Your Excellency, Mr. Ban Ki-moon:
As you begin your service as Secretary General of the United Nations, there are many immediate issues on your plate; not the least of which is a decision on Kosova's final status. As the leader of this powerful organization it is up to you to set the tone and the pace for 2007. The U.N.'s recent decision to delay resolution of Kosova's final status until after Serbia holds its elections on January 21, while not surprising is devastating. Many view it as the latest attempt on the part of the West to appease Serbia, a centerpiece of the international community's misguided foreign policy approach to the Balkan conflict ever since the NATO bombing campaign ended Slobodan Milosevic's genocidal march across Southeast Europe seven years ago.
The United Nations, the Contact Group, and the European Union could have taken the opportunity at the end of October-when Belgrade forced a constitutional referendum to make Kosova "an integral and inalienable part" of Serbia-to insist that Belgrade finally break from its horrific past. The West could have insisted that Serbia dismantle the Milosevic system, extradite Bosnian Serb commanders Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karazdic to The War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague (ICTY), and recognize the new reality in Kosova. Instead, immediately after the referendum, the West bowed to Serbia's ruling coalition led by Vojislav Kostunica and Boris Tadic, and it asked two million Kosovar Albanians, who have been waiting for freedom since Slobodan Milosevic invaded and occupied Kosova in 1989, to wait once more.
The time is long past for candor about the facts on the ground in the Balkans. The U.N. must take a stronger leadership role, if the international community will not clarify their plans for Kosova in 2007. Otherwise, Kosova's political leaders need to do the truth-telling vigorously and publicly. Some of the truths are:
1. With the international community's decision to renege on its promise to resolve Kosova's status by the end of 2006, Serbia has won a significant round in its campaign to delay status resolution indefinitely and was rewarded for its intransigence. The specter of a win at the polls by the ultranationalist parties is a ruse, but one that has effectively divided the Contact Group.
2. No matter what date final status is put on the table, the settlement package that U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari plans to deliver to Prishtina and Belgrade at the end of January is a prescription for continuing instability and renewed conflict. Kosova's independence will not be recognized, it will not have a foreign ministry or an army, and an EU-led "International Civilian Office" will control much of its political life. The Ahtisaari plan will enable Belgrade to get what it actually wants: a Kosova with "more than autonomy and less than independence" through a decentralization plan that will enable Belgrade to maintain control of the Serb majority in the north.
3. Kosova will be forced to lobby for its independence country by country and for admission to international institutions such as the United Nations. Every time that even one Serb screams about their rights, Kosova will be charged with not living up to European standards, and support for its independence will diminish. Kosova is poised to become another Bosnia-- a failed, aid-dependent state with an international presence for years to come.
4. With all due respect, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the international community is on the verge of producing a dreadfully complicated mess that will never get righted. There is no such thing as a "controlled" independence or a "conditional" independence. There is only full independence. Kosova deserves its independence, and it deserves it now. Establishing Kosova as a sovereign nation is the only route to Kosova's political, economic, and social progress and to lasting peace and stability in Southeast Europe. It is time that the Kosovar leadership insists on this. It's Kosova's last chance.
Sincerely,
Joe DioGuardi
Former Congressman Joe DioGuardi is the President of the Albanian American Civic League.
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July 27, 2008 8:03 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on July 27, 2008 20:03
Welll i guess every one got they opinion abotu how and who and what should get not get deserve not deserve etc .But Kosova exist before and after serbia took control of it. serbs came and hope they can go where they come from some part of russia, but even from there got kicked by russia due to being a bad dog to maintain so throw it into the street and let it fend for it self. So Independence is here and will stay Independent Kosova for better Balkan. Take care and God Bless you all.
February 21, 2008 6:02 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 21, 2008 18:02
im croatian.i was in regular army on kosovo 1974
and i didnt se eny serbians on kosovo.only serbian police.kosovo was and always will be albanian land
they dont have nothing with us slavic people.when they create yugoslavia they steel albanian territory
it is time for kosovo to be free.
albanians are honorable people and they help us with our fight for independece
January 23, 2008 12:29 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 23, 2008 12:29
Kosova was always Albanian and I believe that former major international politics players, (who happen to be current major players), have written facts in their archives that Kosova has always been Albanian until 1912, when peace with Turks and Slavic peoples was reached at the expense of Albanians by taking their land. Also, I would like to remind those that say that we, Albanians (in our language Shqipetaret), are from some Caspian Sea region, that we are descendants of Illyriansa theory widely recognized by the contemporary west world. For reference you could check the following sources: http://www.answers.com/illyria
and, http://www.answers.com/topic/illyria-and-illyricum
Illyrians have been here at least four centuries before anyone else has settled in Balkan Peninsula.
