Albanians are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the signing of their declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire. The “100 years of independence” isn’t exactly true: Albania was occupied multiple times during that span. Still, the celebration is bringing renewed attention to long-standing ambitions among some Albanian nationalists to a so-called “Greater Albania.”
The nationalists believe that all ethnic Albanians must, as a matter of course, be ruled by the Albanian government. Though this ambition has often fallen by the wayside in the face of regional warfare, it has also found currency as the primary casus belli for many Kosovar Albanians in the establishment of an independent Kosovo.
That’s not the end of the story for the nationalists, who see Kosovo’s separation from Serbia as the first step toward its annexation by Albania. Parts of other nearby nations, including Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece also have territory with ethnic Albanians which the nationalists have designs on.
Wanting and having are two different things, but as Albanians celebrate a festival, their prime minister sparked a diplomatic row with Greece by announcing that a Greek town on the other side of the border was “Albanian land.” Prime Minister Berisha went on to claim both Montenegro and Macedonia’s capitals, as well as territory inside Serbia, on the opposite side of Kosovo.
Many of the lands don’t even have many ethnic Albanians living in them anymore, and the claim rests on there having been ethnic Albanians there at some point in time. Greece, Albania’s top trading partner, withdrew their Foreign Minister from the celebration in protest.
Finally they are open about it. Probably they think that great Albania is almost there…..
Albanians aren't jews too, are they?
Like the Kurds, Georgians, Montenegrins and other 'newly' nationalized minorities – they have that 'Israeli weltanschauung' – to go with substantial hebrew populations.
This is clearly a very biased "article" written by someone that knows nothing of Albanians or
their history, as well as of the real situation of what is going on in the region. Albanians are celebrating their Independence Day!
It has to do with their separation from the Ottoman Empire, so independence from the Turks, literally. At that time, indeed, Albanians lived in many of those cities Berisha mentioned. After independence, Albanian territories were cut off arbitrarily from the Great Powers at that time, an injustice indeed. Nevertheless, today of course the situation is different. Nobody wants or needs to go to those borders. The theme of the day is simply: economics! They have suffered tremendously from isolation in the past and are trying to be part of the EU. As such, they are giving their best to be positive and constructive. Albanians depend on Greek support for their membership in EU (as funny as that may seem to some in this day and age), and they truly see their national re-unification when/if part of the greater European family. They have seen war many times in their past, and no, nobody wants a conflict anymore. Historically they have never invaded other lands, and currently the bigger problem they have is demographics. Many young Albanians either have left or are planning to leave the country for economic reasons.
Greater Albania, is simply a made up concept used against them negatively that simply does not reflect at all the situation in the ground. It is unfortunate to see Antiwar.com consistently publishing articles with extreme anti-Albanian bias! For years now. Guys, being antiwar does not mean to be antialbanian! Lighten up! You are not helping anyone. Serbs, Croats,Bosniaks,Greeks or Macedonians are not helped by being antialbanian. When will you, if ever, publish something constructive, that truly tries to mend fences in this troubled region, framed positively away from the negative rhetoric? This region has seen war many times. Is this site still antiwar.com?
There's Albanians in Chicago too, why not throw that in?
Good point. One wonders if these are Albania's last territorial claims in Europe.
You are a joke. This man rejected the idea of a greater Albania (one that I support because our lands were stolen from us… the lands in which Albanians are still majority should be given back, Malësia e Madhë for example and Kosova) and you just ignored what he said and tried to make a joke that completely failed. Albanians are not trying to invade or steal lands, they just want their lands back. Even lands where we are no longer the majority. We were either forced out or forcefully assimilated… for example Çamria.
Do some research before you write articles. Our independence day is celebration of becoming free of Ottoman rule. Since then we have always fought and rejected foreign rule. Whether it be Nazis or socialists.
To you, it is okay for the powerful countries to forcefully take away lands from others, but when those who were wronged try to fight back then you go all "anti-war"?
This site is a joke.
Greater Albania may be a fantasy but it still has rampart support amongst Macedonian Albanians and Kosovo Albanians
Antiwar simply reports events and the Albanians Ministers direct comments is another case of Antiwar feeding the news Foreign Press would deliberately hide
Good Post, Mark
You´ve even confirmed what I thought : that Albanians have problem with demographics. There are several ways to solve that particular problem :
1) Chinese way
2) Providing very good education and higher economical standard for the people
3) Getting more territory
Solution number 2 is of course preferable, but who can guarantee that it will be used? Small nations have very limited political independence, and if USA needs bigger Albania in its calculations, so it will be (hope not). Apealling to the caracter of the one nation in general, as a guarantee, is not very realistic and it is based on emotions, usually.
Besides, it would be better not to speak for the whole nation, because nobody seriously can and should do this. My regards,
Sure, just become one of Washington's beotches and get anything you want including kicking people out of their homes or outright killing them.
Except they can tell when you're just pretending to be a jerk. They don't like that.