ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF ALBANIA

Platform For The Solution Of The National Albanian Question.
Tirana, 1998
Preface
Among Europian peoples, the Albanians are the ones who have suffered the biggest territorial partitioning. Albanians are currently divided among five states of the Balkan Peninsula with only half of them living within the borders of their national state. Outside these borders, the greatest part of the ethnic Albanian land is under the Serbian rule. The province of Kosova is part of partitioned lands where Albanians represent about 90% of the over 2 million popullation. The rest of Albanian lands are within the states of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Greece.
Territorial truncation has been a constant source of concern for the entire Albanian nation, within and outside the borders of the Albanian state. Due to increasing police Serb repression, unrest in the province of Kosova has already taken dramatic proportions. The Belgrade stubbornnes to refuse to the Albanians their universally accepted national rights, has created the danger of the conflict spilling over the borders - in the Balkan Peninsula and even beyond. The atrocities of the Serbian police over the Albanians in Kosova and the danger of the conflict spreading over the borders has alerted not only the big chancelleries, but the major international oragizations, as well. World diplomacy and journalistic circles have worked out various options on the solution of the Kosova question. The substance of the efforts of the international community is to prevent the armed conflict in Kosova from spreading in the neighborig countries. Part of these efforts are also the alternatives to grant Kosova an undefined autonomy - according to some under Serbia, according to others under the remaining Federal Republics of Yugoslavia.
However, these options have not been endorsed by the Albanian public opinion and the Albanian political forces within and outside the borders of Albania. The efforts of the Albanian political forces, also, focus on a solution for the status of Kosova and not on the resolution of the Albanian national question as a whole.
The Academy of Sciences of Albania, deeply cencerned, not just over the resolution of the status of Kosova, but over the future of the entire Albanian nation has worked out and submits this paltform for the resolution of the Albanian question in its entirely. This platform contains historical, political, diplomatic and legal arguments concerning the national Albanian drama. It also unfolds the international background where this drama is being developed and it, lastly, puts forward options towards a gradual solution in view of the present-day international conditions and of the political processes that are leading the Balkans towards integration with the Europian Community.
The platform was initially put forth for descussion in the Asambly of the Academy of Sciences. At a second stage, the plaform drew on the opinions and suggestions of Albanian intellectuals dealing with the national Albanian question from Albania, Kosova, and Macedonia. After the best of the opinions and recommendations were incorporated, the Platform in its present condition was endorsed by the Assembly of the Academy of Sciences of Albania.
In submitting this Platform, the Academy of Sciences of Albania plans to call a National Convention with the participation of intellectuals from all ethnic lands and the Albanian Diaspora in the hope to have the Platform widely accepted. Afterwards, Albanians should one and all work towards its practical implementation.
PLATFORM
FOR THE RESOLUTION
OF THE ALBANIAN NATIONAL QUESTION

History of the national question

The Albanian national question in the sence of the movement for the libaration of the Albanian lands from foreign occupation and their unification into one single national state, was born almost simultaneously with the national movements of the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. As elsewhere in Southeastern Europe, in Albania, too, it was born under the century-long Ottoman occupation. It gained new impetuses especially under the influence of ideas emanating from the French Revolution of the year 1789 on freedom, equality and fraternity of peoples, which could only be attained if every nation was to create its own independent, democratic and illumininist state.
But the Albanian national movement from its very start was faced with opposition not only by the centennial Ottoman ruler, but also by the chauvinistic circles of the neighboring countries. On top of it all, came the indifference of the Big Powers.
Immediately after having established their national states, the governmental Serbian and Greek circles were seized by chauvinism and encroaching tendencies towards Albanian lands, which were still under Turkish occupation. The attainment of their ambitions, openly proclaimed in 1844 by the Blegrade rulers in a programme under the name of "Nacertania" and by the rulers of Athens in the platform named "Megali Idea", did not allow for the creation of an Albanian state. In the context of their nationalistic ambitions, Belgrade and Athens soon found a common language on political and military issues, which meant division between the two of the Albanians lands, to say nothing of Montenegro's hunger for these lands. This common language was first materialized in the secret talks held between Serb and Greek diplomats in Istambul in 1862 and further augmented by the secret alliance concluded between these two states in 1867 in Veslau, Austria on the separation of Albanian lands as per the length of the river Shkumbin and via Egnatia.
In the mid 19th century when such annexionist plans were being conceived, the Albanians, descendants of the ancient illyrians, in spite of the constant territorial shrinking effectuated by century-long pressure of the external forces, were still dwelling in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula where they had been dwelling ever since the dawn of history. Approximately exact data on the streaching of ethnic Albanian lands by the middle of last century have been given by a number of objective Europian observers, who knew the Balkan's human geography from a close personal experience. Among them, mention should be made of the French erudite scholar Ami Boue (1840), the keen British observer E.Spencer (1847) and the renowned Austrian scientist J.Hahn (1853). According to them, the Albanians were an autochthonous population spreading as far North as Nish, Leskovac, and Vranje; as far East as Kumanova, Perlep and Manastir; as far South as Konica, Janina and Preveza. They did not, however, negate that within this vast space there were also inhabitants from the neighboring Balkan nationalities (Greeks, Vlachs, Macedonians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Turks) which were like islands of minorities in the open Albanian sea. By this time, these lands were separated from the Ottoman Empire, and constituted four vilayets - the vilayet of Kosova, Shkodra, Manastiri and Janina. The vilayet of Kosova with Shkup as its principal center was the biggest of all. The geographical streaching of Kosova vilayet was overwhelmingly inhabited by Albanians, hence it is not casual coincidence that is concurred almost fully with the antic Illyrian province of Dardania, whose principal center, like Kosova's, was also Shkup. The second biggest vilayet was that of Janina which streached South from the Bay of Arta up to the river Seman in the North, thus embracing within its reach also the antique province of Epir which, not accidentally, like in Antiquity, in the mid 19th century was again mostly inhabited by Albanians than by Greeks.
The Greek official circles based their nationalistic appetites on three so-called historical, in fact groundless, arguments: on the Hellenic colonies which in Antiquity sprung up on the Albanian costal line as they did on many of the Mediterranean shores; on the violent rule of Byzantium over these lands and the dependance of the orthodox church in these areas from the Istambul Patriarchate. According to the "reasoning" supporting the platform of "Megali Idea", the entire Epir up to the Shkumbini River and the entire Macedonia up to Korca should have been part of Greece. The official circles in Athens did not take count of the fact that the greatest part of these areas were completely free of ethnic greek populations. In view of their complete absence, they counted as members of the Greek nationality every orthodox Albanian simply because from the ecclesiastic point of view they had links with the Patriarchate in Istambul. However, their efforts to artificially increase the number of Greek inhabitants did not have any success. Orthodox Albanians, although they kept their church rites in Greek, with few exceptions, preserved intact their national Albanain conscience. Moreover, this population gave birth to a number of Renaisance writers and thinkers of the national Albanian movement like Naum Veqilharxhi, Kostandin Kristoforidhi, Thimi Mitko, Jani Vreto, Nikolla Naco, etc.
Neither Serbia did have any supportive evidence for its ambitions towards the Albanian lands. It hoped to attain its territorial aspirations with the help of its big sister, Czarist Russia. The thrust of the Serbian "Nacertania" was on Kosova and its headcenter Shkup and on the Serb Expansionist dream to have access to the Adriatic sea. Given the fact that Serb inhabitants in these areas are a small minority, the Belgrade nationalistic circles cooked up additional, equally baseless, arguments: that Albanians are not the descendants of the Illyrians and still less are the ancient inhabitants of Kosova the descendants of the Dardanians; that they were populations who had settled in Kosova from the Eastern part of the Peninsula after the Serbs had already settled; that the Kosova land is the cradle of the Medieval Serb state, therefore, the memories, legends and monuments of their national conscience are connected with Kosova. Shortly, at the time of the Slav influx, Kosova was un unpopulated land, as a conscience the Albanians of Kosova are not indigenous, but migrants who settled after the year 1689, forcing the Serb population of the area to move North after the defeat in the same year of the Austrian army by the Ottoman army. The Serb historians have no historical evidence to ground their assertions on. Their advantage is that, simply for political gains and not out of genuineness, the Serb Albanians have closed their eyes on such thesis. They also have been privileged by the delayed development of the Albanian scientific historiography in face of the increasingly two century old Serbian historiography. Nevertheless, the researches of the last decades, allow the Albanian historians to provide convincing historical proofs to the effect that the thesis of the Serb historians have always been groundless.