And for anyone that believes that crime prevails in Kosova, let me tell you this: on daily basis, more crimes happen in Paris than in entire Kosova. And that is not only due to the difference of numbers of people living in the two locations. The later holds true even in a comparison between the percentages of crime frequencies in relation to the number of peoples. PLUS, anyone that would like to see first hand, I offer a week hosting for up to two persons at the same time (a place to stay and food to eat) FOR FREE.
The problem right now is to educate Serbs responsibility to the world and to remind them that hard work, not hard lies and hard killings, will earn them the respect.
Free world, free Kosova.
November 25, 2007 11:21 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 25, 2007 11:21
Kosova was never part of Serbia, Kosova was always like Kosova a country in her-self,now it is another thing that so many contries tried to take kosova as o part of their own but they never made it...
November 17, 2007 11:35 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on November 17, 2007 11:35
I can not understand why did we (Serbs) got bombed by the US. It is clearly for centuries that Kosovo and Metohija was part of Serbia. Kosovo is known for its criminal activities and its members are one of the most fearsed in the Europe.
To give Kosovo its independents it would be against common sense. Why Basks, Kurds or even Serbs in other contries can not get independent?
Kosovo independency will open Pandora's box
September 7, 2007 8:48 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 7, 2007 08:48
Hey is nice and easy to seat on front of your PC and talk about some people that have suffered a lot of pain for no reason at all and you take it as a joke, if you don,t know about history then better not come comment in here at all,was Bosnja part of Serbia, wow not realy, was Croatia wow not realy,was Macedonia wow not realy,was Slovakia wow not realy, was Montenegro well you tell me!!!
should Kosovo keep staying under the rules of this bastards, that have been killing inocent people for so long in the Balkan.
Serbs are claiming that they have history and memory in Kosovo but where did history and memory go in the countries mention above????
can anyone explain i am geting lost here??????????
You see this is ALSO a RELIGIOUS war too, we Albanians belive in one god and in Albanians itself religion, so calling to all of those religious fanatic to leave us alone, that have split us in so many parts, starting first with muslims, and other religions, if you want to help come and build things that we need NOT coming to plant religions, otherways we don't need your condintions help.
This Albanian people have done no harm at all to no body just to themselfs AND I CALL TO ALL ALBANIANS KEEP YOUR HATE FOR OTHERS NOT FOR EACH OTHER, if you read the real history, we weren't even able to protect our land not to fight others since long time ago that's why we are the only place in Europe that is strugeling, because this Turks never let us alon for years they changed our tradition religion etc, from one side, and from the other side Serbs and Greeks that are the same religion and culture.
If Kosovo get its independent then Greeks are worring of looseing some of the parts that were given by English taken from Albania by force before which i am sure they still claim taxes for that.
So this mess that was also made by some of the UE countries etc, is going to cost alot of Albanian life to fix back where it was before.
But you have to understand that no mutter what things go forword and no backwards.
yes Albania will united soon and what they did to us will be paid back in one way or another.
Thanx to USA and all those countries that suported.
August 28, 2007 8:19 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on August 28, 2007 20:19
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Posted on July 28, 2007 11:38
First of all, some balkan people (it seems)
skiped a history lessons. It is realy funny
how easy one nation call herself: direct
illyrian descedent, with no evidence.
A little message from history to all of you:
If you will take something which does not
belong to you, you will have to give a lot
more, even the living things, which you do not
posses.
Get real, educate yourself,...
June 30, 2007 2:20 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on June 30, 2007 14:20
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March 3, 2007 11:00 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 3, 2007 11:00
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Posted on March 3, 2007 10:59
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March 3, 2007 10:59 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 3, 2007 10:59
one time comment. oscar,you talk that kosova is a serbian name. Then, show me how illyirian is a serbian name. In albanian ilir means to be free. Whats your serbian definition of illyrian?
dibra madhe me shtat minaret
March 1, 2007 3:06 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on March 1, 2007 15:06
AGAIN WHEREEEEEEEEEEE DOES ANY ALBANIAN SOURCE FROM PRIOR TO THE 19th cent. actaully STATE YOU ARE ILLYIRAN????????? WHERE?????????? NOWHERE!!!!!!!!!! KOSOVO WAS NEVERRRRRRRR ALBANIAN IN THE PAST NEVERRRRRRRRRR IT WAS ALWAYS SERBIAN AND SERBIA WILL NEVER ACCEPT IT BEING "INDEPENDENT".
February 2, 2007 4:36 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on February 2, 2007 16:36
you don't know what you talk about here
why do you keep writing hahah ????????? anyway...
