"Greater Albania" in practice: What are Bibi Rexha and Vjosa Osmani saying?

"As academician Milorad Ekmecic said, borders are created and changed in blood. Are we witnessing the final phase of a long-term process in the Balkans, and what would be the consequences?"

Prepared by: Milos Garic

"Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, Presevo are Albania to me," said American pop singer of Albanian descent Bibi Rexha a few days ago, sparking a wave of comments on social media and reigniting the story of "Greater Albania," which extreme Albanian politicians are increasingly publicly advocating.

While Rexha reveals details of her family heritage and how young Albanians think on the topic, her slightly older compatriot Vjosa Osmani, who holds a much more responsible position as the President of Kosovo, caused a scandal at the Skopje airport around the same time, demonstrating behavior that suggests "Greater Albania" already exists in practice.

Osmani refused to follow the procedures at the airport in the capital of North Macedonia, rejecting the standard electronic luggage check and entering into open conflict with airport security along with her entourage. To assert her intention, Osmani called the President of the Macedonian Parliament, Afrim Gashi (pictured), asking him to facilitate her passage without the usual procedures. In the ensuing commotion, witnessed by other passengers at the airport, members of Gashi's security detail allegedly even drew their weapons on airport staff, according to some media reports.

The Albanian politician from Kosovo ultimately had to comply with the official rules in North Macedonia, but her behavior vividly illustrates the attitude of extreme Albanians towards the states where they believe they have their exclusive "natural rights."

Professor Darko Tanaskovic, a respected diplomat and Islamologist, explains his well-known thesis in Kontekst, that a significant portion of Albanians already behave as if "Greater Albania" exists.

"These are long-term processes. We often overlook the long-term processes that have shaped our history in our impatience for something to happen during our lifetime or our generation. In this specific case, I have repeatedly said and written that, in my opinion, Greater Albania already exists. It's not just about some vague or overly ambitious project, but it actually exists. Why did I say that? I said it to highlight the fact that the Albanian national corpus has been preparing for a long time to gather all Albanians into one so-called natural Albania. This requires something that takes place in several states and is not something that can happen openly and publicly," Tanaskovic points out.

Preparations for Changing Borders

In the last 20 or 30 years, the Albanian national corpus has, in a cross-border sense, erased some of the barriers that separated them, given the fact that they are in different states, adds Professor Tanaskovic.

"These borders, especially those between Kosovo and Metohija and Albania, are now completely porous, and they are naturally overlooked, as a form of positive discrimination, to allow Albanians to connect with each other. This, of course, also applies to Macedonia, where it can be said that there is a draft blowing through, and that it practically no longer exists as a completely sovereign state of the Macedonians. Montenegro is also endangered, as is Greece, which is not fully aware of this and is not afraid because it relies on its superior membership in the European Union and NATO. Thus, we see that the conditions are gradually being created for the entire Albanian national corpus to erase these borders that divide them, in terms of belonging to different states, and to overcome this practically on the go," emphasized Professor Tanaskovic.

Albanians are discussing joint diplomatic-consular representations, Tanaskovic reminds.

"Imagine if Serbia, for instance, started talking with someone about joint diplomatic representations. This would be labeled as Greater Serbian hegemonism, as the creation of Greater Serbia, or something similar. There are clear double standards here, and this is not a new phenomenon. This can be historically analyzed, though we cannot delve into that now, but it is a fact. Considering this and the series of actions that meet with verbal condemnation, or sometimes even without any condemnation, it is clear that from the Albanian side, this idea exists in their minds. It can be said that they are preparing the groundwork for some distant moment when, in my opinion, although it seems heretical and politically incorrect to say, there will have to be some adjustment and change of borders in the Balkans due to the new circumstances that are arising," Tanaskovic warns.

He points out that this has been the case throughout history, and we can only hope it will pass without a major and general war.

"Because, as academician Ekmecic said, borders are created and changed in blood. Let's hope that this won't be the case, but the new political reality must be expressed through new borders. For that moment, Albanians will certainly be much more prepared than others, and that is what I want to highlight. Because this cannot happen without being detrimental to the nations and states with whom Albanians share ethnic space outside their homeland," concludes academician Tanaskovic.

Luka Jovanovic, a history professor from North Mitrovica, reminds that the project of "Greater Albania," from its inception, was written by Albanians from the Janina Vilayet, i.e., Albanians who were in southern Albania, closer to Greece, those who were educated. However, since the League of Prizren, it has been in the hands of northern Albanians, Kosovo Albanians, and Macedonian Albanians.

"Albanians have always been, as we can see today, instruments in the hands of great powers. The Ottoman Empire inspired the League of Prizren and its convening to gather Albanians and create a counterbalance to the Congress of Berlin and its decisions, which allocated territories and independence to Serbia and Montenegro after the wars and the Great Eastern Crisis concluded in 1878, changing borders at Turkey's expense. All of this was used by Austro-Hungary, which turned the gathering of Albanians into something else," explains Jovanovic.
He recalls that already in 1881, Turkey itself had to violently suppress the League of Prizren, which it had created, because it had gotten out of control.

"The Albanians called themselves the most loyal subjects of the sultan, and the sultans referred to them as the brightest jewel in the Ottoman crown. However, it was Austro-Hungary that saw the Albanians as the path to its goal. Austro-Hungary had the grand 'road to the east' program, which, after Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 and 1908, aimed to reach Thessaloniki through the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, the Kosovo Vilayet, and Macedonia, as the main center of Austrian politics. The main element in this path was the Albanians, who we

re supposed to push back Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria, that is, the Orthodox countries," Jovanovic explains.

Good Servants, But What Albanians Don't Understand

The idea of "Greater Albania" thus came to life and became an aggressive program, which emphasized at all costs the inclusion of four vilayets of the Ottoman Empire—Kosovo, Bitola, Shkodra, and Janina—into the autonomous principality and later the autonomous Kingdom of Albania. These are precisely the goals of the extreme Albanians today, led by Albin Kurti and Vjosa Osmani.

"One of the main centers of Greater Albania is intended to be Skopje. Many Albanians call Skopje their city, their center, where the Albanian people are supposed to gather and from where they would proceed to take over other territories. The program of Greater Albania served the great powers at the expense of the Orthodox peoples, primarily the Serbs in the Balkans. Albanians have often gone unpunished, always finding new sponsors. Sometimes Austria, then Hitler's Germany, and in the period after 1945, even China and the Soviet Union, until they returned to the West again. They became a means through which the Balkans, which has always been a crossroads between Western and Eastern Europe, the lifeline of all great powers' interests on the European continent, could be controlled," explains Professor Jovanovic.

Albanians, he emphasized, have always shown themselves to be good servants to their powerful masters.

"The Albanian program had no foundation in historicism but was solely and exclusively driven by how much it served the interests of the great powers. In recent times, we can see that the program of creating Greater Albania created a small Kosovo, a small protectorate republic, a small improvisation that serves the interests of the great powers exclusively. Now, 15 years after Kosovo declared independence, the great powers no longer fully support the program of Greater Albania. They use it, but they do not allow it to be fully realized. If the great powers were fully promoting the program of Greater Albania, the unification of Kosovo and Albania would have already occurred. We can see that there are conflicts among Albanians themselves over leadership within the political elite, over who will lead this grand national unification, which I doubt will ever happen because it does not suit the great powers. They have never wanted, nor will they ever want, a large, stable, and ethnically pure state in the Balkans. The problem is that Albanians do not yet understand this and hope that the great powers will bring their national unification to fruition, which is highly unlikely," concludes historian Jovanovic.