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Greater Albania is an irredentist concept of lands that are considered to form the national homeland by many Albanians, based on claims on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in those areas. In addition to the existing Republic of Albania, the term incorporates claims to regions in the neighbouring states, the areas include Kosovo, Presheva of Serbia, Malesia in southern Montenegro, the Republic of Ilirida of the Republic of Macedonia, Çamëria in northwestern Greece (the Greek regional units of Janina, Thesprotia and Preveza, and other territories that were part of the Albanian Villayet during the Ottoman Empire).

The unification of an even larger area into a unique territory under Albanian authority had been theoretically conceived by the League of Prizren, an organization of the 19th century led by Abdyl Frashëri, whose goal was to unify the Albanian inhabited lands into a single autonomous Albanian Vilayet within the Ottoman Empire. However, the concept of a Greater Albania, as in greater than Albania within its 1913 borders, was implemented only under the Italian and Nazi German occupation of the Balkans during World War II by the Balli Kombëtar led by Midhat Frashëri.

The idea of unification, has roots in the events of the Treaty of London in 1913, when roughly half of the predominantly Albanian territories and 40% of the population were left outside the new country's borders, something that Albanians have tended to regard as an injustice imposed by the Great Powers.

According to the Gallup Balkan Monitor 2010 report, the idea of a Greater Albania is supported by the majority of Albanians in Albania (63%), Kosovo (81%) and the Republic of Macedonia (53%).

Terminology

Greater Albania is a term used mainly by the Western scholars, politicians, etc. Ethnic Albania (Template:Lang-sq) is a term used primarily by Albanian nationalists to denote the territories claimed as the traditional homeland of the ethnic Albanians. Another term used by Albanians, is "Albanian national reunification" (Template:Lang-sq).

History

Under the Ottoman Empire

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.

World War II

Albania in World War II

The Albanian Fascist Party became the ruling party of the Italian Protectorate of Albania in 1939 and the prime minister Shefqet Verlaci approved the possible administrative union of Albania and Italy, because he wanted the Italian support in order to get the union of Kosovo, Chameria and other "Albanian irredentism" into Greater Albania. Indeed, this unification was realized after the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece from spring 1941. The Albanian's dream came true in May 1941, when nearly all the Albanian populated territories were united to Albania.

Between May 1941 and September 1943, Benito Mussolini placed nearly all the land inhabited by ethnic Albanians under the jurisdiction of an Albanian quisling government. That included the region of Kosovo, parts of the Republic of Macedonia and some small border areas of Montenegro. In Chameria an Albanian high commissioner, Xhemil Dino, was appointed by the Italians; but the area remained under the control of the Italian military command in Athens and so technically remained a region of Greece.

When the Germans occupied the area and substituted the Italians, they maintained the borders created by Mussolini, but after World War II the Albanian borders were returned by the Allies to the pre-war status.

Yugoslav Wars

The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was an ethnic-Albanian paramilitary organisation which sought the separation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia during the 1990s and the eventual reunification of it with Albania, encompassing the territory of Kosovo, Albania and north-west of Republic of Macedonia, which had a significant ethnic Albanian majority. The KLA found great moral and financial support among the Albanian diaspora.

KLA Commander Sylejman Selimi insisted:

There is de facto Albanian nation. The tragedy is that European powers after World War I decided to divide that nation between several Balkan states. We are now fighting to unify the nation, to liberate all Albanians, including those in Macedonia, Montenegro, and other parts of Serbia. We are not just a liberation army for Kosovo.

By 1998 the KLA’s operations had evolved into a significant armed insurrection. Reports from UNHCR claimed that over 230,000 people, mostly of whom were Kosovar Albanians, had been displaced from their homes by the excessive and indiscriminate use of force by Serbian Security Forces and the Yugoslav Army.

Its campaign against Yugoslav security forces, police, government officers precipitated a major Yugoslav military crackdown which led to the Kosovo War of 1998–1999. Military intervention by Yugoslav security forces led by Slobodan Milošević and Serb paramilitaries within Kosovo prompted an exodus of Kosovar Albanians and a refugee crisis that eventually caused NATO to intervene militarily in order to stop what was widely identified as an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The war ended with the Kumanovo Treaty, with Yugoslav forces agreeing to withdraw from Kosovo to make way for an international presence. The Kosovo Liberation Army disbanded soon after this, with some of its members going on to fight for the UÇPMB in the Preševo Valley and others joining the National Liberation Army (NLA) and Albanian National Army (ANA) during the armed ethnic conflict in Macedonia.

