Form the link I brought here:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/"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
Conspiracy Theories in Albanian politics and Media
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 226
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_226.jpgit 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://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_18.jpgSchwandner-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
Invention of Nationalism: Myth and Amnesia
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 40
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_40.jpgAlbanian 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
Invention of Nationalism: Myth and Amnesia
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 41
http://www.geocities.com/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
Between the Glory of a Virtual World & the Misery of a Real World
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 91
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_91.jpgRead 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://www.geocities.com/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
Invention of Nationalism: Myth and Amnesia
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 44
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_44.jpgThe 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
Myth of Albanian National Identity: Some Key Elements
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 82
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_82.jpgOne 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://www.geocities.com/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
Invention of Nationalism: Myth and Amnesia
Quoted from:
Albanian Identities: Myth and History
Edited by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers & Bernd J. Fischer
Page: 48
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_48.jpgNotice 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://www.geocities.com/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
http://www.geoctities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_55.jpghttp://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7681/faqe_56.jpgUp 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://www.geocities.com/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."
I can only here thank High-Duke (Hajduk), for his work.
May God bless him.
Hoping it will help non-Serbs to be acknowledged with ALBANAZIS....
Topic: Are albanazis the first people to arrive at the balkans? (Read 11214 times)