Political and social divisions among Albanians

[Phoenix]

And it goes on. A range of different opinions, but there is clearly a Tosk-Geg divide and the animosity is obvious. This may or may not be the norm, but to suggest that there aren't any issues would be a lie. I found it interesting how they're arguing about where the capital should be, as if Albania will ever change its capital from Tirana to Prishtina. Who knows in this crazy world. Most normal Albanians who aren't extremists seem to be from Albania.

I'm glad the 'divide and conquer' policy isn't exclusively working against the Macedonians...

So far the modern 'greeks' have been insulated from such, whether other forces eventually conspire to bring the 'greeks' down is yet to be seen but any Balkan nation that is able to overcome this type of national retardation will go a long way to 'ruling' the Balkan Peninsula...

It was interesting reading the thoughts of shiptari in relation to their 'politicians' in Macedonia...implying they're a mafia and thugs is spot on, that their own can see this is very good in the long run.

[Soldier of Macedon]

It was interesting reading the thoughts of shiptari in relation to their 'politicians' in Macedonia...implying they're a mafia and thugs is spot on, that their own can see this is very good in the long run.

Notice that most if not all of those comments come from Albanians in Albania. Even though they've had their fair share of issues over there, they just don't seem to be 'inclined' in the same way that many of their so-called kinsmen are in Macedonia and Kosovo.

[Risto the Great]

Notice that most if not all of those comments come from Albanians in Albania. Even though they've had their fair share of issues over there, they just don't seem to be 'inclined' in the same way that many of their so-called kinsmen are in Macedonia and Kosovo.

Most Albanians from Albania proper will say Macedonia is the homeland of the Macedonians and as long as minority rights are provided to all minorities, that is the way it should stay. Macedonians seem to disagree with this.

[Soldier of Macedon]

From the article a few posts above posted by TLWR:

If the riots are considered superficial, it is really so, but if analizraat two main Albanian political parties then gets a different impression.

Socialist Party generally has the most support in the southern Albanian cities that are majority Toskite, while the majority in the Democratic Party Ghegs and northern parts of the country is a stronghold of Berisha's Democratic Party.

Between these two ethnicities are centuries-old differences

Ghegs almost completely embraced Islamization, which after many centuries vtisnala deep into their consciousness and though it retained many of its authentic customary law as the law of vendetta, known as the law of Lek Dukadzhini. Among them feel guilty pottisnatiot complex due to the change of faith. Constitute about two thirds of the total population in Albania and live in the northern parts of the country but the majority of Albanians in the region Ghegs

Unlike them Toskite, I live in Southern Albania and most of them are Christians.

[George S.]

I have read in the press that there was a time when all the albanian parties were addressed
by the albanian president that they must behave more in their host country as they never has it so good.We seem to have the extremists in our mist who wish to secede from macedonia for a greater albania.I think the muslim element could still influence from albania to draw in the albanians from macedonia.I'm not sure if the christian element from albania would approve of whrt the Albanians in macedonia are doing.As for a civil war in albania anything is possible as the tide could turn & the people are divided christian v muslim??

[Soldier of Macedon]

This could be an interesting development.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/albania-fears-impact-of-kosovo-football-team-02-10-2016

Albania Fears Impact of Kosovo Football Team

Albanian footie fans fear the creation of a Kosovo national team will draw talent away from their own squad and undermine its chances.

Albanian football fanatics are worried about the possible effect of creating a Kosovo national team on the Albanian squad, which has historically drawn on players of Albanian origin across the region and beyond. Politics and egoism may the complicate process of defining a roster of the future Kosovo football squad, as Kosovo-born players make up the core of Albania’s own team in the coming European Championship in France, a former Albanian football star has warned. Although Albanian football fans are focusing right now on their chances in the UEFA European championship - where the “Red and Black” team will participate for the first time - some doubts the team will replicate its earlier successes in future if top players are siphoned off to join Kosovo’s team. Rudi Vata, a former captain of the Albanian national football team, told BIRN that the official creation of a Kosovo team, can only complicate matters.

Because of the disputes over Kosovo's statehood, the International Federation of Football, FIFA, and the Union of European Football Associations, UEFA, have never recognized a Kosovo national team - but creation of the national team is underway in any case. Moreover, Kosovo expects full FIFA and UEFA recognition at the next congress due in Budapest in March 2016. “The negotiations that take place between two national football federations [Albania and Kosovo] will be crucial in seeing what happens with the Albanian national team - and I foresee politics and egoism getting involved in these negotiations,” Vata living in the United Kingdom said during an interview for BIRN. Members of the Albanian Football Federation declined to discuss with BIRN any future negotiations and deals that they may make with their Kosovo counterparts, establishing rules on how the two teams will work alongside each other. The Albanian squad already lost goalie Samir Ujkani, who quit Albania to play for Kosovo on February 2014.

