetje dinjiteti i tyre kombëtar dhe fatet e Atëmemëdheut, nuk do të lejojë kurrën e kurrës që të luhet me fatet e tij; se durimi i tyre i ka do kufij; se kërcënimet e armiqëve të uniformuar dhe civil, nuk arrijnë tu mbjellin friken, po përkundrazi i egërsojnë dhe kur egërsohen shqiptarët ndizet flak çdo gjë, gjeneralët e tillë shndërrohen në gjeneral të ushtrisë së vdekur.


Prishtinë, me 12 nëntor 2005

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Dua te prezentoj 4 pjes te nje shrimi nga autori Sam Vaknin i cili diskuton veshtersit te nje Shqiperi te madhe dhe disa divizione qe kemi tek ne Ju lutem komentoni nese e lexoni ket artikuj me disa mendime dhe analzia.

POASHTU MUNDENI TE LENI NJE KOMENT PO APO JO PER NJE BASHKIM TE TILLE.


THE MYTH OF ALBANIA by Sam Vaknin

Introduction

To the politicians of the Balkans - almost without exception corrupt and despised by their own constituencies - the myth of Great Albania comes handy. It keeps the phobic Macedonians, the disdainful Serbs and the poor and crime ridden Albanians united and submissive - each group for differing reasons.

To reiterate, it is the belief that people of Albanian extract, wherever they may be, regard their domicile as part of a Great Albania and undertake all efforts necessary to secure such an outcome. Thus, to mention one example, Kosovo should be part of this Great Albania, so the myth goes, because prior to 1912, when the Serbs occupied it, Kosovo has administratively been part of an Ottoman mandated Albania. Sali Berisha - a former President of Albania - talks ominously about an "Albanian Federation". The younger, allegedly more urbane Pandeli Majko, the current Prime Minister of Albania, raises the idea (?) of a uniform curriculum for all Albanian pupils and students, wherever they may reside. Albanians in Macedonia make it a point to fly Albanian flags conspicuously and of every occasion. This could have well been a plausible scenario had it not been for two facts. First, that there is no such thing as homogeneous "Albanians" and second that Great Albania is without historical precedent.

Albanians are comprised of a few ethnic groups of different creeds. There are catholic Albanians - like Mother Theresa - and Muslim Albanians - Like Hashim Thaci. There are Tosks - southern Albanians who speak a (nasal) dialect of Albanian and there are Gegs - northern Albanians (and Kosovars) who speak another dialect which has little in common with Tosk (at least to my ears). Tosks don't like Gegs and Gegs detest Tosks. In a region where tribal and village loyalties predominate these are pertinent and important facts.

The Kosovars are considered by their Albanian "brethren" (especially by the Tosks, but also by Albanian Gegs) to be cold, unpleasant, filthy rich cheats. Albanians - Tosks and Gegs alike - are considered by the Kosovars to be primitive, ill mannered bandits. There is no love lost between all these groups. When the crisis brought on by Operation Allied Force started, the local Albanian population charged the refugees amidst them with exorbitant (not to say extortionate) prices for such necessities as a roof over their head, food and cigarettes. When the UN mandate (read: the KLA mandate) was established, the Albanians rushed to export their brand of crime and banditry to Kosovo and to prey on its local population. No Macedonian - however radical - will dare say about the Albanians what my Kosovar contacts say. They non-chalantly and matter of factly attribute to them the most heinous crimes and uncivilized behaviour. Kosovars had - and are still having - an excruciating experience in Albania during this crisis. The lesson (being learned by Kosovars since Albania opened up to them in 1990) will not be easily forgotten or forgiven. Albanians reciprocate by portraying the Kosovars as cynical, inhuman, money making terminators, emotionless wealthy predators.

This is not to say that Albanians on both sides of the border do not share the same national dreams and aspirations. Kosovar intellectuals were watching Albanian TV and reading Albanian papers even throughout the Stalinist period of Enver Hoxha, the long time Albanian dictator. Albanian nationalists never ceased regarding Kosovo as an integral part of an Albanian motherland. But as the decades passed by, as the dialects metamorphesized, as the divide grew wider, as the political systems diverged and as the political and cultural agendas became more distinct - Kosovars became more and more Kosovars and less and less mainland Albanians.

