In this topical text Paulin Kola challenges the accepted notion that there is widespread support for a Greater Albania among the Albanian-speaking peoples of the Balkans, and argues that Albanians do not wish to join a single, politically-recognized entity. He explains how the Albanians are marked by ideological, religious and other divisions, many of which were exacerbated by their differing reactions to nationalism, as experienced in Tito's Yugoslavia and Hoxha's Albania.
When Kosovar Albanians came to Albania after the fall of Communism, they were surprised to find an impoverished motherland whose people were consumed with questions of basic survival. Albania's citizens, for their part, were dumbstruck by the relatively opulent lifestyles of the Kosovars. Yet despite their profound differences, the myth of a "Greater Albania" persists. In this timely book, Paulin Kola challenges this myth, arguing that there is not widespread support for a "Greater Albania" among the Albanian-speaking peoples. He shows that Albanians do not wish to join a single, politically recognized entity and demonstrates how the Albanians are marked by ideological, religious, and other divisions. While a "Greater Kosovo" remains a remote possibility, there is little chance of the Albanians of either Albania or the diaspora supporting moves to dissolve the present international borders in pursuit of an "Albanian homeland." Albanians appear content to retain their discrete political entities, while traveling and trading freely. Accessible and urgent, this book effectively puts to rest the cherished myths of Albanian nationalism.
In order to know what the Albanian National Question (ANQ) is, one should learn it not from what its neighbors, namely Serbia and Greece, have to say, but from a more direct and reliable source, the voice of the Albanians themselves. No nation is in a position in which it can express in a realistic way the needs, the rights and aspirations of a different nation in the same way as an individual cannot be an exact representative for someone but himself. For many years the Western countries used to rely on either Serbian or Greek lenses for the ANQ. In the late 1990s the U.S.-led intervention against Serbia over Kosova on humanitarian grounds and the Albanian insurgency in Macedonia has contributed to an altered power balance in the region. The neighbors frightened by the power shift in the Southern Balkans use their propaganda machinery to express the danger posed by the alleged Greater Albania scheme in order to demonize and morally downgrade the ANQ. However, one can easily see that Albanians since the creation of their state have not, are not, and will not pursue an irredentist agenda toward their neighbors.
When will Albania join the EU? Will accession help Albania to achieve prosperity, stability and prosperity? And, what factors are helping it towards this end and what factors are holding it back? An original study of Albania and its relations with the EU, this is the first book to identify and analyse the problems of the country as it moves towards membership of the Union. It explores the political, economic and social transformations needed to make Albanian membership possible. The authors highlight the enormous democratic changes that have occurred in post-communist Albania, as well as the many obstacles that still remain. This balanced and objective assessment will be an essential resource for everyone interested in the history and future of the Balkans and the EU.
The book deals with the political strategies, ideology and propaganda of Serbia & Montenegro in regard to the "Albanian Question" from 1878 to 1912 covering and the issue of the Albanian nationalistic projects in order to create a Greater Albania. The research is focused on two main fields: geopolitical (the territorial aspirations of Serbia, Montenegro and the Albanians) and ideological (confrontation of two ideologies: the historical legitimacy of the Serbs against the claims based on the ethnic rights of the Albanians). The policies of the Great European Powers on the question of re-mapping the Balkan Peninsula from the time of the Great Eastern Crisis of 1875-1878 to the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 are investigated as a framework of the solving the "Albanian Question" at the turn of the 20th century. The Albanians stood at the crossroads of different spheres of territorial, economic and political interests having their own vision of creation of a Greater Albania at the Balkans as united national state for all ethnic Albanians and at such a way coming to direct confrontation with all their neighbors.
WITH A NEW POSTSCRIPT Situated between Greece on the south, the former Yugoslavia on the north and east, and the Adriatic Sea on the west, Albania is the country the world forgot. Throughout this century, Albania has been perceived as primitive and isolationist by its neighbors to the west. When the country ended fifty years of communist rule in 1992, few outsiders took interest. Deemed unworthy of membership in the European Union and overlooked by multinational corporations, Albania stands today as one of the poorest and most ignored countries in Europe. Miranda Vickers and James Pettifer take us behind the veil of former President Enver Hoxha's isolationist policies to examine the historic events leading up to Albania's transition to a parliamentary government. Beginning with Hoxha's death in 1985, Albania traces the last decade of Albania's shaky existence, from the anarchy and chaos of the early nineties to the victory of the Democratic Alliance in 1992 and the programs of the current government. The authors provide us with an analysis of how the moral, religious, economic, political and cultural identity of the Albanian people is being redefined, and leave no question that the future of Albania is inextricably linked to the future of the Balkans as a whole. In short, they tell us why Albania matters.