The Serb historians have accused the Muslim Albanians of Kosova for collaboratin the Ottoman Power in this latter's repression of the Serbian population in the relevant areas. But the charges are absolutely baseless. The Albanians have always been free from religions bias and animosities. That the Orthodox Serbian Churches and monasteries in Kosova were saved from destruction for over 400 years, this goes unquestionably to the credit of the Muslim Albanians in Kosova. By contrast, the medieval Serbian officials, the moment they occupied Kosova, tore down every monument and ancient religious cult built by the Albanians before their take over. Besides, the Albanains, all through the centuries of the Ottoman occupation stood up in uprisings against Istambul. So much so that independent historical sources testify that the Albanians of the province participated massively in the Kosova uprising of 1689. The same sources indicate that not only Christian Albanians, but a considerable part of the muslim population of Kosov took part in the uprising under the leadership of the catholic Albanain Archbishop Pjeter Bogdani. Moreover, when after the year1689, the liberating movement of the Serbs in Kosova subsided, the Albanians of the province continued with their uprising against Istambul. Some of these uprising were extremely forceful, like the one of the year1844 led by Dervish Cara which so deeply shook the Sublime Port that is dispatched its army around to Rumelia to suppress it. Further, during the Eastern crisis of the seventies in the 19th century, when Southeastern Europe was swept into the storm of the Russian-Turkish War, the main event on the Balkan scale was the creation of the Albanian League of Prizren, which had led the Albanian movement on the brink of obtaining independence, was violently crushed by the Ottoman armies. The land of Kosova was made red with the blood of thousands of its children. The terror of the Sublime Port did not lessen the resistance. On the contrary, the Albanians of Kosova continued to rise up against Istambul by seriously shaking in a number of cases the Sublime Porte, as for example in 1899, 1908 and in 1910. In spring 1912 Kosova was the first to set free the flags of the liberation uprisings. Within weeks, the uprising spread in all Albanian regions to result ultimately in throwing away the Ottoman rule which had lasted for ceturies. The turkish armies were either defeated, or surrendered, or shut themselves up in the army barracks. In the summer, the cities of Kosova liberated themselves one after the other. on 12 August 1912 the Albanian fighters liberated Shkup, the head-center of the Kosova vilayet. However, as it is widely known, when the general uprising was on the threshhold of victory, the events changed their direction to the detriment of Albanians. Alerted by the quick rolling of the situation, the Balkan monarchies joined hastily to declare war on the same front to the Ottoman Empire, which, embattled as it was by the Albanain's blows, suffer deafeat after deafeat. As it is wide-known, in the complicated situation of the Balkan conflict, representatives from all Albanian reagions, including Kosova, Macedonia, and Cameria gathered in the National Convention of Vlora which, on 28 November 1912, proclaimed the National Independance of Albania and the inclusion of all ethnic regions they were representing in one unified national state.

Truncation of the ethnic lands

After the decision made by the Historic Convention of Vlora, the Albanains hoped that their century long stuggle against the Ottoman rule and with their legitimate and lawful rights over their ethnic lands, the six Great Powers, which were jointly dictating the destiny of the peoples of the continent, would recognize the creation of their independent states and would include within its borders all ethnic Albanain lands. But the London Conference, assigned by the Great Powers to design the new map of the Balkan Peninsula after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, recognized in 1913, after a series of hesitations, the Act of the Creation of the independent Albanian state, alone, while the other decision of the Vlora Convention, the unification of of ethnic Albanian lands within independent Albania, was ignored. The borders of the newly created state included only less than half of the ethnic Albanian lands. The other half was divided among the three neighboring Balkan monarchies. Serbia took over the whole of historical Kosova with it's capital Shkup. Greece annexed the regions of Follorina and Kosturi along with Cameria, which the Great Powers hesitated to grant to it at the time of the Berlin Congress because the Albanian League of Prizren warning an armed conflict with Athens. Likewise, the Conference confirmed the cession to Montenegro of Plava, Gucia, Hoti dhe Gruda which the Prizreni League had defended with blood at the time of the Eastern crises of the seventies.
The truncation of the Albanian lands and the annexation of more than their half by the neighboring monarchies, was an injustice at the expense of an ancient nation who had survived the continuous storms of history. Moreover, the annexed lands, instead of gaining their freedom for which they had fought for centuries on end, simply passed from one foreign occupation under another. The Serb, Greek and Montenegrin officials rejected every right to the annexed Albanians, even the right to education in their mother tongue. In addition, since the fall of 1913, immediately after the signing of the decision of the London Conference of Ambassadors (29 July 1913), the goverments of Belgrade, Athens and Cetinje started to deport Albanians from their ethnic homes and forced them to emigrate to Turkey, as far as possible from their homelands. With the massive deportation that Greece carried out in the decades following the annexation of the Albanian lands, especially with the biblical exodus of the Cams which it effectuated at the end of World War ||, it was assumed that its borders were purged of ethnic Albanians. But, as will be shown, ethnic Albanians are still there. Serbia, too, even though it started ethnic cleansing since the time of the Turkish-Russian war of the years 1877-1878 and although after the year 1918 Yugoslavia continued for decades on end the campaign of forced deportations of Albanians from Kosova, Macedonia and Montenegro, it never succeeded in cleansing the annexed lands from ethnic Albanians. The Albanians are where they have been throughout the past millennia, with the exception of the peripheral belt.
From the year 1913 the World has seen two big wars. Both wars were won by powers which had promised to give freedom to the oppressed peoples and respect their national rights. But the injustice of the Big Powers at the Conference of Ambassadors in 1913 was not redressed. Albanian ethnic lands continued to be divided, with the difference that the regions outside the borders of Albania 1913, in the beginning were partitioned among three neighboring monarchies (Serbia, Greece, Montenegro), while from the year 1918 until the year 1991 they stood divided between Yugoslavia and Greece. The Albanians were greatly disappointed both by the Treaty of Versailles (1920) and the Paris Conference (1946). The greatest disappointment was yet to come with the disintegration of the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia at the beginning of the years 90'.
In 1918, when the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom was created, later called the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, quite a number of politologs foresaw that with the conglomerate of nations and nationalities under its jurisdiction, it would be short lived. Indeed, with the development of the national movements of the oppressed nationalities which had gained strong impetus since the 19th century, the era of multinational states was coming to an end. Multinational Yugoslavia, ruled predominantly by Serbian nationalist circles, was created at a time when three multinational empires - Austro-Hungary, Czarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire - collapsed. Nonetheless, the Russian Empire was resurrected (only for a few decades) thanks to promises that the October Revolution made to the oppressed nationalities to have their own Republics or autonomous provinces established on national criteria under the Soviet Union.
During the Second World War, the Yugoslav Kingdom rotten by internal national conflicts, broke down once the German armies crossed its borders. Hitler, the irreconcilable enemy of the Versailles map, in the contex of the violent changing of borders throughout Europe, also chopped up the Yugoslav Kingdom. Croatia was proclaimed an independent state, of course, as a satellite of Germany. Serbia was shrunk. Bulgaria was rewarded with Macedonian territories. Hungary, likewise, took over Vojvodina. Italy, too, as German's closest ally, had its gains from the Yugoslav disintergration.
Ever since the wartime, it has been repeatedly said that Italy and Germany gave Kosova to Albania. This assertion is not entirely true. Hitler, the real author of the Balkan's new map, did not hand over the ethnic Albanian lands to Albania, but to Italy which, on its part, only delegated administrative authority to Tirana. Besides, of the six Albanian populated prefectures which were traditionally part of historical Kosova, only four were administratively joined to Albania: The Prefectures of Prishtina, Peja, Prizreni and Tetova. The Prefecture of Mitrovica (with sub-prefectures of Mitrovica, Vuciterni, Gjilani and Podujeva), Hitler left under Serbia which remained under the German occupation with the view of having the rich mines of Trepca exploited by Berlin and not by Rome. On the other sides, the Albanian lands of Shkup, Kacaniku, Presheva, Kumanova and Prespa were annexed to Bulgaria. The government of Tirana took also under its administration the Provinces of Dibra, Kercova and Struga. In the Montenegrin contex, the regions of Ulqini, Tuzi (Hoti and Gruda) togather with Gucia and Plava were also put under the administration of the Government of Tirana. From the ethnic Albanian lands under ex Yugoslavia, almost half were administratively joined to Tirana, a surface of about 11.780 km2. As a result, the ethnic Albanian lands previously under the ex Yugoslavia, still remained divided, but on a different scale, this time among Italy, Germany and Bulgaria.
However, there is no denying fact that the Albanian lands administratively placed under the Government of Tirana, although under the Italian occupation, had gained several advantages in the field of national rights. They were in the first place liberated from the genocidal Serbian rule and Belgrade's total suppression of national Albanian rights. The creation of an Albanian state administration, the free spreading of Albanian education, the unrestrained use of Albanian literature, the elemination of political borders of Albania 1913, counted as significant advantages for populations which had been striving under the Serbian and Montenegrin yokes. But the overjoicing of the collaborationists of Tirana who equated such advantages with the liberation of Kosova was gravely mistaken. Passing from one yoke to another, despite the fact that this other yoke may weigh less, does never mean liberation of the nation. Furthermore, if the Axis Berlin-Rome had won the war, Albania and the Kosova Regions that were attached to it, would remain under the Italian occupation and the ethnic Albanian lands would continue to be divided. Besides, it should be kept in mind that the opponents of the fascist block, England and France at the beggining, and later the Soviet Union and then the Unated States of America which at the end of 1941 formed the great antifascist English-American-Soviet coalition, did not recognize the changes of state borders by Hitler and Mussolini. Therefore, the antifascist coalition recognized neither the fascist occupation of Albania, nor the disintegration of Yugoslavia, or the attachment of Kosova to occupied Albania. Consequently, if the fascist block lost the war, the collaboration of Tirana with Berlin and Rome for the creation of ethnic Albania in the conditions of the country's fascist occupation, would compromise the Albanian national question much more worse. Albanians would come to be seen as allies of the Nazi-Fascist block. This would give Yugoslavia, an ally of the great anitfascist coalition a free hand to use against the Albanians worse violence than the pre-war Yugoslav monarchists. It should not likewise be forgotten, that the big allies of the antifascist block had proclaimed in the Atlantic Charter (August 1942) that the aspirations of the peoples for freedom and democracy would be reviewed at the end of the war, understandably as per the contribution made to the defeat of the Nazi-Fascist aggressors. Under the circumstances, it was clear to the Albanians that lining up in the uncompromising war against the Italian occupation would be their best investment to having their voice heard when the borders would be settled at the end of the war.
