The creation of Great Albania
The beginning of the 20th century in the Balkans has been marked with wars, territorial struggle and changes of frontiers, as the great powers were using the Albanian movement for autonomy for their own needs. This was particularly done by the regimes of Italy and Austria-Hungarian Monarchy, and the latter one played the significant role in declaration of Albanian independence, on 28th of November 1912 in Valona. As early as 30th of May 1913, it receives it recognition in the conclusions of London Conference, the new country has been made. That is when the aspirations of a new state start taking its course.
In the Memorandum sent to London Conference participants, on 2nd of January 1913, Albanian prime minister Ismail Kemal warmed that the territory of a future state should correspond to maximized variant of Albanian movement territorial claims and it should incorporate Pec, Mitrovica (both in Kosovo province) as well as Skopje and Tetovo (today in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). The demands were not met, and the disgruntled Albanians responded with founding the Committee for defense of Kosovo and Northern Epyrus (Greece). They have begun the lobbying in United States and Europe focusing on their national goal – Albania to Albanians, and to this day they demand the alteration of the borderlines, creating myth of the oppressed Albanian nation..
In 1928, Albania has been declared a monarchy, and its king Ahmet Zogu the king of all Albanians, which meant the aspiration to rule over the Albanians outside borders of Albania. This has caused concern in Belgrade when the new kingdom asked the Yugoslav government to recognize it, on 1st of September 1928. That was a signal that the internal Albanian question is going to internationalize. The French government has agreed. Britain refused to interfere in Albania’s internal affairs, but brought it to the attention of the government of great powers.
The ardent aspirations of cunning Albanians to annex Kosovo and Metohia to the new state were used by great powers in World War I, World War II, as well as in the time of peace. The Albanians, also known as Arbanasi, Arnauti and Shiptars, were causing riots regularly, murdering Serbs and destroying their churches and monasteries. Historical sources state that as much as 150.000 Serbs have been exiled from Kosovo and Metohia from 1878 (foundation of Prizren League) till 1912.
The do not recognize Yugoslavia
Kosovan Albanians never accepted the Yugoslav name, nor Yugoslavia as their homeland. This was pointed out in a letter to Regional Committee of Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1941, by local secretary for Kosovska Mitrovica, who has stated that the flier calling upon ethnic Albanians to join the partisan movement must not include the word “Yugoslavia” as mentioning this name will drive away Albanians as a whole.
World War II brought to Albanians the protectorate called Great Albania. From 1941 to 1945, this protectorate included Metohia, which was under Italian and German occupation, greater part of Kosovo (with the northern part), eastern areas of Montenegro and western Macedonia. Great Albania was divided into 14 counties, called prefectures, and it was a scene of heinous crimes: 10.000 Serbs have been killed, and about 100.000 thousand have been expelled. At the same time, 150.000 Albanians settled in Kosovo and Metohia. After the liberation, in 1945, communist authorities prohibit the return of the expelled Serbs. In 1945/46, the Albanians were holding all colonist land. Reports from 1946 state that 5.744 families partially lost their land and 1.564 families lost all of their estates. About 2500 families never returned to Kosovo and Metohia..
The Albanians settler from Albania never applied for Yugoslav citizenship, however many of them held high positions in government, and have worked, publicly or secretly, to achieve the Prizren League objective – The creation of Great Albania..
Bujane Conference
The findings of Bujane conference, which took place in Albanian village of Bujane from 31st of September 1943 to 2nd of January 1944, have expressed the Albanian separatist agenda. They were 51 delegates taking part in the conference, out of whom there were only seven Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo and Metohia, and as much as ten Albanians from Albania. The conclusion of the conference was as follows: the participants feel “the duty to point out the right path” and “the correct path to enable the Albanians of Kosovo and Metohia to unite with Albania is the joint struggle with other peoples of Yugoslavia against the occupier and its quislings”. They have stated that Kosovo and Metohia is the region inhabited mostly with Albanian population, which is always aspiring to become part of Albania..
Communists and Albanian question
The idea of Albanian secession from Yugoslavia, and in turn, unification into one Albanian Soviet Republic, has been established during All-State Council of Communist Party of Yugoslavia, on 25th of November 1924. It has been decided, that Kosovo and Metohija be included into one territorial unit, which, along all other ethnic Albanian territories, would make one whole. Four years later, in a 4th Congress of Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Dresden, it was concluded that the peace treaties made after World War I, left one third of Albanian population under the rule of “Great Serbian bourgeoisie”.
Kacanik constitution
The demands of Kosovan Albanians for the republic were made in 1968, and again in 1981 and 1982. The demonstrations were massive and devastating, especially in Pristina, Vucitrn and Urosevac. Former Yugoslav republics were taking different position towards the issue. The situation in Kosovo and Metohia was deteriorating and the pressure on the remaining Serbs was growing, and the Belgrade government responded with wider-range supervision and the presence of police force. The Albanians responded with a general strike on the 3rd of September 1990, with leaving their jobs and on 7th of September 1990 in Kacanik they passed the constitution and proclamed the “Republic of Kosovo”.
