Greater Albania
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The term Greater Albania or Great Albania refers to land which does not belong to Albania but which Albanian nationalists claim as their own. 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.
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[edit] 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 city located in Kosovo. The goal of the League was cultural and political autonomy for Albanians, inside the framework of the Ottoman Empire. However, the Ottomans were not prepared to grant Albanians' demands. Ottoman opposition to the League's cultural goals eventually helped transform it into an Albanian national movement.
[edit] World War II
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.
[edit] Current status
The current status talks on the future of Kosovo - and its imminent 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.
[edit] Territories claimed
- In Greece, southern Epirus. 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 25.000 people before the war. In the 1951 census there were only 123 Çams left in Greece. 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.
- Western part of the Republic of Macedonia.
- Kosovo in Southern Serbia.
- The Preševo Valley (Albanian: Lugina e Preshevës or Kosova Lindore) in Southern Serbia: the municipalities of Preševo and Bujanovac, and part of the municipality of Medveđa.
- Southern and eastern Montenegro with Ulcinj municipality on the coast, Tuzi area near Podgorica, and parts of the Plav and Rožaje municipalities.
[edit] 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.
- "We spent the 1990's 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 Hill, Ambassador to F.Y.R.O.M, 1999) [1]
[edit] See also
- Chauvinism
- Extremism
- History of Albania
- History of the Balkans
- Irredentism
- United Macedonia
- United Armenia
[edit] External links
- Albanian history by Robert Elsie
- Albanian Canadian League Information Service (ACLIS)
- Perspective: Albania and Kosova by Van Christo
- High Albania by M. Edith Durham
- Albanian Identities by Antonina Zhelyazkova
- The Kosovo Chronicles by Dusan Batakovic
- Albania: Great and Greater by Gary Brecher
- Albania and Kosovo | What happened to Greater Albania?, The Economist, 18 January 2007
[edit] References
- 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
