Rama or Kurti: Who is the greater fighter for "Greater Albania"?

The Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, with his recent statement in Prizren, that "Albanian history can be felt in the air" in this city, continuing that at the end of the negotiation process on Kosovo, "Albanians must unite", drew the attention of the public in the region to a topic already circulated among Albanians about whether he would thus usurp the position of the main fighter for the greater Albanian idea from the current Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti.

The baton representing the idea of a "Greater Albania" passes periodically from one side of the Albanian Alps to the other, but while that narrative is expected from Kurti because it is also in his party's program, there are not a few who are surprised by Rama's nationalism, which appears more and more frequently in his public performances.

In addition to Kosovo, the advocacy of a "Greater Albania" also includes a large part of North Macedonia, a third of Montenegro, almost all of Sandzak, as well as parts of central Serbia up to Nis, and part of Greece with the island of Corfu, so the extreme messages of Albanian leaders carry considerable danger for the entire region. The question arises, which of them is a greater representative of the idea of uniting Albanians in the region, Rama or Kurti?

Baraliu: Platitudes about unification

Mazllum Baraliu, a professor of constitutional law from Pristina, says for Kosovo Online that Edi Rama used similar "plots about the unification of Albanians" before.

"He will have local elections in Albania in May, so he needs to achieve a political advantage over the opposition, which is quite disorganized there. So I don't think it's a serious matter. These are political platitudes, which appear when the politicians in power believe that they have problems with the opposition or some serious affairs, like now, due to contacts with foreign services. I remind you that on the day when Rama came to Prizren, there were protests in Albania, so I don't think the idea of the unification of Albanians a seriously thought-out thing, as far as Rama is concerned," Baraliu pointed out.

The former president of the Provincial Executive Council of Kosovo and Metohija, Zoran Andjelkovic, in a statement for Kosovo Online, says that these are "empty dreams that, however, should not be underestimated."

Andjelkovic believes that this fight between Kurti and Rama over "Greater Albania" is a fight for extreme national voters among Albanians and part of the political game that the two are playing.

"The idea of creating a Greater Albania is not new. However, until now it was pushed by Kurti, and now it is being taken over by Edi Rama. When they compete as to who is more for the 'Albanian cause', then Rama says in the former Serbian imperial city that it is the most important Albanian city and that he advocates for the unification of all Albanians. If you ask Rama, he would say that he is not for the creation of a "Greater Albania" as a state, but rather for the unification of all Albanians on some European path or similar. But the bottom line is that that dream of a "Greater Albania" is present among political leaders in both Kosovo and Albania," Andjelkovic said.

Andjelkovic: The fight for votes

He believes that such a statement by Rama has another purpose because it coincided with the celebration of 15 years since the declaration of Kosovo's independence.

"They are aware that this is being said at a time when they are celebrating 15 years of so-called independence because they see that 15 years have passed and that they are now further from the goal they proclaimed in 2008. That they have less independence than they declared in 2008, that a larger number of countries have withdrawn their recognition and now it is much less than half of the members of the UN General Assembly. Now the rhetoric has intensified because they think that through this they can ensure the legalization of the seizure of part of Serbia's territory," Andjelkovic said.

He recalls that there is a certain rivalry between Albanian political actors on both sides of the border, because Kurti had his own parliamentary list in Albania, trying to remove Edi Rama from power.

"It didn’t go well for Kurti, but the struggle for extreme national voices on both sides of the border exists through the story of a "Greater Albania" and through the fact that Albania will help the independence of Kosovo, which obviously did not yield results. These are empty dreams, although they should not be underestimated," Andjelkovic pointed out.

He also made an interesting observation that Albanians in Albania and Kosovo today thought differently about the old idea of "Greater Albania", which dated back to the time of the League of Prizren in the second half of the 19th century.

"Albanians in Kosovo think they are better than those in Albania and that Albania should join them. Recently, at the train station in Zurich, two Albanians from Prizren recognized me and told me not to confuse them with Albanians from Albania," Andjelkovic said.