Arvanitasit.
Do te ishte me interes nese qasemi seriozisht rreth kesaj teme.
E kaluara, e sotmja dhe e ardhmja e tyre, pare nen driten e dokumentave historike, kengeve dhe rrefimeve, vuajtjeve dhe brengave.
Kombi shqiptar si nje komb ne rilindje te vazhdueshme, si nje komb ne ringritje, ka detyrim kombetar qe te merret seriozisht me fatin e bashkekombasve te vet.
Kjo nuk duhet te shihet si nje forme e vjeteruar te nje nacionalizmi romantik, por si nje trajtim i ri dhe ne kushte te reja i ketij problemi jeik per te sotme dhe per te ardhmen.
Cfare duhet te beje shoqeria shqiptare per zgjimin e ndergjegjes se ndrydhur kombetare te arvanitasve, qe te detyruar nga propaganda greko-panortodokse ende dhe sot e kesaj dite nuk e marrin guximin te shprehen hapur per veten e tyre, per prejardhjen e tyre, per gjuhen e tyre, per te ardhmen e tyre.
Cfare duhet te beje shteti shqiptar (shtetet shqiptare) dhe institucionet qe kane per detyre qe te merren me diasporen, ne lidhje e arvanitasit?
Cfare duhet te bejne institucionet kulturore dhe fetare me arvanitasit?
Cfare duhet te beje ambasada shqiptare dhe konsullatat shqiptare ne Greqi?
Si dhe sa jane te organizuar arvanitasit ne Greqi?
Po te vesh re ne forum, ka nje endje qe te merremi me halle dhe shqetesimet e gjithe botes dhe shume pak ose aspak merremi me fatin e bashkekombasve tane neper vendet fqinje.
Pse lihen arvanitasit ne vetmi dhe ne erresire?
Pse lihen shqiptaret te painformuar per fatin e tyre?
Pse drejtuesit e shtetit shqiptar nuk kane guxuar deri sot qe te merren me kete problem, qe te marrin kotakte te hapura me to, qe te ngrejne zerin per politiken asimiluese e mohuese te shtetit, te kishes dhe te shoqerise greke?
Pse nuk kryhen shkembime kulturore, artistike, shpirterore me arvanitasit?
Do ju lutesha shume te gjthe atyre qe kane me teper informacion lidhur me kete teme, qe te jipnin te gjithe kontributine tyre permes shrimeve, materialeve, informacioneve, kengeve etj dhe te benin te mundur qe te gjithe anetaret te njihen dhe te informohen me mire.
Mos t'ja leme cdo gje rastesise apo njerezve pa informacion apo me informacion te shtremberuar per kete ceshtje.
Përgjigju Duke Cituar
Postuar më parë nga Albo
anuary 9, 2003The Honorable Colin PowellUnited States Secretary of StateUS Department of State2201 C Street, NWWashington, DC 20520Dear Secretary Powell,We the undersigned, as Albanian Americans and as members of Albanian civic,religious, cultural and humanitarian organizations, are writing to protestin the strongest possible terms the United States of America Department ofState's (DOS) official endorsement and support of the recent visit toAlbania by Nicholas Gage - a.k.a. Nikos Gatzoyiannis.Nicholas Gage is a well-known opponent of Albanians' interests in theBalkans. It is a matter of public record that the Panepirotic Federation ofAmerica, Canada and Australia, the organization Mr. Gage represents, refersto Southern Albania as "Northern Epirus" and considers it to be occupied byAlbania, an obvious provocation and a direct renunciation of Albania'ssovereignty. Nicholas Gage (i) greatly, intentionally and publiclymisrepresents the population of Albania's Greek minority up to an astounding30% of Albania's population of three million, compared to the officialAlbanian government number of 58,000, approximately 2% (ii) implicitlyportrays all of the Albanians of the Orthodox faith in Albania as Greeks,thus offending the Albanian Orthodox Church and its congregation throughoutthe world, and (iii) in an effort to vilify Albanians, has aggressivelycampaigned in Washington and elsewhere with his fabrications about the lackof human rights of Albania's Greek minority. These false claims are indirect conflict with the conclusions reached by DOS, the Council of Europe,the European Commission, and other international human rights organizationsin their various positive assessments. The facts are that the Greekminority lives side by side with the Albanians, has several media outletswhich communicate and publish only in the Greek language, has athree-times-better teacher/student classroom ratio when compared withAlbanians in a system that provides education in Greek from elementaryschool to university, and has a disproportionately high representation inAlbania's government.In addition, Gage publicly opposed the US/NATO intervention in Kosova evenas innocent Kosovar civilians were being massacred by the thousands,including American citizens of Albanian descent. Furthermore, as recentlyas May 22, 2001, he stated in the Washington Post that the thousands ofGreeks in Albania should receive the same treatment as the nearly twomillion Kosovar Albanians, clearly implying that when Kosova attains itsindependence, Southern Albania should secede and follow step. Thesepositions serve only to fuel tensions and threaten the progress of improvingAlbanian-Greek relations while undermining overall stability in the Balkans,an area where the U.S. has made a significant strategic investment of itshuman, political, financial and military assets.We are outraged by the fact that during his visit to Albania, and whilebeing hosted in an official capacity by our Embassy in Tirana, Mr. Gage (i)reiterated all of the above-mentioned views, including the fabricationsabout the number of the Greek minority and the analogy of their situationwith the Albanian Kosovars, (ii) downplayed the plight of the severalhundred thousand