Albanian Nationalism

In the standard native tradition of Albanian studies, descriptive and empirical research has only confirmed their own ultimate goal of constructing national specificity and a particularly antiquated view of national culture. In this paper I show how and why an articulate analysis of the main intellectual traditions and their impact, can provide fresh insights to grasp the cultural particularism of Albanian studies. Methodologically, a new picture of knowledge production must arise if we consider the historical, cultural, political and ideological terrain in which certain influential ideas and practices in Albanian studies of people’s culture have emerged. The aim is then not to provide an exhaustive picture of a positive knowledge of culture and society, but to show the urgent need for avoiding any adoption of concepts that might be pure reconstructions of arbitrary and timeless structures and values, while rejecting any approach in terms of survivals and folklorism.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of inter-ethnic relations in late 19th and 20th century southern Balkans. It examines the evolution of the Macedonian Question and the production of rival national narratives by Greeks, Bulgarians, and Macedonians. The author introduces the concept of "national narrative" in order to account for the production and proliferation of different forms of collective memory among the rival nation-states. The author deconstructs the national narratives of the competing sides and shows the limits of these narratives and their biases. He also develops an alternative interpretation of Macedonian national formation. The contentious issue of Macedonian national minorities in the southern Balkans is examined as well as the issue of the Albanian movements toward self-determination and succession in Kosovo and western Macedonia. The author argues that Macedonian minority groups are not as numerous in the neighboring states as it is conventionally assumed. With regard to the Albanian national question, he provides a review of the post-1945 relations between Albania and Greece, the Albanians of Kosovo and the Serbs, and the Albanians and Macedonians.

You will find chapters 1 and 2 to this book that focuses on the western Balkans in the period 1800-1912, in particular on the peoples and social groups that subsequent national histories would later identify as Albanians, providing a revisionist exploration of national identity prior to the establishment of the nation-state. Isa Blumi posits that such an identity was politically mobilized, and, that prior to the 1912 Balkan war it was culturally opaque and ideologically fluid. In relation to the competition among various state and power structures, be it in the shape of great power intervention, attempts at building new states, or the Ottoman political center, Blumi shows that Ottoman reforms were successful in encouraging most state subjects to commingle local interest with the fate of the empire itself, meaning that parochial concern for the survival of the immediate community, as it transformed over time, was directly linked to the survival of the Ottoman state.

In order to appreciate the very historical significance of the successive processes of conversion and re-conversion, among Albanians and other Southeast European populations, and to subject them to a more effective anthropological analysis, this article argues that they should be understood in terms of the dynamics of objectivation and resistance against pressures exerted from authorities holding political and religious power. This approach allows us to put the meaning of religious affiliations into the perspective of negotiation and redefinition of social identities, leading to the transformation of Albanian identity and ethnicity, and re-establishing traditions of political, social and national history.

Après une introduction sur les caractéristiques de la région définie comme une aire culturelle, ces articles tentent de donner un aperçu historique et géopolitique des Albanais et de leur culture, insistant tour à tour sur la stratification, les particularismes locaux et l'unité culturelle. Ensuite, passant en revue l'histoire du mouvement national et la formation de la nation albanaise au tournant du siècle, ils rendent compte de l'affrontement des nationalismes serbe et albanais qui n'ont pas manqué de s'exacerber à tout moment. Intégrant l'approche anthropologique aux considérations historiques et géopolitiques sur la région et la culture albanaise, ces travaux tentent de renouveler la discussion anthropologique sur l'ethnicité et les relations interethniques, en insistant sur les taxonomies d'identification et la construction des identités sociales. J'ai essayé plus précisément de poser une question qui me paraît essentielle pour la compréhension des phénomènes actuels, à savoir si l'héritage historique et les identités culturelles peuvent raisonnablement, sinon justifier, au moins expliquer les conflits ethniques et le nationalisme, ou au contraire ils servent tout simplement à déterminer et au mieux à rationaliser les relations interethniques entre groupes sociaux.

