Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

Guest wrote: > John, there are some mistakes in this article. Since you use
> Serbian sources, you might have been misinformed.

> Greater Albania simply reflects the population of Albanians and
> lost territory. There are around 16 million ethnic Albanians, but
> only around two million live in Albania. The Albanians are more
> like the Poles, having been deprived of their own nation state for
> hundreds of years, and having to fight long wars of independence
> and against the Ottoman Turks, Greeks, Serbs, Montenegrins,
> Italians, and even the Austrians and Germans.

> Most Albanian territory is now located in other countries. Albania
> itself is a natural fortress of mountains. The Albanian Communist
> riddled the country with 850,000 contrete and steel bunkers and
> thousands of kilometers of bomb proof tunnels and nuclear bomb
> shelters.

> Tito did not take over in 1953. Tito, a Croatian, fought the Nazis
> and Serbian Cetniks in the 1940s and emerged as the ruler of
> Yuugoslavia in 1945. The egregious behavior of Russian soldiers
> during and after the war lead to a break with Russia in 1948.

> Albania violently broke with the Warsaw Pact in the early 1960s
> and realigned with China.

> The Albanians have been victims of ethnic cleansing and horrific
> brutality.

> The idea of 'Greater Albania' is just that, an idea. Albanians
> will never unite because the elites in each country don't want to
> share power. The average Albanian, if treated fairly, is
> content to live in whatever country they find
> themselves. (Albanians in Slovenia, Croatia, and Muslim Bosnia,
> and Southern Italy (where they have lived for since the 1500s) are
> well integrated into those societies.) Several leading
> businessmen, politicians, and even war heroes live in those
> countries. Very few Albanians really want a super state.

> The Serbs, who have used mass rape and genocide, have actively
> been trying to create a 'Greater Serbia" for hundreds of years,
> love to accuse everyone else of doing exactly what they have been
> trying to do. The Serbs are the threat to Balkan peace, not
> the Albanians.

guest wrote: > It was ethnic Macedonian nationalists who stormed parliament, not
> Albanians.

guest wrote: > You have really botched this story.

> Today had NOTHING to do with "Greater Albania". This was about
> Macedonian trouble makers attacking moderate Macedonians and
> Albanians. Macedonia's current problems are political, not
> ethnic. The former government was involved in all kinds of
> criminal activities and plays the hate card whenever they could
> (or can, in this case). It's not the Albanians stirring up
> trouble, it's the former administration. You know nothing about
> the Balkans.

guest wrote: > I think you're missing a major point: it's not the Albanians
> causing trouble. The Serbs, backed by the Russians, are the
> dangerous ones.

John wrote:

guest wrote: > I think you're missing a major point: it's not the Albanians
> causing trouble. The Serbs, backed by the Russians, are the
> dangerous ones.

So Thursday night's protests were about the Serbs?

guest wrote: > Yes. That's what I'm saying. The Serbs and Russians are stirring
> up trouble. This is about many things: Kosova, Bosnia, and
> Montenegro. It's about 'Greater Serbia". The Serbs want to restart
> the war and then use it as an excuse to unite breakaway areas of
> Bosnia and Kosova with Serbia. Montenegro is to be forced out of
> NATO, perhaps destroying NATO in the process. The former would
> benefit Serbia, the latter, Russia.

> The antipathy between Macedonians and Albanians is not nearly what
> some would have you believe.

> The Serbs have lost relevance and are still largely pariahs in
> Europe. The Serbs can't stand being irrelevant. The Serbs feel
> like Serbia should be the center of the universe. They still think
> of themselves as being 'a bridge between East and West'. The Serbs
> want to be important. That Serbia has been largely forgotten,
> except as an infamous footnote in history, drives the Serbs
> mad. Russia, like Serbia, wants to be relevant. It really boils
> down to that.

> Why is there tension between Serbia and Albania?

> last updated: 15/10/2014
> Chris Harris

> A Euro2016 qualifier between Serbia and Albania was called off on
> October 14, 2014, after fights among players and supporters,
> sparked by a drone with a pro-Kosovo flag landing on the
> pitch. Here euronews examines why both countries are at
> loggerheads.

> The tension centres around the history of Kosovo, a disputed area
> between Serbia and Albania. The majority of its inhabitants are
> ethnic Albanians.

> Kosovo had enjoyed a high degree of autonomy within Serbia. But
> that changed in 1989 when the then province’s status was
> rescinded, bringing it under the direct control of Belgrade, the
> capital of Serbia.

> It came as communism was collapsing in Europe. That saw increased
> nationalism in Yugoslavia, which was made up of Slovenia, Croatia,
> Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia.

> Slovenia, Croatia and the Muslim government of Bosnia-Herzegovina
> declared independence from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

>
> Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina opposed this and began attacking the
> country’s Muslims, forming the basis of the Balkans War.

> Then, in 1998, Slobodan Milosevic launched a Serb attack against
> ethnic Albanians, who were fighting for independence in Kosovo.

> The conflict saw at least 5,000 Kosovans executed, according to
> NATO. One-and-a-half million people, 90% of Kosovo’s population,
> had been expelled from their homes.

> NATO intervened and in June 1999 Serbian troops withdrew from
> Kosovo.

> After the war Kosovo was placed under transitional UN
> administration, while the region’s future status was hammered out.

> Talks broke down in 2007. Then, the following year, Kosovo
> declared independence from Serbia.

> The government of Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s independence.
> However talks took place in 2013 which saw a thawing of relations.

> Serbia now recognises the government in Pristina – the captial of
> Kosovo – exercises administrative authority over Kosovo.

> COMPETING CLAIMS FOR KOSOVO

> Serbs settled in the Balkans in the 7th century and ruled Kosovo
> for more than two centuries until, in 1389, following the Battle
> of Kosovo, control passed to the Ottoman Empire.

> Kosovo remained part of Ottoman territory until the Balkan Wars of
> 1912, when it was re-conquered by Serbia.

> It is perhaps Serbia’s medieval period of control of Kosovo which
> lies behind nationalists’ claims to the province – some consider
> it the cradle of the culture and state of the Serbian people.

> But Albanian claims to the territory pre-date the arrival of the
> Serbs. Nationalists argue Albanians are descendants of an ancient
> tribe who allegedly inhabited the western Balkans before the 7th
> century.

> http://www.euronews.com/2014/10/15/why- ... nd-albania