ethnic Albanians residing in Greece, who are subjected tothe Greek form of ethnic cleansing known as Hellenization, and (iii) had theaudacity to malign all of the Albanian Chams who used to live in Greece asNazi collaborators. As highlighted in a 2001 press release of the TurkishForeign Ministry, Mr. Gage's thesis is not only a blatant fabrication but itis a political and historical crime against Albanian Chams, since, in fact,many Albanian Chams died in Greece's liberation struggle during WWII. Themalicious characterization of Albanian Chams as Nazi collaborators isparticularly appalling in light of the fact that Albanians and Albania saved100% of the Jews who sought refuge from Nazi persecution in Greece (as wellas in other Balkan countries), while, according to Harvey Sarner, the authorof "Rescue in Albania," - an account of how Albanians saved Jews - of thetotal population of approximately 72,000 Jews who lived in Greece prior tothe beginning of the war, 60,000, fully 83% of the Jewish population, becamevictims of the Holocaust. In addition, Mr. Gage conveniently "forgets"that, as described in the words of Joseph Jacobs, Head of the US Mission inAlbania in 1945-1946, only "in the fall of 1944 and during the first monthsof 1945 the [Greek] authorities in north-western Greece perpetrated savagebrutality by evicting some 25,000 [Albanian] Chams - residents of Chameria -from their homes" and by killing over 5,000 men, women and children in aclear attempt to establish an ethnically pure border region with Albania.These events marked the culmination of genocidal and ethnic cleansingefforts that Greek ultranationalists had commenced since 1913. By 1945, theGreek nationalists had cleansed the area of ethnic Albanians of Muslim faithand also stripped them of their properties, valued at well over $2.5 billionat the current market prices. The tens of thousands Albanian Chams havelived in exile ever since. Thus, we would like to remind Nicholas Gage, aswell as those who share or support his views, that, despite themanipulations, Mr.Gage cannot use history as a justification for hisdestabilizing agenda.As Americans and representatives of the Albanian American community, we aredeeply disappointed and disturbed that during his visit to Tirana, Mr. Gagewas hosted and publicly accompanied by Ambassador James Jeffrey. In ex postfacto efforts to justify this grand-scale reception, DOS representatives inthe U.S. and Tirana have stated that Mr. Gage's visit and endorsement wasnecessary in order to foster dialogue and enable Mr. Gage to have his"hearing day" before the Albanian authorities. The Albanian-Americancommunity is very supportive of dialogue regarding respect for minorityrights, friendly relations with neighboring countries, Albania's integrationin Euro-Atlantic structures, and its economic development. Indeed, dialoguewith the proper forums such as Euro-Atlantic institutions, human rightsinstitutions, and the neighboring governments, has been an important part ofAlbania's development as a democracy. However, we do not understand whatdialogue DOS is seeking to foster, and for the benefit of whom, when Mr.Gage is a private citizen who has a documented public record as one of themost fervent adversaries of Albanian interests and who, to our knowledge,does not have any standing either from the Greek government or from theAmerican government.We are certain that DOS is aware that, for historical and more recentreasons, Albanians view Americans as their truest friends. Everything thatis endorsed by the United States, in the Albanian public's perception,becomes worthy of attention and support. Therefore, by publicly hosting andendorsing Nicholas Gage, the American Embassy in Tirana and DOS willingly orunwillingly have tacitly endorsed his views, and thus they have breached thetrust of Albanians and Albanian-Americans. We believe that asAlbanian-Americans, we have the right to demand that DOS and the U.S.Embassy in Tirana serve as instruments for the furtherance of democraticprinciples and economic development in Albania, rather than becomingfacilitators of the interests of individuals with chauvinist agendas.DOS's silence that preceded Mr. Gage's trip to Albania, as well as theevents during his visit on the ground, have demonstrated that there is a gapin communication and perception between DOS representatives and the Americancitizens of Albanian descent. It has been clearly evidenced through wordsand deeds that America's truest and best friends in Europe, and possibly inthe world, are the Albanians; therefore, we believe that the time has comefor joint efforts to establish a qualitatively different relationshipbetween the Albanian-American community and DOS. We request that the firststep toward bridging this gap be for DOS to issue a full public disclosurepertaining to the nature and agenda of Gage's meetings in Albania, as wellas render a public explanation about how Albanian and U.S. interests wereserved by supporting a "dialogue" with Mr. Gage, an individual whose viewson the region serve only to stoke the fires of ethnic tension.Notwithstanding the above, DOS can and should indeed serve as a facilitatorfor true dialogue with respect to minority rights and other issues in theBalkans. As it relates to Greece, we urge DOS to pressure the Greekgovernment to recognize all ethnic minorities within its territory,including more than 40,000 remaining