An article concerning the British involvement in Albania through the Anglo-Albanians Association, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and a mysterious spy, i.e. Morton Frederic Eden. Eden is a personality largely neglected by scholars working on English-Albanian relations. This article, thus, covers an important bibliographical gap.

This chapter contrasts the evolution of secular models in two post-Ottoman Muslim-majority countries in Europe –Turkey and Albania. Both countries, and their respective secular models, have historically developed under the dominant influence of European ideas of modernity, and similar concerns to ‘secure’ the new states in a lukewarm European context. The secular arrangements, established during the founding moment of independent states in the early 20th century, resulted out of new state’s engagement with modern European concepts such as nation- and state-building, central-state authority and rational separation between state and religion. Yet, they also reflected the urge of these new states in the making to secure their European statehood by downplaying and controlling the contested role of Islam in the new European geopolitical sphere. What kind of secular models did Turkey and Albania, two predominantly Muslim states, develop within such a historical context? How do these models relate to European secular ideals? How do they discipline and control the role of Islam? And how have Islamic actors operates within these models –adapted, contested but also benefited from existing institutional frameworks?

The Çams are a little known Albanian Muslim group that lived in northwestern Greece until 1944and so is their history: their trajectory during the first half of the 20 th century remains to this day one of the least known subjects of relatively recent Greek history. It is an issue which for quite a few decades remained under a shroud of silence and virtually ignored by Greek historiography. The filling in of this gap and the need for an approach as objective as possible to this theme is what the present work aspires to accomplish. The chronological point of departure for this work is the year 1923, a year in which, due to the important issue of the population exchange, the Greek state had 'discovered' the Albanian Çams in Epirus and was obliged for the first time to draw out a specific and systematic policy towards them. The terms by which they were incorporated into the Greek state, their living conditions, the problems that emerged during the inter-war period and, indeed, the dramatic escalation of the issue which took place simultaneous to the Greek-Italian War, occupy the central part of the present work.

Le concept de nation chez M. Mauss comparé à la question actuelle des identités nationales et culturelles en Europe. À partir d'études de cas de l'histoire politique contemporaine, aussi différents l'un de l'autre que la formation des nations balkaniques, au tournant du dernier siècle, et la situation des immigrés en France ou des migrants en Europe, j'essaie de montrer que les concepts de 'nation', 'nationalisme' et 'citoyenneté' doivent être appréhendés autant comme des constructions identitaires que politiques et juridiques. Il importe donc de concilier les approches historique, sociopolitique et anthropologique de l'idée de nation et essayer de comprendre la construction des identités, des relations interethniques et des valeurs interculturelles dans le monde actuel, que ce soit en Europe, en ex-Yougoslavie ou au Maghreb.

After an introduction toward the characteristics of the region defined as a cultural area, these articles attempts to give an historical and geopolitical overview of Albanians and their culture, asserting successively on cultural stratification, local particularisms and unity. Then, going over the history of the national movement and the formation of Albanian nation at the turn of the century, it takes an account of the clash of Serbian and Albanian nationalisms they never fail to be exacerbated at any moment of the common history. The question is to understand if historical heritage and cultural identities could reasonably, other than justify, at least explain ethnic conflicts and nationalisms, or on the contrary they help simply to determine and better to rationalize interethnic relationship between social groups.

The purpose of this article is to take stock of the European integration literature in reference to Eastern Europe in order to better understand how international forces affect minority rights. The article will focus on the status of the Albanian minority in the case of the Republic of Macedonia and attempt to illustrate how European integration has contributed to or hindered ethnic reconciliation between the ethnic Albanian minority and Macedonian majority through a historical-sociological analysis. Additionally, by linking the protection of minority rights to democratic consolidation, this article will show how the former is largely dependent on the latter.

