Great Albania

The maximum borders of "Great Albania"

Great Albania ( Alb. Shqipëria Etnike - “ethnic Albania”) is the Pan-Albanian idea of reuniting all the territories in which the Albanian ethnic group prevails over the state-forming. Most of the territory of Great Albania claimed by Albanian nationalists is located within the former Yugoslavia .

As follows from the ideas of Greater Albania, the northwestern regions of Northern Macedonia , the southern borders of Serbia , including Kosovo and the Presevo Valley , and the southern regions of Montenegro, should be attached to modern Albania . Unofficially, ideologists of Albanian nationalism also included northern Greece in Great Albania, where almost no Albanian population remained.

During the Second World War, the Pan-Albanian idea was realized with the help of Italy and Germany.

Fascist Greater Albania

Fascist Great Albania

After the occupation of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the territory of the country was divided between the axis countries. On August 12, 1941, by the decree of the Italian king Victor Emanuel III , the Grand Duchy of Albania was established in the occupied Albanian territories, which also includes the territories of Metohija , central Kosovo, western Macedonia and eastern Montenegro .

The dismemberment of Yugoslavia during the Second World War

In the first months of the occupation, tens of thousands of homes of Serbian residents were burned by Albanians, and the Serbs themselves were deported. During the war, about 100 thousand Serbs left Kosovo and fled to Serbia and Montenegro. About 10 thousand Serbs died at the hands of Albanians. The houses and estates of the refugees were occupied by Albanians who arrived from Albania in accordance with the plan of the Mussolini government. In total, from 80 to 100 thousand Albanians settled in Kosovo during the war. Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was led by the chauvinistic Great Albanian organization Bally Combetar ^[1] ^[2] .

After Italy surrendered and left the war in 1943, Kosovo was occupied by the Germans. In April 1944, the 21st Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) was formed from the Albanians. The Albanian SS men also carried out a policy of genocide against the Slavic population ^[3] . The idea of Greater Albania was also supported by the Albanian communists . In January 1944, in the Buyan resolution, the Communist Party of Albania adopted a decision providing for the post-war annexation of Kosovo and Metohija by Albania.

Albanian Nationalism at the End of the 20th - Beginning of the 21st Century

Kosovo Liberation Army

Chris Hedges, a long-time correspondent for the New York Times in the Balkans, conducted a thorough analysis of the internal composition and ideology of the Kosovo Liberation Army and conditionally distinguished three “factions” in it ^[4] :

Albanian mafia specializing in the sale of heroin along the route Afghanistan-Turkey-Kosovo-Bosnia-Western Europe.
Stalinists , whose roots are in small paramilitary groups of the Maoist sense. Their creation was inspired by the Albanian secret services during the life of Enver Hoxha . This "faction" has long served as a stumbling block between the Albanian anti-communist president Sali Berisha and the UChK militants. Relations between Berisha and the UChK normalized only after most of the Stalinists and supporters of the former member of the Union of Communists, Ibrahim Rugova, were killed by order of Hashim Thachi . Part of the killings was carried out by UCHK militants dressed in the form of Serbian police officers.
Neofascists . The "faction" is led by the children and grandchildren of those who, during World War II, were members of the fascist paramilitary groups Bally Kombetar and the 1st Albanian SS division Skanderbeg . This partly explains the decision of the leaders of the UChK to dress the militants in black uniform and throw forward a hand as a greeting. In the West, they were greatly confused by such paraphernalia reminiscent of fascist roots. Under pressure from the West, the leaders of the UChK changed the greeting: now it looks like what is accepted in the US Army - an open palm at the temple.

Conflict around Kosovo

Establishing control over Presevo

Establishing Control of Northwest Macedonia

Greek Minister's position

Greek Minister of Culture Andonis Samaras in an interview with a Greek television company said that "Skopje [that is, the Former Yugoslav Macedonia ] will soon fall apart and cease to exist as a single entity in international relations" ^[5] .

At the same time, Samaras believes that Greece does not need to fear the creation of Great Albania and Great Bulgaria . In fact, the Minister of Culture of Greece, believes that the presence of a country usurping the Greek name Macedonia poses a greater threat to Greece than the nascent "Great Albania" ^[6] .

Notes

↑ Nikolai Chuksin: World War II and Communist Yugoslavia (Neopr.) . army.lv (2008). Date of treatment March 16, 2009. Archived March 17, 2012.
↑ Andrey Shestakov: GENOCIDE OF THE SERBIAN POPULATION OF KOSOVO AND METHODOLOGY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR (neopr.) . ORTHODOX.RU (January 16, 2003). Date of treatment March 16, 2009. Archived March 17, 2012.
↑ War of the worlds. “Independence” of Kosovo in the mirror of shadow politics (neopr.) . V. Ovchinsky (2008). Date of treatment March 16, 2009. Archived February 12, 2012.
↑ Hashim Thachi went all-in // Echo of the planet. No. 28 (587) July 9-15, 1999.
↑ The Greek Minister predicted the collapse of Yugoslav Macedonia (Neopr.) . Russian newspaper (January 14, 2009). Date of treatment February 27, 2009.
↑ The United States and Albania are preparing the dismemberment of Macedonia (Neopr.) . New Region 2 (2009). Date of treatment February 27, 2009. Archived on August 7, 2012.