I was spellbound by a Feb 15, 2008 American Enterprise Institute panel on Kosovo. To see two heavy weights of America’s best funded think-tank duke it out in the presence of ambassadorial luminaries and serbian journalists was truly thrilling.
The Serbian ambassador in the audience ended up crowning John Bolton as Serbia’s de facto ambassador to the US for presenting Serbia’s case so well. The Washington DC chieftain of the Serbian Unity Congress managed to throw everyone off by asking “What could prevent EU/NATO from arresting Serbia’s government should it decide(as he had suggested) to move the entire government to Kosovo (including the Patriarch).” This was only the tip of the iceberg. This fella suggested that Serbia’s ally Russia could shut down the entire UN by vetoing all and any UNSC resolutions presented until ‘international law’ is restored.
John Bolton’s argument, however, was not necessarily the Serbian argument. In principle he has no problem with an independent Kosovo. He has a problem with an independent Kosovo now. He loathes the wording of UNSC resolution 1244 which essentially starts a process that could never finish legally. In discussing why the Bush administration decided to continue Clinton’s policy on Kosovo Bolton, no fan of the US State Department, says that the State Department runs on ‘autopilot’. What was more salient to me was that Bolton was prescient when he predicts that there will be blood in the short run, and that in the long run Kosovo will have no choice but to vote to join Albania.
It is my thesis and hope that this cannot happen until the present version of the Republic of Albania is abolished. Albania as a state does not serve its purpose. Its population is apathetic, its leadership is corrupt, its economy is suspect, and its social fabric is unraveling at the seams. Serbia might say that Kosovo will become a cancer at the heart of Europe, but it is Albania that has become cancerous. This cancer can only be cured through bombarding it with the radio-active rays of 19th century nationalism. Let me explain.
The state as an entity is created by the will of a people bound together by a communion of interests. In the 19th century the Albanians, through the help of their visionary diaspora, managed to upgrade their status from ‘geographic expression’ to a ‘geographic reality’. The Red Book, published by the League of Prizren in aftermath of the Russo-Turkish war, laid down the foundation for the personification of the will of the people. It asked for the formation of an autonomous entity carved out of four Ottoman vilayets, loyal to Instabul but ultimately self-governing. This goal was achieved in the early part of 1912, when Instanbul recognized an Albania comprised of all four vilayets.
However, the creature died at inception when Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria attacked it in what historians call the First Balkan War. Serbia’s argument for its sovereignty over Kosovo is that it got it by ‘liberating’ it from the Ottoman Empire. In the light of the recognition of the Four Vilayet Albania by Instanbul, Serbia did not attack the Ottomans. Serbia attacked Albania.
The Albania we’ve inherited is merely the vilayet of Shkodra. As such the cost of its creation has been largely borne the Albanians of the vilayets of Kosovo, Manastir, and Yanya. Therefore, Kosovo is the country that deserves the name, flag and sovereignty of Albania. In many ways Tirana’s behavior was been treasonous against the Red Book. It has buried it deep. Anyone that dares talk about it dies as is the case for the Albanian Academy of Sciences or Remzi Hoxha. Anyone that might protect it is emasculated as in the case of the total destruction of the Army, a processed sealed by Gerdec.
Serbia has known Tirana’s inclination against the Red Book and has outed Tirana publicly on this matter. Vasa Cubrilovic was unequivocal on this. “Give Tirana some money and they’ll do our job for us” he says.
As a member of a military family and someone who is embarrased by his country’s failure to stand for itself and for me, I would call all Albanian passport holders to support the following course of action:
1. Exert pressure on Tirana to grant the right of vote to the Diaspora
2. Exert pressure on Tirana to surrender its sovereignty to Kosovo thereby becoming a supervised independent country itself until such time when people of courage and vision like Terenzio Tocci can arise to take leadership.
do you really mean the 2nd point? if this is not black humour, I sincerely think you need some rest.
Mr. Arnaut, I’ve enjoyed the site you have here but this entry is an unfortunate example of Albanian division. This division is precisely the reason that Albanians have been taken advantage of by other Powers. What, exactly, do we gain by making attacks on each other? Many of the attacks are of a kind that I come across often; namely, anger towards Albania for not being the universal protector of all Albanians in all places. Now, you know as well as I do that Albania and the Albanian people have never been powerful enough to really “protect” anything. The only thing that Albanians can do and have done is to rely on “friends” such as the United States, Austri-Hungary, ect. to help them out.
Stop fantasizing about what Albanians “should have done” in an ideal world and be happy that there is an Albanian state as well as another one just recognized. Considering the dangerous neighborhood that we live in, we should be grateful for that.
Oh, and Bolton is a nitwit who has no business commenting on anything. He is a neoconservative who was wrong on North Korea and wrong on Iraq. He kept on stating the supposed inconsistencies concerning NATO and UN actions in Kosova without giving an example of what he would have done differently. The other speaker there(forgot his name) was infinitely more knowlegable and sensible.
Thanks for reading,
Agron
With all due respect but you’ve got nothing of the above. Neither of them are proper states. Merely fiefdoms run as fiefs.
Cubrilovic’s quote, unfortunately, sums it all up.
Bejko,
I really like your theories. I think we need more of this revolutionary, scandalistic, out of the box thinking.
Never heard of this “Toci” dude, so I made an effort to read his biography regardless of my rusty “taljano”.
Nothing really noteworthy up to this paragraph:
“Allontanatosi dalla vita politica, nel 1940 Terenc Toçi osteggia la guerra d’aggressione fascista alla Grecia e, per limitare i danni del regime accetta la nomina a Presidente del Consiglio Superiore Fascista Corporativo da cui si dimette due anni dopo vedendo vanificati i suoi nobili propositi.”
Nice spin “per limitare i danni”. He was in power from 40-42 when he saw that Italy went belly up. That in itself shows that he wasn’t working for Albania, but for Toci.
Meh, personally I would like to see Haxhi Qamili reincarnated. “dum baben”.
My good man, Terenzio Tocci was an Italian-Albanian who in 1909 managed to rise an army of 10,000 of his countrymen under the leadership of Garibaldi’s son to fight for Albania as De Rada envisioned it.
This man, even though he may have become the leader of Albania’s Fascist Party, must be an example not a pariah.
As for Haji Qamil…a plague on all his houses!
“revolutionary, scandalistic, out of the box thinking”
K, ..this should be the tagline of this blog. ..fits perfect!!