Greater Albania

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The four Ottoman vilayets with Albanian majority in the late 19th century

The term Greater Albania or Great Albania is a political movement through recent history to unite all ethnic Albanians into one entity. Its equivalent in Albanian - Shqipëria e Madhe - is rarely used, usually in translations. The term notes a desire for territorial expansion.

Contents

1 Origin of the idea
2 Areas inhabited by ethnic Albanians
3 Political uses of the concept
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

Origin of the idea

Prior to the Balkan wars of the beginning of the 20th century, Albanians were subjects of the Ottoman Empire. There were four Albanian-inhabited Vilayets: Janina (Ioannina in present-day Greece), Manastir (Bitola in present-day Macedonia), Kosovo with Skopje as a capital and Shkodra.

The actual state of Albania and the territories claimed by Albanian nationalists. Note that these territories include places that do not have a significant Albanian population

The Albanian independence movement emerged in 1878 with the League of Prizren, a city located in territory that was later annexed by Serbia. The goal of the League was cultural and political autonomy for Albanians, inside the framework of the Ottoman Empire. However, the Ottomans were not prepared to grant Albanians' demands. Ottoman opposition to the League's cultural goals eventually helped transform it into an Albanian national movement. In addition to conflict with the Ottoman Empire, the League was opposed by the neighbors because the mere existence of Albania.

In 1913, when Albania's borders were set by the Great Powers, Serbia did not get the coastal territories that it had wanted, however it annexed the territories that today are known as Kosovo, causing a dissent in the local Albanian populaton. Independent Albania in 1912 did not include numerious ethnic Albanian territories which created a disunity that wasn't present under the Ottomans. This caused a great frustration among the Albanians and created a will to reunify the lands under Albania.

During World War II, with the fall of Yugoslavia in 1941, Italians placed the land inhabited by ethnic Albanians under the jurisdiction of an Albanian quisling government. This Greater Albania included Kosovo, Epirus, a part Macedonia as well as other ethnic Albanian regions conquered by the Axis forces.

The current status talks on the future of Kosovo - and its imminent independence - could be interpreted as a degree of success in the creation of a Greater Albania, although the United Nations(UN) has stated that if as a result Kosovo becomes independent annexation to another state would not be possible.

Areas inhabited by ethnic Albanians

In Greece, southern Epirus. After the war many of the Albanians in Greek Epirus were expelled on the accusation that they had "collaborated with the enemy" (first the Italians, later the communists). They call themselves Çam or Cham after the Albanian word for Epirus: Çamëria. Many of them are currently trying to pursue legal ways to claim compensation for the properties seized by Greece. Greece has a rather strict policy aiming for assimilation which makes it difficult to estimate the size of the minority populations.
Western part of the Republic of Macedonia
Kosovo in Southern Serbia.
The Preševo Valley (Albanian: Lugina e Preshevës or Kosova Lindore) in Southern Serbia: the municipalities of Preševo and Bujanovac, and part of the municipality of Medveđa.
Southern and eastern Montenegro with Ulcinj municipality on the coast, Tuzi area near Podgorica, and parts of the Plav and Rožaje municipalities.

Political uses of the concept

The degree to which different groups are working towards, and what efforts such groups are undertaking in order to achieve a Greater Albania is disputed. Non-Albanian politicians and ethnic leaders have often used the idea to generate ethnic hatred and fear of Albanian political activities, and to justify policies that undermine political and human rights of Albanian minorities, for example in the Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Serbia.

"We spent the 1990's worrying about a Greater Serbia. That's finished. We are going to spend time well into the next century worrying about a Greater Albania." (Christopher Hill, Ambassador to Macedonia, 1999) [link]

External links

References

Archivo storico, Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Italy)
Sottosegretario di Stato per gli Affari Albanesi (State Undersecretary for Albanian Affairs) of Italy (1939-1943)
Jaksic G., Vuckovic V.: Spoljna politika srbije za vlade, Kneza Mihaila, Belgrade, 1963
Dimitrios Triantaphyllou: The Albanian Factor, ELIAMEP, Athens, 2000