Archbishop Dr. Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania
Posted on 07/26/2007 3:05:00 AM PDT by Doctor13
So, the secret is out. The “premier” of the Kosovo government, the former ringleader of the terrorist “Kosovo Liberation Army” Agim Ceku has named the date, to which the Albanian leaders of the province would time their declaration of independence. That is slated for November 28,2007, when the neighbouring Albania will celebrate its principal state holiday - Day of the Flag.
But the holiday has to do with Albania but indirectly. It has long been viewed by the Albanian diaspora scattered all over the world as Day of All Albanians. To understand what Kosovo separatists mean by selecting this particular date for declaring independence, suffice it to recollect the two key events in the ALBANIAN history, not the history of a state of Albanians but rather of their ethnic origins.
The first milestone is the period when the All-Albanian Prizren League worked in 1878-1881. Prizren is a town in Kosovo. In September 1878 the leaders of the Prizren League adopted a programme of unification of ALL Albanian provinces into a single autonomous state and political formation, introducing Albanian as the language to be used for making official documents and for educational purposes, as well as creation of the Albanian national army. Following that the demand to establish of a single Albanian vilayet under the formal suzerainty of the Turkish Sultan for the above purposes. Using the slogan “United Albania for all Albanians” their troops clashed with Turkish and Montenegro armies that attempted to implement the decisions of the 1878 Berlin Congress on the territorial rebuilding of the Balkans.
The idea of the creating of the ethnic Albania was rejuvenated in the autumn of 1912 when the armed forces of the Balkan states led by Serbia liberated the originally Slav lands from Turksl. November 18, 1912 leaders of the Albanian national movement presented to diplomats from the great powers in Istanbul what was called “The Call of the Albanian Nation”. It expressed the firm resolve of Albanians to fight with an eye to “guaranteeing to the Albanian people its ethnic and political existence.” What the reference to “guarantees” meant was the establishment of Albania in its ethnic borders and its further international recognition. A few days later in Vlera the National assembly gathered to declare Albania’s independence under the banner of the Middle-Age Albanian hero Skanderbeg, a black double-headed eagle on the red background. Since then residents of Albania and Albanians in Kosovo, [FYRO]Macedonia, Montenegro, Southern Serbia and Greece regard this flag as their national symbol.
As early as 1913 a multi-colour map of “Ethnic Albania” was disseminated in the Balkans that was drawn by someone Ahmet Gasi, also known as “doctor” and “professor”. The map showed the internationalborders of the state-to-be that included Albania, all of Kosovo, the greater part of Macedonia, a part of Greece and Montenegro. Nowadays, all the bookstores in Pristina, the administrative centre of Kosovo feature this map so that it could catch anyone willing to purchase it. The price is 5 euros.
The danger of such ethno-demographic “novelties” by “professor “ Gasi and his present-day Albanian followers should in no case be underestimated. Western researchers and observers have a knack of being constantly surprised at finding how comparatively low the religious sentiment of Albanians is, compared with, for one, with the role their faith plays for Orthodox Serbs and Greeks, and Catholic Croats. However, this Albanian secret is an open secret. The faith of Albanians is Albanism – an anti-Christian idea of bringing together all Albanians within the borders of their single state, deliberately cleansed from any impregnation by any other ethnicity. Given that Albanians have in the present-day Europe the highest per capita birth rate, the stake for ethnocracy and ethno-etatism in the plans of building the “Great Albania” is more than vindicated, allowing them to avoid restriction of the limits of Albanian expansion within the territory of the Balkans only.
So far, they in most European capitals prefer to disregard the danger that is looming over the European continent. They believe (or pretend to believe) the tales that Kosovo Albanians would be satisfied enough to have independence under the international supervision. Meanwhile, they continue to believe that Albanian riots in 2000-2001 in Macedonia and Preshev valley in the south of Serbia were caused by the oppression by Skopje and Belgrade rather than viewing them as a test of their muscles by the Great Albania strategists. Individual concerned voices are drowned in the choir of bombastic diplomats the likes of British Foreign Secretary David Milliband, who calls on the EU to take the “single and strong” stance on Kosovo, supporting the “Ahtisaari” plan that suggests granting independence to the Kosovo residents. As for the date, November 28, Europeans have grown accustomed to associate it with the age-long history, if they ever recollect it.
However, history has a habit of repeating itself, and frequently in a more terrifying manner than before. No one in the United States saw any tragic meaning of the figures 9 and 11 only six years ago. Is it absolutely out of the question for Europe, so vain of its civilization, to begin writing its comprehensive history from the date 11/28 ?