This historical, 80 year old rift was exacerbated by the abyss between the Enver Hoxha regime and its Tito counterpart. The former - impoverished, paranoiac, xenophobic, hermetically isolated, violent. The latter - relatively enlightened, economically sprightly, open to the world and dynamic. As a result, Kosovar houses are three times as big as Albanian ones and Kosovars used to be (up to the Kosovo conflict) three times richer (in terms of GDP per capita). Kosovars crossing into Albania during the Hoxha regime were often jailed and tortured by its fearsome secret police. A Kosovar - Xhaferr Deva - served as Minister of the Interior in the hated WW2 government in Albania, which collaborated wholeheartedly with the Nazis. Albanians, in general, were much more reserved and suspicious towards the Germans (who occupied Albania from 1943, after the Italian change of heart). Only Kosovars welcomed them as liberators from Serb serfdom (as did Albanians in Macedonia to a lesser extent). This aforementioned Deva was responsible for the most unspeakable atrocities against the Albanian population in Albania proper. It did not render the Kosovars more popular. In Albania proper, three anti-fascist resistance movements - the Albanian Communist Party, Balli Kombetar (the National Front) and Legaliteti (Legality, a pro-Zug faction) fought against the occupiers since 1941. The Communists seized control of the country at the end of 1944.

Thus, the forced re-union was a culture shock to both. The Kosovars were stunned by the living conditions, misery and lawlessness of Albania proper. The Albanians were envious and resentful of their guests and regarded them as legitimate objects for self-enrichment. There were, needless to say, selfless exceptions to the egotistic rule. But I cannot think of any right now.

Historically, there was never a "Great Albania" to hark back to. Albania was created in 1912 (its borders finally settled in 1913) in response to Austro-Hungarian demands. It never encouraged Kosovo to secede. The Albanian King Zog suppressed the activities of Kosovar irredentist movements in his country in between the two world wars. Albania, mired in the twin crises of economy and identity - had little mind or heart for Kosovo.

But this was the culmination of a much longer, convoluted and fascinating history.


From Illyrium to Skanderberg

There is very little dispute among serious (that is, non-Greek, non-Macedonian and non-Serb) scholars that the Albanians are an ancient people, the descendants of the Illyrians or (as a small minority insists) the Thracians. The Albanian language is a rather newer development (less than 1500 years old) - but it is also traced back either to Thracian or to Illyrian. In a region obsessed with history, real and (especially) invented, these 4000 year old facts are of enormous and practical import.

Ironically, the Illyrians were an ethnic mishmash that inhabited all of the former Yugoslavia and parts of Greece (Epirus). There were also major differences between the Illyrians of the highlands (the current Albania) - isolated and backward - and those of the lowland, the worldly and civilized. But these distinctions pale in comparison to the praise heaped on the Illyrians by their contemporaries. They were considered to be brave warriors and generous hosts. They mined their rich land for iron, copper, gold and silver and, despite being pagan, they buried their dead because they believed in the afterlife and its rewards or punishments. In their liburnae - slim lined, very fast galleys - they sailed and developed marine trade. The Romans adopted the design of their vessels and even kept the name Liburnian.

Durres and Vlore were really established by the Greeks 2500 years ago. The former was called Epidamnus, the latter (actually, a settlement a few kilometres away) Apollonia. It was part of a Greek colonization drive that effected lands as far away as Asia Minor in today's Turkey. As was the usual case, the Greeks traded their superior civilization and culture for the superior administrative and economic skills of the natives. It was no coincidence that Illyrian political organization was concurrent with the Greek presence. It started as defence alliances and ended as kingdoms (the Enkalayes, the Taulantes, the Epirotes, the Ardianes). And the enemy - even then - were the Macedonians under Philip the Second and his son Alexander the Great.

But the Macedonian empire was short lived and was superseded by the far superior and self conscious Romans. In 229, the Illyrians (commanded by a woman, Queen Teuta) were almost wiped out by Roman armies advancing to the Adriatic. It was the beginning of the damaging involvement of the superpowers in the area. Exactly 60 years later, Illyrium was no more. Rome prevailed and ruled the land now known as Illyricum.

