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Greater Albania

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The term Greater Albania or Great Albania refers to land which is outside the borders of Albania and Albanian nationalists claim as their own. All the places claimed, except Epirus (Chameria), have Albanian majority. Its equivalent in Albanian - Shqipëria e Madhe - is rarely used, usually in translations. The term notes a desire for territorial expansion. Albanians themselves use the term ethnic Albania because the term Greater Albania has negative connotations.

Albanians under Ottoman Turkey

Prior to the Balkan wars of the beginning of the 20th century, Albanians were subjects of the Ottoman Empire.

The Albanian independence movement emerged in 1878 with the League of Prizren (a council based in Kosovo) whose goal was cultural and political autonomy for ethnic Albanians inside the framework of the Ottoman Empire. However, the Ottomans were not prepared to grant The League's demands. Ottoman opposition to the League's cultural goals eventually helped transform it into an Albanian national movement.

Ethnic Albania

Ethnic Albania is a term used primarily by Albanian nationalists to denote the territories claimed as the traditional homeland of the ethnic Albanians. These territories include Albania, Kosovo, and parts of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (which some ethnic Albanian nationalists refer to as Ilirida) and Montenegro (Malësia, Ulcinj, etc.). Parts of the Epirus region of Greece referred to by Albanians as Çamëria are also sometimes included in this definition, despite the Greek ethnicity of the region's population and despite Greece's non-recognition of any native ethnic Albanian minority.

World War II

File:Greater albania.JPG
Italian Protectorate of Albania as created by Italy August 1941

During World War II, with the fall of Yugoslavia in 1941, Italians placed the land inhabited by ethnic Albanians under the jurisdiction of an Albanian quisling government.

Current status

The current status talks on the future of Kosovo - and its possible independence - could be interpreted as a degree of success in the creation of a Greater Albania, although the United Nations (UN) has stated that if as a result Kosovo becomes independent annexation to another state would not be possible. In a survey carried out by United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and published in March 2007 only 2,5 % of the Albanians in Kosovo thinks unification with Albania is the best solution for Kosovo. 96% say they wants Kosovo to become independent within present borders[1].

Territories claimed

During WW2 the Çams cooperated with the Italian occupation forces until 1943. After the capitulation of Italy in 1943 the Çams joined forces with the German occupation army, forming a special Çam Unit. Only few of the Çams (300-500) joined EAM [(Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo)-(National Liberation Front)]. EAM had about 2.500.000 members in 1944. After the war many of the Albanians in Epirus were forced to leave Greece by EDES (right winged partizans)in 1944. Their number was estimated up to 350.000 people before the war [citation needed]. They call themselves Çam or Cham after the Albanian word for Epirus: Çamëria. Many of them are currently trying to pursue legal ways to claim compensation for the properties seized by Greece. Nowadays only immigrant Albanians live in the area as a result of the fall of the Communist regime in Albania in the late 1980s.

Political uses of the concept

The degree to which different groups are working towards, and what efforts such groups are undertaking in order to achieve a Greater Albania is disputed. Non-Albanian politicians and ethnic leaders have often used the idea to generate ethnic hatred and fear of Albanian political activities, and to justify policies that undermine political and human rights of Albanian minorities, for example in the Republic of Macedonia, and Serbia, in earlier years.

  • "We spent the 1990s worrying about a Greater Serbia. That's finished. We are going to spend time well into the next century worrying about a Greater Albania." (Christopher R. Hill, US Ambassador to F.Y.R.O.M, 1999) [1]

International Crisis Group Research

International Crisis Group researched the issue of Pan-Albanianism and published a report titled "Pan-Albanianism: How Big a Threat to Balkan Stability?" on February 2004[2]. Their report concludes that the "notions of pan-Albanianism are far more layered and complex than the usual broad brush characterisations of ethnic Albanians simply bent on achieving a greater Albania or a greater Kosovo." Furthermore, the report states that amongst Albanians "violence in the cause of a greater Albania, or of any shift of borders, is neither politically popular nor morally justified." International Crisis Group advises the Albanian and Greek governments to endeavour and settle the long-standing issue of the Chams displaced from Greece in 1945, before it gets hijacked and exploited by extreme nationalists, and the Chams' legitimate grievances get lost in the struggle to further other national causes. Moreover, the ICG findings suggest that Albania is more interested in developing cultural and economic ties with Kosovo, whilst maintaining separate statehood.

See also

References

  1. ^ UNDP: Early Warning Report page 16, March 2007 http://www.kosovo.undp.org/repository/docs/EWR15FinalENG.pdf
  2. ^ Pan-Albanianism: How Big a Threat to Balkan Stability?, Europe Report N°153, 25 February 2004
  • Velika Albanija: "Greater Albania" : concepts and possibile [sic] consequences; ed Jovan M. Canak, Belgrade: Institute of Geopolitical Studies, 1998
  • Archivo storico, Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Italy)
  • Sottosegretario di Stato per gli Affari Albanesi (State Undersecretary for Albanian Affairs) of Italy (1939-1943)
  • Jaksic G., Vuckovic V.: Spoljna politika srbije za vlade, Kneza Mihaila, Belgrade, 1963
  • Dimitrios Triantaphyllou: The Albanian Factor, ELIAMEP, Athens, 2000
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