Albanians in the Southern Balkans
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 11:42:41 -0700
Subject: Albanians in the Southern Balkans
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Panayote Dimitras, Mariana Lenkova
<[email protected]>
"Unequal Rights" for Albanians in the Southern Balkans
GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR
Greek National Committee of the International Helsinki Federation
& MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE (Greek Affiliate of Minority Rights
Group International)
P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510 Kifisia, Greece
Tel. 30-1-620.01.20; Fax: 30-1-807.57.67; E-mail: [email protected]
_______________________________________________________________
"Unequal Rights" for Albanians in the Southern Balkans
Panayote Dimitras, Mariana Lenkova
6/10/1997, AIM Athens
Human, and especially minority, rights are supposed to, and should, be
universal and inalienable. However, this does not mean that all these
rights should also be universally applicable in the same way. On the
contrary, many need to be pursued in different ways, depending on the
specificity of the prevailing conditions and circumstances. What is a
legitimate pursue in one country may justifiably be considered as
excessive if not extremist in another.
A characteristic example of this is the situation of the some six
million
"Albanians" in the Balkans. For all these people, Albanian language (in
its various forms) is the only unifying element. Otherwise, they differ
in ethnic identity and/or religious orientation. They all have acquired
some rights, while striving for other. However, the rights they rightly
claim in each case are different, because the historical, social and
political context differs for each sub-group of them.
Ethnic Albanians of Albania
The total population of Albania is 3.4 million people (1992). On the
face
of it, at least the ethnic Albanians (over 90% of the citizens) there
should be the people with the best accommodated needs and the least
number of concerns, because they have their nation-state and have
achieved self-determination. In reality though, the country's human
rights record has been historically tarnished by the worst form of
dictatorship during Hoxha. Moreover, in the past few years they have
been the ones subjected to the newly "democratic" experiments of
Berisha's authoritarianism.
With all this in mind, maybe it is not surprising that police in Albania
have been mistreating ethnic Albanians more than police in Macedonia
have
mistreated that country's ethnic Albanians. All this comes to suggest
that the lack of democratic traditions and stable economic growth as we
have recently witnessed brought forth disaster. The new government is
promising in its determination to strive for democracy. Still, one
should keep in mind that the same warm feelings were invested in Berisha
a few years ago. The mere fact that a Socialist MP shot at a colleague
from the Democratic Party in the Parliament is suggestive enough of the
fragile state of affairs. The most urgent thing which the new government
has to do is to overcome this unstable equilibrium which may break down
at any moment making people feel insecure and aggressive towards law and
order. The principal means to provide people with security and
self-respect is
naturally by offering them social and economic stability, but especially
by fully respecting human rights.
Non-Ethnic Albanians of Albania
In Albania live also an estimated at least quarter of a million
non-ethnic Albanians. The Greek minority, usually considered as the
largest, consists of some 150,000 people. Other minorities which live in
the country are: Vlachs, Macedonians, Serbs, Montenegrins and Roma. It
should be stressed that despite its grave problems, Albania has been
treating its minorities in a less intolerant way than most of the other
Balkan neighbors: it is safe to state that most violations of the human
rights of non-ethnic Albanians have resulted from the fact that they
simply lived in Albania rather than that they belonged to some minority.
In Albania, all minorities are recognized either de jure or de facto,
but historically they have had fewer educational rights than Albanians
in former Yugoslavia used to have. While Albanians in Serbia and
Macedonia strive for university education, minorities in Albania have at
most the opportunity for an eight-year primary school education in their
mother tongue; and they do not ask for more. Like elsewhere, precisely
because of such lack of appropriate education, minorities in Albania
have had difficulties in organizing themselves politically and in
claiming, as they have a right to, the recognition and respect of their
rights in Albanian society.
Another aspect of the problem concerns the Orthodox Church of Albania,
to
which belongs the largest number of non-ethnic Albanians. Although there
are not many instances of religious intolerance in that country, the
Orthodox Church, because of the ethnic belonging of most of its
followers, has been seen as suspect and has been treated in a hostile
way, while the restitution of its property still remains a problematic
issue. Moreover, this church, like all the other "traditional churches"
in the country, does not have any legal status which makes it vulnerable
in case "the political wind" changes direction.