In reality, during the Second World War, the Albanians of Kosova abd Albania made a considerable contribution to the defeat of the Italian-German fascist block. By the end of the War, antifascist forces numbered in Albania around 70.000 partisans and in Kosova around 50.000 partisans. Due to the substantial contribution (as compared to the total population number) in the victory against the fascist aggressors, the Albanians on both sides of the border, were expecting that with the end of the war the big allies would observe the principle of self-determination by the peoples and would be true to their pledge to respect the people's national rights.
Negation of the rights to self determination
But things did not develop as the Albanians had expected. At the end of the Second World War the diplomatic context surrounding the Albanian national question was much more complicated than at the time of the proclamation of the independence. At that time, Serbia and Greece were in the positions of the victors of the war against Turkey, while the Big Powers played the arbiter's part. This time, in 1946 at the Peace Conference in Paris, Yugoslavia and Greece were in stronger position than in the year 1913. Now they were members of the antifascist coalition which had won the war and the decisions were made by the victors without arbiters. Under the circumstaces, that Albania could materialize its lawful territorial aspirations vis-a-vis Yugoslavia and Greece was a priori out of the question. For history does not know of any single case where the victor cedes territories, even when unjustly seized, to the states to which the territories lawfully belong. Besides, although Albania was accepted as member of the winning coalition, at the Peace Conference, Athens accused Tirana as an aggressor on equal footing with Italy, because of the war that the quisling Government of Shefqet Verlaci had declared on Greece in October 1940. As a result, not only, did Greece refuse to have the Albanians' national rights discussed at the Conference, but it claimed financial and territorial indemnifications, i.e. Southern Albania which they like to designate as Vorio Epir. In addition, one year before the Peace Conference was convened, the government of Athens, aiming at a final suppression of the question of ethnic Albanian lands within its borders, by means of a large scale operation of the blitz type deported without distinction within 48 hours the Muslim Albanians in the province of Cameria (men, women, eldery people) under the groudless charge of having collaborated with the German occupation. To escape reprisals by the infamous extremist nationalist N. Zerva, the unfortunate Cam population were forced to emigrate to Albania, leaving behind their homes and possessions. The head of the Albanian delegation at the Peace Conference, Enver Hoxha, refuted the Greek claims with the argument that Albania had sacrificed to the great atifascist war 28.000 martyrs. it had nailed in Albania a number of Italian and German army divisions which would have otherwise been engaged in the Eastern or Western front, to say nothing of the innumerable material damages that the country suffered. As a result, Albania was at the Peace Conference not be held accountable, but to hold accountable the common enemies. Antifascist Albania had nothing in common with the collaborationists who had declared war to Greece: Albania had covered them with shame, just like every collaborationist was submereged into shame in all the Europian coutries. At the same time, the head of the Albanian delegation refuted the Athens' motivation for the deportation of the Albanians of Cameria. The collaboration of certain individuals with the German occupators, the head of the Albanian delegation stated, is not an excuse for the massive deportation of an entire population including household women and little children. Besides, the Greek government should have taken the Nazi collaborators to the court, just as it had done with collaborators of greek nationality, because the Albanian speakers of Cameria were greek citizens, as well. Although the Greek government continued to considered itself in a state of war with Albania for more than thirty years to come, the Peace Conference of 1946 and its participants rejected the identification of Albania as an aggressor country. Even the Greek calculations that with the deportation of the Chams, the issue of the national rights of Albanians should be closed once and for all proved wrong.
The Cham issue is still open and calls for solution.
The question of the ethnic Albanian lands under Yugoslavia took on different demensions.
In clear distinction from Greece wich has proclaimed itself to be the state of the orthodox Greek nation, Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 as a multinational state. Indeed, it incorporated a number of nations which do not speak the same language, do not have the same culture and do not practice the same religion. In order not to repeat the same mistakes committed before the war by the Dinasty of the Karageorgevics which had divided the nations under its rule into three categories from the point of view of political rights - Serbs (the first category), other Slav nationalities (second category) and non-Slavs where Albanians belonged (third category) - Marshll Tito and his collaborators upheld the flags of self determination and equality among the nations in the field of political rights. In observance of this principle, endorsed by AVNOJ in the year 1943, the nations of Yugoslavia won the right to form separate republics at the end of the war as members with the same rights of the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia. Based on the principles of the Atlantic Charter, the AVNOJ decisions and the contribution their partisans units were making to the libaration of Yugoslavia from Hitler's occupation, the communist delegates and nationalist Albanians from Kosova togather with Serb and Montenegrin communists of their regions, decided on 1 January 1944, at the Conference which convened in Bujan to have the principle of self determination take effect in Kosova et the end of the war.
But it was soon revealed that the Titoist promises for equal rights of the nations were pure demagogy. In Jajce it was decided that the Yugoslav peoples be divided into nations and nationalities of which only the nations would have the right to establish republics, while the nationalities could create in special cases only autonomous provinces under one of the republics. The Albanians, the millenium-long inhabitants of historical Kosova, with an uninterrupted rerritorial unity, with a number of centennial cities, with a common ancient culture, with the third largest population after the Serbs and Croatians, with a history of bountiful struggles for independence, fulfilled every criteria to have a republic by themselves. But the new Yugoslav leaders considered as natins only the six Slav communities (the Serbs, the Croatians, the Slovenians, the Montenegrins) while the Albanians were considered to be a nationallity and thus exempted from the right to self determination and also from the right to have their separate republic. Moreover, immediately after the war was over and after the return to Albania of the two Albanian partisan divisions which had fought on the Yugoslav territory against the German forces, the Belgrade federal authorities, and pressured by them also the Serb authorities in Kosova, in July of the year 1945, rejected the Bujan resolution.
The exemption of the Albanians from the right to have their own republic was an arbitrary act. Their discrimination was particulary evident if we keep in mind that the Montenegrins which were six times smaller in size and the Macedonians two times smaller in size than the Albanians were to create their separate republics, while the Albanians were not. As a result, the inequality of pre-Yugoslavia, changed only its form, dimensions and components, but as far as the Albanians were concerned it continued to be in place.
The previous leaders of Titoist Yugoslavia and the present-day nationalist Serbian authorities have continuously tried to justify the inclusion of the Albanians in the category of nationalities, i.e. their discrimination in the field of national rights, with the old thesis that the Albanians of Kosova are not autochthonous, but late comers and with the new thesis that they cannot form their separate republic within the Yugoslav Federation beacuse of the existence of another Albanian state outside its borders. As a result, according to them, there cannot be two Albanian states at the same time. But both thesis of the Serbian authorities have neither historical basis, nor legal grounds.
The first issue of wheather the Albanians are autochthonous or late comers in Kosova has been very much debated in historiography. In the present treatise which is very much in the lines of a Platform, it is impossible to list the documentary sources which refute the Serbian thesis. Suffice to state here that a number of Albanian and foreign historians, archeologists, linguists, ethnographers have established that the inhabitants of Atique Dardania, i.e. Historical Kosova, belonged to the Illyrian ethnicon and they resisted the process of romanization in the same manner with the other populations of the ethnicon living in the Southern Illyrian provinces. Besides, it is an already established fact that the Albanians are the descendants of the Southern Illyrians, of the Dardanians also, who in antique times spread within and outside the present Kosova regions, in the south as far as Shtip (Astibos) and in the North as far as Nish (Naissos). In addition there is no historical evidence to the Slavs having colonized Antique Dardania in the 6th or 7th centuries. The Slav toponymy which the Serbian historians bring forth as a much preferred argument to establish the Serb colonization of Kosova at the beginning of Early Middle Ages does not hold, for in the documentary sources they strated to appear in these reagions only at the beginning of the 11th century. Moreover, during the early medieval centuries, historical sources speak of Christian inhabitants in Kosova, whereas it is widely known that the Slavs were yet pagans until the 10th century. In the same manner, neither does the assertion that Kosova is the cradle of the Serbian state hold, for it is established that its initial home was in the province of Rashka in Sanjak. Moreover, the occupation of Kosova by the Serbian state started at the end of the 12th century. Also, the Medieval Serbian Kingdom did not have a fixed capital. Prizren was one of the shifting capitals of this state, which countinuously opted for expansion southwards to the greek lands with a view to replacing the Bizantium Empire and finally establishing its capital in Costantinopole. There is not sustantial proof that the Serbian occupation in Kosova lasted for more than three centuries. On the other side there is no quite extensive proof testifying that during these centuries the Albanians have been dwelling on the lands of historical Kosova and that the pressure exerted by the Serbian state and the church in most cases could only be successful as far as the serbization of toponyms and names of the inhabitants. In quite a number of cases, if the Slav suffix is taken off the names, it becomes very clear that they pertain to Albanians (for instance: Lek-ic, Pal-ic, Petr-ic,Gjon-ovski, etc.). Also the Belgrade thesis that the historical battle of Kosova against the Turks, which took place in 1389, was fought by the Sebs alone, does not stand to the facts. There is quite a number of independent sources testifying that the anti Ottoman coalition had in its ranks considerable masses of Albanians, including Albanians from Kosova.
