Features of Albanian separatism in Kosovo and Metohija

Echimovich Mariana Postgraduate, Department of Theory and History of International Relations, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Miklukho-Maklaya, 10/2 1032211912@pfur.ru Other publications by this author     Shchekich Svetozar Postgraduate, Department of Theory and History of International Relations, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow, st. Мiklukho-Maklaya,10/2 1032205958@pfur.ru

Braјovich Maksim Postgraduate, Department of Theory and History of International Relations, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow, st. Мiklukho-Maklaya,10/2 1132215374@pfur.ru

Introduction

The conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija has a long historical basis, and despite the different intensity of disputes between these two Balkan peoples, it can be unequivocally said that the tension in their relations has never stopped. The geopolitical position of the Balkan Peninsula has always played an important role for the great powers of different historical eras, and the space of Kosovo and Metohija has always been important not only for the Serbs, but also for external actors whose interests have clashed over the centuries, in particular on the territory of the southern Serbian territory.

Fundamentals of Albanian Ethnonationalism and Ethnoseparatism in Kosovo and Metohija

Kosovo and Metohija as territorial areas were part of the Serbian medieval state since the XII century and before the arrival of the Ottoman Empire, these areas were the cradle of the culture of the Serbian state, as evidenced by the 1,300 Orthodox monasteries, churches and other monuments of Serbian culture located here, as well as the origin of Serbian princely families and the social elite ^[1]. Moreover, it was on the Kosovo field in 1389 that the legendary battle between the Serbs and the Ottoman Turks took place, which is one of the most heroic and revered pages in the history of Serbia ^[22].

Serbs before the XVI century .  They made up the majority of the population of Kosovo and Metohija, but with the passage of centuries this situation gradually changed. The reason for this was the Turkish invasion, which led to the emigration of Orthodox Slavs from their ancestral areas of residence beyond the Danube and Sava during the XVI-XIX centuries. and the Islamization of the local population, who did not want to leave their lands, subsequently assimilated with the Muslim peoples who came to these lands. The Turks settled the devastated lands of southwestern Serbia with a Muslim population, mostly Turks and Albanians from the mountainous regions of Albania. Thus, the Muslim population managed to gain a foothold in the strategically important areas of Vardar Macedonia, Kosovo and Metohija, Sanjak and Bosnia. This settlement of the Muslim population created a corridor that actually divided the area of settlement of the Serbs ^[3].

The ideological foundations of Albanian ethnonationalism and ethnoseparatism on the Balkan Peninsula are associated with the awakening of the national consciousness of Albanians during the Great Eastern Crisis of 1875-1878 . At the end of this historically important period, just before the start of the Berlin Congress, an Albanian political organization called the League for the Protection of the Rights of the Albanian People, better known as the First Prizer League, was founded on July 10, 1878, the idea of which, with the filing of the great Powers, was to unite all Albanians into a single vilayet.

In studies concerning Kosmet and recent Albanian history, the question of the emergence of the League, as a rule, emphasizes the liberating character, and the pan-Islamist character, which is the main component of the political and religious activities of this organization, is ignored, moreover, crimes against Christians and the expansionist nature of the League, the general political and religious circumstances under which it arose, as well as the directions of its activities are also kept silent. However, at its core, the League was a big game, Turkey and great forces such as Austria-Hungary and Great Britain, and not an autochthonous liberation movement ^[4].

As S. Terzich notes: "The Great Albanian political concept in its initial, initial program bore the mark of pan-Islamism and radical political Islam. The Albanian political elite tried from time to time, when it needed the support of any of the Western forces, to hide the obvious Islamic origin of the pillars of this ideology in the eyes of the European world. In Old Serbia, primarily in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as in the regions of today's western Macedonia, the militant type of Islam prevailed, which the mountainous Albanian population of Northern Albania brought with them in their breakthrough into these favorable and fertile lands..." ^[4].