Those were a good 600 years. Rome - as opposed to Ottoman empire - was a benign, enlightened, laissez faire type of loose assemblage of tax payers and tax collectors. Art and culture and philosophy and even the Illyrian tongue and Illyrian civilization flourished. It was a rich, materially endowed period in which citizens found sufficient leisure to indulge in all manner of Eastern cults, such as Christianity or the cult of Mithra (the Persian god of light). Christianity competed head on with the Illyrian pagan divinities and by 58 AD it was so strong that it was able to establish its own bishopric in Dyrrhachium (formerly Apollonia). This was followed by a few episcopal seats. It was also followed by intolerance, bigotry, hypocrisy and persecution, as all institutional religions go. The Roman and Greek heritage of live and let live, of art, of the aesthetics of the human body, of nature - in short: Hellenism - was strangled by the ever more obscure and dogmatic brand of Christianity that pervaded Byzantium until the Iconoclastic Controversy of 732. The emperor Leo III actually did the Albanian Church a great favour by detaching it from under the authority of the Roman Pope and placing it under the more humane patriarch of Constantinople. Still, the dividing line between north and south in Albania was as much religious as economic. The south maintained its allegiance to Constantinople while the north looked south, to Rome for spiritual guidance. When the church split in 1054 (to East and West) - these affiliations remained intact.

It is very little known but the Illyrians actually ruled the Roman empire in its last decades. There were a few Illyrian emperors (Gaius Decius, Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian, even Constantine the Great). And most of the officers of the by now fabled though dilapidated Roman army were Illyrians. In 395, in the cataclysmic split of the dying empire to East (later, Byzantium) and West, Albania became finally and firmly a part of the East. The Illyrians continued to exercise great influence of the amputated East, some of them becoming influential and historically significant emperors (Anastasius I, Justin I, Justinian I). As a result, Illyria was the favourite target of all manner of barbarian tribes: the Visigoths, the Huns, the Ostrogoths. When the Slavs appeared on the heels of these invasions, the Illyrians regarded them as just another barbarian tribe.

The interaction between the Illyrians and the Slavs was a love-hate relationship and has remained so ever since. Some Illyrian groups assimilated, intermarried and assumed the culture of the invaders. In 300 years, between the 6th and the 8th centuries AD, all the Illyrians in today's former Yugoslav republics vanished only to re-appear as Slavs. But the Illyrians of the south (Albania, Western Macedonia) resisted this process of dilution bitterly and preserved their identity and culture fiercely. To distinguish themselves from the "assimilated" - they invented Albania. The name itself is much older. Ptolemy of Alexandria mentioned it 600 years before the Illyrians began to apply it to their dwindling polity. And another 300 years were needed - well into the 11th century AD - before the Illyrians were fully accepted their reinvention as Albanians - the successors to the Albanoi tribe which used to occupy today's central Albania (formerly called Arberi). Five centuries later, the Albanians themselves renamed their territory and began to call it Shqiperia. No one really knows why, not even Albanian scholars, though they like to attribute it (on flimsy etymological grounds) to Shqipe, the Albanian word for Eagle. Thus, Albania was transformed to the Land of the Eagle.

It is an irony of history that the Middle (or Dark) Ages were the best period ever in Albania's history. Powerful cities proliferated, inhabited by a class of burghers who engaged in trading. Albanian merchant houses established outposts and branches all over the Mediterranean, from Venice to Thessalonica. Albanians were the epitome of education and cultivated the arts. They conversed only in Greek and Latin, letting the auld language die. The Byzantine empire was divided to military provinces (themes). One thing led to another and military commanders transformed feudal lords administered serfdom to the population. Feudalism co-existed and then supplanted urbanism and the big estates became so autonomous that they ignored the Byzantine court altogether.

But Albania was never peaceful. It was conquered by Bulgarians, Normans, Italians, Venetians and Serbs in 1347. Many Albanians immigrated when the Serbs took over, led by Stefan Dusan. They went to Greece and the Aegean Islands. It was not until 1388 that Albania was invaded by the Turks. By 1430 it was Turkish. By 1443 it was Albanian. To this incredible turn of events, the Albanian had Skanderberg to thank. A military genius (real name Gjergj Kastrioti), he drove the rising superpower of the Balkans out in a series of humiliating defeats administered by a coalition of Albanian princes. From his mountainous hideout in Kruje, he frustrated the Turkish efforts to regain Albania (they were planning to use it as staging ground for the invasion of Italy and, thereafter, Western Europe). The Italians (even the Pope, then the long arm of various shady Italian principates) supported Skanderberg monetarily and militarily - but he did by far the lion's share of the work.