In the same manner, the thesis ecountered in the Yugoslav historiography that Kosova was populated by Albanians from the Northern part of Albania after the Serb exodus of 1689 has no documetary support. In the first place, hitorical sources do not prove that the exodus of 1689 had the proportions assigned to it by the Serb historiography. Simultaneously, documentary souces, recognized by the Serb historians, too, do not speak of massive migrations of Albanians from the mountainous regions of the North of Albania to the Kosova lands. So much so that the population in these regions on the brink of the events of 1689 was, as sources of the time indicate, considerably inferior in number as compared to the Kosova Albanian population covering the lands streaching from Tetova to Nish. There is an abundance of historical sources, also recognized by the Serb historians, but purportedly ignored by them, which proves that during the centuries XVI and XVII, i.e. prior to the so-called "massive" Serb exodus of the year 1689, the overwhelming majority of the Kosova population was made up of Albanians. Besides, there are independent historica sources which, as already stated, prove that in the Kosova uprising of 1689 Albanians outnumbered the Serbs. Lastly, it should be stated that the exodus of the Kosova Serbs was not an isolated phenomenon. It also swept the Albanians of Kosova who emigrated either to parts of present-day Albania (for instance the displacement of the Albanians from the environs of Prizren to the province of Mirdita) or, like the Serbs, Northwards (for instance the deplacement in the year 1737 of a large numbers of Albanians from Kosova to settle in territories under the Austrian rule, in the villages of present-day Slavonia, Nikic, Hertkovc, Jarak, Opalanka).
As a result, the claims of the Serb government over their so-called historical rights on Kosova are totally groundless. Historical rights weigh entirely on the side of the Albanians, for they have always been present in Kosova prior and after the Serbian influx into the Balkan Peninsula. The three medieval centuries of Serbian rule cannot affect the historical rights of the Albanians on Kosova as its ethnic dwellers, just as the five centuries of Turkish occupation could not obscure this right. The Serb minority of Kosova is a relic for the political occupation of the Serbs, just like the Turkish minority in Kosova is a leftover of the Ottoman occupation of the Kosova lands. The historical monuments referred to by the Serbs in an effort to support what they call their historical rights, belong to centuries XIII-XIV, i.e, two isolated medieval ceturies. On the contrary, the monuments of the Albanians belong to the centuries in continuity, despite the fact that Albanian monuments have been reduced to ruins by the Serbian state power, which in its recently attempted campaigns to pull down the Croatian's catholic worship places, demonstrated that they have not been freed from their pathological hatred against thier contury-long neighbors. Belgrades appelations on Kosova as the Serb's Jerusalem is a purely emotive driven speculative rhetoric. Myths are no arguments to take over territories inhabited by another nation. The true Jerusalem is a sacred place for all the Christians, but this does not entitle any Catholic states, Protestant or orthodox, to lay possession claims over it, much less to call for the deportation of its inhabitants, Israelis and Palestinians. With its millenia-long past history and the majority of the population being Albanian, Kosova has always been and will remain a limb of the Albanian nation. Neither does the second thesis of the Belgrade's officials hold any truth. None of the innumerable norms of world political, diplomatic and legal history states that one nation can only have one state. To leave aside medieval history, let us refer to modern history and specially to Germany and Italy, which, until the third quarter of the last century had several independent states. Besides, history provides similar cases even in our days. The arab nation, for instance, is divided into several states and noone has ever protested against this violation of the Titois theory. We might even refer to our Southern neighbors, the Greeks, who although being one nation, have two states, Greece and Syprus, both internationally recognized independent republics. As a result, the Titoist theory is entirely arbitrary, without any legal grounds whatsoever. It is cooked up by Belgrade's fanatic nationalists to justify the exemption of Albanians from the right to have thier own republics and further more to deprive them from legitimate political rights internationally recognized.
The futher partitioning of ethnic lands
A further brutal violation with grave historical consequences of the national rights of Albanians living in Yugoslavia was carried out by Belgrade at the end of the Second Warld War. This is the case of partitioning of the lands of historical Kosova. As mentioned above, the Conference of Ambassadors in London (1913) handed historical Kosova and its capital Shkup over to the Serbian Kingdom under the (unfair!) motivation that it was Serbian land. This historical injustice at the expense of the Albanian nation, however, left the Albanians of Kosova, who were almost of the same size as the Albanians in Albania, under one single rule - the rule of the Serbian power. Life under one single rule, enabled the Albanians of historical Kosova to preserve their century-long economic, social, political, cultural relations and at the same time to jointly wage their struggle for national rights. But the proclamation of the six Slav Republics of the Federation, was also a moment for assigning their political boundaries. This was a totally arbitrary action dictated from above. There was no populor referendum, no voting of any kind. There was no asking of the opinion of the Albanian population, or of its leaders. With the aim of breaking the territorial integrity of the Albanians and weakening the strength of their political resistance, the Titoist leadership divided the lands of historical Kosova into three among the Republics of Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. The Serbian Republic took over what is the present-day province of Kosova (narrow Kosova) incorporating also the regions of Bujanovci, Presheva and Medvegja; the Republic of Macedonia was given the Southern part of historical Kosova (the regions of Shkup, Tetova, Gostivari, Kercova, Kumanova) togather with the areas of Dibra and Struga; Montenegro was by contrast given Northwestern part of Kosova (Plava, Gucia, Rozhaj) which it had in fact annexed since 1913.
From a historical point of view this was the third partitioning taking place at the expense of Albanian lands - after the first truncation by the Berlin Congress (1878) and the second by the Conference of Ambassadors (1913). This third splitting heavily hit the territorial unity of the Albanians. Albanian lands, which before the Second Warld War stood divided between three states (Albania, Yugoslavia, Greece) were now shared among five states (Albania, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece). Besides, this last partitioning (the communist truncation) is a violation in full view of the international right both morally and politically - morally, beacause it is not fair to continually chop up an innocent nation; pollitically, because it is unfair that in modern times decisions be made at the expense of a nation without calling on him to go to the polls. The time is long gone when medieval sovereigns gave out provinces or cities as rewards, presents or dowries. From this point of view, the leader of the Socialist Yugoslav Federation commited a political crime at the expense of the Albanian nation and a political violation at the expense of the Serb state, for historical Kosova was granted to Serbia by the London Conference of 1913. The Macedonian annexation of the Southern part of historical Kosova, inhabited until our present days overwhelmingly by ethnic Albanians, is illegitimate. If we were to follow this line of logic, the political Serb circles, in conceding to this trucation, have in fact conceded that the Southern part of historical Kosova with its capital Shkup is not Serb land as specified in the motivation of the 1913 trucation. Indeed, it is neither Serb, nor Macedonian land. The ethnic population of the Southern part of historical Kosova, or Northern part of the republic of Macedonia, being Albanian, makes the land that they live on purely Albanian. After the Second Warld War, the yoke of the aggressive Slav nationalism, coupled with the weight of the communist dictatorship, on the Albanians under Yugoslavia became increasingly suppressive. Their national rights were negated. Education in the mother language was prohibited even during the time when relations between Socialist Albania and Socialist Yugoslavia were more than friendly. After the breaching of the relations between Tirana and Belgrade in 1948, the Titoist leaders, for the purpose of suppressing the Albanian resistance, combined demagogy with terror.
As a measure to suppress Albanian resistance the Belgrade authorities created on the part ceded to the republic of Serbia, the Autonomous Province of Kosova over a surface of 10,577km2 with the capital Prishtina. Based on its first Constitution (1953), the Province of Kosova was given a modest autonomy. Besides, out of the Province were left three districs lying Northeast of Kosova - Bujanovci, Presheva, Medvegja, which from an ethnic, historical and geographical point of view were artificially cut off from Kosova. Their amputation from the Province of Kosova constituted an addition partitioning by Belgrade of the Albanian lands in general and of Kosova in particular.
On the other side, Belgrade's leading circles further intensified their police regime, which besides torture, imprisonments and internal exile, administered upon false evidence and more often than not extrajudicially, was once again resorting to massive expulsions of Muslim Albanians to Turkey. During the fifties and sixties alone, as a result of the genocidal Serbian policy more than 50 thousand people were killed and around 300 thousand were forced out of Yugoslavia.
Notwithstanding, the national consciousness of the Albanians was not extinct and their resistance was not quelled. After a quarter of a century of martyrization, the Albanians were the first among the nationalities of the Yugoslav Federation to publicly protest against national oppression. In the year 1968, in Prishtina broke out a powerful demonstration by the oppressed Albanians who took to the streets demanding the status of republic for Kosova (unfortunately the truncated Kosova) in the contex of the Yugoslav Federation. The demonstration of 1968, which cab be considered the first crease in the big breach of the edifice of Federal Yugoslavia heralded the approaching storm. Belgrade's oppressive steps only exacerbated the situation from year to year. To avoid the bitter clash, the Yugoslav Federal authorities granted to the Province of Kosova a new Constitution in the year 1974. This Constituion recognized Kosova to be like Vojvodina, an autonomous Province under the Serb Republic and at the same time, it was also recognized as a constituent element of the Federation of Yugoslavia. As a result of this decision, Kosova like the six republics of Yugoslavia, had its own Constitution, its Executive bodies, its Provincial Assembly, its Constitutional Court. It aslo had a seat in the Presidency of the Yugoslav Federation, in the Federal Executive Council. The republican bodies of Serbia could not exert their powers in Kosova without approval from Kosova Province Assambly, its Executive Council, its Constitutional Court. Kosova participated throught its delegades in the law making proccess at the Republican Chamber and in the Chamber of the Provinces of the Federal Assembly. Hence, although it continued to be called Autonomous Province, with the Constitution of 1974, Kosova practically took on attributes of the Federal Yugoslav Republics.