Me synimin për të vlerësuar domethënien e vërtetë historike të proceseve të njëpasnjëshme konvertuese dhe rikonvertuese, në gjirin e popullsisë shqiptare dhe popullsive të tjera europiano juglindore dhe për t’ja nënshtruar ato një analize antropologjike më të efektshme, ky artikull mbështet idenë se këto dukuri duhet të kuptohen në optikën e dinamikës së objektivizimit dhe të qëndresës ndaj trysnive të ushtruara nga autoritetet e pushtetit politik dhe fetar. Një metodë e tillë mundëson vendosjen e kuptimit të përkatësive fetare në optikën e negocimit dhe të ripërcaktimit të njejtësive shoqërore, të cilat shpien në një shndërrim të njejtësisë dhe të etnicitetit shqiptar dhe në një rivendosje të traditave të historisë politike, shoqërore dhe kombëtare.

2. Megjithëse shumica e shqiptarëve (80-90 për qind e të gjthë shqiptarëve në Ballkan) janë muslimanë, brenda shtetit shqiptar mbizotërimi i Islamit përmendet pak ose është më pak i pranishëm, veçanërisht në qoftë se marrim parasysh praninë e fortë tradicionale bektashiane. Pak më shumë se gjysma e shqiptarëve në Shqipëri janë muslimanë sunitë (55%), ndërsa pjesa tjetër e popullsisë përbëhet nga ortodoksët (20%), bektashianët (15%) dhe katolikët (10%). Këto të dhëna, të bazuara në regjistrimin e vitit 1942, janë ribotuar në Daniel (1990:2). Mund të arrihet në përfundimin që raportet bazë kanë mbetur pak a shumë të pandryshuara. 3. Në fund të shekullit të nëntëmbëdhjetë, qeveria otomane ndaloi rreptësisht të gjitha botimet në gjuhën shqipe, gjë kjo që shpjegon arsyen pse shumica e librave në shqip shtypeshin jashtë. Gjithashtu, në shkolla, të cilat në përgjithësi drejtoheshin nga klerikët, gjuha që përdorej zakonisht nuk ishte shqipja, por greqishtja (në shkollat e hapura nga kisha greko-ortodokse), italishtja (në shkollat katolike) dhe turqishtja (në shkollat muslimane), (shih: Jacques 1995: 276). 4. Përveç gjuhës, shqiptarët e patën vështirë të gjenin shenja të tjera të përbashkëta për identitetin e tyre kombëtar dhe historinë e përbashkët. Heroi kombëtar, Skënderbeu, ishte ndoshta i vetmi që kishte një ambiguitet apo papërcaktueshmëri të besimin që e bënte të pranueshëm për të gjithë. Skënderbeu, (ashtu sikurse edhe i ati Gjon Kastrioti) ndërroi përkatësi fetare disa herë gjatë jetës së

In the article I tried to select the most important issues and events related to the Albanian minority question in Macedonia. In the very beginning I explain the origin of the name Macedonia, the location of Macedonia and roughly summarize its way to independence in the 90's. Then I elucidate where the Albanian minority in Macedonia came from and why the conflict in Tetovo broke out. At the and I try to chronologically describe the events from 2001 that had impact on today's political situation in the state with special regard to the political crisis that lasted from 2014 to the implementation of the law guaranteeing Albanian as the second official language in Macedonia.

The intra-party conflict in Yugoslavia in 1966 resulted in a fundamental shift in the attitude of the Yugoslav leadership toward the Albanian national minority, which was also reflected in the country' s foreign policy orientation. The normalization of relations with Albania was set as one of the objectives of Yugoslav foreign policy. Yugoslavia stopped responding to the anti-Yugoslav statements of Albanian officials and launched a series of cooperation initiatives with Albania. The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was assigned a special role in the normalization of relations with Tirana and, with the consent of Belgrade, an exchange of publications, visits of cultural-artistic associations and contacts between the cultural institutions of Kosovo and Metohija and Albania ensued. This policy resulted in the establishment of direct cultural, economic and political ties between the governments of Albania and the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Meto-hija, into which the Yugoslav political leadership no longer had any insight.