The Second Prizren League was revived in September 1943 during the Second World War under the mentorship of the Third Reich ^[5]. During the Second World War, the demographic situation in Kosovo and Metohija underwent serious changes caused by the migration policy of fascist Italy, which facilitated the resettlement of the Albanian population from Albania to the Serbian territory, thereby continuing to strengthen and expand the borders of "Great Albania", which was actually formed in 1941 by transferring the territories of Macedonia under the leadership of Albania occupied by the Third Reich, Montenegro, and parts of Serbia that were at that time in the Italian occupation zone ^[6]. It is indicative that the Albanians themselves considered unification under the fascist regime to be a lesser evil compared to the rule of the Serbs ^[7].

Islamic structures provided important support to the Albanian Irredentist movement, in particular the Muslim leader of the Albanian National Commit, the extremist Bedri Penjan, who openly called for the murder of Orthodox Serbs in the name of creating a "Greater Albania", and the confessor of the SS division "Skanderbeg" was Muhammad Amin al Husseini, who is the mufti from Jerusalem ^[8]. Moreover, during the Second World War, the Muslim clergy in Kosmet actively conducted propaganda in support of Nazi Germany.

Thus, during the Second World War, cooperation between radical Islamist terrorist structures and Albanian nationalist groups was initiated, and at the same time, terrorist and extremist practices began to actively penetrate the Albanian nationalist movement ^[9].

Kosovo did not receive the promised status of a republic, which caused discontent and disappointment of Albanians. The harsh measures of the communist leadership additionally affected the creation of a cohesive Albanian national identity in Kosovo and Metohija. During this period, the Albanian community closes itself in, carrying out self-isolation in relation to other peoples of the SFRY. Although the communist leadership of the SFRY rejected the idea of granting the province the status of a republic, the Albanians, dominating institutions and strengthening their national identity ^[10], persistently sought the separation of Kosovo and Metohija ^[11]. The 1974 Constitution gave Kosovo a dominant role in relation to the Republic of Serbia. During that period, there was a sudden cultural awakening of Albanians and intensive cooperation with kindred circles in Albania ^[12]. It is estimated that during this period, due to pressure and encroachments on property and personal security, at least 100,000 Serbs and Montenegrins left the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. The Communist government did not provide an effective response to this situation, moreover, part of the problem was hushed up ^[13]. This period was also marked by significant modernization and industrialization of Kosovo and Metohija, carried out with the help of other republics of the SFRY. Nevertheless, during this period, Albanian society remained very closed, based on tribal relations, which were even placed above the laws of the state. During this period, organized extremist movements of Albanians were born.

Albanian separatism in Kosovo and Metohija at the end of the XX century .

The first manifestations of the radicalism of the separatist sentiments of the Albanian part of the population of Kosovo and Metohija and the formation of Albanian terrorism in the guise in which it manifested itself in the hottest phases of the Kosovo crisis made themselves felt back in the early 1980s. It was then that the first radical underground groups began to form, spreading extremist methods of struggle. Even then, the first attacks by armed Albanians began to be carried out on representatives of Serbian state bodies, Serbian civilians, state institutions and Orthodox cultural monuments ^[14].

In 1981, mass demonstrations of Albanians began in Kosovo and Metohija demanding that the province be granted the status of a republic. It is believed that it was the March 1981 events that marked the beginning of the modern Kosovo crisis. During this period, underground separatist groups began to actively operate, the core of which were members of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). The fact that the organization of extremist groups was entrusted to professional military personnel, who often held senior positions in the republican leadership, explains the good training and high conspiracy of militants ^[14]. According to the data cited by B. Dimitrievich: "only in the period from 1981 to 1988. 225 illegal Albanian groups numbering over 1,600 soldiers were found in the JNA" ^[15]. At the same time, 40 to 100 attacks on military facilities and property were carried out annually in Kosmet, as well as minor sabotage and provocations. In the spring of 1989, a crisis broke out again in Kosovo and Metohija, a wave of demonstrations swept through the cities, followed by the most extensive military and police intervention.

As A. Dmitrovska rightly notes: "The cultural and religious isolation of the Albanian communities, combined with the upbringing of children and youth in the spirit of pan-Albanism, supplemented by the gradual implementation of political demands, contributed to the consolidation of irredentist ideas in Albanian society, which received with the support of the United States, NATO and the EU (the bombing of 1999 and the subsequent occupation of the region) their effective expression in the proclamation in 2008, the second Albanian state – the Republic of Kosovo" ^[9].