The Constitution of 1974 represented, by comparison with the previous situation, a victory by the Albanians in the field of national rights, especially in the field of education and culture, which soon proved to be inadequate. It contained limitations. It, once again, sanctioned the division of the Province of Kosova from the rest of ethnic Albanian lands under the Yugoslav Federation. The very act of the creation of the autonomous province, and not of a republic, in disregard of the fact that its population by far exeeded that of some of the republics of the Federation, sealed the inequality among the Albanians and its Slav nations. At the same time, it also sealed the inequality between the Albanians of the Province and the Albanians elsewhere in the republics of the Federation. As a result of these limitations, Albanians were treated as second hand citizens and as such were discriminated economically and culturally. With these limitations in place, the Serbian nationalists circles which had upheld the total negation of national rights for Albanians, remained, however, discontented. The moment to unleash their resentment came with the outburst of the demonstration of the Albanian students of the Prishtina University in Spring 1981, demanding as in 1968 the upgrading of Kosova to the status of a Yugoslav Republic. Under pressure by Serbian nationalist circles, Belgrade used tanks to crash the demonstrations of the population, like Moscow did in Budapest in 1956 and in Prague in 1968. Although crashed, the demonstrations of 1981 recorded a further breach in the already fragile fabric of the Yugoslav Federation. Proof of Belgrade's shaking by the Albanian nationa movement were the drastic measures taken by the Federal authorities after the initial crash of the demonstrations. The brutal intervention of the Serbian army units, led to a gradual abrogation of the autonomous institutions of the Province until in March 1989 when they arbitrarily and by using military violence entirely liquidated the Autonomy of Kosova. From that year, the Province of Kosova was turned into un administrative unit of the Serb republic and was no longer a constituent element of the Federation. The Constitution of 1974 was unilaterally abrogated by the Serbian Assembly in complete violation of the Serb Constitution itself. It was forced on the Kosova Assembly by the use of tanks. The protests of the Albanians of Kosova were drawned in blood. The Serbian military occupation was enforced and combined with a police terror regimen, imprisonments, exiles, killings and pressure on the youth to leave their homes. Albanian schools were shut down, teachers were discharged.
The proclamation of the republic of Kosova
The Government authorities of the Province of Kosova stood passive to Belgrade's military and police violence. But the representatives of the Albanian population of Kosova, proceeding from the widely recognized right to self determination, gathered in the Assembly of Kacanik on 7 September 1990, while the Yugoslav Federation had not yet disintegrated. This Assembly proclaimed the Republic of Kosova, decided its separation from the republic of Serbia, declared in an equal subject among the constituents of the Yugoslav Federation and approved its Constitution. The Proclamation of the Republic of Kosova, fulfilled the requirements contained in the resolution of the Bujan Conference at the beginning of 1944 and the voiced in popular protests in the fll of 1968, popular demand which was echoed again in the powerful demonstrations of the Spring 1981. Even though the Republic of Kosova did not seek to incorporate all ethnic Albanian lands languishing under the Yugoslav yoke, its proclamation in itself was one step ahead towards the materialization of the Major Programme of the National Albanian Renaissance. Besides, it marked the beginning of the disintegration of the Socialist Yugoslav Federation. Indeed, immediately after the Assembly of Kacanik, Four out of the six Yugoslav republics held referendums to make their independence effective (Slovenia in December 1990, Croatia in May 1991, Macedonia in September 1991, Bosnia-Herzegovina in October 1991). At the same time, the Republic of Kosova, too, sealed the act of its independence in the popular referendum of 30 September 1991. The disintegration of the multinational Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was only a logical consequence of the historical proccesses. This time, the Marxist ideology failed to save multinational Yugoslavia from the inner national antagonisms, as it had also failed to save the Soviet Union itself. Although the signal of disintegration was given with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Albanian national Movement made a substantial contribution to wearing thin the fabric of the Federation during the decades that preceded the fall of the Berlin wall. Due to the substantial contribution to the disintegration of the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia, Albanians were the first to be entitle to have their republic procalimed by Kacanik recognized. However, the legitimate demand of the Albanians once more was ignored by the International Community, more precisly by the Council of Ministers of the European Community which on 16th December 1991 declared the arranging priciples for the problems rising from the disintegration of Federal Yugoslavia and Soviet Union in two basic documents(instructions on the recognition of the new states in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and declaration on Yugoslavia shortly recognized as "the badinter principles"). Based on these principles, upon the disintegration of Yugoslavia: a) only its republics would be recognized as independent states, b) no change of borders by the separated republics would be recognized, except when changes would be agreed by upon both sides and c) the republics after the independence would continue to observe the rights of the national, religious and linguistic minorities living within their borders in compliance with the principles of international rights and widely upheld norms of the international organizations. Starting from this criteria, the Conference of Peace in Yugoslavia under the chairmanship of Lord Carrington, established by the Council of Ministers of the European Union recognized on 11 January 1992 only the independent of the republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and hesitantly, also the one of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Later, it recognized the independece of the Federal republic of Yugoslavia as a new state and not a continuation of the Socialist Federal republic of Yugoslavia, now totally disintegrated. Disintegration of Yugoslavia, represented the long expected change by the Albanians to have the injustice of the past redressed and to achieve liberation from the Serb occupation specially now that they had proclaimed their own Republic. Unfortunately, the international diplomacy was reluctant to recognize the legitimate rights. Besides, it again included Albanian Kosova in multinational state, in the Federal republic of Yugoslavia (now shrunk) although this is the end of the 20th century, which has already entered into history as the century of disintegration of Europe's multinational states sustained with violance.
The Albanians of Kosova, with a consolidated, ethnic, linguistic and territorial unity and a overwhelming majority of 2 million representing 90% of the Province's population, were denied the right to have their own separate state even under the Federal Yugoslav Federation for the only reason that at the moment of the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia the Serb authorities had abrogated by violence of the tanks Kosova's Constitution of 1974 which sanctioned the status of Kosova as an autonomous Province, as one of the Federation's constituent elements just like the other six republics. Through the Badinter principles, the European diplomacy sealed not just the pre-war injustices, but also the post-war injustices commited by the Titoist regime at the detriment of the Albanians. This diplomacy ignored the fact that the Republic of Kosova was born of a plebiscitary vote. Western diplomats proved indefferent to the fact that the Albanians of Kosova (togather with the Albanians of Preshevo, Bujanovci and Medvegja) have been daily suffering during 85 years under the yoke of the Serbs. It continues to be nailed down by Belgrade's claiming them as Serb lands. But Kosova, as above mentioned, is not cradle to the Serb state, neither home to the Serbs, or the Jerusalem of the Serb nation. These are all slogans to cover up the greediness of the political class of Serbia in an attempt not to loose hold of its wealth (fields, waters, forests); its undersoil riches (lead, zinc, chromium, nickel, coal, silver, cooper, etc.) and of its cheap manpower which Serbia is using for hard labor at lower costs, just like the metropolis once exploited their colonies. However, the Serbian aspiration to use Kosova's wealth for its quick economic development and the balancing of its foreign trade balance deficit failed due to the anachronic Serbian intention to become the superpower of the Balkans. As a result, Belgrade extremely inflated its military expenses and increased beyond all limits the police structure to be used against the Albanians and the other oppressed nationalities. Hence, Serbia could never attain the economic levels of Slovenia and Croatia and fell considerably behind.
Belgrade's discriminating policy against the Albanians of Yugoslavia, expulsion of Albanian lands from capital investment, the heavy burden of the ever increasing state taxes cindemned Kosova to a much deeper poverty and backwardness than Serbia's. Continuing poverty along with political persecutions and police terror caused the Kosova labour to emigrate towards Western Europe. It is this sometimes legal and sometimes illegal migration that is making Western Powers aware of the consequences of the territorial truncation of the Albanians' homeland.
For many consecutive years, the Albanians in Kosova who have never hesitated to take up guns for their freedom, however, consented to advice from the international bodies to seek the solution of their national question through peaceful means in bilateral negotiations. The Kosovar leaders for years on end have been knocking on the doors of every chancellery of big powers. They conveyed to the heads of these chancelleries their deep seated belief that Slobodan Miloshevic is not opting for peaceful talks. In more that one case has been proved not true to his word and the international community should, therefore, act as an intermediary. The Contact Group agreed to the request coming from the Albanian side and nominated the Spanish ex-prime minister, Gonzales, to represent the third party. But the Serbian dictator vehemently refused to start Serb-Albanian talks in the presence of a third party under the pretext that Kosova is Serb land and that the intervention of the Big Powers in this issue is into Serbia's internal affairs. Miloshevic's refusal is a speculation with the principles of non intervention to stop international bodies from dealing with the Kosova question. It is a claim deriving from the feudal metality of immunity coming down from the Middle Ages and very much used by the communist dictatorships, but totally unacceptable by the present-day democratic principles, for it is a disguise for national oppression, for the use of the stick and the logic of the strong.
However, before long it was seen that the pressure of the international community to put the solution of the Kosova question on a peaceful track, failed. Besides other things, the failure was due also to the fact that Miloshevic is not without support in certain circles among the Big Powers. The Albanians of Kosova, ome after the other started awakening to the fact that that through their passive or silent resistance they would only be getting back dry promises by the Big Diplomacy and its intervention would only reach as far out as advice on human rights, or on national rights, at the most. Now it is common knowledge that Belgrade will always receive advice in total indefference and disrespect. In addition, the silent resistance enabled the Serb clique ruling in Belgrade to intensify its economic and police pressure to force the Kosova youth to flee in the world and at the same time to escalate terror on the innocent population, women and children unsparingly.