Dont tell me that TEUTA and King Agron Bardyllis (Bardhyl) are slavic names please.... are you telling me butrint cakran and ulpiana in Kosova were slavic cities yeah right... Was Kosova called Dardania (dardha- pear in Albanian)? yes... why did the Slavs called a lot of places in Kosova as krusha - pear in Slavic. why did the Romans name kosova "Pirus" Latin for "pear tree"?
illyr comes from " i lir (a freeman), other evidence personal names... Balleos ( Ballaj), Ardiaei (Ardhjaj),Hyllus (Ylli), Lisitan ( Lisi), Aphrodite ( Afro - afrim add dite). sika-thika knife in albanian etc etc albanian language is not found in caspian territory these are fabricated lies
Who did the serbs find in Kosova when they came from Carpathian territories??? Who??
is the “Goddess on the throne” "archeology"
http://www.unmikonline.org/press/2002/pressr/pr746.htm
please...
it was Stipcevic that called the Illyrian Albanian Connection and many others german like krahe, brits etc + "Comnena".
Kosova was ruled by the dirty ottomans around 500 years they have build hundreds of temples, schools, mosques etc. So they have more of a historical to claim Kosova. you guys for how long
100-200 years??? The turks found us here and did not bring us here albania was mention before by the venitians. who else speaks Albanian or a similar language in the world ,because serbo-croatian is similar to russian isnt it??? or accorting to you NO.
R Eisle says "no evidence indicating that the Albanians immigrated to the southwest Balkans from anywhere else. As such, it may be safely assumed that they are indigenous to the region, as opposed to their Slavic neighbours who invaded the Balkans from the north in the sixth and seventh centuries."
Anyway this has nothing to do with Kosovas Independence and you can not change ANYTHING not now not in the future. Occupation in OVER, we ll keep supporting the Resistance in the FY occupiers.
One more Thing
and REMEBER we dont have to like u and u dont have to like us.
This is pointless and a waste of time
January 30, 2007 6:13 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 30, 2007 18:13
hahahahha where does your link mention anything about the "great illyrian" connection? hahahahhahahah
January 30, 2007 12:05 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 30, 2007 00:05
Ok "coward" here is the Proof 1555 before the 19th
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjon_Buzuku
Now Shut UP
Yes he was a CHRISTIAN like George Kastrioti (born Gjergj Kastrioti)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skanderbeg
He left the turks to come back to albania contrary to your propaganda.
Date of indepedence was :
November 28, 1443
not
November 28, 1912 (the second)
The Third will Be when Kosova becomes free.
Now Shut UP
January 29, 2007 6:41 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 29, 2007 18:41
HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Uncertainty, disappointment prevail as Kosovo's ethnic Albanians await U.N. status proposal
The Associated PressPublished: January 22, 2007
PRISTINA, Serbia: Uncertainty and disappointment gripped ethnic Albanians in Kosovo on Monday as they awaited a U.N. envoy's proposal on the future status of the disputed province.
Business was slow in Pristina's market place, a possible indicator of hard times ahead in the cash-strapped province, which has a double-digit unemployment rate.
Adding to the gloom were mixed parliamentary election results in Serbia, which could delay Serbian acceptance of any deal for Kosovo.
Serbia's president called on pro-democratic parties to put differences aside and quickly form a coalition government to stave off gains made by ultranationalists in the weekend parliamentary election.
"I am very disappointed. People have lots of hope, but to me it seems like we're not getting what we thought we will," said 42 year-old Minire Mehija, a mother of five, frustrated at the prospect of continued uncertainty.
With the United Nations plan likely to fall short of full independence, Mehija, who owns a bridal shop in the capital's old quarter, said she was concerned that Kosovo would plunge into violence again, with many people living in poverty and high youth unemployment.
"They keep telling us it will happen this month or the next one," she said. "Serbia is not letting it go. Our politicians turned cold, now when they speak it feels like they're stuttering."
"We've been waiting for seven years!" she exclaimed.
Ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, have pushed for full independence from Serbia since the early 1990s. Serbian leaders and the province's Serb minority insist in keeping Kosovo within Serbia's borders.
U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, who mediated yearlong talks between the two sides on Kosovo's future, is due to present his recommendation to Western governments and Russia on Friday. Following that, he will present the plan to leaders in Serbia and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Diplomats and officials say that Ahtisaari's proposal will not include the word independence, but will pave the way to Kosovo's eventual statehood, making it a topic of debate at the U.N. Security Council through the next months.
They say Ahtisaari is likely to propose conditional independence, supervised by a European Union-led mission that will have executive and corrective powers in enforcing the deal, envisaging broad autonomy for the province's Serb minority.
Valon Citaku said he expected an independence that will be monitored. "It's not good enough, but it's imposed and we have no other choice but to take it," said the 27 year-old ethnic Albanian, sipping coffee with friends.
"This is an invitation for waiting, but I don't think we have the patience anymore," Citaku said, pointing to Kosovo's economic troubles rather than ethnic tension with the Serbs as the main concern.
