Introduction To The Albanian

 

Introduction To The Albanian People

by Hon. Joseph J. DioGuardi

July 4, 1992

The Albanian Diaspora

 

There are more people of Albanian descent outside the country of Albania than in it. Large Albanian communities exist in Greece, Italy, Turkey, the United States and the area formerly Yugoslavia. Smaller groups are citizens of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Many live and work in Germany, Switzerland and the Middle East, where there are shortages of laborers.

Better jobs, more freedom and improved lives for their children caused Albanian immigrants to start communities in foreign lands. Most now are comfortable — but not everyone is happy. Those who have failed to have secure environments include the 1.9 million indigenous Albanian people of Kosova, a self proclaimed Republic ruled by Serbia which some have referred to as an apartheid in the middle of Europe.

Kosova: The Poorhouse of the Balkans

Kosova abuts northern Albania. Some 90 percent of its citizens are ethnic Albanians. Historians believe Albanians were the earliest residents of Kosova. Nevertheless, Kosova is ruled by the state of Serbia. Serbs control the government because they are former Yugoslavia’s largest single group of people and brutal force is usual to maintain control.

Kosova has a special place in the heart of the Serbian people.It was near Kosova’s capital of Pristina that a huge army of Christian Serbians (and Christian Albanians) was defeated in 1389 A.D. by an even greater number of Islamic Turks. The “Battle of Blackbird Field” marked the end of Serbia’s empire and the beginning of 500 years of Turkish rule. Serbians revere the site and feel Albanians, especially those who are now Muslims (havØing been converted by the Ottoman Turks), have no place there.

There are many reasons why Serbs don’t see eye-to-eye with Kosova’s Albanian majority. Many Kosova Albanians follow Islam, while the Serbs are Orthodox Christians. The Serbs are Slavic — of different origin than most Albanians. The high Albanian birthrate makes Kosova’s Serbs feel surrounded. Unemployment plagues all Kosova residents. Albanians prefer democracy and view Serbs as enforcers of their Communist government at a time when Communism is coming apart everywhere in Europe. They also feel that the Serbs have kept mineral-rich Kosova economically poor and backward on purpose. Even worse accusations, involving everything from violations of basic human rights to murdering women and children, fly between the two groups.

Human Rights Violations

In 1989, about 1,700 Albanians were imprisoned for up to 60 days following nonviolent protests against the government. In 1990, at least 27 Albanians were killed and more than 1,000 arrested during demonstrations against politically manipulated changes in Yugoslavia’s constitution. Such abuses have been going on for some time, (As many as 100 Kosova Albanians died in 1981 street demonstrations and earlier, during World War II,Serbians may have massacred 400 Albanians civilians after an Albanian soldier shot four Serbs in an army barracks.) These days Albanians are arrested and held without being told of the charges against them. They can be sentenced to years in prison for such vague crimes as “inciting national hatred” or hostile propaganda.”

Albanians say they are forced by Serbian police to make confessions, that prisons are ifithy and have inedible food and that many prisoners suffer beatings or torture or are held in isolation. Other Balkan people, such as the Croatians, side with the Albanians. Croatian newspapers have reported that the vast majority who are imprisoned and tortured or otherwise mistreated in Kosova are Albanians arrested by Serbian police, usually for no good reason.

Republic Status For Kosova

Do Kosova’s Albanians want Kosova to rejoin Albania or to be independent? Democratic leaders of the growing protest movement say they want Kosova to be recognized as an independent Republic or State rather than a province of Serbia. This would put them on equal footing with former Yugoslavia’s other states (formerly called republics). Such statehood would mean self rule, an idea the Serbs dislike. Serbians falsely claim that their civilization started in ancient Kosova and many do not want to give up the very poor but mineral-rich area, even though it once was part of Albania (originally fflyria which historically is the ancient Albanian homeland.) Albanians want their children taught in their own language. Misunderstandings, unrest and violence continue in this troubled area. “Serbs blame us for everything, including the failure of Communism,” is an often repeated complaint of Albanians living in Kosova.

The Albanians of Italy

Perhaps the most unusual — and most contented — group of Albanian-speaking people lives across the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy and Western Sicily. Together, they are known as the Arberesh and they arrived in Italy more than 500 years ago. The very first Albanians landed in Italy in 1448 A.D. as mercenary soldiers led by the great Albanian general George Kastrioti (“Skenderbeg”) to defend the kingdom of Naples against attack from the Prince of Aragon (in France). Later arrivals, in 1459, also came to put down a revolt. In return for their work, they were given land near Taranto, some 250 miles south of Rome. Beginning in 1488, thousands of civilians were rescued by sailors from Venice. They were plucked from the shores of Albania, with well-armed Turks in hot pursuit. All left Albania to preserve their religion, Orthodox Christianity, which was being erased by the invading Islamic soldiers. Today, in Italy, many still speak an older form of Albanian not always easily understood by modem resident of Albania. The settlers clung to rocky rural Mediterranean areas of Italy and Sicily that reminded them of their native land.