Kosovo Citizens or Albanians ? Questions Over Identity

A few miles from Pristina two major historical places boast major monuments to the Balkans’ history : the tower that commemorates the battle that Serbs lost to the Turkish army on June 28, 1389, and the turbe or mausoleum to the victor, Sultan Murad.

Serbs consider Kosovo as the “cradle” of their history, where the medieval Serb kingdom had its origin, and the heartland of Serbian orthodoxy with the patriarchal seat of Pec and great monasteries like Visoki Decani or Gracanica. But Albanians too consider that this territory plays a central role in their history : here the league of Prizren was set up in 1878 by worthies from all the Albanian regions of the Ottoman Empire - the first manifestation of modern Albanian nationalism.

When Serbs proclaim their “historical rights” over Kosovo, Albanians put forward their numerical superiority, a proven fact since the late nineteenth century at least. Yet they stand firm on their own historical rights too. So both Serbs and Albanians found their claims on their long tenure of the land.

When Serbs mention their monasteries, Albanese retort that these were built on the ruins of pre-existing Albanian Catholic monasteries - a point that is difficult to prove and of little relevance, for as late as the thirteenth century, at least, the area was divided between the influence of Byzantium and that of Rome, and diverse populations lived side by side, notably Serbs and Albanians.

Whereas the tradition of Albanian nationalism sets Kosovo at the heart of the construction of Albanian national identity, some Albanian nationalists make no secret of their claim that “the injustices of history must be redressed.” According to them, ethnic Albanians were unfairly divided from one another in 1913 when the “great powers”’ allowed the creation of an Albanian State on only a limited portion of the “national territory”. But that claim ignores the fact that ethnic Albanians on these “excluded” territories lived side by side with other ethnic populations that cared little for the Albanians’ national project or cherished antagonistic nationalist aspirations.

Yet sharp differences divide the Balkans’ Albanian communities. To put the matter simply, the Albanian world fall into two spheres, Tosk to the South, and Gheg to the North. The Tosk sphere includes the South of Albania and the Albanian communities in Greece, whereas those in Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Northern Albania belong to the Gheg sphere. Muslim and Orthodox coexist in the Tosk sphere, Muslim and Catholics in the Gheg sphere. So 5% of Kosovo’s population is Roman Catholic.

The Tosk and Gheg dialects are quite different, but the literary language was unified in the 1970s by Albania’s Stalinist regime under Enver Hoxha on the basis of the Southern Tosk dialects (Hoxha himself came from the South of Albania). The standard linguistic norm is not a bit like Kosovo’s dialects, but Kosovo’s Albanians have nevertheless embraced the reform for the sake of Albanian national unity.

Today some movements insist on the specific identity of Kosovo. Publicist Migjen Kelmendi, editor in chief of the Java review, wants to rehabilitate the Gheg language. His project is quite coherent, for he vindicates both the specific and the multi-ethnic identity of Kosovo. The dream that intellectuals like Migjen Kelmendi fondle is shared only by a minority. The dominant nationalist trends in Kosovo – from the late “pacifist” Ibrahim Rugova to the former guerrilla fighters of UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army) – take pains to underline the national unity of all Balkan Albanians.

History handbooks drill all the commonplaces of Albanian nationalism into Kosovo’s pupils ; they emphasize the unity of “Albanian lands” without the international administrators of the territory finding anything wrong with it during the last eight years. To celebrate independence last Sunday Kosovo’s Albanians waved the red flag with the black eagle - the Albanian flag. So it is no wonder that the other communities, notably the Serbs, should not adhere to the national project, for that “other Albanian State” can at best only tolerate the rights of ethnic or national minorities, short of proposing a project for all citizens that can transcend the barriers between ethnic communities.

Kosovo Landmarks

Area : 10,700 sq km

Population : about 2 million

90% Albanians, about 120,000 Serbs, 30,000 Romany

Other groups : Turks, Bosnians, Ashkali, Gorani, etc.

Unemployment rate : 60% of the working population