Political uses of the concept

The Albanian question in the Balkan peninsula is in part the consequence of the decisions made by Western powers in late 19th and early 20th century. The Treaty of San Stefano and the 1878 Treaty of Berlin assigned Albanian inhabited territories to other States, hence the reaction of the League of Prizren. At The London Conference of 1912–13 when the six Great Powers met to decide Albania's fate, Austria-Hungary and Italy lobbied to retain as much of Albania's land and attempted to stop the other powers giving away Albania's land to Montenegro, Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, and Greece. This achieved some success as instead of all Albania's land being given to it's neighbors, it retained some and was declared a independent country, as a result of this pressure from Austria-Hungary and Italy lobbying on Albania's behalf. However over half of Albania land was still given away: Malësia to Montenegro, Kosovo to Serbia, the Republic of Ilirida to the Republic of Macedonia and Çamëria to Greece. Albanians feel this should be acknowledged as a mistake by those responsible and corrected peacefully to avoid further conflict in these areas such as the Kosovo War in 1999 in which ethnic cleansing occured by Serbia against Albanians and also the 2001 conflict in Macedonia involving the National Liberation Army (Albanians of Macedonia). 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. Vetëvendosje, in Kosovo, have a clear plan to unify Albania and Kosovo, while Aleanca Kuq e Zi are working towards uniting all Albanian land in one Albanian State.

In 2004, the Vetëvendosje movement was formed in Kosovo, which opposes foreign involvement in Kosovo's affairs and campaigns instead for the sovereignty the people, as part of the right of self-determination. Vetëvendosje obtained 12.66% of the votes in an election in December 2010, and the party manifesto calls for a referendum on union with Albania. Vetëvendosje are now currently, in 2016, the main opposition party in Kosovo with overwhelming support of the population. Vetëvendosje have 240,000 likes on Facebook compared to only the 20,000 likes of Democratic Party of Kosovowhich are currently in power.

In 2012, the Red and Black Alliance (Template:Lang-sq) was established as a political party in Albania, the core of its program is national unification of all Albanians in their native lands.

In 2012, as part of the celebrations for 100th Anniversary of the Independence of Albania, Prime Minister Sali Berisha spoke of "Albanian lands" stretching from Preveza in Greece to Presevo in Serbia, and from the Macedonian capital of Skopje to the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, angering Albania's neighbors. The comments were also inscribed on a parchment that will be displayed at a museum in the city of Vlore, where the country’s independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared in 1912.

Areas

Area	Part of	Area (km²)	Population of Albanians	% of Albanians	Largest city
Albania	Republic of Albania	28,748	3,196,00	97%	Tiranë
Kosovo	Republic of Kosovo	10,908	1,800,00	93%	Prishtinë
Presheva, Bujanoc and Medvegja	Serbia (Presheva, Bujanoc and Medvegja municipalities)	1249	85,000	82%	Preshevë
Republic of Ilirida (Western/Northwestern Macedonia)	Republic of Macedonia	5,000-7,000 (approx)	509,083 (approx)	70%	Tetovë
Malësia (South-Eastern Montenegro)	Malesija (Malësi) in Podgorica Municipality, Ulqin, Kraja, and Plav	1,000	30,439	76%	Ulqin
Çamëria which inludes Janina, Preveza and other parts of Northwestern Greece	Çameria(region), part of the Vilayet of Janina	9,203	336,856	N/A	Janinë
Total	Greater Albania	56,108-58,108 (approx)	6,007,935+	N/A	Tirana

Kosovo

Kosovo has an overwhelmingly Albanian majority, estimated to be around 92.9%.

Montenegro

Montenegro also contains sizeable Albanian populations mostly concentrated in areas such as southern Malësia, the Ulqin municipality on the coast, the Tuzi area near Podgorica, and parts of the Plava and Rozhajë municipalities.

Greece

The coastal region of Thesprotia in northwestern Greece referred to by Albanians as Çamëria is included in Greater Albania. According to the 1928 census held by the Greek state, there were around 20,000 Muslim Cams in Thesprotia prefecture. Cham Albanians were ethnically cleansed, sent to Turkey and naturalized by Greece as an attempt to decrease the number of Albanians in the region. In the first post-war census (1951), only 123 Muslim Çams were left in the area. Descendants of the exiled Muslim Chams (they claim that they are now up to 170,000 now living in Albania) claim that up to 35,000 Muslim Çams were living in southern Epirus before World War II. Many of them are currently trying to pursue legal ways to claim compensation for the properties seized by Greece. For Greece the issue "does not exist".

Republic of Macedonia

The western part of the Republic of Macedonia is an area with a large ethnic Albanian minority. The Albanian population in Republic of Macedonia make up 25% of the population. Cities with Albanian majorities or large minorities include Tetova, Gostivari, Struga and Dibar . In 1992, Albanian activists in Struga proclaimed also the founding of the Republic of Ilirida (Template:Lang-sq) with the intention of autonomy or federalization inside the Republic of Macedonia. The declaration had only a symbolic meaning and the idea of an autonomous State of Ilirida is not officially accepted by the ethnic Albanian politicians in the Republic of Macedonia.

