Operation "Breakthrough": Enver Hoxha's preparations for the military invasion of Kosovo and the creation of "Greater Albania" after Tito's death (1)

Written for Kosovo Online by Dragan Bisenic, a journalist

"Albanians will rise up"

At the end of the 1970s, Albania was heavily preparing for the crisis in Yugoslavia and the time that would come after the departure of Yugoslav President Tito from the scene, as well as the instability and conflicts that would break out in the fight for his legacy. Albania, therefore, was preparing military plans for the invasion of parts of Yugoslavia that were inhabited by Albanians with the aim of annexing them to the territory of Albania. The most secret and seriously prepared operation, about which is still little known, is the "Breakthrough" operation that took place in January 1980. Some Albanian, Austrian, and Russian experts and historians wrote about it.

Since the second half of the 70s of the 20th century, the further fate of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been the focus of attention of the leadership of the neighboring communist Albania, due to the old age of the President of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz, who has remained unclear about how the country will develop under his leadership. The leader of the Albanian Labor Party, Enver Hoxha, considered the possibility of the participation of the USSR and its allies in the Warsaw Pact Organization in military operations in the Balkans with the aim of "returning" the SFRY to the orbit of Soviet influence in the conditions of the internal political crisis of the "post-Tito" phased development. At that time, Enver Hoxha's Albania was close only to China, which made it unique in Europe, and it rejected both American capitalism and Soviet communism. Hoxha's attention to the politics of the Soviet leadership in the Balkans, especially in relation to the communist countries of the region, increased in the fall of 1976 and was largely the result of the intensification of Moscow's contacts with Belgrade and Bucharest. Leonid Brezhnev's visit from November 15 - 17, 1976 to Yugoslavia, and on November 22 - to Romania, where a meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of Warsaw Pact countries was planned for November 25 - 26, which Hoxha considered not only in the context of foreign policy but also of the military-strategic situation in the region.

Special emphasis was placed on determining the nature of the post-Tito period in the development of Yugoslavia. Hoxha particularly emphasized the confrontation between the USSR and the US for influencing the situation in Yugoslavia and the attempts of the two superpowers to get the support of the respective clans and groups in the leading circles of Yugoslavia, as recorded in the first volume of his Collected Works. Hoxha considered the readiness of the Soviet side to provide economic aid to the SFRY, including the supply of weapons, a strategy aimed at achieving the main goal - gaining control over Yugoslavia. The possibility that the USSR and its closest ally in the region - Bulgaria - would initiate any actions by the internal political forces of the SFRY, aimed at the implementation of this plan, caused Hoxha's sharp dissatisfaction. In a personal note that was intended for publication, he wrote that "in the event that they (USSR and Bulgaria) provoke bloodshed, blood will provoke blood, and we, the Albanians, will fight against them and win. Why not openly say to our brothers, to the peoples of Yugoslavia - the USSR and Bulgaria must know that the Albanians living in Yugoslavia are our brothers in Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro and that they are inviolable. Now they live together with the people of Yugoslavia, or if someone else comes and takes over Yugoslavia, be sure - the Albanians will rise up" [1. Vol. 59. F. 368].

The use of the "Albanian card" at the time of the Soviet military intervention in internal Yugoslav affairs could happen in an exceptional case, which Hoxha apparently understood. In this case, the issue of the Albanian national minority in the SFRY acquires the character of a serious factor directly related to the defense policy of the Hoxha regime. In the fall of 1976, Enver Hoxha seriously dealt with the question of the international plan, during talks with foreign political and public figures who came to Albania.

During the negotiations, he mentioned the conversation he had had with Josip Broz Tito in 1946, when he had discussed with him the need to join Kosovo and, among other places with a compact Albanian population, Albania. [1. Vol. 59. F. 397].

For the USSR, the "Albanian factor" is also of great importance not only in the region but also in the wider, European context. The apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU closely monitored the situation in the "Albanian sector" of international communism with the help of the Soviet intelligence service. Thus, on February 17, 1977, Yevgeny Shishkin, the deputy head of the First Chief Administration of the KGB of the USSR, sent the analysis "Views of the West on various aspects of the internal political situation and foreign policy of Albania after the VII Congress of Albanian Labor Party" to members of the Soviet intelligence service abroad. Specifically, it said, "The foreign policy course of the Albanian Labor Party after the 7th Congress (November 1-7, 1976) is still anti-Soviet and pro-Chinese".