One of the big beefs I have with all this is that the South Slavs pretty much have no say in their present and future lives. UK, France and Germany are determining what is best for them, particularly their borders. This will only lead to more war.
Expanding the Jihadist foothold in Europe.
Hillary and Billy Goat should be invited to the festivities.
The Congress of Berlin (1878) gave the Austro-Hungarian Empire effective control over Bosnia-Herzegovina. This lead to annexation in 1908, the subsequent assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, WWI, WWII and the Bosnian wars of the 90's.
The First and Second League of Prizren were led by prominent Albanian muslim mullahs!!!! The concept of "Albanism" is a kind of Taqqia to take in Albanian Christians, who then become a kind of dhimmi without realizing it. That especially applies to Albanian-American Christians who are prominently involved in Kosovo "independence" and other Albanian (muslim) nationalist causes.
I have Albanian Orthodox friends who say what I say--Kosovo is Serbia!!!! They don't want KLA thugs and violent Gheg clans running ALL of "Greater Albania" from Pristina, which is exactly what the KLA wants to do!!
When NATO had driven the Serbs out and the KLA began swarming over the Kosovo landscape like the lice that they are, there were one or two instance of them attempting to claim possession of Serbian Orthodox Churches in the name of the Albanian Orthodox Church.
The Albanian Orthodox Church refused to accept this, although some people questioned if it would be good if they had so the Churches would then have been protected. It didn't really matter, of course, as it was just a PR gimmick. The Moslems had already started burning the Christian Churches and Monasteries. They didn't give a damn which Christian Church claimed them.
Greek ping!
We need to re-establish a NEW BYZANTIUM for sure. One that takes into account economics, shared values and above all a common CHRISTIAN bond.
Then they went on rampages by submitting to the Italian fascists commiting unspeakable acts against women and children in Greece...refusing to fight like men against the heroic Greeks.
Then they submitted to the insane Maoist yoke of the Albanian commies for decades.
Face it -----and I'm being generous here---Albanians are confused and in dire need of soul searching...they are reviled and ridiculed beaause of their stupid decisions in the past and apparently judging from your remarks still suffering delusions of grandeur in the present time. They may have thought that Madam Albright and Holbrooke were their friends but they are not.
With guidance from the the Lord Jesus Christ they may get it yet...we pray for them and hope they fully join in the family of Christian Orthodox nations.
If we had better neighbors, it would have been a prettier neighborhood, Miss.
If you claim to descend from the ancient Greeks, you should realize how far you are from them [except for residing in the same soil and having nice museums] Tourism is one of the main branches of the Greek economy. Go figure. If it wasn’t for EU and its fat subsidies, you’d still see Greeks migrating like in the 80s. Read about the history of Crete island to understand Albania and religion. It was your your church that made agreements with the Ottomans. Really smart, especially when Greeks were also Turks’ brains, their translators or foreign policy makers, navy’s admirals and ship owners, Phanariote collaborators, wives of many sultans and mothers of new sultans etc.
Learn the truth in early 1900
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/8437/greecealbaniace3.jpg
Albanian castles were the last to fall to the Ottomans, a dozen of years after Scanderbeg’s death, and Albanians were made a brutal example of punishment after the Ottomans overrun the country. When 2/3ds of the country is very poor and mountains, and when the religious tax [djizja] keeps going up, and when the Orthodox Church collaborated to keep the Catholics in north suppressed, one had to survive by “accepting” Islam.
Italian fascists united Albania with Kosovo, unlike Greeks who always wanted south Albania, even today. It’s not a reason to like them, even though it was because of the desertion of the Albanian troops incorporated in the Italian army that made Italians vulnerable to the Greek counteroffensive.
Communism couldn’t have happened without the help of the Soviets, and the Serbs who helped found Albania’s communist party. You had your own civil war after ww2, and a brutal military junta, so spare me the dictatorship lecture.
It is because of certain members like you who keep pushing old stereotype and new trashing of Albanians whenever you get a chance that makes things harder, but thank you for the prayer. Orthodoxism is not in fashion or a choice to recommend.
You can say whatever you want about the Greeks and Serbs, at least they had enough decency not to embrace Islam.
You want everyone in the Balkans to start peeing and crapping in their front yards and to have that code of Lek poison implemented by other Balkan states? Charming.
Know thyself: Hoxha, the KLA Islamists, are the last Stalinists in Europe.
My suggestion that you return to the Orthodox Christian fold was an attempt to reach out...and leave the awful MuslimTurk era behind.
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