Because of its strategic position on the Eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, Albania played a key role in the Italian diplomatic strategy since the second half of 19th century. This paper aims at investigating all phases of Italy's foreign policy towards Albania during the period 1871-1915. More specifically, it attempts to shed new light on how the Albanian question influenced the path that led the government of Rome to sign first the Treaty of the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany (1871-1882), then the agreement for the maintenance of the status quo in Albania with the Hapsburg Empire (1882-1897) and finally the Pact of London with the Triple Entente (1897-1915).

Albania is one of those countries with the majority of its population abroad, only 2.8 million people are currently living in the country. The United States is one of the most desired destinations and considering this, my thesis highlight different aspects of the Albanian-American ethnicity which would otherwise be lost. This thesis explores the question: How is the Albanian-American identity created? In order to better understand and analyse the phenomena, I applied a heuristic research as well as significant human experiences, which discuss the experience of Albanian-Americans, how they have adopted the American ways of living, and their contact with their heritage. In this study, relevant literature which contains information about Albanian immigration to the United States, its historical background, cultural identity, norms, stereotypes, and media representation is included to the research topic. Part of my methods is not only the literary background, but also three different surveys which portray three realities in diverse aspects. My social surveys observe Albanian-Americans, Albanians, and Americans in three contrasting perspectives. Part of my thesis are three chapters:
 the historical and cultural background of Albanians in the USA
 pop culture theories
 the representation of Albanians in the American media
In the first one I provide a historical background, statistics, norms and stereotypes about the Albanian community in the United States. In the second chapter I discuss the adoption of the American mainstream media by the Albanian youth, their ethnic hybridity, and ascribed identity. Into account are taken famous social media figures, especially singers (Dua Lipa, Rita Ora, Bebe Rexha etc). The last chapter deals with the way how Albanians are represented in recent American media. Into account are takes different talk shows, movies (Taken, SNL). Finally, in this study is included a creative combination of the experience of Albanian-Americans, as well as parallels between research finding and the literary review. This study is beneficial not only for that community, but it can be also favourable for future considerations.

"Dal sogno dell'egemonia italiana sull'Adriatico alle liturgie della memoria:
Grande Guerra e forme della conflittualità politica" - Tirana, Museo Nazionale di Storia, 11 aprile 2018 ::: ore 10.00

Quarta delle iniziative di studio previste dal progetto Puglia 14-18, quella del prossimo 11 aprile a Tirana presso il Museo Nazionale di Storia, dal titolo Dal sogno dell’egemonia italiana sull’Adriatico alle liturgie della memoria: Grande Guerra e forme della conflittualità politica, costituisce l’esito di un filone di ricerca atto a indagare, sulle opposte sponde dell’Adriatico, i riflessi dei disegni di politica estera dello Stato italiano.

Sondando gli orientamenti di circoli intellettuali, gruppi economici, partiti politici e stampa periodica, si proverà a misurare l’aderenza o la distanza, il contrasto o l’accettazione di mire e ambizioni egemoniche maturate in Italia e, nello specifico in Puglia, nei riguardi della regione illirica.

I discuss how agents utilise rhetoric to alter their ties with other agents within social spaces from field research conducted in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, from June 2014 to July 2015. First, I flesh out the theoretical and methodological framework for the rest of the dissertation. The theoretical framework is based on a view of hegemony influenced by Green and Laclau, where hegemony is a process through which agents draw on rhetoric to alter their relationships. I appropriate a methodology combining ethnography with systematic Social Network Analysis (SNA) and cultural domain analysis in order to provide a complementary account of networks, agents and spaces in Pristina. Second, I review the anthropological work on rhetoric, considering rhetoric as a tool used by agents to alter their social relations which draws on discourses. Third, I explore how agents in Pristina conceptualise space through interpreting perspectives from ethnographic interviews and data from a pile sort exercise, showing that spaces shape how agents act through being discursive settings. Fourth, I delve into the concepts of nder (“honour”) and turp (“shame”) through interviews and the analysis of a free list, showing how the concepts play out in Pristina and their links with each other, including related concepts. Fifth, I explore, through a SNA, how agents organise networks of relationships and illustrate how agents make use of rhetoric drawing on cultural concepts such as nder and besa in the course of their activities. Sixth, I explore how people in Pristina conceptualise their identities and show that Albanian national identity has been constructed as a discursive formation linking agents together. I conclude that agents utilise rhetoric to alter their ties with other agents in social spaces by drawing on discourses, thereby shaping discourses, changing the agents' networks and resulting in the emergence of new circumstances.