Presheva

In Central Serbia the municipalities of Preshevë, Bujanoc and part of the municipality of Medvegjë include an Albanian population. According to the 2002 census, Presheva contained an overwhelming Albanian ethnic majority of over 90%. Bujanoc around 54.69% and Medvegja 26.17%. Tense relations between ethnic Serbians and Albanians and also the increased hatred after the Kosovo War, resulted in military actions after the Liberation Army of Preshevës, Medvegjës and Bujanocit (Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Preshevës, Medvegjës dhe Bujanocit, UÇPMB) was formed. One of UÇPMB's roles entails seceding these specific municipalities from Serbia and annex them to the independent Republic of Kosovo.

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.

The International Crisis Group advised in the report the Albanian and Greek governments to endeavour and settle the longstanding 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 and maintaining separate statehood.

See also

• Albanian nationalism
• Albanian nationalism and independence
• Albanophobia
• History of Albania
• History of the Balkans
• Kosovo independence precedent
• League of Prizren

Notes

1. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/07%2811%29MD.pdf,"as Albanians continue mobilizing their ethnic presence in a cultural, geographic and economic sense, they further the process of creating a Greater Albania. "
2. Likmeta, Besar (17 November 2010). "Poll Reveals Support for 'Greater Albania'". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 27 June 2013. The poll, conducted by Gallup in cooperation with the European Fund for the Balkans, showed that 62 per cent of respondents in Albania, 81 per cent in Kosovo and 51.9 per cent of respondents in Macedonia supported the formation of a Greater Albania.
3. ^ Merdjanova, Ina. Rediscovering the Umma. Oxford University Press.
4. Kola, Paulina. The Search for Greater Albania. C. Hurst & Co.
5. Seton-Watson, Robert William. The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans. Рипол Классик.
6. Mazower, Mark. Ideologies and National Identities. Central European University Press.
7. Vaknin, Samuel. After the Rain: How the West Lost the East. Narcissus Publishing.
8. Jelavich, Barbara (1983). History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cambridge University Press. pp. 361–65. ISBN 0-521-27458-3.
9. ^ Zolo Danilo. Invoking humanity: war, law, and global order. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002. ISBN 978-0-8264-5655-7, p. 24: "It was under the Italian and German occupation of 1939-1944 that the project of Greater Albania... was conceived." Cite error: The named reference "Zolo" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
10. Janusz Bugajski (2002). Political Parties of Eastern Europe: A Guide to Politics in the Post-Communist Era. M.E. Sharpe. p. 675. ISBN 978-1-56324-676-0. Retrieved 29 May 2012. "Roughly half of the predominantly Albanian territories and 40% of the population were left outside the new country's borders"
11. Gallup Balkan Monitor, 2010
12. Balkan Insight Poll Reveals Support for 'Greater Albania' , 17 Nov 2010
13. ^ Bogdani, Mirela; John Loughlin (2007). Albania and the European Union: the tumultuous journey towards integration. IB Taurus. p. 230. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
14. "Alternativat e ribashkimit kombëtar të shqiptarëve dhe të Shqipërisë Etnike..!". Gazeta Ditore (in Albanian). 10 December 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
15. see map
16. "State-building in Kosovo. A plural policing perspective". Maklu. 5 February 2015. p. 53.
17. "Dictionary of Genocide". Greenwood Publishing Group. 2008. p. 249.
18. "Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)". Encyclopædia Britannica. 14 September 2014.
19. "Albanian Insurgents Keep NATO Forces Busy". Time. 6 March 2001.
20. "Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U. S. Intervention". Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. 2012. p. 69.
21. "United Nations Official Document".
22. UNDER ORDERS: War Crimes in Kosovo – 4. March–June 1999: An Overview. Hrw.org. Retrieved on 14 March 2013.
23. Perlez, Jane (24 March 1999). "Conflict In The Balkans: The Overview; Nato Authorizes Bomb Strikes; Primakov, In Air, Skips U.S. Visit". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
24. "Kosovo war chronology". Human Rights Watch.
25. "The Balkan wars: Reshaping the map of south-eastern Europe". The Economist. 9 November 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
26. "Kosovo one year on". BBC. 16 March 2000. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
27. Huggler, Justin (12 March 2001). "KLA veterans linked to latest bout of violence in Macedonia". The Independent. London. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
28. Jelavich, p.361
29. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=alNsb0fpX9IC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=partitioning+of+albania&source=bl&ots=fOtak7A1Jw&sig=zqCcNn8p-HtGcghq07MpxmGODxg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvjaOej9PLAhUF7BQKHaWtDxsQ6AEILDAD#v=onepage&q=partitioning%20of%20albania&f=false
30. http://www.historytoday.com/robert-bideleux/kosovos-conflict
31. http://www.vetevendosje.org/bashkim-per-bashkimin/
32. https://www.facebook.com/vetevendosje
33. https://sq-al.facebook.com/Partiademokratikeekosoves/
34. "Aleanca Kuq e Zi". Retrieved 1 January 2013.
35. Albania celebrates 100 years of independence, yet angers half its neighbors Associated Press, November 28, 2012.
36. http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/albania-population/
37. http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/kosovo-population/
38. Partos, Gabriel (2 February 2001). "Presevo valley tension". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2015. Initially, the guerrillas' publicly acknowledged objective was to protect the local ethnic Albanian population of some 70,000 people from the repressive actions of the Serb security forces.
39. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mk.html
40. name="census2011">"Popis stanovništva, domaćinstava i stanova u Crnoj Gori 2011. godine" (PDF) (Press release) (in Serbo-Croatian and English). Statistical office, Montenegro. 12 July 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011. {{cite press release}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
41. CIA. "The World Factbook". Retrieved 27 July 2010.
42. Hermann Frank Meyer. Blutiges Edelweiß: Die 1. Gebirgs-division im zweiten Weltkrieg Bloodstained Edelweiss. The 1st Mountain-Division in WWII Ch. Links Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-86153-447-1, p. 702
43. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/07%2801%29MV.pdf Despite the Çam-induced controversy, during a visit to Albania in mid-October 2004, Greek President Konstantinos Stephanopoulos stated at a news conference that the Çam issue did not exist for Greece and that claims for the restoration of property presented by both the Cham people and the Greek minority in Albania belonged to a past historical period which he considered closed. "I don't know if it is necessary to find a solution to the Çam issue, as in my opinion it does not need to be solved," he said. "There have been claims from both sides, but we should not return to these matters. The question of the Çam properties does not exist," he said. When speaking of claims from both sides, Stephanopoulos was referring (also) to the Greek claims over Northern Epirus, which include a considerable part of southern Albania.
44. "2002 Census of Republic of Macedonia". Retrieved 14 May 2010.
45. Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization, Yearbook 1995 Page 41 By Mary Kate Simmons ISBN 90-411-0223-X
46. Whose Democracy? Nationalism, Religion, and the Doctrine of Collective rights in post-1989 eastern Europe Page 80 By Sabrina P. Ramet (1997) ISBN 0-8476-8324-9
47. Ethnic Politics in Eastern Europe Page 116 By Janusz Bugajski (1995) ISBN 1-56324-282-6
48. Macedonia: Authorities Allege Existence Of New Albanian Rebel Group
49. http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/07%2801%29MV.pdf "Cham demonstrators was enough to galvanise Greece into defensive mode. The country embarked upon a series of military and diplomatic initiatives, which suggested a fear of Pan-Albanian expansion towards north-western Greece. Serbian and Macedonian media reports were claiming that new Pan-Albanian organisations were planning to expand their operations into north-western Greece to include Meanwhile, Chameria in their plans for the unification of "all Albanian territories." international observers were concerned that Kosovo politicians might start speculating with the Cham issue. The report observed 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 stated that amongst Albanians, "violence in the cause of a greater Albania, or of any shift of borders, is neither politically popular nor morally justified."
50. Pan-Albanianism: How Big a Threat to Balkan Stability?, Europe Report N°153, 25 February 2004