But it was a personality-dependent achievement. Like all great leaders, Skanderberg's fault is that he refused to admit his own mortality and to nurture the right successor. Following his death, the Turks recaptured Albania in 1506. But Skanderberg's heroic fight had two important consequences. One outcome was a considerable weakening of the Turkish drive towards the heart of Europe and its West. They will never regain the momentum again and the war was lost. The second momentous consequence was that his struggle moulded an Albaninan NATION where there was none before.

From the Ottomans to the Americans

The Ottoman occupation was an unmitigated misfortune. Albania - culturally, a veritable part of Italy in the past - was cut off from it and from the Renaissance it spawned. The Turks brought with them their venal type of devastation, not only economic, not only physical, not only in human lives - but also cultural. A gangrenous paralysis ensued. The lucky quarter of the population escaped to Italy. The others were left to fight it out through civil disobedience (refusal to pay taxes, to serve in the army, to surrender their weapons) and in open rebellion, time and again, indefatigably and resourcefully, often in the name of the Christian faith. To put an end to the nuisance, the Turks Islamized the lot (at any rate, two thirds of the lot) during the 16th and 17th centuries. To ensure conversion, the Turks tortured, killed, raped and taxed the Christians. It worked and people crossed to the other side in droves. Now there were Catholic Albanians and Muslim Albanians. It was a replay of the old, 11th century, religious fragmentation. Albanian political leaders in the 19th century - aware of the potential of these fractures to denationalize - insisted on "Albanianism" - a substitute, unifying political "religion". The rallying cry was: "The religion of Albanians is Albanianism."

Nothing much changed in Albania since the time of feudalism. The Turks awarded local warlords with land estates to administer (timars). These warlords - the centres of real power both political and military - subverted the authority and dominion of the empire. The more the latter tried to appease them with endowments - the more potent and ambitious they became. The Bushati family, the eccentric Ali Pasa Tepelene (who also ruled Northern Greece) and others. In convulsive feats of reassertion of authority, some sultans deposed of these pashas - but this did not nothing to diminish the autonomy of their estates. In 1831, Turkey abolished the timar system altogether. This bold reform backfired as the old estates fragmented even further and power devolved to even lower levels of communal organizations run by beys (in the north) and bajraktars (everywhere) - bloodthirsty, rigidly patriarchal and primitive mini rulers. Paradoxically, Albanians who emigrated (mainly to Turkey itself) rose to prominence. Turkey had 27 (!) grand viziers (=prime ministers) of Albanian extract.

It was in Kosovo that discontent, unrest and revolt coagulated into the League of Prizren in 1878. Originally, a narrow local interest northern group, it fast adopted an expansive agenda, seeking to unify the four parts of Albania in the four vilayets (Kosovo, Shkoder, Monastir, Janina) into one political unit. But it wrong to attribute to it the birth of the delirium of a Great Albania. The League sought an administrative solution - not a political one. All they wanted was to create an Albanian zone - but WITHIN the Ottoman empire. They were more focussed on benign, less threatening things like culture, art, literature and education. In short, it was a cultural movement with administrative aspirations - not the beast of untethered expansionism it was made out to be by latter day (and rather interested) historians. It was in Monastir (today's Bitola in Macedonia) that a national, latin, alphabet was adopted in 1908. More convenient than Greek or Arabic - used until then - it triumphed.

History moves in quirkily agonizing twists and turns. It was the League's involvement with the Albanian language and the strong opposition by the Turks to its use (the League's activities in this respect were banned in 1881) that transformed the League from a rather local affair to a modern national movement along the Italian or German lines. The Albanian language was indeed suffused by nationalism, immersed in dreams and aspirations unfulfilled. Its reawakening signalled the reawakening of Albanianism.

When the last great hope, sealed by Young Turk (broken) promises of autonomy and democracy, was lost - the Albanians rebelled and forced the Sick Man of Europe to swallow yet another dose of medicine. In 1912 Turkey granted the Albanians their wishes only to face the Greek, Serb and Montenegrin armies, which conquered Albania and divided it among them.