In the recent friendly match played against Albania in Pristina, seven of Kosovo’s 17-man team were born outside of Kosovo while eight were raised abroad. Most had played for other national teams on different levels. However, three Kosovo-born players, Frederik Veseli, Berat Djimsiti and Amir Rrahmani, have turned down offers to play for Kosovo and have chosen the Albanian team instead. Manchester United's Adnan Januzaj has decided to play for Belgium despite invitations from both Kosovo and Albania. The Albanian national team has long drawn on talents from all over the region where Albanians live - and players from Kosovo are an important pillar. Among them is Lorik Cana, the Albanian captain, who was considered a big factor in leading the team to the UEFA qualifications.

Rudi Vata believes that some young Kosovo-born players will inevitably join the Kosovo team as it struggles to win international. According to him, this could undermine the Albanian national team, previously the first choice for most of them. "The most important thing in this process should be understanding and openness and a willingness to do the best for both teams,” he said. “We have to come out these talks with full dignity and present ourselves as brothers in the international football arena," Vata emphasized. Worryingly, the leading group of Albanian fans, who call themselves the Red and Black, boycotted the friendly football match between Albania and Kosovo in November in Pristina. They absented themselves from the game, arguing that they had never have been to a stadium where two teams of Albanians played against each other.

Petrit Osmani, leader of the Red and Black fans in Pristina, told BIRN that the Kosovo football national team should always be the second choice for Albanian players, while the Albanian team should remain the most important. “We will always encourage Kosovo-born player to join the Albanian team. We believe that when they participate in this team, they don’t represent Kosovo or Albania alone but the whole Albanian nation,” he said. He believes the only upside in creating a Kosovo national team is the opportunity for Albanian players to have more than one team to play for, and make more international debuts. “In the end it is just an individual choice, although I'm convinced that Albania’s national team will always remain the most important one,” he said.

The debate about the impact that a Kosovo national team could have on Albania’s squad is expected to climax after the UEFA European championship. The Albanian sports media write that a total of 31 Albanian players will feature in the Euro 2016 in France, since ethnic Albanians have for years been part of other European national teams, including Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Denmark.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Kosovo is a mess. Due to a vote of no-confidence, it is their third government in a row to crumble before the end of its first four-year term. The latest victim was an uneasy coalition between the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), which is the party of Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, and the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the party of President Hashim Thaci. The LDK is the political wing of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kosovo (FARK), which not only fought against Yugoslav troops, but also against its rival, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Hashim Thaci was a member of the KLA. The rivalry between LDK/FARK and the PDK/KLA has often been deadly, and mutual resentment exists till this day. This division also included Albania, where the Socialist Party of current Prime Minister Edi Rama supported the PDK/KLA group, whereas the Democratic Party of former President and Prime Minister Sali Berisha supported the LDK/FARK group. Anyway, it should not come as a surprise that in this recent vote of no-confidence some members of the PDK went against the coalition government. Others against it were the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), which is the party of former KLA member Ramush Haradinaj, Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA), which split from the PDK due to some wiretapping scandal and also has former KLA members in it, and the radical nationalist Vetevendosje party, which merged with the People's Movement of Kosovo (PMK) a few years back - a group that is considered the origin of the KLA.

Can you see a pattern here? Even though they may have some differences and are fragmented into various groups, those who have some affiliation with the KLA all seem to be against the LDK/FARK party. And even though the opposing sides have formed coalitions in the past, they have always been very rocky. The main points of contention at the moment are the agreements that have been signed by the current coalition on border demarcation with Montenegro and the establishment of an autonomous Association of Serb-majority Municipalities. This is the reason for the no-confidence vote. To further add to these complexities, the Serbs in Kosovo indicated that they would vote against the border demarcation with Montenegro, but obviously they have other reasons for this. Something else. The current coalition has been under EU/US pressure to move on these issues, particularly the border demarcation with Montenegro. As Montenegro has committed itself to NATO, it looks like the Albanians now have a rival in the competition of who is the biggest US/EU lackey in the Balkans. The EU has indicated that progress towards membership for Kosovo (one of the steps being VISA liberalisation) will not happen until the border issue has been sorted out. Remember the recent threats of a "Greater Albania" by Edi Rama and Hashim Thaci if EU integration for Albania and Kosovo doesn't move forward? Remember how these two individuals are aligned with each other? Anyway, that is what I have been able to gather from a bit of reading on these issues so I thought I would put it all together for easier reference. If I have missed something, feel free to highlight it.