Albanian Chams of the Orthodox faith,and grant them the same rights that Albania provides to an approximatelyequivalent number of existing Greeks in Albania. As Greek human rightsgroups and many international human rights organizations state clearly,Greece's policy of nonrecognition of the existence of ethnic minorities isno longer permissible. In addition, dialogue is needed to address thegrievances of the hundreds of thousands of Albanian immigrants living inGreece, who are being subjected to different forms of "Hellenization" aswell as societal and institutional discrimination. Furthermore, we urge DOSto do all it can in order to, once and for all, seek a just resolution tothe proprietary and other legal claims of the Albanian Chams, includingtheir right to repatriation and Greek citizenship. Of paramount importance,and as a complementary and preliminary step to achieving the resolution ofthese issues, we ask DOS to pressure the Greek government to abolish theStatus of War Law with Albania dating back to then Italian-occupied Albaniaof 1940. By still maintaining a Status of Law of War with Albania over 60years later, while at the same time signing a Treaty of Friendship, Greecenot only has created an absurd situation, but is in clear violation of theU.N. Charter, which requires "[a]ll Members [to] refrain… from the threat oruse of force against the territorial integrity or political independence ofany state…", as well as of other provisions of International Law.Finally, a drastic improvement in communication channels and cooperativeefforts between the U.S. Government and the Albanian-American community isnecessary for a plethora of other Albanian issues in the region. Since thefall of communism, Albania has made considerable steps towards theestablishment of a democracy and market economy. However, as evidenced byseveral reports, Albania's progress, economic development, and integrationwithin the Euro-Atlantic institutions has been constantly impeded byhigh-level corruption, lack of political transparency, ineffective electionreforms, and limited results in the fight against organized crime and humantrafficking. In Kosova, while tremendous progress is clearly evident,further delays in the resolution of its final independent status areimpeding investment and economic development as well as creating a fertileenvironment for destabilization. Furthermore, despite the relativestability achieved in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, theMacedonian authorities have a long way to go in order to fully comply withthe internationally brokered and the U.S.-endorsed Ohrid Agreement andrecognize and accept Albanians as equal and respected Macedonian citizens.Last, but not least, much more can be done for the rights of Albanians inMontenegro, as well as those of the Albanians in the Presheva Valley ofSouthern Serbia. The Albanian-American community stands ready to offer itsexpertise, knowledge, experience, and contacts in the region in order towork toward the resolution of these issues and the achievement of asustainable and real stability in the Balkans.Albanians consider the United States to be their best friend. At a timewhen our country is engaged in a global war against terrorism, at a timewhen many have tested their true feelings toward the United States, big orsmall, true friendships such as the one the Albanians offer to Americans,must not be neglected or forgotten. Let us use the most recent Gage debacleas a learning experience and a steppingstone toward the establishment of atrue partnership for the advancement of the common U.S. and Albanians'interests.A similar letter was sent to the National Security Adviser to the President,Ms. Condoleeza Rice, the Chairman of the US Senate Committee on ForeignRelations, Senator Richard Lugar, the Chairman of the US House Committee onInternational Relations, Congressman Henry Hyde and the Chairman of theAlbanian Issues Caucus, Congressman Eliot Engel.Respectfully submitted by,Albanian American Community of Illinois - Ilaz Kadriu, PresidentAlbanian American Cultural Foundation - Cafo Boga, PresidentAlbanian American Islamic Center - Imam Vehbi Ismail, Religious Leader ofAlbanian Muslims in the US and CanadaAlbanian American Society Foundation - Esad Rizai, PresidentAlbanian Center of New York - Drita Kokalari, PresidentAlbanian Heritage Foundation - Gary Kokalari, PresidentAlbanian League of Prizren - Ismet Berisha, PresidentAlbanian Media Group - Vera Mjeku, PresidentAlba Soul - Ilirjan Papa, PresidentAna e Malit - Xheladin Zeneli, PresidentAtlantic Association - Arber Muriqi, Head RepresentativeDede Gjo Luli Foundation - Prele Sinishtaj, Head RepresentativeDemocratic League of Kosova U.S.A. - Agim Rexhaj, PresidentForumi Shqiptar - Ilirjan Papa, DirectorFriends of Kosova Protection Force - Shefki Mexhuani, Head RepresentativeFrosina Network - Van Christo, Owner and DirectorHuman Rights Association "Chameria"Illyria Newspaper - Ekrem Bardha, PublisherMalesia-Humanitarian Fund - Gjon Ivezaj, PresidentNational Albanian American Council - Richard Lukaj, ChairmanPan Albanian Federation, VATRA - Agim Karagjozi, ChairmanPatriotic Association of Dibra - Lavdrim Cami, PresidentPeja Association - Agim Cavderbasha, Head RepresentativePlave and Guci Foundation - Xhevat Kukaj, PresidentSt. Paul's Albanian Catholic Church - Father Anton Kqira
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