As it is known in February this year when the Serb police mounted into armed terror, the patience of the Albanians of Kosova could not be restrained. The Kosova Liberation Army (KLA) was born as the armed wing of the Albanian resistance. KLA's emergence was an affront to the international community's political line fir the resolution of the Kosova "crises" peacefully. Although the internationl community's line of conduct had ome to a dead point due to Belgrade's stubbornness, instead of bringing pressure to bear on Slobodan Milishevic, the international community took a negative stand to the armed, but justified, approach adopted by the KLA. Such reaction heartened Miloshevic to undertake continued military actions to crash the freedom loving population of Kosova. But Belgrade's expectation that its military operations would quickly and finally suppress by violence the Kosovo "crisis" before the international troops could intervene as they did in Bosnia, were once more doomed to failure. The killingof thousands of Albanians, the burning of tens of thousands of their homes, the collapse of the Province's economy, the displacements of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants from Kosova has not caused resistance to subside. After every battle, the KLA is gaining strength. The Big Chancelleries have to count it as a first hand factor in the resolution of the Kosova question. Belgrade's accusations that KLA is a terrorist organization are no longer being heard. The belief is daily gaining ground that the culprit behind this tragedy, this humanitarian disaster at the heart of Europe at the end of the 20th century is Slobodan Miloshevic and the political Serbian class who have long since been addicted to aggressive nationalism. Voices are getting stronger everyday demanding to take Slobodan Miloshevic and his collaborators to the Hague Court for the massive killings of peaceful people, for the disfiguration of the corpses of innocent women and children, for the massive burial of peasants with heads chopped off and children with eyes taken out, i.e. as real perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
However, there are still influential international circles who cannot be brought to give up the obsolete biased opinion that Kosova is Serbian land. It is necessary that these circles realize that it is not because of the fault of 2 million Albanians demanding national freedom, but because of these biased opinios spread and cultivated by Belgrade, that the so-called "crisis" of Kosova is no longer an internal crisis of Serbia, but has turned into a Balkan crisis as is being widely asserted. Therefore, its solution will be itself entail the solution of the Serb crisis and of the Balkan Peninsula beyond.
It is absolutely necessary that the Big Chancelleries view the "Kosova" crisis not on its political surface, but at its historical, ecomical, social, and cultural roots. The issue of Albanian lands separated from the Albanian state is the issue of un unjustly split up nation. It is the quation of a nation, whose lands before their truncation in 1913, had for centuries established and maintained an economic, social and demographic balance between the field (farming) and the mountain (animal breeding). The big diplomacy upset this balance by giving the most fertile part of the fields to the neighboring countries and by forcing the independent Albanian state mainly in the mountainous and swampy areas. Consequently, the national Albanian question is not only a spiritual aspiration of an ancient nation unjustifiably split up by the big Diplomacy. Concomitantly, it is an imperative demand of a nation chopped up, one half of which is being threatened with physical elimination, while the other half, although having its own independent state, is continually suffering the consequences of the territorial fragmentations in the economic, social, cultural and demographic fields.
The way to solution
After this brief presentation, the question arises concerning every Albanian: What should be done to end this drama where the Albanian question is cought up? Every Albanian, wheather on this or that side of the border, within or outside the ethnic lands, aspire a quick unification of their lands into one unique Albanian state as the Great Albanian Renaissance men of the last century put down in their programmes. What are the objective and subjective factors, the national and international climate, the political and material chances to sustain the materialization of this aspiration?
Undoubtedly, our present day situation surrounding the Albanian national question is more complicated now than it was at the time of the Albanian national renaissance. At that time, all ethnic Albanian lands were under the occupation of one state - under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire. Then, Albanians stood lined up into a single trench and hit against the same target - against the Sublime Porte. Today, by contrast, the ethnic Albanian lands divided among five states, four of which alien to the Albanians. Of course, different from the Renaissance period, today there is the independent Albanian state, well established in the international arena, whose top priority task includes the upholding of the flag of the Albanian national question. This is unquestionably on the possitive side. On the other hand, to have the substantial Renaissnce programme materialized means to change the borders of four national Balkan states which have also been established in the international arena. This is on the negative side of the problem, which to be realistic, it should be acknowledged that in the present conditions is in itself a difficult obstacle to our national question to overcome without support from the international factor.
In connection with the international factors, it should be taken well into account that the time when the political map of the continents was drawn up by the Big Powers has come to an end since 1946. After the Second Warld War, the adjustment of international question became the jurisdiction of the Unated Nations Organization which affixed in its fundamental charter the principle of the self-determinatin by the peoples. However, the post war years were characterized by the division of the world into antagonistic camps and by efforts on both camps to estabilsh with violence the order which best suited to either of them. But in the present decade, the international situation has radically changed. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War marked the end of political alignments and of the efforts to change violently the world order. As a rsult, even the time when the Balakan countries were lined up in conflicting camps has come to an end. With the end of the Cold War, the Warsaw Treaty created by the Soviet Union to defend the communist planet was dissolved. Upon its disintegration, the ex member countries to this Treaty are making efforts to join NATO. Nowadays, the adjustment of internatinal issues is being handled by powerful world or continental organizations such as the United Nations Organization (UNO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and other organizations acting on the basis of their charters which have the value of constitutions endorsed by ad-hoc assemblies. As it is known their main objective is to prevent armed conflicts from which mankind has been continuously suffering and to defend the small states from the military violence of the big and powerful states. For this reason, all fundamental acts of international organizations enshrine the principle of the observation of the political borders of all states, despite the injustices of the past. Injustices must be redressed through negotiations, i.e. through peaceful means. In the same manner, the national rights of the oppressed nations, too, should be handled peacefully. In a condensed manner, the political international and European organizations re-confirmed three main points of their post war doctrines; no violent change to the state boundaries; recognition of national rights of minorities; and adjustment through peaceful means of all disagreements between neighbor countries. Otherwise, no state would be admitted in NATO, ot in the European Community. Nor would it enjoy the support of the United States. The use of violence from either side, or for whatever motive, including violation of national rights, would be condemned, starting with economic sanctions and ranging to military intervention. It is the international organization's belief that this is the way to transit painlessly from the Europe of States to the Europe of Nations whose political boundaries will be changed into ethno cultural boundaries. However, international organizations, especially the USA, do not rule out the possibility of the use of the military force when its a case of government circles using police violence to suppress human rights and endangering, through their arrogance, peace in the entire region. Cases in point are the pressures of the Western powers to force Serbia to halt aggression against Slovenia, to interrupt military operations against Croatia and to put an end to Bosnia's disintegration. International intervention has been a factor to end conflicts in the Balkans by making use sometimes of pressures, sometimes of threats, sometimes of military means. There are cases, though, that some problems are left without definite solution.
However, despite some of the problems still persisting, certain results have been obtained. The Bosnian Serbs, for instance, in the past did not have the status of the an independent republic, not even that of an Autonomous Province. The Deiton Agreement granted to the Bosnian Serbs, the right to have their own republic (Srpska Repubika) in the contex of Federal Bosnia. On the contrary, Kosova which used to be an Autonomous Province with its own Constitution approximating the status of an independent republic, was arbitrarily deprived from its autonomy of 1974 at a time when it should have won the right to be a Republic under the contex of the Federal Yugoslav Republic. The international opinion familiarized with this issue rightfully asks the question: ?Why does Serbia deny to the Albanians of Kosova the same right that was given with Belgrade's insistance to their compatriots in Bosnia, although the Albanians in Kosova are three times the size of the Bosnian Serbs? Or: Why are the Western Powers denying to the Albanian's the same right they granted to the Serbs?
It is several months now that talk is going on abot NATO-s military intervention to force Belgrade to cut short its terror over the Albanians and to withdraw its police and pre-military forces from Kosova. Military intervention is an emergency to avoid a humanitarian disaster among the Albanians, but what would be the political status of Kosova, afterwards? Quite a number of ideas have been circulating to grant Kosova a wide autonomy, according to some under Serbia, according to others under the Federation. What is the need to complicate the issue, to flame disagreements, to harden debate, to render solutions impossible when every international organization from the United Nations Organization and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to the Council of Europe and the European Parliament uphold in their charters that the highest principle with regard to solution of their national rights is the right to self determination? The Academy of Sciences of Albania upholds: only if the Balkan's ethnic problems including the issue of ethnic Albanian lands are resolved on the basis of the principles of self determination, only then will the Peninsula of Hemus find peace, only then the Balkans will not be a "powder-keg", only then will be no need for politival aligning of states against one-another.
The neighboring Balkan countries incorporating within their borders ethnic Albanian lands have formally accepted the principles of this doctrine, but practically, to a bigger or lesser degree, are trying to escape it. By contrast, Serbia which heads small Yugoslavia and holds the biggest share of ethnic Albanian lands outside the political borders of Albania, stands opposed to these principles with the use of police violence, As a result of these stands, the Albanians on the ethnic lands annexed since 1913 by Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece experience problems with regard to their national rights. However, given the numerical weight of the Albanian population in every country and also the political conditions which they live in, the task calling for solution and the ways to attain relevant solutions are not identical. Nevertheless, the solutions should be sought in the framework of the historical processprevailing in the European continent of today, i.e. in peaceful ways, with democratic means and with the support of the international organizations which have proclaimed and uphold these principles.