By Dr. Muhammed Cosmas Megalommatis

First published in Bookcrossing on 12 February 2003
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/522808

Albanian translation of the book Türk Yunan İlişkileri Ve Balkanlar. Bir Tarihçi Gözü İle Bugünün Sorunları. Published in 1995, (The Albanian Center in Istanbul), 56 p., the book consists in the most pertinent rejection of the Greek nationalism and chauvinism, which has long been the basic trend of the Greek foreign policy.

The Turkish edition of the book is entirely available online here:
https://turkyunaniliskileri.wordpress.com/

The Albanian edition of the book is entirely available online here:
https://mardhenietturkogrekedheballkani.wordpress.com/

Book review published by Prof. Fahir Armaoğlu about my book "Turkish - Greek relations and the Balkans. A Historian's Evaluation of Today's Problems" in 1995
https://www.academia.edu/43189300/Kitap_Tan%C4%B1tma_Turkish_-_Greek_relations_and_the_Balkans._A_Historians_Evaluation_of_Todays_Problems

Bu makalede bağımsızlık sonrasında Kosova’da kimlik siyaseti incelenmektedir. Makalede Kosovalı Arnavutlar ile Sırplar arasındaki düşmanlığın doğal veya başlangıçtan beri gelen değil Arnavut ve Sırp ulusal kimliğinin oluşturulması sırasında ortaya çıkmış olduğunu iddia eden sosyal inşacı yaklaşım uygulanmaktadır. Ulus ve ulusal kimliğin sosyal olarak inşa edilmiş ve hiçbir zaman tamamlanmayacak, ucu açık bir süreç olduğu kabul edildiğinde, bağımsızlık sonrasında Kosova’da, etnik ya da dini aidiyetlere bağlı olmayan ve vatandaşlık esasına dayalı bir “Kosovalı” kimliğinin oluşturulmasının kuramsal olarak mümkün olabileceği iddia edilmektedir. Kosova’nın bağımsızlık süreci ve sonrası incelendiğinde ise bu kimliğin oluşturulmasının büyük ölçüde yeni Kosova devletinin anayasal temellerini oluşturan hukukun üstünlüğü ve insan haklarına saygı gibi ilkelerin etnik köken ve kültür farkı gözetilmeden tüm Kosova halkına yönelik olarak uygulanmasına bağlı olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

The overall goal of our project is to provide a primary academic source for academicians, foreign-policy makers, civil-society organizations and think-tank institutions by providing the first large survey on the opinions of Albanian people on foreign policy. The project is further motivated by the need to democratize the process of formulation, conduct and implementation of Albanian foreign policy by taking into consideration the real opinions of Albanian society on these issues. To this end, the project aims to be unique in providing a platform that determines the impact of socio-cultural and religious identities on the views of Albanian people on foreign policy.
To achieve this goal, this project employs a scientific methodology based on surveys carried out in May through July 2010, with a valid representation sample of 1084 people above the age of 18, located in all districts of Albania. Particular attention is devoted to the gender, age- group and geographical distributions of the sample in order to realize the above mentioned goal of properly understanding the impact of socio-cultural and religious status of the Albanians on their perceptions on foreign policy. The survey consists of 27 questions in which eight independent variables are employed: gender, age, education, profession, political affiliation, religion, urban-rural status, application places—i.e. names of the cities and regions where the survey was conducted. Although 10 percent of the randomly selected samples were double checked by the SPSS data coordinator, an error margin of 1.5% - 2% remains inevitable.