Kosovo has been run by United Nations mission since mid-1999 following NATO's air campaign that brought to a halt Serb forces crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
Though large scale violence has ebbed and ethnically motivated attacks have sharply dropped, there are fears that the proposal will spark renewed violence between ethnic Albanians and the Serb minority living in isolated enclaves.
"This is not what we were promised at the start," said Faik Cakolli, a 63 year-old construction worker. "People have lost their patience."
Sabit Begolli, a shoe trader, agreed. "Any delay beyond spring, will push us to war," he said. "This has become unbearable."
January 22, 2007 2:16 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 22, 2007 14:16
out of your league. again and again with the "greater serbia" nonsense I addressed that first when you posted that stupid croatian text, i proved to you that if serbia wanted to they had the chance to make a greater serbia in 1915 (but real history is irrelavant to albaniacs) I posted links to the proof yet you contiue to lie to yourself and be blind. I HAVE POSTED PLENTY of facts taht state that the ALBANIANS ARE NOT ILLYRIANS!!!! look at the "origin" links, just read all the links i posted U HAVE STILL NOT SHOWN ME 1 ALBANIAN SOURCE FROM PRIOR TO TEH 19th CENT that MAKES TEH ILLYIRAN CLAIM!!!!!!! HAHA, you can look for the rest of your life AND YOU WILL NEVER FIND ONE!!!!! becsue you invent and lie about your history to justify the attempt to steal ones territory which was NEVER albanian!!! 8 years have passed, elections, Rugova died and where is the "independence"???
January 22, 2007 11:24 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 22, 2007 11:24
To oscar
I think you get irritated by the truth, and that makes me HAPPY! I have been calm throughout and have said things that DO MAKE SENSE. You are caught up in NONSENSE and I don't know what exactly you mean by "having crushed" my claims. My dear, hate has crushed your brain so much that not only you are sick, but you are living in your own LITTLE world, still with the hope that someday you will rule the Balkans with your freaking ideology of Greater Serbia. I am sorry to disappoint you but face reality, you lost Kosova and you will never get it back, EVER, because it never belonged there and the US and Europe have realized it. Go back and study history thoroughly. I have no intention of arguing with a mentally impaired and one who has lost touch with reality. You are no one to make me address your stupid and nonsense claims. I have had fun reading your immensely nonlogical comments. Give me one source that denies the fact Albanians and Kosovars did not descend from Illyrians Oh, that's right there is none. Probably, according to your mind historians were asleep when an exodus of "other people" invaded the Balkans and wiped off the Illyrians, just for the heck of it, just so that they make oscar's claims true about the Albanians being of non-Illyrian descent. Probably I am on drugs, the ones that make me see the truth. Pretty good drugs, huh? Maybe you should take some, make sure they are not expired, otherwise they would screw you more than you are, exactly like a Serb.
Anyways, when I visit Kosova, I will breathe the air of independence, it's special you know? By the way don't waste your time replying to me directly, I won't spend another minute of my life arguing with you.
January 21, 2007 10:45 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 21, 2007 22:45
again again and again, just NONSENSE, have the courage to address ANY of my claims, u dont even speak in a coherant way. you just start to drift into 10 different things before you even address 1 thing I have said (YOU HAVE NOT ADDRESSED ANY OF MY CLAIMS WHILE I HAVE CRUSHED EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOURS). maybe you are to busy pimping and dealing drugs.
January 21, 2007 9:35 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 21, 2007 21:35
I thank the person who posted that long and interesting article. For all of you who may not have read it because of course you need all day, I am posting some excerpts so that every doubt is cleared out. If that Oscar guy goes to his favorite link and reads about the author of the article, here is what is says word for word "Vaso Čubrilović was released when the Allies defeated the Central Powers in November 1918. He became a teacher in Sarajevo and went on to become a university professor in Belgrade. As a member of the Academy of Science of Serbia he was one of the developers of the ill-famous plan on expulsion of Albanians from Kosovo and elsewhere in the Balkans[1]. After World War II, Vaso Čubrilović served as Minister of Forests in Yugoslavia's government. He died in 1990."
And if any Kosovar is asked about these plans, they would confirm them since they have lived them. No they were not plans left only on paper. Here are the excerpts, very sickening and cruel, but real:
This continuity has been interrupted by the Albanians and, until the ancient uninterrupted connection of Serbia and Montenegro with Macedonia along the whole of its extent from the Drin River to Southern Morava is re- established, we will not be secure in our possession of this territory. From the ethnic standpoint the Macedonians will fully unite with us only when they enjoy true ethnic support from the Serbian motherland, which they have lacked to this day. This they will achieve only through the destruction of the Albanian block. The only way and the only means to cope with them is the brute force of an organized state, in which we have always been superior to them
As we have already stressed, the mass removal of the Albanians from their triangle is the only effective coursefor us. It can be created in many ways:
The law must be enforced to the letter so as to make staying intolerable for the Albanians: fines and imprisonments, the ruthless application of all police dispositions, such as cutting forests, damaging agriculture, leaving dogs unchained, compulsory labor and any other measure that an experienced police force can contrive.
