On 19 July incredibly successful singer Dua Lipa made a controversial tweet on Twitter. The tweet depicted the flag of Albania covering not only Albania but several surrounding areas with a caption defining the word ‘autochthonous’ – being indigenous to an area – which you can see below.
Dua Lipa’s parents are Kosovar Albanians and the above tweet has sparked criticism from her fans in Montenegro, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, and Greece. Her tweet is referencing an irridentist nationalism called Greater Albania which aims to unite the Albanian peoples; claiming land in Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, and Montenegro. Today, we’re going to look at the history of Greater Albania, why it’s so controversial, and how it has manifested itself.
The Birth of Albanian Nationalism
Albanian nationalism emerged during the nineteenth century at a time when nationalism was not only sweeping Europe, but also the world. The area now known as the Balkans were ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and during the early-1800s the Balkans were soon breaking off from the empire. From 1830 to 1910 province after province either declared independence (such as Greece and Serbia) or were absorbed into other political entities (such as Austria taking control of Bosnia). Albania was different. For one, it was both Catholic and Muslim, compared to the other European provinces which were largely Christian. As a result, for a while complete separation from the Islamic Ottoman Empire was not at the forefront of Albanian nationalism. Instead it was largely focused on preserving an Albanian identity, but this was difficult. Benedict Anderson, in his important work on nationalism, has described several key factors which are used to build national identity: a shared history, language, religion etc. Albanians were multi-religious and multi-lingual. Many Albanian dialects exist and are split into three groups: Gheg (in the north), Tosk (in the south), and intermediate (where the two other groups overlap). These dialects had their own written languages, and the dialects, at times, sound different. This made developing nationalism difficult, as it meant nationalist texts were far harder to write. The lands claimed by Greater Albania are not just home to Albanians. Serbians, Montenegrans, Turks, Greeks, Macedonians, Romani, and Bosnians are just the major identities which live in the area.
In 1878, Albanian nationalists, including Abdyl Frasheri, organised the League of Prizren which met in Kosovo. At this time, the Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin were partitioning Ottoman Europe between new states, which would be influenced by the great powers. By doing this Albanian communities found themselves in land owned by non-Albanian states – such as Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro. Largely comprised of intellectuals and elites, they aimed to alert the great powers, like Germany and the UK, that Albanian culture should be protected. In order to enforce this a militia 30,000 strong was formed – as they vowed to protect Ottoman holdings they were initial supported by the empire. However, the great powers started leaning on the Ottomans to ‘pacify’ the Albanians who were preventing, mainly Montenegro and Greece, from taking land with strong Albanian communities. In 1881 the Ottoman army crushed the militia and arrested the League’s members and family – Frasheri was initially sentenced to death but this was changed to exile. Part of the League’s vision was to create a ‘true’ Albanian identity so they began the standardisation of Albanian, encouraging Albanian to be taught in schools, and forming Albanian ran communities.
By the 1880s sultan Abdul Hamid II had came to power who was not tolerant of emerging nationalisms across the empire – especially Christian ones which attracted great power support, such as Armenian nationalism being supported by Russia. Haxhi Zeka, who had been part of the League of Prizren, formed a new nationalist group, the League of Peja, in 1896 – again in Kosovo. This new League reflected a change in Albanian nationalism – one more sympathetic to separatism. Austria-Hungary had been trying to expand its influence in the Balkans even gave the League support. The Ottomans managed to crush the League and Zekha was assassinated in 1902 by a Serbian agent – Serbia was also eyeing Ottoman land, mainly Kosovo. In 1912 several Balkan states went to war in order to push the Ottomans out of Europe, and this soon became embroiled in the larger great power clashes. There was a fear that the Balkan states would annex Albanian land in its entirety, so in November 1912 leading Albanian politician and diplomat Ismail Qemali managed to win support in declaring independence. Albania’s shape was heavily determined by the great powers though – not Albanians. Austria-Hungary and Italy supported Albanian independence as a way to check Serbian power, (who was supported by Russia), while France and Russia would allow for a truncated Albania to avoid a large Muslim-majority state in Europe. So, in 1912, Albania was born.
Different Nationalisms
In 1912 there were many Albanian communities outside the newly independent Albania – something which Robert Austin argued led to different forms of Albanian nationalism. Principally, the biggest clashes in nationalism was seen in Albania against that of Kosovo, now controlled by Serbia. Austin argued that Kosovo was only really important for Albania at a few key periods – such as after the First World War, Second World War, and collapse of communism. While a desire among Kosovar Albanians, and Albanians elsewhere, to unite with Albania, state leaders in Albania were more concerned with forging a workable state which could survive. Of course, in the early-1920s politicians did open up the Kosovo question due to pressure, especially in the north where family and trade links were shattered with Kosovo and Albania being divided. Serbia had formed Yugoslavia, envisaged as a multi-ethnic state, but the ruling monarchy and politicians aimed to ‘Serbianize’ several areas, including Kosovo. This led to complaints from Albania, but their weak state meant they could not offer much resistance, although just enough for Yugoslavia to reduce Serbianization. So weak was Albania that they had to rely on Italian architects to improve the new capital of Tirana – as these architects were fascists loyal to Mussolini they designed areas of Tirana to resemble a fascii.
