Two pictures of the Albanian world - Edi Rama and Albin Kurti (3): Divination and strategies for a "Greater Albania"

Writing for Kosovo online: Dragan Bisenic, journalist

Kurti and Rama immediately diverged on the issue of "mini Schengen", which later turned into the "Open Balkan", already in February 2020, during Kurti's first visit to Tirana in the role of Prime Minister. Since the idea came from the American side and corresponds to Rama's equivalent of the German "Eastern policy", i.e. unification through peace and peace initiatives, Rama accepted and supported it, in contrast to Kurti's distrustful attitude towards the international community and the policy of "relying on others" ". Rama believes that the Albanians together are "stronger than the Serbs". But that does not mean that they should and must achieve their demands and goals by force. It is better in a nice way. After all, "a kind word can unlock an iron door."

That's why Rama says, "Should Serbia apologize? Yes. Should Serbia recognize Kosovo?! Of course! But how is the request for forgiveness achieved? By opening up and approaching things that are useful, to everyone".

Kurti rejected the "mini Schengen" from the beginning. For him, the "Albanian Schengen" between Albania and Kosovo is more important, Kurti retorted. In the controversy that followed, Rama said that there was no "Albanian macro Schengen without a Balkan mini Schengen".

For Rama, cooperation with Kosovo is a "priority above all priorities", but all possibilities for "removing the border between the two countries" have not been used, which Serbia, or other countries, cannot oppose".

Rama about a "Greater Albania"

On February 18, 2018, in a speech in the Kosovo parliament marking the 10th anniversary of the declaration of Kosovo's "independence," Rama proposed that Kosovo and Albania should have a common president and a common currency as a "symbol of national unity." Kosovo President Hashim Thaci expressed in 2019, the belief that "in the near future" a joint Kosovo-Albanian state would be established. That, in Thaci's opinion, would be an "alternative to the isolation" that the EU was imposing on Kosovo.

And the former Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, warned that, if the prevention of Kosovo's accession to NATO and the UN continues, with visa liberalization not valid for the citizens of Kosovo, bearing in mind the refusal of five EU countries to recognize Kosovo's independence, then the referend on unification with Albania could be inevitable.

The US and the EU reacted with indignation to Rama's statement. The US Embassy in Tirana expressed disappointment with Rama's comments. "Careless language alluding to unification is unhelpful and harmful to Albania's relations with its neighbors." We call on all leaders to be good neighbors and abandon the divisive language of the past," the embassy said in a statement. European Commission spokesperson Catherine Ray told Tirana at the time to focus on its own reforms as it sought to join the EU, saying comments that could be seen as interference in other countries were "not helpful".

Rama, however, continued this kind of rhetoric, which attracted regional attention, as well as anxiety. At the joint session of the two governments on November 26, 2018, in Peja, Edi Rama announced his plan - the unification of the Albanians by 2025. He invited Ramush Haradinaj to start developing a strategy for that move, and the participants of the joint session, led by Rama and Haradinaj; in a joint photo they posed showing the symbol of the Albanian eagle with their hands. The Albanian Prime Minister also presented the idea of a "national project for the unification of Albania and Kosovo". As reported by Pristina's "Gazeta Express", Rama invited Haradinaj to start working on a "joint strategy for the unification of Albanians until 2025".

The proposal of Kosovo's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Behgjet Pacolli, on the preparation of the study "The Albanian Nation in the Next 50 Years" was also accepted. Pacolli said that it was a document that would serve as a "platform for the development and strengthening of the Albanian nation in the Balkans".

"Faced with many challenges, Albanians must have a common future," Pacolli said after the session.

Rama said that Albania and Kosovo went hand in hand like two proud eagles and assessed that anyone who was against the president of Kosovo's temporary institutions, Hashim Thaci, was a "donkey and a traitor".

Rugova’s and Pacolli's parties were at a distance from that idea. Hashim Thaci started manipulating the idea at one point with Edi Rama. When it comes to AAK - because of Daut Haradinaj, and Ramush, they are close to that idea, but not a 'Greater Albania' but the so-called one natural, in which all Albanians live.

Speaking in Vienna in 2018, Rama said that the way some had portrayed the term "Greater Albania is very stigmatizing, while it is only open to interpretation."