Albanians of Kosova
In Kosova, where most ethnic Albanians outside Albania live, they
comprise more than 90% of the overall nearly two million strong
population. The region, between 1974-1989 had an autonomous status, a
fact which makes the international community support a return to that
status quo ante. Having acquired the experience and the sense of liberty
provided by years of autonomy, the suppression and loss of that
political liberty progressively led the Albanians of Kosova to develop a
stronger sense of self-determination and made all more difficult their
coexistence with the Serbian authorities. The successful operation of a
parallel state with all its institutions since 1989 has enhanced the
credibility of the demand for a separate political entity, though few
favor internationally the calls for independence supported by the vast
majority of Kosova Albanians. On the other hand, however, Serbs will not
let go easily of Kosova, because they consider it "the cradle of
Serbianism." The latter may not be historically inaccurate, but one
should take into consideration the present state of affairs, and the
fact that the greater part of the Kosova population is Albanian. After
all, Kosova is as much the "cradle" of Serbianism as Ohrid is of
Bulgarianism, or Constantinopole (Istanbul) of Hellenism. Every Balkan
people can claim a "cradle of nationhood" somewhere outside its borders
but these historical references do not legitimize modern times
territorial claims.
Albanians of Macedonia
In this country of some two million people, Albanians comprise the most
numerous minority of some half a million people. Like their Kosova
"brothers", they used to have a large spectrum of rights in the years of
old Yugoslavia. Until the late 1980s they were living in a rather
tolerant society by communist standards and had their own schools and
Pedagogical Academy and were able to send their children to the Albanian
university in Prishtina. They lost the higher education possibilities in
the final years of "ailing" Yugoslavia, and the new Macedonian
government was not able to meet their needs promptly. Nowadays their
rights are guaranteed by the Constitution, but practice shows that
things are not that perfect in reality. The recent trial in the
predominantly Albanian town of Gostivar showed that in its essence the
"Albanian issue" is quite complex and "thorny." Here Albanians' only
wish is for equal rights in the Macedonian society, combined with the
right to have education in their language. Their demand for higher
education sounds reasonable, but the experience of the Tetova university
lacks credibility. Albanians in Macedonia have a traditional Islamic
structure of life, which makes them different from the secularist
Albanians in Albania, and the not so religious Albanians in Kosova.
Although here the questions of autonomy and secession do not exist,
Albanians are accused of trying to make a "Kosova scenario" in
Macedonia, which would destabilize the whole region: more specifically,
they are charged with efforts to set up "paralle institutions" which are
considered in Macedonia as destabilizing and extremist unlike in Kosova
where they are appreciated and admired.
Ethnic and non-ethnic Albanian Immigrants in Greece
Immigrants from Albania in Greece are estimated at 300,000 people: most
are ethnic Albanians, while a large number are ethnic Greeks. The
biggest
problem which these people face is the fact that most of them are
illegal. That is why they are extremely vulnerable and oftentimes they
are treated like slaves. The amount of Albanophobia in the media and its
impact on public opinion are alarming. The climate of intolerance and
aversion which are built cannot help the integration of these
immigrants, who strive for legalization and decent rights similar to
those provided to immigrants in other EU countries. They do not have
schools and cultural centers in which to educate their children in their
mother tongue, so that when eventually they go back to Albania, they
would have equal chances with their compatriots.
Arvanites (Arberor) of Greece
It is interesting that very often Albanophobia in Greece is observed
among members of a group, who speak a form of Albanian but do not
identify themselves with the Albanian ethnicity. The estimated 200,000
Arvanites are Orthodox Christians established for centuries in Greece.
Nowadays they are one of the strongest proponents of Greek nationalism
and Orthodox fundamentalism (Old-Calendarism) and they have an aversion
to anything which would relate them to the "Shqiptar" nation. They have
been assimilated so completely that their language has been led to
oblivion. Many people in Albania, as well as in the diaspora, claim that
the Arvanites are actually members of an Albanian minority in Greece.
However, this will not bring anything more than keeping Arvanites on the
defensive and destroying their specificity. After all, they want to be
considered nationally, if not ethnically, Greek and they have the right
to do so. They should be encouraged to preserve their language, but it
is again up to them to decide. Arvanites have the right to "forget"
their language, as much as Kosova Albanians have the right to strive for
autonomy.
Conclusion
One important aspect of human rights is respect for the "other."
"Otherness" is abundant even in the supposedly homogeneous group of
Albanians: they all speak some form of Albanian, but they different
identities. The degree of religious affiliation, cultural aims and
political demands of the various Albanian groups lead to different human
rights claims that are considered acceptable internationally. Albanians
in Albania strive for more democracy; they want autonomy if not
independence in Kosova; they will be satisfied with constitutive
equality in Macedonia; while the large immigrant community in Greece
demands no more than a decent immigrant status, in a country where
another "Albanian" immigrant community of many centuries ago, the
Arvanites, expect the world to respect their adherence to Greek
nationalism.
Human rights are undoubtedly universal. But their application should be
very "particularistic." As in the case of the various "Albanian"
communities, people with apparent cultural similarities have indeed the
right to ask for very different, sometimes even opposite, things. The
right to self-determination can indeed mean independence for some or
assimilation for others. Religious freedom too is compatible with
dominantly modernist secular or traditional religious cultures. The
world is indeed full of such "Albanian" examples.
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