References

• Canak, Jovan M. Greater Albania: concepts and possibile consequences. Belgrade: Institute of Geopolitical Studies, 1998.
• Jaksic G. and Vuckovic V. Spoljna politika srbije za vlade. Kneza Mihaila, Belgrade, 1963.
• Dimitrios Triantaphyllou. The Albanian Factor. ELIAMEP, Athens, 2000.
• Kola, Paulin The search for Greater Albania 2003 416 pages
• Mandelbaum, Michael (1998). The new European diasporas: national minorities and conflict in Eastern Europe. Council on Foreign Relations Press, New York. {{cite book}}: |first3= has numeric name (help); |first3= missing |last3= (help)
• Bogdani, Mirela; Loughlin, John (2007). Albania and the European Union: the tumultuous journey towards integration. IB Taurus. {{cite book}}: |first3= has numeric name (help); |first3= missing |last3= (help)
• Jelavich, Barbara (1983). History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cambridge University Press. {{cite book}}: |first3= has numeric name (help); |first3= missing |last3= (help)

External links

• 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 and Kosovo | What happened to Greater Albania?, The Economist, 18 January 2007

• Use dmy dates from August 2011
• Albania–Greece relations
• Albania–Montenegro relations
• Albania–Republic of Macedonia relations
• Albania–Serbia relations
• Albanian separatism
• Political history of Albania
• Irredentism
• Pan-nationalism
• Political movements
• Albanian nationalism