Note: all italics
are mine.
Communication
Studies have shown that people read selectively – usually those things that
reinforce the beliefs they have already. Average individuals do not read or listen
in order to change their views but rather to confirm them. They do this
even though the content of what they receive contradicts their beliefs. As with
other myths, the conspiracy theory becomes an authentic part of collective
existence.
Fabian Schmidt
Quoted
from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 226
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_226.jpg
it is necessary to inquire into
which elements of Albanian ethnic identity and their interpretation of history
are Truth and which are Myth.
Similarly,
in those contemporary Albanian settings in which violence is understood as a
legitimate tool to enforce the coherence (in others it is simply public
ostracism) the myth of besa with its central value of ‘faithfulness’ was
used to swear in recruits for the KLA; the early KLA became infamous for
killing its own ‘traitors’ as well as Serb policemen and journalists expressing
critical opinions were under threat.
Stephanie
Schwandner-Sievers:
Capacities
of Myth in Albania
Quoted
from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 18
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_18.jpg
Schwandner-Sievers even sees besa
as a fraud and a tool of manipulation by Albanian mythmakers. According to her,
ethnic Albanian so-called ‘traitors’ who opposed the KLA, Serb policemen and
journalists expressing critical opinions - were the KLA’s first victims. The
KLA is the latest Albanian nationalist elite to manipulate Albanian ethnic
identity.
Next we explore how the Albanian chauvinists
created the myths that mislead far too many Albanians from an Albanian scholar.
Most of the Neo-Enverist elite that created the myths is composed primarily of
Muslims and after WWII: ex-Muslims.
…until
then they tried to legitimize the historical right of Albanians to be
considered a nation, discovering or often inventing facts to justify their
claims historically, a process that was increasingly taking on the features
of the re-discovery of an ‘ethno-history’. Now the creation of the League of
Prizren transformed this into a nationalistic ideology.
Pirro
Misha
Quoted
from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 40
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_40.jpg
Albanian dissident Pirro Misha
observes that the League of Prizren was essentially a group of charlatans and
manipulators who lied to the very people they were trying to ‘liberate’ – a
pattern already noted by Schwandner-Sievers as being practiced by the KLA; a
fact that is confirmed by the way Kosovo is being administered into
destitution. Here is more from Misha’s caustic indictment of the League of
Prizren…
The approach
to history was of course selective: just as it was important to awaken parts of
the past, it was also important to leave other parts out or, if this was not
possible, to remake them.
Pirro
Misha
Quoted from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 41
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_41.jpg
German scholar Fabian Schmidt
would certainly agree. The roots of the selective thinking, reading and
listening that Schmidt noted among Albanians - were sown into the contemporary
Albanian consciousness by the Prizrenites in the 1870s. It is important to
figure out WHY Albanian national consciousness evolved into the direction of
propaganda and myth. Why did it not proceed in the same way as the Serbian and
Greek model?
For more insight into that, we
turn to another Albanian scholar; the dissident Fatos Lubonja…
If we
compare Albanian nationalism with that of its Serb and Greek neighbors, we see
that it starts several decades later and in another historical context.
Albanian nationalism does not originate principally as a necessary result
for liberation from Turkish domination, as was the case for Greek and Serb
nationalism. Rather, Albanian nationalism starts at the time of the
Russian-Turkish War (1878) that brought independence to the Serbs.
Fatos
Lubonja
Quoted
from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 91
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_91.jpg
Read this quote carefully in case
you might have missed something.
Lubonja says that Albanian
nationalism starts in another historical context compared to the
nationalism of the Serbs and Greeks - because it doesn’t even originate as a
desire for one’s own liberation. Instead, Albanian nationalism originated as
a tool to preserve Muslim Albanian power and privilege after the shock of realizing
that the Ottoman Empire was in decline after the Russian-Turkish War. The
League of Prizren could only have emerged a region where 99% of the Albanian
population was Muslim. On the other hand, Serb and Greek nationalism DO
originate principally as a desire for liberation from Turkish oppresion that
was being carried out with the support and complicity of Muslim Albanians [http://geocities.datacellar.net/aia_skenderbeg/rillindja.html].