Albanian separatism does not represent spontaneously organized ethnic groups with the aim of fighting against "terror" committed by the state authorities, as it was interpreted by the Kosovo Albanians and their foreign patrons, but on the contrary represents the embodiment of the idea of a "Great Albania", designed in the First and Second Prize-winning Leagues. The ways of implementing the idea of a "Great Albania" were adjusted depending on a particular political situation, but the ultimate goal of uniting all Albanians into one state remained unchanged.  

 To implement the Great Albanian idea, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, combat and terrorist organizations were formed, such as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the Presevo, Medvedji and Bujanovac Liberation Army (AOPMB), the Albanian National Army (ANA) and the National Liberation Army (PLA), which became the main tools in the hands of the Kosovo Albanians and their foreign allies. 

At the initial stage, the extremist movement of Kosovo Albanians met stiff resistance from the Yugoslav authorities, in connection with which the Albanian Irredentists were forced to go underground. Extremism of Kosovo Albanians has already begun to develop outside the Serbian region, namely in Western Europe. The large Albanian diaspora living in Western European countries provided all possible support to the separatist movement of Kosovo Albanians, ranging from the preparation of propaganda materials, the abduction and murder of important Yugoslav representatives abroad to the smuggling of weapons, drugs and financing.  The main income of Albanian emigrants then, however, as now, came from criminal activities, mainly related to drug trafficking. It was the proceeds from criminal activity that made it possible to finance the separatist movements of Albanians in KiM ^[16]. 

The roots of the terrorist organization "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA) date back to 1982, when the Kosovo Albanians, in opposition to the "Democratic League of Kosovo" by I. Rugov, founded the "Kosovo People's Movement" (KND).  Since its foundation, the KND has set itself as a priority the armed struggle against the army, police and people, in particular against the Albanian population loyal to the Yugoslav Government. Later in 1993, a right–wing faction of the KNP, the National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo, was founded in Pristina, which founded combat formations in Germany and Kosovo. Members of this organization took part in armed conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later joined the ranks of the AOC as veterans with combat experience. Along with participation in the Yugoslav wars, the AOC established military training camps in Albania with the support of the Albanian regular Army, which operated since 1994.

The extremist current of Kosovo Albanians assumed a leading role in the Kosovo crisis after the arrest and sentencing of members of the "Ministry and General Staff of the Republic of Kosovo" in July 1994.^[17] Popular support for extremism of Kosovo Albanians grew with the support of Albanian emigrants and a strong lobby, which quickly prepared for the creation of an "independent" Kosovo through an armed uprising, and the tool for achieving this goal was precisely the terrorist organization AOK ^[18].

The degree of activity of Kosovo Albanians in committing terrorist acts is evidenced by the fact that from 1991 to 1997, as a result of the terrorist attacks of the KLA in Kosovo and Metohija, 26 civilians were killed, of which 17 representatives of the Albanian national minority loyal to the Government. Albanian terrorism reached its highest level of brutality in 1998, when 173 civilians were killed in Kosovo and Metohija, 77 of whom were Albanians. In the period from January 1 to August 31, 1998, the majority of Albanians who opposed the AOK terrorism were killed – 47 out of 81 civilians killed were Albanians" ^[19].

Western countries also provided active support in the formation, training, logistics and financing of the AOC. The leader among the Western states supporting the AOC was the United States, which provided comprehensive support to the Kosovo terrorists. The leaders of this organization speak about the role of the United States and NATO in supporting the AOC, so Ramush Haradinai claims that "the NATO intervention led to victory in the war for Kosovo, which was a "joint workshop" of the Alliance and the AOC" ^[18], and Rustem Mustafa said that the AOC "received as an ally the largest army in the world, the NATO army" ^[21].

Using all forms of political violence, primarily terrorism as a means and organized, and crime as a way of financing. Albanian political leaders, unfortunately, managed to internationalize the problem of Kosovo and Metohija on the basis of treacherous and skillful propaganda, provoking NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in March 1999 ^[20].

NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia ended with the signing of the Kumanov Military-Technical Agreement and the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution No. 1244. After the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution, the withdrawal of the Serbian armed forces from Kosovo and Metohija followed, which created a vacuum of military control over the territory, which was soon filled by the KLA militants. During this period, the AOC committed monstrous crimes against Serbs, Gypsies and Albanians. Mass killings of Serbs who remained in the province, kidnappings, trafficking in human organs and terrorist attacks on civilians are just some of the forms of violence used by members of the AOC to expel Serbs ^[21].

With the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of June 10, 1999 and with the arrival of the UN military and civilian Mission in Kosovo and Metohija (KFOR and UMNIK), Albanian extremists and terrorists used all-encompassing violence to expel the non-Albanian population from Kosmet. In the first year after the arrival of the UN Civilian Mission, an average of 14 terrorist attacks were committed, primarily on the Serbian population. Only during the period from June 1, 1999 to November 17, 2001, 1,120 people were killed, 1,179 people were wounded and 1,075 people were abducted. About 200,000 Serbs and about 50,000 representatives of other national minorities of Kosovo and Metohija were expelled ^[22].

Thus, the project of "Greater Albania" and the independence of the so-called "Kosovo" was planned with the creation of the First and Second Prizren Leagues and was largely implemented after the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. The cynicism of foreign mentors, primarily the United States, which recognized the AOC as a terrorist organization until 1997, persisted after the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution. After the withdrawal of the Serbian armed forces from Kosovo and Metohija under the auspices of the United States, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps and the Kosovo Police Force, and the terrorist leaders of the KLA formed political parties and take an active part in the political life of Kosovo and Metohija. Given that the heads of terrorist organizations have been and remain the leaders of the most important political entities in Kosovo and Metohija, it is not surprising that the Kosovo Provisional Institutions terrorize representatives of the non-Albanian population. Tolerance of the violence and terror of the AOC by Western countries, directly by the members of the UN KFOR mission against members of other religious and ethnic groups in Kosovo and Metohija has created a favorable ground for the organization of terrorist camps for the training and recruitment of future terrorists and the penetration of international terrorist networks into Europe.

The reaction of the Serbian government in the form of the actions of the Serbian army and police was only a pretext for NATO's armed intervention. The bombing of the FRY ended with a military-technical international protectorate in the form of a civilian (UNMIK) and military (KFOR) UN administration in Kosovo and Metohija, which regulates relations in the annexed territory, maintains peace, organizes provisional institutions of self-government and economy, and human rights protection. As it turned out, the termination of the mandate of UNMIK and KFOR by transferring powers to the Provisional Institutions of Kosovo on the basis of a political agreement meant only one thing: the establishment of Albanian power with the aim of finally creating an independent Albanian state on the territory of the southern Serbian province. Thus, on February 17, 2008, the "independence" of Kosovo was declared unilaterally by the Kosovo Albanians, with the full support of the United States. This decision was formalized by a corresponding declaration, which was adopted by the so-called Assembly of Kosovo ^[23]. It should be noted that this document recorded and authorized all aspects of the international presence on the territory of the province provided for by the Ahtisaari plan, namely: civilian, police and military presence, while despite references to UN Security Council Resolution 1244, in the document, when justifying its actions, it actually turned out that the specified international presence from the moment The self–declaration of Pristina's sovereignty should no longer have operated under the auspices of the UN: the military presence was assigned to the North Atlantic Alliance, the police mission was assigned to the EU (EULEX mission) ^[24], which was not provided for by UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

The separation of Kosovo from Serbia, which took place under the careful leadership of the international community in the person of the United States and the EU, as well as the recognition of the "independence" of the so-called Kosovo by, first of all, Western countries, grossly violated not only UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and international law in general, but also created an international legal precedent, thanks to which other supporters of territorial separation have a reason and a legal basis to seek the same as the so-called Kosovo. Western intervention in the Kosovo crisis led to the creation of a second Albanian state in the Balkans, which, together with the problems of interaction of the Albanian ethnic minority in other countries of the Balkan region, creates numerous problems for regional balance and security ^[25]. After the separation of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia, the idea of a "Greater Albania" has acquired real contours, and the support of leading geopolitical players in this aspiration only strengthens the aspirations of Albanians and creates the prospect of serious destabilization of the Balkans.