When it comes to religion the Albanians are very touchy, and thus they must be harassed on this score, too. This can be achieved through illtreatment of their clergy, the destruction of their cemeteries...
There remains one more means, which Serbia employed with great practical effect after 1878, that is, by secretly burning down Albanian villages and city quarters.
I am not writing to convince that Oscar guy, but for the rest to know who is responsible. Now that the Croats have their own country, they have become the enemy for the Serbs and are discredited. These are the Serbs, who accuse the Albanians for terrorists although they have never harmed anyone, and they themselves have committed the worst atrocities, totally against the Orthodox faith, and for which they deserve hell. There are a lot of Albanian Orthodox, but you don't see emanating evil from them.
January 21, 2007 8:04 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 21, 2007 20:04
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvrtko (greatest Bosnian king, what nationality was he? who were the vast vast majority of the people that lived in bosnia then?)
January 21, 2007 12:49 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 21, 2007 12:49
as for vuk karadzic read these links and tell me if he is wrong?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travunia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahumlje
these are all serbs that live in these areas today who were forced to assimilate.
January 21, 2007 12:49 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 21, 2007 12:49
just look at this sentance below from the 2nd paragraph of this weak Croat and Albanian attempt to create a false claim;
"Trying to hide their true motives from the eyes of the world with a series of historic and demographic falsifications,"
this is such bull that anyone with any sense and knowlegde of yugoslavia can discredit EVERY single sentance of what you posted. if Serbia had wanted to create a "greater serbia" they easily had the chance to do so (but they didnt) as proven here:
Although in 1915 the Serbian Assembly had pledged itself to work for the liberation of all Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, non-Serb members of the Yugoslav Committee became alarmed when the Allies offered Serbia lands that had not been reserved for Italians. These included Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slavonia, Bačka and parts of Dalmatia. Croat members of the Committee feared a carve-up of Croat lands between Serbia and Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia
look at the map in the middle of that page and see what was offered to serbia. if anyone is trying steal anything and falsify, it is totally the croats and albanians because you are both fighting over things that were never yours.
so u see my dear albaniac as usual you are out of your league when it comes to debating. you didn't even have the guts to address ALL of my previous posts. but just again address one of them; show me 1 albanian source from prior to the 19th centuray that claims you are illyirian? ahhahahahahaha
January 21, 2007 12:29 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 21, 2007 12:29
hahaha like a true albanian wimp has to bring in the "Croatians" for help! HAHAHAHAH. "nacrtenje"??? it was never implemented nor a policy of any serb government!!!! unlike the genocied committed by the Albanians in kosovo against teh serbs WHO HAVE BEEN FORCED OUT during the course of the past 200 years!!! serbs went from being 95% of the population of kosovo to having to live throught the albanian genocide which was actually caried out! again show me the 1 albanian source from before the 19th cent who claims u are illyirian?
January 21, 2007 12:13 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on January 21, 2007 12:13
The Expulsion of the Albanians:
Memorandum 1937
GREATER SERBIA
from Ideology to Aggression
By Vaso Cubrilovic
4 August 2006 /TN / source: Robert Elsie
The Expulsion of the Albanians: Memorandum 1937
"The Expulsion of the Albanians," is a memorandum prepared and written by the noted Serb scholar and political figure Vaso Cubrilovic (1897-1990). As a student in 1914, Cubrilovic had participated in the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, the event which precipitated the First World War. Between the two wars, he was professor at the Faculty of Arts in Belgrade. A leading member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art, Cubrilovic also held several ministerial portfolios after World War II. Among his writings is the monograph "Istorija politicke misle u Srbiji XIX veka," Belgrade 1958 (History of political thought in Serbia in the 19th century).
The Expulsion of the Albanians
The problem of the Albanians in the life of our country and people did not arise yesterday. It played a major role in our life in the Middle Ages, but its importance only became decisive towards the end of the seventeenth century, at a time when the masses of the Serbian people were displaced northwards out of their former ancestral territory of Rashka / Raška, supplanted by Albanian highlanders.
Gradually, the latter came down from their mountains to the fertile plains of Metohija and Kosovo. Spreading northwards, they continued in the direction of southern and western Morava and, crossing the Shar mountains, descended into Polog and, from there, towards the Vardar. Thus, by the nineteenth century was formed the Albanian triangle, a wedge which, with its Debar-Rogozna axis in the rear, penetrated as far into our territories as Nish / Niš and separated our ancient land of Rashka from Macedonia and the Vardar Valley.