Any nationalism that does NOT
originate in the struggle for liberation but instead in a desire to preserve a
special exploitive status over other ethnic and religious groups that it was in
danger of losing – is unhealthy and dangerous.
Albanian nationalism is predatory
by nature. It is a reactionary nationalism. Serbian and Greek and the
majority of legitimate nationalisms originate from within themselves, not from
without.
Pirro Misha talks about the contradictions
in the manufactured ethnic identity that the Prizrenites imposed on the
Albanian people
…because
nothing is so simple when we speak of the relations between Albanians and
Europe. The Albanian collective imagery of these two entities (with the Orient
close by adding a further complication) incarnates the numerous
contradictions and ambiguities that characterize the Albanians’ identity
process…
Part of
this pattern is the syndrome of ’historic victimization’ (created in
the 19th century and reinforced by the events of 1913… The use
of history by nationalism to project the image of a people as permanent victims
constitutes an obstacle to a critical confrontation with the past
Pirro
Misha
Quoted
from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 44
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_44.jpg
The Albanian nationalist elite has
imposed an image, essentially a set of confusing paradigms - in the Albanian
ethno-psyche. Misha says that Albanians are mentally unable to critically
confront their past. This is a caustic condemnation shared by every single
scholar who will be quoted in this presentation.
Noel Malcolm adds more insight:
Modern
scholars would also think it necessary to refer to the many examples of
co-operation (sometimes to mutual advantage) between inhabitants of
Albanian lands and their foreign rulers – above all, in the case of
the Ottomans, with their innumerable officials and official of Albanian
origin (including more than 40 grand vezirs).
Noel
Malcolm
Quoted
from:
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 82
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One of the major myths started the
nationalist elites in Albania was the syndrome of ’historic victimization’.
This syndrome seems to induce, among other things, selective memory. For
example: to believe that Albanians were historical victims is to forget that
they were part of the state machinery of the Ottoman hierarchy. [http://geocities.datacellar.net/aia_skenderbeg/rillindja.html].
Albanians held Serbs in bondage for 350 years enjoying all the privileges of a
special caste after they colonized the region from N. Albania after the Turks
conquered the region.
Gradually,
Albanian Communism carried the manipulation of history to the level of
paranoia, almost schizophrenia, and made Albania one of the world’s most
isolated countries dominated by climate of terror and suspicion.
Pirro
Misha
Quoted
from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 48
http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_48.jpg
Notice that Misha uses psychiatric
terminology like syndrome and schizophrenia to describe the
Albanian mentality. Paranoia & delusions of persecution are hallmarks of
mental illness. For the nationalist elites, this false sense of persecution and
the level of paranoia it created, were necessary in order to dull the minds of
the Albanian people to prevent critical thought and to establish a scapegoat
(Serbs) while the elites held power with an iron fist and the population
suffered.
Fatos Lubonja says on page 91:
“Albanian nationalism does not originate principally as a necessary result for
liberation from Turkish domination, as was the case for Greek and Serb
nationalism…Albanian nationalism starts at the time of the Russian-Turkish War
(1878) which brought independence to the Serbs”. The key thing was for
Albanians to forget as quickly as possible that they were part of the state
machinery of the Ottoman theocracy that made Albanians complicit in holding
Serbs in slavery conditions for 350 years while enjoying all the privileges of
a special caste [http://geocities.datacellar.net/aia_skenderbeg/rillindja.html].
The Serbophobia that the
Prizrenites imparted was now being used as a method to gain foreign sponsors.
Let’s look at what allies that Albania chose to cultivate in the early 20th
century.