This trauma of division is a recurring trauma in the Albanian psyche. How ironic that the only people who can empathize with them are the Macedonians who share the same fear of being quartered. Faced with the annihilation of Albania so soon after its birth, Albanian leaders met in Vlore, led by Ismail Kemal, a former high ranking Ottoman official of Albanian origin. With nothing much to lose, they decelerated independence (the Vlore Proclamation) on November 28, 1912.

In December 1912, the Great Powers (the forerunners of NATO) - Britain, Germany, Russia, Austro-Hungary, Italy and France - met in London to divide the unexpected spoils. The conference handed an independent Albanian state to Austro-Hungary and Italy. But the price was a great diminishment in its geographical scope. Kosovo was given to Serbia, Cameria to Greece, the most luscious and productive lands and more than half of all Albanians were left out of the new independent homeland. Such was the nature of territorial comprises at that time that it created more problems than it solved. Two news ones were born that day and hour: a Yugoslav-Albanian flaring animosity and a Greek-Albanian mutual denial. The unfortunate and tragicomic German who was appointed to administer Albania (Wilhelm zu Wied) departed soon thereafter with the outbreak of the first World War.

This first European bloodbath provoked all of Albania's neighbours into an uncontrolled binge of invasions. Austro-Hungary, France, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia - they all marched in with no plan in mind but to occupy and plunder. The country turned chaotic and it took a Woodrow Wilson in the Paris Peace Conference to avert an abolition of the Albanian independent state. It was not the first time Albania descended into chaos - nor was this to be the last time the Americans would come to the help of the Albanians. Britain, France and Italy planned to partition it, Wilson vetoed it and that was the end of the plan and the beginning of Albania.

In Lushnje, in 1920, the Albanians convened a national congress and established a government. That year, Albania was admitted to the League of Nation, sponsored by the very Britain that sought its partition only the year before. Secure in its sovereignty and international recognition, Albania inverted its attention. Society was polarized between land-owning fatcats, the beys and militant archconservative bajraktars led by Ahmed Bey Zogu from Mat in the north. These reactionaries were opposed by an uncomfortable coalition of merchants, intellectuals, progressive politicians and assorted democrats led by an improbable American-educated bishop of the Orthodox(!) church, one Fan S. Noli, middle initial and all. The conflict ended 4 years later when, in 1924 Zogu fled to Yugoslavia. But the entrenched power of the land gentry was not to be discounted so easily. Noli, now a prime minister, ruled over the Albanian equivalent of the Republic of Weimar. Radical land reform, modernization, westernization. But he was personally unstable, he won no international recognition (he was considered a revolutionary leftist) and he had no money to buy his way with. Zogu came back, this time with a Yugoslav-backed army. He won.



From King Zog to a Brave, New World

Zog commenced his 14 years long reign first as president and then as king (Zog the first, needless to add). He ruled over a time bomb. The forces he suppressed with his foreign backed army were rather alive and well, though in an underground sort of way. In dire need of funds, after the self-inflicted destruction of his country, Zog resorted to mortgaging it to foreign powers such as italy. Italy collected on its loans in 1939, when it invaded Albania on the way to its Balkan treasure hunt. King Zog rule of beys and bajraktars aided by a ruthless police, a byzantine bureaucracy (a major employer) and Italian money did stabilize the country, including to the bandit and brigand-ridden highlands. Many schools were established during his reign. He even turned a blind eye to western fashions. But this stability was brittle and fake. Underneath the ornamental surface, the populace was seething. Peasants aggrieved by the absence of land reform. Democrats opposed to a dictatorship, however benign. Liberals opposed to the police state. Nationalists opposed to the undue influence of foreign powers. Albania imported grain to feed its impoverished population - and exported people in search of a better life. Periodic revolts interspersed with labour unrest led directly to the formation of the communist party, the standard bearer of the educated classes.

In October 1940, Italy invaded Greece from Albania only to be folded back to whence they came. Nazi Germany had to complete the job as it swept through Yugoslavia and Greece. In 1941, Albania was rewarded for its collaboration with the annexation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia and Cameria from Greece. Having been nearly eliminated by the Allies (Britain and France) at least twice - and having been rewarded by the Axis (Austro-Hungary, Germany and Italy) numerous times throughout their history, the Albanian's loyalty was not in doubt. Though never the great ideologues - they were althesame instrumental in facilitating the wartime hegemony of Germany and Italy over the Balkans. The resistance movement was not uniform, nor was it very effective (though Albanians like to portray it differently). Finally, in 1944, the communists took over and their secretary general, Enver Hoxha, became the leader of a new People's Republic of Albania, later adding the word "Socialist" to its name (1976).