In the nineteenth century, this wedge, inhabited by wild Albanian elements, prevented the maintenance of any strong cultural, educational and economic links between our northern and southern territories. This was also the main reason why, until 1878, Serbia was unable to establish and maintain continuous links with Macedonia through Vranja and the Black Mountain of Skopje and thus to exercise its cultural and political influence on the Vardar Valley, to the extent that one would have expected in view of conducive geographical factors and historical traditions in these regions. Although the Bulgarians began their life as a nation later than the Serbs, they had greater success initially. This explains why there are permanent settlements of southern Slavs from Vidin in the north to Ohrid in the south. Serbia began to slice off pieces of this Albanian wedge as early as the first uprising, by expelling the northernmost Albanian settlers from Jagodina.
Thanks to the wide-ranging national plans of Jovan Ristic, Serbia sliced off another piece of this wedge with the annexation of Toplica and Kosanica. At that time, the regions between Jastrebac and southern Morava were radically cleared of Albanians.
From 1918 onwards, it was the task of our present state to suppress what remained of the Albanian triangle, but it did not succeed. Though there are a number of reasons for this, we shall examine only the most important of them.
1. The fundamental mistake made by the authorities in charge at that time was that, forgetting where they were, they wanted to solve all the major ethnic problems of the troubled and bloody Balkans by Western methods. Turkey brought to the Balkans the customs of the Sheriat, according to which victory in war and the occupation of a country conferred the right on the victor to dispose of the lives and property of the subjected inhabitants. Even the Balkan Christians learned from the Turks that not only state power and domination, but also home and property could be won and lost by the sword.
This concept of land ownership in the Balkans was to be softened somewhat by laws, ordinances and international agreements brought about under pressure from Europe, but it has, to a good extent, remained a primary instrument of leverage for Turkey and the Balkan states up to this very day. We need not evoke the distant past. It is sufficient to refer to a few cases which have taken place in recent times: the transfer of Greeks from Asia Minor to Greece and of Turks from Greece to Asia Minor, or the recent expulsion of Turks from Bulgaria and Romania to Turkey.
While all the Balkan states, since 1912, have solved or are on the point of solving their problems with national minorities through mass population transfers, we have stuck to the slow and cumbersome strategy of gradual colonization. The result has been negative, as evident from the statistics of the eighteen districts which make up the Albanian triangle.
These figures show that the natural growth of the Albanian population in these regions is still greater than the total increase in our population from both natural growth and new settlers (from 1921 to 1931, the Albanian population increased by 68,060, while the Serbs showed an increase of 58,745, i.e. a difference of 9,315 in favour of the Albanians). Taking into account the intractable character of the Albanians, the pronounced increase in their numbers and the ever-increasing difficulties of colonization will eventually put in question even those few successes we have achieved in our colonization from 1918 onwards.
2. Even the strategy of gradual colonization was not properly applied. Worse still in a matter of such importance, there was no specific state plan for every government and regime to adhere to and implement. Work was intermittent, in fits and starts, with each new minister undoing what his predecessor had done and himself creating nothing solid. Laws and regulations were amended but, weak as they were, were never implemented. Some individuals, especially deputies from other regions, who could not manage to secure a mandate at home, would go down south and butter up the non-national elements to gain a mandate there, thus sacrificing major national and state interests.
The colonization apparatus was extremely costly, inflated and loaded with people who were not only incompetent, but were also frequently without scruples. Their activities are indeed a topic in itself. Finally, one need only total up the huge sums this state has invested in colonization and divide them by the number of families settled to prove how costly every new household established since the war has been, regardless of whether or not this expenditure was met by the settlers themselves or by the state.
Likewise, it would be interesting to compare the amounts paid out for personal expenditures and those for materials needed for colonization. In the past, Serbia went about this matter quite differently. Karageorge, during the first uprising, as well as Miloš, Mihajlo and Jovan Ristic had no special ministry of land reform, no general land inspectors, or costly apparatus, and still, they managed to purge Serbia of foreign elements and populate it with our own people who felled the endless forests of Shumadia (Šumadija), transforming them from the wild state they were once in to the fertile Shumadia we know today.
3. Even those few thousand families who were settled after the war did not remain where they were originally located. There was more success in Kosovo, especially in the Lab / Llap valley, where the Toplicans penetrated of their own accord from north to south. Our oldest and most stable settlements there were established with elements from various Serbian regions. In Drenica and Metohija we had no success at all. Colonization should never be carried out with Montenegrins alone.