"But I have to be honest... I don't see a solution. If Albanians remain without a clear perspective and outside of its natural path - to be a part of Europe - which of course we want, but if that disappears..." Rama said. He added that a "Greater Albania was used as an alibi" for the separation of Albanians, "because if they unite, they will create a great empire."

The Deutsche Welle website quoted Rama in a 2017 interview with Politika as saying that he could not rule out a "small union" between Albania and Albanian-dominated Kosovo if the European Union decided to take Albania's membership off the table.

"I know about a 'Greater Serbia' and 'Greater Greece', not about 'Greater Albania'." And that is very dangerous. If you repeat something, it can happen. Therefore, it is necessary for the EU to get serious because it said that it was for strictness and fairness, but what I see are strictness and unfairness," Rama said in Vienna.
He added that it was "frustrating and humiliating" for the Kosovo Albanians that they had been promised visa liberalization after the demarcation of the border, but had not received it yet.

"People are not idiots, and especially Albanians are not stupid. They listen, they feel. We are isolated, we don't have freedom of movement," he said, adding that the "Kosovo Albanians are the only people who cannot move freely."

It is noted that Rama's vocabulary and performance in 2018 are different and more radical than they will be later. This is explained by the fact that during those years there was an absolute standstill in Albania's progress toward the EU, especially in visa liberalization and placing Albania on the "white Schengen list". "Tirana Times" commentator, Albert Rakipi, considering the perspectives of the unification of Albania and Kosovo, connected such actions with the European Union. He points out that parallel to the bilateral relations between Albania and Kosovo, there is another context that nurtures the narrative of union or national unification: Albania's relations with the European Union, and especially the sense of stagnation, if not a step back in the country's European integration process. In the political narrative in Albania, the thesis that, in addition to unification with Europe, there is also an alternative possibility of "uniting Albanians among themselves" is appearing more and more often. Accordingly, such approaches exude revenge and pressure, if not blackmail, as a response to that lack of will," Rakipi stated.

Rakipi, however, sees that the issue of Albanian unification is not exhausted only in relation to the EU, but that it exists and functions independently within Albanian political actors and the public. It is based on the historical argument that the Albanians and their countries were unjustly divided and that national unification would correct the historical injustice and finally solve the Albanian national question. The second argument refers to the sustainability of the Albanian state.

The reason why Albania has historically been and remains a weak state, barely viable or functional, is "the division of the nation and the fragmentation of its territories." The unification of all Albanians and all Albanian countries would enable a functional, strong, and competitive state, would guarantee economic progress, and increase the political and diplomatic power of the country, as well as the weight of the Albanian nation.

Regardless of the cause, the fact remains that the issue of the unification of Albania and Kosovo is becoming more prominent. The unification of the Albanians, originally embedded in ideas from the diaspora, has, over the last five to six years, become part of the political narratives of major political parties and attracted significant media coverage. During this period, public support for unification grew to surprising—even spectacular—degrees. If a referendum on the issue of the union had been held in Albania in 2018, 74.8 percent would have voted for it. If this referendum had been held in Kosovo, the proponents of unification would still have won, but with a smaller number of total votes, 63.9 percent.

After the first joint session of the governments of Albania and Kosovo held in 2021 in Elbasan, Rama, answering the question of how he would vote if a referendum on unification were held now, said, "Is it a question or a provocation? If you hypothetically ask me about the referendum on the unification of Albania with Kosovo, I would openly vote "yes". If you ask me if it will happen, when and how, but that it will take place one day, I say "yes",” Rama said.

As he said, he believed that the referendum would happen one day, but he did not know when and how. “To those who talk in public about a 'Greater Albania'", I say that fortune tellers are not judged for being fortune tellers. If I were to cast a spell, and in this case, I cast it with my imagination, I say it will happen," Rama said.
At the beginning of 2023, during a visit to Prizren, Rama said that in that city "Albanian history can be felt in the air", alluding to the creation of the "League of Prizren", and then he concluded that at the end of the negotiation process on Kosovo, "Albanians must unite". At the celebration of the 145th year of the League of Prizren, Kurti emphasized the "preservation of the philosophy" in which he singled out the protection of the territory, the political strengthening of "our countries", together with the American and European allies, and the preservation of "institutional connection".

Next: The origin, creation, and operation of the "Tirana Group"