1. The question of Kosova
The most critical and most emergent is the situation of the Albanians in Kosova. First of all, it should be clear that the province of Kosova created by Belgrade with its 10,877 km2 surface and the center in Prishtina does not incorporate all of the ethnic Albanian lands falling under the Serb republic. To say nothing about those partsof historical Kosova which Federal Yugoslavia attached to Macedonia and Montenegro, inside the Serb Republic, besides the Province of Kosova, there are also three regions under Southern Serbia - Presheva, Bujanovci, Medvegja. Under the Serb Republic, the true province of Kosova (togather with the three above mentioned regions) counts for about 14 thousand km2, i.e. approximately half the surface of the Republic of Albania. In connection with the Kosova question, the following considerations should be kept in mind:
At the end of July 1988, 85 years completed from the day since the Conference of Ambassadors of the six Big Powers which convened in London under the chaimanship of the British Foreign Minister, Sir Eduard Grey, decided among other things to annex Kosova and Macedonia to the Serb Kingdom. Two weeks after the signature of the unappealed verdict, the Head of the Foreign Office, Sir Grey, in his explanations to the House of Commons on the 12 August 1913 regarding the assigning of borders to Albania by the Conference of Ambassadors, admitted that injustices had been made at the expense of the Albanians, but indulged that through such injustices the Big Powers had achieved something important: they had done a big service to peace in Europe. But this sacrificing of the rights of the Albanians did not save peace. One year later, on 4 August 1914, the First World War broke out ignited by the Serb territorial greediness.
It should not be forgotten that the Europe of dynasties gave Kosova and Macedonia to Serbia in 1913 not because they were Serb lands, as Belgrade claims, but because for political and strategic reasons needed to stop Austro-Hungary from expanding towards Salonika, a factor long since out of play. Upon the creation of the Republic of Macedonia, upon its recognition by the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade itself admitted that Macedonia which it annexed in 1913 was not Serbian land. Just as Macedonia was separated from Serbia, the same right should also be recognized to Kosova, which likewise is not Serbian land.
During these 85 years, ever since Kosova was annexed by Belgrade, not only the Albanians, but the Serbs as well, have not seen a moment of peace. History over these last 85 years has demonstarated that in treating Kosova as "Serb" land to be cleansed of Albanians, Serbia had at the time penalized herself, too. With this policy, it has turn Kosova into an incurable disease, indeed, into a gangrenous disease which is corroding Serbia itself. It is true that Kosova contains fertile farms lands and rich mineral resources which bring lots of profit to Serbia, but the Serb authorities should also put in the balance the harm coming thereupon. Poloce terror enacted to ensure Serbia's internal peace has failed for ever. The breach beween Serb authorities and the Albanian population has been growing without let up. To keep the resentful Albanians under control, Serbia has been forced to continually burden its budget with excessive military expenditures. The policy of ethnic cleansing has failed, too. Besides, the policy of ethnic cleasing has diverted the attention of the Serb authorities from the solution of issues vital to the acceleration of Serbia's economic advancement and prosperity of its people. The addressive Serb nationalism, which, after the Bosnian disaster has concentrated on Kosova, in addition to keeping high the tensions in the Balkans and in Europe, continues to discredit Serbia in the international arena. As a consequence, the stubborn continuation of the ethnic cleansing policy will further submerge Serbia in the dead-end adventure on which it has embarked since the year 1913. Shortly, Serbia can be liberated from its gangrene called Kosova only by taking it out of its body.
In the evolution path of Serbia ever since it annexed Kosova (1913), from the Serb Kingdom to the Yugoslav Kingdom , later to the Socialist Yugoslav Federation and lastly to the Yugoslav Federal Republic (mangled) its legal status vis-a-vis Kosova has changed accordingly. With Kosova's identification in the Yugoslav constitution as one of the Constituents of the Federation, with the disintegration of Federal Yugoslavia and cessation of some of its Republics, with the boycott on the part of the Albanians of Kosova of the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Serbia, with the separate elections that the Albanians in Kosova have held, with the proclamation of the Republic of Kosova by the Assembly of Kacanik and lastly with the September 1991 referendum endorsing the independence of the republic of Kosova, based on the principle of self determination, the Republic of Serbia has lost the judicial title giving her sovereignty over the province of Kosova.
Lastly, despite the policy of ethnic cleansing followed by Belgrade since the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 up to the present days, despite the pains that it has inflicted on the Albanians, and despite the shrinking of the Albanian territories along the sideways, still over the greatest part of historical Kosova the Albanians are where they have been in centuries. Today they represent 90% of the Province's population. if the same demographic growth rates are maintained, or even if they drop somewhat, soon the Serb authorities will have to deal no longer with 2 million Albanians, but with double, and later with triple, this number. How sure are the Serb authorities that they can keep under their yoke at the heart of the European Continent this people with its thirst for freedom, under the circumstances where the gap between the Serb political class and the Albanian population has been deepened to such a measure that their co-existence in the future is almost impossible.
Present day international situation surrounding the solution of the Kosova problems is more favorable that at the time of the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia when the European Community did not take into consideration the Albanian demands. Today, thanks to the constant growth of the Albanian National Movement and due to the arrogance of the nationalist ruling circles in Belgrade, the international opinion has become increasingly sensible to the Kosova question in particular and to the national rights of the Albanians in general. Alongside the sensibility, there is also a parallel increase of the concern of the big chancelleries and international organizations for fear of the conflict between Belgrade and Albanians spilling over to other Balkan countries. As a result, the opinion of the international military intervention to stop, as they did in Bosnia, Slobodan Milishevic's nationalistic and terroristic adventure in Kosovahas been high on the agenda for a number of months. Under the circumstances, the Albanians should be careful to use all chances and all options offered by the international community at this point in time. It is essential that the Albanians demonstrate appropriate determination to undertake necessary actin in order to encourage the international political factors to overcome their constant hesitancy and take adequate measures towards a quick solution of the Kosova question, in compliance with the universally declared principles on human rights and the right to self governing. At the same time, the Albanians should provide guarantees to the international community that the republic of Kosova at the heart of the Balkan Peninsula shall be open to Serbia and Albania, alike, and shall be a peace promoting factor in Southeastern Europe and beyond. An indispensable condition to materialize this sacred task in the uniting of the Albanians in a common national front which should rise above the interests of the political parties. To conclude, keeping in mind that the international principles of the freedom of peoples and the right of the nations to self determination are on the side of the Albanians; besides, keeping in mind that the further co-existence of the Serb political circles with the Albanian population of Kosova will always be a source of unrest in the region, we are of the opinion that the only possible solution which would ensure peace, prosperity and advancement of the two peoples is the urgent intervention of the international community to force Belgrade to recognize the Republic of Kosova separate from the Serb tutelage, ceding its people the right to slef determination with regard to the status of the republic.
2. The question of the Albanians in Macedonia
Just as in the Republic of Serbia, in the Republic of Macedonia, too, there is a considerable number of ethnic Albanians. As in Kosova, in Macedonia, too, the ethnic Albanian lands display territorial continuity. Until a few decades earlier they were known as the Southern part of historical Kosova. Here Albanians lands spread in the North and Eastern part of the republic of Macedonia, from Dibra to Kumanova. It has been for almost 20 years now that the Macedonian authorities do not disclose the exact number of the Albanians living within their Republic. Official figures say that the Albanians represent 23% of Macedonia's population. Meantime, the figure excludes about 170 thousand Albanians under the pretext that they have resigned Macedonian citizenship, which is not true. But other sources speak of a greater magnitude of the Albanians. There are grounds to assert that Albanians constitute 35% of the population of the Republic of Macedonia. The Macedonians make up 55% of the entire country's population including those who consider themselves as Bulgarians (the rest are Serbs, Turkish, gypsies). Given their proportions, there is no way that the Albanians can be treated as minority, but as members with equal rights as the Macedonians in their common state. Regrettably, despite certain rights in the field of elemetary and secondary education and in certain cases even in the field of the local administration, the Albanians in Macedonia undergo discrimination as compared to the Macedonian citizens. The authorities in Shkup go to special lengths to diminish or even neutralize the participation of the Albanians in the state structures and in Macedonian's political life. Indeed, the participation of the Albanians in government structures is something like 2% of the civil and military administration. The number of the Albanian deputies in the Macedonian parliament, due to various manipulations during the electoral process, does not represent the exact number of the Albanian population. The representation rate in the Parliament of Shkup is one deputy for 10 thousand inhabitants, whereas in the Albanian regions, one deputy represents 15 thousands or 18 thousands inhabitants and there are cases of more than that.
As a result of the dsicrimination against the Albanians, consequently as a result of their resentment, notwithstanding positive assessments from the international circles, the Macedonian Republic is a fragile state. The international military troops stationed in the ethnic Albanian ares are making efforts to keep the Macedonian edifice from crumbling down. The world media constantly report on police violence used by the Macedonian administration which ends up in Albanian victims. Certain international circles are trying hard to hush up the pangs of the crisis which is digging from within the foundations of the Macedonian state. But the crisis cannot be relieved and much less overcome, unless the Albanians are granted their national rights as expressed in the relevant international acts. What was said above about Serbia in connection with the growth rates of the Albanian population, is still more relevant about Macedonia. If the actual growth rate persists, the day will not be too distant when the Albanian population will equal outnumber the Macedonian population. Accordingly, the problems of relations between the two ethnities will not decrease, but will increasingly accumulate. To prevent Macedonia's internal crisis from getting any worse which it is bringing upon itself by the violation of the national rights of the Albanians, two are the options leading to its solution: a) Either consider the Albanians as equal with the Macedonians and Macedonia as their common state according to the well known pattern of the Austro-Hungarian state: b)Or grant the Albanians the right to an autonomous province under the Macedonian Republic. These are the alternatives to lift the discrimination of the Albanians in Macedonia as second hand citizens some manifestations of which being: discrimination in budgetary investment, inequality of membership in the judiciary, the suppression of the University of Tetova, the prohibition of the use of their national flag, the prohibition of the Albanian language in official documents, etc.