We do not think that they are suitable as colonists because of their pastoral indolence. This applies to the first generation only. The second generation is quite different, more active and more practical. The village of Petrovo in Miroc north of the Danube, the most advanced village in Krajina, is inhabited exclusively by Montenegrins. In Serbia today, there are thousands of other flourishing towns, especially in Toplica and Kosanica, which were established by Montenegrins of the first generation who mixed with more advanced elements. The foregoing consideration, nonetheless, still applies in Metohija where, since the settlers are on their own ancestral lands, old customs still abound. A visit to any coffee-house in Peja / Pec is sufficient proof.
This is why our colonization has had so little success throughout Metohija. It must be admitted, on the other hand, that these colonies were poorly situated on barren, scrub-covered land, and were almost totally lacking in basic agricultural equipment. These people should have been given more assistance than other colonists because they were among the poorest Montenegrin elements.
4. Without doubt, the main cause for the lack of success in our colonization of these regions was that the best land remained in the hands of the Albanians. The only possible means for our mass colonization of these regions to succeed is for us to take the land away from them.
This could have been achieved easily during the rebellion after the war, when the insurgents were active, by expelling part of the Albanian population to Albania, by refusing to legalize their usurpations and by buying up their pasture land.
Here, we must refer once again to the gross error committed in our post-war strategy, that of the right to own land. Instead of taking advantage of the strategy used by the Albanians themselves for ownership of the land they usurped (scarcely any of them had deeds issued by the Turks, and those who did, got them only for land purchased), we not only legalized all these usurpations to the detriment of our state and nation, but worse still, we accustomed the Albanians to western European attitudes to private property.
Prior to that, they could never have understood such concepts. In this way, we ourselves handed them a weapon with which to defend themselves, keeping the best land for themselves and rendering impossible the nationalization of a region of supreme importance to us.
It is apparent from the above that our colonization strategy in the south has not yielded the results which ought to have been achieved and which now impose themselves upon us as a major necessity of state. We are not criticizing this strategy merely for the sake of criticism, but so that, on the basis of our past experience, we can find the right way to solve this problem.
The Problem of Colonization of the Southern Regions
Reading the first part of this paper and comprehending the problem of colonization of the south, one realizes immediately that the primary issue at stake are the regions north and south of the Shar mountains. This is no coincidence. The wedge of Albanians on both sides of the Shar range is of great national and strategic significance to our state. We have already mentioned the way the population structure came into existence there and the importance of these regions for links to the lands of the Vardar Valley, which are firmly within the limits of our ancient territories.
The strength of Serbian expansion ever since the foundation of the first Serbian state in the ninth century has lain in the continuity both of this expansion and of the expansion of ancient Rashka / Raška in all directions, including southwards. But this continuity has been interrupted by the Albanians, and until the ancient link between Serbia and Montenegro on the one hand, and Macedonia on the other, is re-established along the whole line from the River Drin to southern Morava, we will not be secure in the possession of our territories. From an ethnic point of view, the Macedonians will only unite with us, if they receive true ethnic support from their Serbian motherland, something which they have lacked to this day. This can only be achieved through the destruction of the Albanian wedge.
From a military and strategic point of view, the Albanian wedge occupies one of the most vital points in our country, the starting point from which major Balkan rivers flow to the Adriatic Sea, to the Black Sea and to the Aegean. Possession of this strategic point determines, to a large degree, the fate of the central Balkans, and in particular, the fate of the main line of Balkan communications from the Morava to the Vardar. It is no coincidence that many battles of decisive importance to the destiny of the Balkans were fought here (Nemanja against the Greeks, the Serbs against the Turks in 1389, Hunyadi against the Turks in 1446).
In the twentieth century, only a country inhabited by its own people can be confident of its security. It is therefore imperative that we not allow such points of strategic importance to be held by hostile and alien elements. This is all the more true in this case in that the element in question has the support of a nation state of the same race. Today this state is powerless, but even as such, it has become a base for Italian imperialism which aims to use the country as a means of penetrating into the heart of our nation. Our people, who are willing and able to defend their land and country, are the most reliable element in the fight against such penetration.
With the exception of this block of eighteen districts, the Albanians and other national minorities in other parts of the south are scattered and, therefore, constitute less of a threat to the life of our nation and state. Nationalizing the regions around the Shar mountains would mean that we can stifle irredentism once and for all, and ensure our control over these territories forever.
Colonization from the north should be kept to a minimum in the regions inhabited by the Macedonians. Here land is scarce and for this reason, the Macedonians would resist an influx of settlers from the north, all the more so because they would regard this influx as a sign of mistrust on our part. As such, even such a minimal colonization would do us more harm than good. If we do send people down there, to the region south of the Black Mountain of Skopje, they should be people from Vranje and Leskovac, who are closer in mentality and culture to the Macedonians. By no means should we send people from the Dinaric region because their irritable and uncontrolled temperaments would only arouse the hostility of the local population. We repeat that this problem will only be solved when our colonies advancing from the north through Kosovo and Metohija in the direction of the Shar mountains and Polog have reached Macedonian settlements.