Further to the above which I posted on the Kosovo thread, it appears that the UCK aligned Socialist Party in Albania of current PM Edi Rama obtains most of its support from southern Albania, where Tosks prevail, and not northern Albania, where Ghegs dominate. This is somewhat interesting because most of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia are Muslim Ghegs, whereas most of the Tosks (if one were to also include the Arvanites of Greece and Arberesh of Italy) are Christians. Anyway, just wanted to place this information here so we don't need to search for it on the net. Here are some articles from wikipedia:

In the 1920s Tosks were poverty-stricken peasants, still treated as serfs by their Muslim landlords.[25] The Albanian Communist Party was basically established by Tosks who made up about three quarters of its membership.[26][27] Before communists (Enver Hoxha and his fellow Tosks, such as Mehmet Shehu and Hysni Kapo)[28] gained control over Albania its political life was dominated by Ghegs.[29] At the end of 20th century the communists were overthrown and political life was again dominated by Ghegs. Ancient tensions between Ghegs and Tosks came to the forefront and resulted with riots of Tosks against the Ghegs' rule, whose symbol was Sali Berisha.[30]

The Ghegs speak Gheg, one of the two main Albanian dialects. Before World War II, there was no official attempt at legislating a unified Albanian literary language; both literary Gheg and literary Tosk was used.[9] The communist regime imposed a Tosk-based unified standard with basis in the Korçë speech, in all of Albania.[9] The same standard was adopted by the Albanians in Yugoslavia, who had until then used the Gheg standard, in a process that began in 1968, with culmination in 1972 when the first unified Albanian orthographic handbook and dictionary was agreed upon in 1972.[9] The Albanian communist regime based Standard Albanian mostly on Tosk. That practice has been criticized, notably by Arshi Pipa, who claimed that this decision deprived Albanian of its richness at the expense of the Ghegs,[10] and he referred to the literary Albanian language as a "monstrosity" produced by the Tosk communist leadership that conquered anti-communist northern Albania militarily and imposed its Tosk Albanian dialect on the Ghegs.[11] Although Albanian writers in former Yugoslavia were almost all Ghegs, they chose to write in Tosk for political reasons.[12] The change of literary language has significant political and cultural consequences because the Albanian language is the main criterion for self-identification of the Albanians.[13]

Politics in Albania has been centered on the constant rivalry for superiority between the Tosks and the Ghegs.[49][50] Before World War II, the dialect predominantly used for official purposes was Gheg Albanian. This was because Zog, the King of Albania, was the leader of the Ghegs.[51] Nazi Germany recruited Ghegs from the northern territory of the Albanian Kingdom into 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) during the World War II. This recruitment was also supported by some anthropological researches which considered Ghegs an Aryan race.[52] At the end of World War II, communist forces predominantly composed of Tosks captured Albania after the retreat of the Wehrmacht. That was perceived by many Ghegs as the Tosk takeover of Gheg lands.[13] Most of the members of the post-war communist regime and three quarters of the communist party members were Tosks, while Ghegs were predominantly anti-communists. Therefore, the communist takeover was accompanied by the transfer of political power from the Ghegs to the Tosks.[53] The Albanian communist regime unsuccessfully attempted to make the presence of the Ghegs invisible by silencing the Gheg Albanian dialect through the introduction of a standard Albanian literary language predominantly based on the Tosk dialect.[9] The Ghegs were consistently persecuted by the predominantly Tosk regime, which saw them as traditionalist and less developed.[54] After Enver Hoxha died in 1985, he was succeeded by Ramiz Alia, who was one of the few Ghegs among the leaders of the country.[55] He took cautious steps towards changing direction on the national identity issue by gradually assuming the cause of the Ghegs from Kosovo.[56] This change was accompanied by a long-lasting fear that the introduction of "too-liberal" Albanians from Kosovo might disturb the fragile balance between the Tosk and Gheg sub-ethnic groups.[56] Absorbing Yugoslav Ghegs, who were almost as numerous as all Albanians from Albania, could have ruined the predominantly Tosk regime.[1][50] A former president Sali Berisha, a Gheg from northern Albania, purged the state administration of antagonistic Tosks[57] After the fall of the communist regime, religion was again the major factor which determined social identity, and rivalry between Ghegs and Tosks re-emerged.[58] The new political leaders of post-communist Albania appointed by Gheg[59] Sali Berisha were almost all Ghegs from northern Albania.[48][57] The administration of Sali Berisha was identified as northern nationalist Gheg in opposition to southern Socialist Tosk,[45] which additionally increased the contention between Tosks and Ghegs.[57] In 1998 Berisha exploited the traditional Gheg—Tosk rivalry when he encouraged armed anti-Government protesters in Shkodër in actions that forced the resignation of prime minister Fatos Nano.[60] In the 1990s, the Ghegs of Albania were more sympathetic to the struggle of the Ghegs from Kosovo.[61] During the Kosovo War, rivalry between Ghegs and Tosks faded, and a huge number of refugees from Kosovo were catered for with no internal conflict, despite unavoidable grumbles about the disruption of the community and theft.[45]