This study seeks to explore the relations between Albania and Kosovo as they stand at the present and the likely trajectory they are going to take in the near future. The point of departure is the study of these relations from February 2008 when Kosovo proclaimed its independence and how the process of Kosovo`s recognition and state-building have influenced and conditioned its relationship with Albania. The discussion has involved the mainstream elite in both countries and several proposals have emerged since. On the other hand, a related debate on a Kosovar identity as a rather exclusive and new one versus the traditional understanding of the undivided Albanian identity seems to develop simultaneously with the participation of a substantial part of political and cultural elite on both sides of the border.
In this framework, stereotypes about “Great Albania” and unification of Kosovo with Albania persist and are part of the discourse in the Balkans, especially neighbors such as Serbia which have expressed certain fears about such developments. This phenomenon had seen attempts made by governments of both Albania and Kosovo, whose effects remain to be seen, ranging from unification of school curricula and textbooks to unification of consulates in certain countries to an energy union between the two countries. On the other hand, polls made by international organization, as well as local organization in Albania and whose data is presented below, do not support any popular support for “Greater Albania”, so fears mentioned above remain without a solid base.
However, recent evidence that is going to be duly analyzed in this study, testifies for a rising nationalist fervor in Albania versus a decline in Kosovo, which also relates to how masses and elites view the Albania-Kosovo future. It is the goal of this study to make an assessment of key internal and external factors that will influence the future of relations between Tirana and Pristina and make projections for possible scenarios of the bilateral relations in the next twenty to thirty years. These four scenarios are the following:
A. Kosovo and Albania borders become gradually irrelevant as part of European Union if both are integrated at that stage.
B. Albania and Kosovo are part of one of the following regional proposals (i.e. Balkan Union, Balkan Benelux, CEFTA etc.), but only one of them (most probably Albania) is part of EU.
C. Albania and Kosovo realize a de facto unification before accession in the European Union.
D. Albania and Kosovo operate as two functional countries without any projected unification of any kind, where Albania joins EU, with Kosovo still to conclude state-building process.
I will show here that the scenario most likely to happen in the next ten years period is the last scenario while the scenario the most likely will develop in the next decade after that is the B scenario. I base this selection on the findings I have accumulated through desk analyses and focus group that is used to test my hypotheses and which one most likely will develop as a scenario in the short and medium term period.

After WWI, the acquisition of Albanian oil fields became one of the most important objectives of Italian foreign policy. However, also Great Britain and its flag carrier, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, aimed at obtaining the same oil reserves coveted by the Italians. Their antithetical claims on Albanian oil caused a harsh diplomatic diatribe that lasted from 1920 to 1925. This conflict not only represented the first friction between the British imperialism and the Italian economic expansionism in the Balkan area but also provoked an intricate dispute which considerably influenced Albania's domestic politics. Largely based on the unpublished documents kept both in the Albanian National Archives and the Historical Archive of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this work aims to analyze origins and evolution of Italo-British rivalry for Albanian oil fields; the oil policy put into practice by the Italian governments during the period 1920-1925; in which way the Italo-British struggle for oil influenced the Albanian cabinets, and especially those of Ahmet Zogolli and Fan Noli, and finally how the Albanian oil affair ended in 1925.

The study examines biased pro-Albanian and pro-Greek censuses concerning the population of Southern Albania-Northern Epirus in the beginning of the 20th century, as well as estimations made by the commission of enquiry of the League of Nations and compares them with previous - late19th century - and later - late 20th century - estimations. It thus claims that the Orthodox people constituted a majority in the rejion west of the Vjosa river, where the Greek-speaking people were also gathered together with Albanian- and Vlach-speaking Christians with pro-Greek sentiments. On the other hand, east of the Vjosa river the majority of the population was Muslim. There was also located a minority of Albanian Orthodox nationalists.