The problem of the Sandjak of Novi Pazar is solving itself and no longer plays the role it did in the life of our country before 1912. Let it suffice to mention that with the elimination of the Albanians, the last link between our Moslems in Bosnia and Novi Pazar and the rest of the Moslem world will have been cut. They are becoming a religious minority, the only Moslem minority in the Balkans, and this fact will accelerate their assimilation.
Montenegro has become a serious problem recently. This barren land cannot sustain the population which, despite resettlement, increased by 16% from 1912 to 1931. This impulsive, pastoral people has contributed many essential characteristics to our race over the centuries. Channelled in the right direction, their energy will not be destructive, and could, if directed towards the southeast, be employed for the common good of the country.
Summing up:
The Albanians cannot be dispelled by means of gradual colonization alone. They are the only people who, over the last millennium, managed not only to resist the nucleus of our state, Rashka and Zeta, but also to harm us by pushing our ethnic borders northwards and eastwards. When in the last millennium our ethnic borders were shifted up to Subotica in the north and to the Kupa River in the northwest, the Albanians drove us out of the Shkodra (Scutari) region, out of the former capital of Bodin, and out of Metohija and Kosovo.
The only way and only means to cope with them is through the brute force of an organized state, in which we have always been superior to them. If since 1912 we have had no success in the struggle against them, we have only ourselves to blame since we have not used this force as we should have. There is no possibility for us to assimilate the Albanians. On the contrary, because their roots are in Albania, their national awareness has been awakened, and if we do not settle the score with them once and for all, within 20-30 years we shall have to cope with a terrible irredentism, the signs of which are already apparent and will inevitably put all our southern territories in jeopardy.
The International Problems of Colonization
If we proceed on the assumption that the gradual displacement of the Albanians by means of gradual colonization is ineffective, we are then left with only one course - that of mass resettlement. In this connection, we must consider two countries: Albania and Turkey.
With its sparse population, its many undrained swamps and uncultivated valleys, Albania would have no difficulty admitting some hundred thousand Albanians from our country. With its vast and uninhabited frontiers in Asia Minor and Kurdistan, modern Turkey, for its part, offers seemingly unlimited opportunities for internal colonization. Despite efforts on the part of Kemal Atatürk, the Turks have not yet been able to fill the vacuum created by the evacuation of the Greeks from Asia Minor to Greece and of some of the Kurds to Persia. Hence, the greatest possibilities lie in sending the bulk of our displaced Albanians there.
Firstly, I stress that we must not limit ourselves to diplomatic démarches with the Ankara government, but must employ all means available to convince Tirana to accept some of our displaced people, too. I believe that we will come up against difficulties in Tirana because Italy will try to hinder the process. Be this as it may, money plays an important role in Tirana. In negotiations on the issue, the Albanian government should be informed that we will stop at nothing to achieve the final solution to this question. At the same time, we should tell them about colonization subsidies available, stressing that no controls will be exercised over them. Eventually, notables in Tirana will see the material gains involved and be persuaded through secret channels not to raise any objections to the whole business.
We have heard that Turkey has agreed, initially, to accept about 200,000 of our displaced persons on condition that they are Albanians, something which is most advantageous to us. We must comply with Turkey's wish immediately and sign a convention for the resettlement of the Albanian population as soon as possible.
Concerning the resettlement of this Albanian population, we must study conventions which Turkey signed recently with Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, paying particular attention to two aspects: Turkey should accept the largest possible contingent and should be given maximum assistance from a financial point of view, in particular for the swift organization of transportation facilities. As is inevitable in such cases, this problem will no doubt give rise to some international concern.
Over the last hundred years, whenever such actions have been carried out in the Balkans, there has always been some power which has protested because the action did not conform to its interests. In the present case, Albania and Italy may make some protest. We have already pointed out that attempts should be made to conclude an agreement with Albania on this matter and, failing this, we should at least secure its silence on the evacuation of the Albanians to Turkey. We repeat that skilful action and money properly used in Tirana may be decisive in this matter.
World opinion, especially that financed by Italy, will be upset a little. Nevertheless, the world today has grown used to things much worse than this and is so preoccupied with its day-to-day problems that this issue should not be a cause for concern. At a time when Germany can expel tens of thousands of Jews and Russia can shift millions of people from one part of the continent to another, the evacuation of a few hundred thousand Albanians will not set off a world war. Be this as it may, decision-makers should know ahead of time what they want and unfalteringly pursue those goals, regardless of possible international repercussions.
Italy, no doubt, will raise more difficulties, but at present the country is extremely preoccupied by problems of its own in Abyssinia. Austria, for its part, will not dare to go very far in its opposition. To tell the truth, the greatest danger lies in the possibility that our g