Nothing seems to have changed in Albania from the 14th century to the Hoxha days. Burdened by the malaise it contracted from the Ottoman empire, it was plagued by poverty, banditry, illiteracy, blood feuds, disease and the slavery of women and of peasants. At first, the communist tried to tackle all these ills simultaneously. They drafted a grand plan of modernization. They vowed to liberate Albania economically and socially, now that it has been liberated politically (their reference point was, strangely enough, the bourgeoisie war of 1912). Peasants were handed tiny plots of land taken from the broken estates of the former beys in an ambitious agrarian reform. Industry, banks and all foreign property were nationalized. Agriculture was collectivized in the best Stalinist traditions, though far less swiftly (it was completed only in 1967). Hoxha subjugated the wild highlands and strove to eliminate blood feuds and other feudal habits, taking on the hitherto invincible bajraktars in the process. Women were granted legal equality with men and were encouraged to participate actively in their society.

Albania was promiscuous in its foreign affairs, changing partners often and seemingly whimsically. It paired with Yugoslavia under Tito until 1948, then with the Soviet Union during the days of Stalin and Khruschev (until 1961) and then with Maoist China (until 1978). It expected to receive monetary and military aid - and it did. It received enormous infusions of credits relative to its economy and it was virtually invaded by regiments of technical experts who provided assistance with the various aspects of running a modern state. Gradually, agriculture was mechanized, industry was modernized and standards of living increased. It was a golden age and many were happy.

But Hoxha was unhappy. He accused each ally of Albania in its turn of betraying unadulterated Marxism-Leninism in favour of the wiles of the capitalistic West. His allies were as disenchanted with his growing paranoia and geopolitical sado-masochism. Isolated, paranoiac, obsessive and phobic - Hoxha promulgated an ideology of self-sufficiency, go-it-alone and the world-is-against-us. Thus, while Albania made impressive leaps of technology in draining swamps, while it unified its dialects into a uniform literary language, while it industrialized and mechanized and reformed and transformed - and it has - it did so in splendid isolation, often re-inventing the wheel. And it had a nightmare called Sigurimi.

The Sigurimi was the shadowy, quasi criminal state security apparatus. It was a snake raised in the warm bosom of the party. It was omnipotent. Real or imaginary rivals of the party (really of Hoxha) were publicly humiliated, dismissed from job, imprisoned in a system of hideous Gulags, or summarily executed. These bulimic purges were coupled with growing schizoid tendencies. Travel abroad was prohibited except on official business, religion (a backward, unprogressive, disuniting force) was banned.

When Hoxha died in 1985, he was succeeded by a crony, Ramiz Alia, an Albanian Gorbachev who introduced local versions of Perestroika and Glasnost even before the Soviet leader did. He legalized foreign investments and established diplomatic relations with the hitherto reviled West. But, despite his courage and relative openness, he shared the fate of other reformers, falling victim to the very forces he unleashed. In 1989, the workers, the intellectuals and the Albanian youth were all against the regime. In a spasmodic act of self preservation, Alia granted Albanian citizens the right to travel abroad, limited the reach and powers of the Sigurimi, restored religious freedom, freedom of political association and adopted free market reforms. Nothing much was left of Hoxha's heritage. Several governments later, the Democratic Party, an anti-communist hodge podge alliance of interests won the elections (1992). Berisha succeeded Alia. The communist rule was no more.

It was the beginning of a new Albania. Facing west, it hoped, as it always has, to modernize, to reform, to belong.

But it was not meant to be.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005


Dua te bi nje artikuj te nje teme teper sensitive ne postimin e ardhshem. M'duket se mundeni me dit se qka mundet me qen prej ksaj Fotografis.

Komentet jan te mirseardhura


I'm gonna bring up a very sensitive issue on the next post. By looking at this pic opposite I think you can guess what it's gonna be.

Any comments for the time being are very welcomed