3. The Albanians in Montenegro
Ethnic Albanians in Montenegro, a few decades ago, were a considerable majority vis-avis the Montenegrins, the Islamic and Bosnian populations. Due to constant migrations caused by ethnic, religious, political and social discrimination, thier number has been increasingly shrinking. Today, they only make up 8% of the population of the republic. From this point of view, they fall in the category of the minorities. However, as such they do not enjoy the national and civil rights they are entitled to. Although the Montenegrin Constitution recognizes their civil rights despite ethnic, language and religious pertinence, in real life such rights are not observed by the Montenegrin state. Orthodox Albanians in Montenegro are now totally assimilated. The Catholic and Muslim Albanians have managed to survive and they are subject to treatment as second hand citizens. Given the fact that their regions manifest a clear territorial integrity revolving around the central city of Ulqin, where the Montenegrin population is a minority, these lands should enjoy local territorial autonomy, as provided for in the well known international acts. The only way for them, too, to obtain this administrative and cultural autonomy is the path of the democratic means without clashes with the state they are a part of.
4. The Albanians of Greece
In neighboring Greece, the presence of the Albanians is both new and ancient. The most ancient are the ethnic Albanians who have been living for thousands of years in their own lands forming an uninterrupted continuity with the Albanian territory. For thousands of years they have been a part of the Albanian territory, despite the border pyramids stationed in 1913. The Albanians live in the lands of Cameria, Kosturi and Follorina where they managed to escape expulsions either because they were orthodox, or because they concealed their Muslim religion. According to observations from foreign geographers, in the year 1985 they were estimated at 30 thousand people who spoke their Albanian mother tongue, but did not dare to declare themselves Albanians. As of today, the Greek state has not recognized them as a community of an ethnic and linguistic minority. On the basis of principles clearly expressed in international acts, the minimum of rights to be enjoyed by members of the ethnic Albanian minority, is the right to read and write their mother language during the year of basic education in Greek schools and the right to learn Albanian history and literature in the years of secondary education in the Greek schools they attend in the regions of Cameria, Kosturi and Follorina (the same rights that have been recognized to the members of the Greek minority in Albania). Taking into consideration the long pressure that has been exerted on this population to deny their ethnic Albanian belonging, they will not initiate any sort of movement to ask for their educational and cultural rights. In view of the conditions of the Albanians in Greece, the Albanian Government should take the initiative to promote such rights. this Government also has the right task to solve the long pending problem of the properties of the Albanians of Cameria who were deported by the Greeks in 1945.
5. Albanian Linguistic and Cultural Minorities
During thier millennia-long history, time after time the Albanians have been forced to abandon their ethnic lands either individually or collectively for various reasons (political, economic, social and religious) and to settle in other lands far away from their mother country. Very frequently, the Albanians of the Diaspora have settled close to one another creating in this way Albanian local communities inside the body of other ethnities. The beginnings of the Albanian Diaspora have been lost in the remoteness of the centuries. Not a few Albanian communities in the Diaspora which have come down to us in historical records have been assimilated by the nationalities in their new homelands. From historical sources we know that such Albanian communities of the Diaspora survived until the last century or the beginning of our present century in Bulgaria, Thrace, Besarabia, Ukraine, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Sanjak, Egypt and elsewhere. Only the inhabitants of several regions of the Albanian Diaspora in Greece and italy still preserve the ethno-linguistic identity of their predecessors, most importantly the Albanian language and the spiritual culture of their ancient forefathers.
Indeed, Greece and Italy are the countries where the medieval migrations of the Albanians were the most intensive that elsewhere. In Greece, the settlement of Albanians detached from the ethnictrunk, started at least since the 14th century but gained the greatest proportions in the 14th century. In the following centuries the number of the displaced went on the decline. they settled partially in the Greek provinces of Peloponessus (Corinth, Argolide, Lakoni, Elida, Arkadi, Meseni), partly in continental Greece (Atica, Beoci, Etoli, Akarnani, Tesali) and the other part settled in the Greek islands of the Aegean (Hydra, Speca, Patros, Salamina, Eube). It has been generally asserted that in the 15th century their number amounted to 200 thousand people, bu the figure has not been recorded. The massive movement of the Albanians towards the Italic Peninsula happened in the 15th century. They settled mainly in Southern Italy (in the provinces of Cosenza, Catanzaro, Campobasso, Foggia, Teramo, Lecce and elsewhere) and in certain Sicilian villages (in the province of Palermo, Catania and Girgenti). About them, too, there are general assertions, but no recorded documents, that the number of the settlers must have been around 200 thousand.
The century-long life away from their homeland and the constant pressure of the Greek and Italian populations with which they co-existed, brought as a consequence that some of the Albanian regional communities of Italy and Greece become assimilated with the passage of time and presently they preserve only the notion of their ethnic origin. However, not a few of the descendants of the medieval Albanian Diaspora have preserved the Albanian language and the Albanian spiritual culture which are very distinct from those of their Greek or Italian neighbors. The inhabitants of these Albanian communities are called by the Greeks as arvanite according to the medieval name for Albanians (arbanite) with a distorted pronunciation. In some parts these communites call themselves arberore. By contrast, the descendants of the medieval Albanian Diaspora in Italy are called by the Italians as albanezi (albanesi) while they call themselves arbereshe. Neither the number of those ethnities, nor the number of of the arbereshi who still speak the language of their ancestors, is known, because the Greek and Italian Governments alike never paid attention to the correct census of such Diaspora. The Italian geographer G.Ciampi in one of his works of the year 1985 estimated the number of the arvanites who still speak the Albanian language at around 200 thousand. The English scholar P. Trudgill (1983) says that in Atica and Beoti alone, the speakers of the arberor language account for 140 thousand people without counting the arbanites of Corinth and Eubea who are assumed to be in considerable numbers. The information on the number of arbereshi in Italy, too, are only in approximate figures. However, it can be estimated that the speakers of the Arbereshi language should be around 140 thousand people.
But the arvanites and the arbereshi who speak the Albanian language, in the course of centuries being cut off from their ancestral homeland came to see their destinies linked to the destinies of either Greece or Italy. They have already been assimilated by the consciousness of the Greek or Italian citizenry. As such, they no longer constitute an ethnic minority. Based on the established principles of the international right, they constitute a linguistic and cultural minority. As a consequence. on the basis of fundamental documents proclaimed by the international organizations on human rights and on the linguistic and cultural minorities, both the arvanites in Greece and the arberesh in Italy are entitled to the right to learn to write and read Albanian at least 2 hours a week in addition to the curricula of the Greek and Italian schools. Greece and Italy will not be losing anything if they recognize to these communities the right to learn at school to read and write their mother language. This will only strengthen the ties of friendship between the Albanians abd the two neighboring peoples.
Conclusion
As has already been said, the rightful aspiration of all Albanians is, as the Great Albanian Renaissance men identified since the last century - the unification of all ethnic Albanian lands in a single national state. As of presently, the unification has not been achieved. Of course, this is not the fault of the Albanians. Half of the Albanian ethnic lands continued to be under the rule of foreign countries. As a result, the Albanian national question is still unresolved. One century ago, on the eve of the Berlin Congress, Abdyl Frasheri, one of the renowned ideologists of of the national Albanian movement, warned the European Chancelleries of his time: "If the Big Powers will condemn this brave and freedom loving people to remain under occupation, or still worse, if they will split it up among the neighboring countries, the Balkan Peninsula will never find peace, because the Albanians will never give up fighting for their national independence. On the contrary, if they will recognize to the Albanians their national rights, Albania will become a contributing factor to peace in the Balkan Peninsula". History has proved him right. The violation of the national rights of the Albanians has been and continues to be a source of deep concern for Albania, Serbia, the Balkans and beyond.
The Academy of Sciences of Albania upholds that despite the problems facing the Balkan Peninsula presently, history is guiding Southeastern Europe towards European integration. It is also the opinion that presently, when the international factors will not allow the change of actual borders and when the Balkan Peninsula has not yet risen above radical nationalistic passions, the major objective of the national Albanian Renaissance will be attained gradually, in a step by stem manner following the process of the integration of the Balkan Peninsula in the European Union. The first step towards this major objective is the fastest possible liberation of half of the Albanian nation from the Yoke of aggressive nationalism. In the present situation, the Academy of Sciences asks for a combined intervention of democratic Albanian forces and the internationally important factors to recognize the Republic of Kosova as a constituent of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to treat the Albanians in Macedonia as equal citizens with the Macedonians, i.e. grant them the right of state-forming people, to assist the Albanians in Montenegro to obtain their autonomous province and to guarantee to the Albanians in Greece the right to learn their mother tongue at government schools. These are universally accepted legitimate rights which do not infringe upon the actual political boundaries of the states of the Balkan Peninsula. It is the belief of the Academy of Sciences of Albania that if the Albanians in the annexed ethnic lands are liberated from the chains pf oppression, simultaneously the neighboring governments (especially the Serb authorities) will be liberated from the burden of the oppressor and the Balkans will be free from tension beds. This is the only way to the acceleration of the genuine democratization of the Balkan countries, to the facilitation of their integration with Europe and European Union where political boundaries of the states shall no longer be like the Chinese Wall, but will be turned like in Western Europe, into ethnocultural boundaries, into boundaries of friendship and fraternity.
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF ALBANIA
Tirana, 20 October 1998