Hoxha's particular interest relates to the relative power in the Yugoslav leadership and the prospects for the development of the situation in Yugoslavia in the near future. Originally, the forecast he gave at the beginning of December 1977 was based on the firm belief that after Tito's death, a long period of destabilization of the country would begin [1. Vol. 62. F. 22]. The USSR and the US will try to take control of the country. According to this scenario, "for each of the two major military groups in Europe, the possession of Yugoslavia means a strategic position in relation to the opposite party. If NATO loses its influence in Yugoslavia, then the Soviet Union will take advantage, the connection between Greece and NATO is broken, it creates a threat to Austria, it gains passage to Italy, and it dominates the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. Thus NATO suffers great strategic losses. But will American imperialism allow this? I think it is unlikely. Will American imperialism fight against the Soviet Union by digging its claws deep into Yugoslavia or occupying it militarily? I don't think that NATO will sit cross-legged until there is a big fire, it will begin to intensify the fight with the economic and political methods that it has prepared for Yugoslavia. The death of Tito will create a headache," Hoxha wrote. It was important for Albania to protect itself from the possible consequences of internal political instability. Yugoslavia, for which it was necessary to have normal relations with Greece, part of whose territory, according to Hoxha, can be claimed by the "Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" with the support of the USSR and Bulgaria, in strengthening its position in the Aegean region, in which, as the head of the Albanian Labor Party believed, Moscow and Sofia had been interested. The hallmark of this forecast from the previous ones from the first half of the seventies was the author's special attention to the Albanian factor.

Of particular importance for what was happening was the sudden tightening of relations between Tirana and Beijing, as another complication of the Albanian-Yugoslav situation. The second person in the hierarchy of the communist nomenclature in Albania, the Prime Minister of Defense Mehmet Shehu, simultaneously opposes the People's Republic of China and neighboring Yugoslavia. He accused the Yugoslav authorities of persecuting Albanians. Such procedures are taking place in Yugoslavia itself and outside its borders, which are the sources of support for Albanian reunification, especially in Kosovo. At the same time, Shehu openly accused the Chinese leadership of a conspiracy to overthrow the Albanian party and state leadership.

In November 1977, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Hazbiu, prepared a document on Hozha's order in which the situation in Kosovo and the possibilities for solving this problem were analyzed in detail. In this secret material, the government of Albania supported the idea of the unification of Albanians and made a forecast of the development of the situation in SFRY after Tito's death. In particular, the document stated that "we (Albania) supported the Kosovars with all our might, as far as the development of the situation allowed. And we were in favor of uniting with Albania because that would ensure national unity, "dominant in Yugoslavia". The main emphasis in the work on the "Kosovo direction" and the material presented by Hazbiu was placed on propaganda and cultural events that help to strengthen the national feelings of Albanians. The document also set the task of preparing a military plan in the event of an emergency and studying the terrain, and human resource capabilities of the Albanian population, as well as creating an operational plan that foresees several scenarios.

During the discussion on this document, Enver Hoxha stated that "the issue of Kosovo is of great importance for the freedom of Albania; Kosovo is a great force for the defense of Albania, a force that serves to strengthen Albania in the Balkans and in Europe." In this regard, he demanded that resources and effort not be spared in Kosovo, because, in his opinion, "it will pay off in the future."

Hoxha's action on foreign policy issues was also followed by another actualization of the Kosovo topic, but in a broader form, uttered in connection with the upcoming celebrations on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the League of Prizren. In fact, this topic was a development of his theses, which refer to December 1977. They are presented in diary entries and are devoted to reflections on the "post-Tito" situation.

Hoxha's promotion of the idea of the unity of Albanians in the first place and reference to the situation with the Albanian population of Yugoslavia took place in the background of the strengthening of secessionist projects and the ideas of the national movement of Kosovo Albanians. On June 12, 1978, Hoxha organized a special festive conference in Tirana dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the League of Prizren, and on the eve of the XI Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, held on June 20-23, 1978 in Belgrade. On Hoxha's jubilee, the topic of national liberation of Albanians living in SFRY, as Hoxha emphasized, "on their own territory", turned into an important element of Tirana's foreign policy. This topic, it was estimated, could, under certain circumstances, acquire a military-political character.

(To be continued...)