Albanian ultra-nationalists recently created a new Facebook page that is totally dedicated to slamming and insulting Greece and its people. Its name "Fuck Greece" show the Greek and Serbian flags burning, and calls out to facebookers who hate Greece to actually state their two cents and press like! Obviously the page is the "brainstorm" of several buffoons who want to stir commotion in Greek-Albanian relations, which at best are complicated and fragile.
From what it looks like, the page will not exist for long, but it is a small example of what to look for as some fascist groups in this country begin mapping out their strategy in what they hope will one day make way for a "Great Albania". One of these groups as we all know are the Chams.
Following the Italian occupation of Albania in 1939, the Chams became a prominent propaganda tool for the Italians and irredentist elements among them became more vocal. As a result, on the eve of the Greco-Italian War, the adult male Cham population was deported by the Greek authorities to internment camps. After the occupation of Greece, large parts of the Muslim Cham population collaborated with Italian and German forces.
This fueled resentment among the local Greek population and in the aftermath of World War II the entire Muslim Cham population had to flee to Albania. Most Chams settled in Albania, while others formed émigré communities in Turkey and the United States, and today their descendants continue to live in these countries.
Since the fall of Communism in Albania, Chams have campaigned for right of return to Greece and restoration of confiscated properties.
Since we are on the subject of Great Albanian and instability in the Balkans, it would be nice to note that Winston Churchill, one of the most important political figures of the twentieth century once said that the Balkans produce more history than they can consume. Indeed, with the conflicts hitting the region throughout the 1990s, his statement was proven much too often true.
Folks, believe it or not there are some policy makers in Albania, Europe and in the US that actually support the idea of a "natural", or "greater" Albania of one state for all ethnic Albanians in the Balkans, which would include parts of the territories of FYROM, Montenegro, Greece, and Serbia.
The unification of an even larger area into a unique territory under Albanian authority had been theoretically conceived by the League of Prizren, an organization of the 19th century whose goal was to unify the Albanian inhabited lands (and other regions) into a single autonomous Albanian Vilayet within the Ottoman Empire.However, the concept of a Greater Albania, as in greater than Albania within its 1913 borders, was only ever implemented de facto and de jure under the Italian and Nazi German occupation of the Balkans during World War II.
Albanian nationalists generally dislike the term “Greater Albania”, preferring to talk about “ethnic Albania”. Few Albanians, however, are interested in fashioning a new state out of this land. For most, joining the European Union is a far more pressing concern.
And now for some history. One of the greatest lines ever repeated in the former Yugoslavia was that the "Yugoslav crisis began in Kosovo, and it will end in Kosovo.”
Indeed, all the parties to the Balkan conflicts seemed to agree on this even before war broke out in Kosovo. In fact, many Serbs claim that Kosovo is not the end of the Greater Serbia dream but instead the beginning of another nuisance: a Greater Albania. According to them, creating a greater Albanian state. is only one of many “great ideas” that have existed in the Balkans. But of all these great plans, a Greater Albania is the only one that is still mentioned.
Does this Albanian scheme for unification have any credibility or is it a mere Serbian propaganda fabrication, or perhaps a misguided assumption? No one knows as of yet, but one thing is certain it will definitely cause even more instability in the region whichever way.
History might repeat itself if a genuine wish for a Greater Albania among the Albanians, and a will to act on that wish, exists. The still fragile Balkan region may regress into instability and uproar if the Albanians move to dissolve the present borders in the region in pursuit of an Albanian union.
A Greater Albania would not only be a threat to Greece and to Serbia, and to the other neighbors who would lose territory, but it would be an even greater threat to the whole EU, which would most definitely not benefit from another Balkan war. Even if the notion has no real merit, the existence of these rumors indicates that the former enemies (Serbs and Albanians) are still ruled by history.
If the theory is mere fabrication from the Serbian side, this indicates that they continue to use history for their nationalistic agenda. If they on the other hand really believe in the idea of an Albanian threat and fear that nationalism continues to dominate politics in the region, the fear will hinder them from moving on and letting the past be the past. Either way, if the allegations and fears of an Albanian unification continue to persist, it might potentially destabilize the entire region.
References
Vaxjo University Thesis (Spring 2009)
Sells 1998: 56
Balkan media and policy monitor 1998
The Serbian shorthand for Kosovo – Deretic 2004
Petrovic 1999
Apostolovski 1999
Trbovich 2008: 234-236
Los Angeles Times 2002
Savich 2008
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