Opinion

Balkan trauma of 2020

Mbi prejardhjen e familjes mbretërore serbe, origjinën e nënës së Skënderbeut, Migjenin si uragan të letërsisë shqipe, shumësinë e identiteteve të Eqrem Bej Vlorës dhe kacafytjet shqiptaro-serbe për historinë në vitin 2020.

Balkan trauma of 2020

By Enver Robelli / I. What is Balkan trauma? If you tell a Serbian nationalist that the ancestors of the Karadjordjevic royal family may be of Albanian origin. Whoever dares to mention this will immediately face the campaign of the Serbian nationalists on Twitter. "DNA analysis" will immediately follow, which aims to show that Albanians as beings are completely different from the rest of humanity. So idiot analysis that achieves greater vitality can have a Twitter profile to shout.

Regarding the Albanian origin of the Karadjordjevic family: in 1937 in Belgrade was published the book by Andrija Luburic entitled "Vojvoda Jovan Mršić Klimenta - Karađorđev ied i Plavski Turci (oko 1698)" (in Albanian: Vojvoda [great leader] Jovan Mërsq Klimenta [Kelmendi] - The grandfather of Karadjordje and the Turks of Plava [circa 1698]). This book states that the Karadjordjevic family is of Albanian origin.

Days ago, a former Montenegrin politician posted on Twitter a photo of Yugoslav (Serbian) Prince Pavle Karadjordjevic, dressed in an Albanian national costume, and stressed that one of the theories is that the first Karadjordjevics could have been Albanians from the Kelmendi tribe. There are also pictures of the prince in Slovenian national dress. Probably the Yugoslav royal family did this for propaganda purposes: to show that it represents all ethnicities of the Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia. Following the posting of the photo, former Montenegrin politician Lubomir Filipovic faced savage attacks by Serb politicians from the Bosnian Serb republic.

II.

On the other hand: how are some Albanian nationalists traumatized? If, for example, they read that someone, even a Western historian, based on sources, states that Skanderbeg's mother was a Slav. This, of course, does not make Skanderbeg less of a hero, it only shows some connections between Albanian and Serbian nobles. Albanian Islamist "intellectuals", meanwhile, like to overemphasize the descent of Skanderbeg's mother, because in this way they want to strengthen the Ottoman identity of Albanians and present Skanderbeg only as an ally of the Slavs who became an obstacle to the Ottoman occupation (Albanian Islamists say "administration praiseworthy ottoman ”).

This caste of Albanian speakers, which is privileged and supported by the current neo-Ottoman government in Ankara, almost never mentions Skanderbeg's ties with Italy and other western countries. This caste does not mention the fact that Antonio Vivaldi dedicated an opera to Skanderbeg. How many European composers have dedicated operas to other heroes of the Balkan peoples?

According to the historian Oliver Jens Schmitt “in the western world for many centuries Skanderbeg became the most famous European of the eastern part. Even in the 18th century Antonio Vivaldi was inspired by this glory to write an opera. A full-size monument to Skanderbeg, 'according to this man's proportions and beautifully gilded with gold' adorned in a central place the Venetian state ship. In the 17th century an author of famous portraits exalted this hero, in front of whom the barbarians trembled before he touched the sword. "Portraits of Skanderbeg hung in the offices and collections of the Habsburgs at Ambras Castle, who by the end of the 16th century also became the owners of the sword and the helmet, which probably belonged to the hero."

Before the Albanian-speaking internationalist Islamists mention the descent of Skanderbeg's mother, they could face the fact that Skanderbeg's mother-in-law was received in the Vatican and Venice with all possible state honors and her son Konstantin Araniti became commander of the Papal Guard Swiss, which was founded in 1506.

III.

Serbian propagandists claim that they "protected Europe from Islam" with the battle of 1389. And they keep silent about the fact that the Serbian rulers after 1389 became mainly vassals of the Ottomans. The only ones in the Balkans who resisted the Ottoman occupation the longest were the Albanians. This fact may anger not only the Serbian ultranationalists, but it is the truth that in the future it can be deepened and even better argued by studies of Western historians. At the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that during the long history of the Ottoman Empire, Albanians, Serbs, Bosnians, Bulgarians, etc. have been devout servants in the palaces of Istanbul and in the Ottoman provinces. Albanian nationalists want to describe the Ottoman period as an uninterrupted 24-hour war of the Albanian sons against the "barbarian Anatolian hordes".

What about Eqrem Bey Vlora (1885-1964)? He came from a family that had a vizier in Istanbul, was educated in Istanbul and in the elite Viennese gymnasium Theresianum, with the support of Austria-Hungary he acted as an Albanian patriot, but in 1908 Eqrem Bey Vlora was the Sultan's envoy at the opening of the line railway connecting Mecca with Medina. He spoke Persian, French and German, and during World War II was a minister for Kosovo in the government of Mustafa Kruja. So many identities within a person? Yes, because there are no linear identities. That is, within half a century it was possible to be: Ottoman official, Albanian patriot, pro-Western, anti-Slavic, member of a government installed by Italian fascism, whose occupation by many Kosovo Albanians was experienced as liberation compared to Serbian atrocities.

The following paragraph may surprise some readers because it was written by Ismail Kadare, who is not known for his sympathy for the Ottoman Empire. Two decades ago he wrote in a text to the Council of Europe: “The Ottomans, on the one hand, and the Balkans, on the other, created two sisterhoods of history, both opposite and very unreliable. Neither the Ottoman version, according to which the empire softened and cultivated the stubborn Balkans, nor the version of the latter, according to which they are presented as martyr peoples, who were just wielding swords against the invaders, do not stand the truth. A third version gives us what happened. It is true that the peoples of the Balkans resisted the Ottoman Empire, but it is equally true that they became part of this empire, that is, members of its trophies, in her deeds and crimes. The Ottoman Empire, one of the most complete military-state structures in history, cannot be understood without the peoples of the Balkans and the Caucasus. "They, more than perhaps the Turks themselves, with whom this empire is often mistakenly identified, nurtured with energy and set in motion the mechanisms of this colossal state."

IV.

In the world of nationalists there is perpetual hatred between peoples. There is no room for cooperation bridges. From the beginning of the world until today there is only one story: that of the perpetual brawl. The imaginary purity of blood is essential. There are Serbian publicists who call Migjen a Serbo-Montenegrin writer named Milos Nikolic. Skënder Luarasi has always given answers to these dilemmas: the first of Migjen, according to Luarasi, came from Dibra. Family names like Millosh, Olga etc. indicate that Migjen's family was a member of the Shkodra orthodox community. Part of this community were also the Slavic speakers of Shkodra, a small community, which depending on the political circumstances considered itself Serbian or Montenegrin.

But would it be a tragedy if Migjeni were of Slavic origin and at the same time a hurricane of Albanian literature, as Ismail Kadare described it? In the world of medieval-minded patriots this can be a problem. In the normal world it would be a sign of the integrative power of the Albanian society. In this context we can ask: is it also problematic that Sterjo Spasse is an Albanian writer of Macedonian origin?

In the Lesser Balkans, where small peoples (in number) have always been driven to make momentary alliances to save or carry out their state-building projects, there have been no shortage of transnational ties, no matter who has been indigenous and who denizen.