Next, Albanian scholar Isa Blumi
as he describes how the ancestral Muslim elites benefited from the Serbophobia
they instilled even to the point of persecuting Christians…
Unfortunately,
due to Enver Hoxha’s persecution of Catholics after WWII, the role of Austrian
and Italian schools in the preparation of Italian intelligentsia has yet to be
fully explored. What we do know is that imperial interests, primarily Italian
and Austrian used their increasing strength to implement long-term strategies,
to pursue a mission of civilization and culture for Catholic areas… The Austrian
intelligence community was particularly interested in the development of
education in northern Albania and the vilayet of Kosova [sic] for it
solidified a second front that was meant to halt Slav expansion… By the
beginning of WWI, Austria had 24 schools scattered throughout Ghegh Albania…
Vienna sought
to harness Albanian solidarity against Serbian and Montenegrin expansion in some
areas by co-opting political leaders, both Muslim and Catholic, to a ‘programme
of action’…
Isa Blumi
The
Role of Education in the Albanian Identity and its Myths
Quoted
from:
Albanian
Identities: Myth and History
Edited by:
Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page:
55-56
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http://geocities.datacellar.net/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_56.jpg
Up to WWI, the Prizrenites were
allowing the Serbophobic Albanian identity which they manufactured - to be
exploited by Austria-Hungary and Italy; two countries with a traditionally
antagonistic foreign policy toward Serbia and pre-WWII Yugoslavia. The
ex-Muslim nationalist elites & the Christians they co-opted were the
puppets while the Albanian people were the pawns and any foreign power with a
Serbophobic foreign policy was a natural ally. Austria-Hungary and Italy
countries eventually fought two wars against the Serb people and held Serbian
populations in bondage. 1 000 000 of the bravest Serbian men, ¼ of the population,
died in WWI because Austria-Hungary was especially a bastion of Serbophobia.
Blumi says that the Albanian
nationalist elites were allowing Vienna to manipulate Muslim AND Catholic
Albanian political leaders. The Albanian ‘nationalist’ mythmaking elites had
sold out their country to Austria to be used as a pawn in its imperial
ambitions. The new solidarity wasn’t based on religion – it was based on
Catholic religion, according to Blumi. It was based on a shared Serbophobia.
The mythmakers needed a scapegoat and a sponsor. The Serbs were always the
scapegoat. The sponsors were The Muslim Ottoman Empire, then Austria-Hungary,
then Italy and then Communists like Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-tung’s China and
Clinton’s America.
Conclusions about the Nature of
Albanian Nationalism:
Rather than being an end unto
itself like any healthy nationalism, the kind of Albanian nationalism that the
Prizrenite Muslims imposed in Kosovo and later spread south to Albania was
motivated by a desire to maintain existing privileges in the aftermath of the
devastating military defeat by Russia of the Albanians’ sponsors, the Ottoman
Turks
Albanian nationalism is fundamentally aberrant. It doesn’t stem
from a desire to liberate itself from an oppressive force. On the contrary – it
is a reaction to a neighboring people’s legitimate national liberation – which
Muslim Albanians themselves were systematically oppressing by being part of the
Ottoman apparatus for 350 years. Muslim identity and top position in the
Ottoman hierarchy allowed Albanians to colonize Kosovo by cleansing the Serbs [http://geocities.datacellar.net/aia_skenderbeg/turkish_era.html].
Albanian nationalism is not a rooted in its own sense of freedom and rights;
but in the continuing the oppression of the same people they had been
systematically oppressing for 350 years.
Meanwhile,
the Albanian nationalist elites rule with an iron fist by putting themselves,
the Albanian state and the Albanian people under the direction of any foreign
power who would sponsor the elites. These elites live the high life while the
Albanian people pay for it by living in ignorance and poverty for which the
Serbs are used as a scapegoat and a distraction from the social deterioration
deliberately caused by the elites’ excesses.
The KLA nationalist elite now turning
Kosovo into a cesspool of AIDS and prostitution while scapegoating Serbs - is
the most extreme contemporary example. Before the KLA, it was the Enverist
isolationists in Albania who built bunkers to prevent a Yugoslav invasion that
was never going to occur. Before the Enverists, it was Zog and the corrupt
Albanian politicians co-opted and paid by Austrian agents. Before them came the
Prizrenites of the 1870s who instilled Serbophobia into Albanian nationalism.
Since then, whether it has been the Prizrenites, the Enverists or the KLA and
whether the sponsor has been Austria-Hungary, fascist Italy, communist China or
liberal America – the players change but the game always stays the same and it
will, as long as Albanian nationalism remains rooted in Serbophobia.