It was under fascism that Greater Albania was actually formed. Even before Mussolini’s rise to power, Italy had hoped to make Albania part of its empire, and had been reluctant to remove its troops from Albania after the Entente occupation during WWI (the Entente had ignored Albanian neutrality). With the outbreak of the Second World War Italy saw it as an opportunity to have its dream of Italian domination of the Balkans, and it invaded Albania in 1939 setting up a puppet government. A disastrous invasion of Greece, mixed with Yugoslavian indecision over joining the Axis, caused the Axis powers to invade Yugoslavia, and by mid-1941 all Albanian-speaking regions came under Axis rule. The Albanian Fascist Party, needing Italian support to remain in power, and Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano, trying to garner Albanian support, worked together to create a new Kingdom of Albania – it composed all of the land claimed by Greater Albania. There were caveats to this – Greek-Albanians were de jure part of Albania but de facto administered by the Italian military command in Athens, and Albania was a puppet state of Italy. Creating Greater Albania both worked for, and against, the Axis. In Kosovo young Albanian men formed the Vulnetari militia to expel Serbians, Romani, and Montenegrans in an act of brutal ethnic cleansing. At the same time, Albanians were angry at a pandering to nationalist thought and joined resistance movements – many of whom hoped a Greater Albania would exist post-war. In 1945, with the defeat of the Axis, borders were re-set to as they were in 1939.
With the fall of fascism two very different branches of communism emerged in Yugoslavia and Albania which would shape nationalism. In Yugoslavia, Titoism aimed to create a more open state which was designed to be multinational as to avoid the ethnic politics of interwar Yugoslavia. Rejecting a possible union with Yugoslavia, Albania under Enver Hoxha sided firmly with the Soviet Union and became one of the most repressive states of the Eastern bloc. Hoxha largely did not push for a Greater Albania, and instead focused on a domestic nationalism. Wanting to end divisions within Albania Hoxha succeeded in the almost century long campaign in creating a standardised Albanian, and he rigidly enforced atheism onto the country. While many other states claiming to be socialist were de facto atheist, only Hoxha’s Albania became de jure atheist. Even today, around a quarter of Albanians are atheist or irreligious, and only a third of the country practices religion. In Greece, the defeat of the communists during the civil war led to a hard-right authoritarian government which chose to impose a strict Greek identity, which included suppressing minority identities. Albanians, Romani, Bulgarians and Turkish are some of the national identities which were repressed under Greek military rule.
The Kosovo Question
During Tito’s rule the issue of Kosovo was silenced – only the controversial decision to make Kosovo an autonomous region of Serbia came close to sparking it again. In 1980 Tito died, and a mixed-presidency was implemented – one from each republic became a president of Yugoslavia. In 1981 protests began in Kosovo hoping that it could become a full republic, much to the dismay of the increasingly ethno-nationalist Serbian politicians. Backed by Hoxha, the People’s Movement of Kosovo (LPK) was formed by Marxist-Leninist members of the Albanian diaspora. Reflecting a general history of Albanian nationalism, it was the diaspora which supported the LPK until the mid-1990s. Until then, the LPK operated a small-scale guerrilla and propaganda war to support a possible Kosovar union with Albania. However, other identities would start to tear apart Yugoslavia in the 1980s. Religious tension was prominent: Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs distrusted one another, who both distrusted Muslim Bosnians and Albanians (Christian Albanians were seen as being Muslims). Tony Judt in 1999 managed to interview the prime minister of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) who apparently claimed that ‘You can’t believe what they [Albanians] say – they just are not like us. They are not Christian‘. The Albanian population was steadily growing as well – from 3.6% of Yugoslavia in 1931 to 7.9% in 1948 to 16.6% in 1991. At a time when Yugoslavia’s economy was failing, economic insecurity and Serbians becoming a ‘minority’ was used by Slobodan Milosevic to rise to power. Continuing to emphasise Serbian identity, Milosevic began cracking down on nationalism in Kosovo which made the other republics fearful. In 1991 nationalism, which quickly developed into violent ethno-nationalism, tore apart Yugoslavia sparking the Yugoslav Wars and genocide.
With the collapse of central rule, nationalists formed the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1993 with the express purpose of forming Greater Albania – as opposed to the LPK which desired either self-determination or union with Albania. Just as elsewhere in the brutal Yugoslav Wars the conflict in Kosovo saw intense human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing. Yugoslav armed forces commit massacres and forced removals of Albanian Kosovars, so in response the KLA responded with attacks on Kosovar Serb communities. By 1998 Human Rights Watch estimated that up to 200,000 non-Albanians, mostly Serbs and Romani, had fled Kosovo, with the UN Human Rights Commission estimating that 55,000 fled to Montenegro and Macedonia. In response, the military began an ethnic cleansing campaign against Albanian Kosovars – cultural and heritage sites were targeted, just like in Bosnia, to wipe out evidence that they had even existed. Around a third of Kosovo’s mosques were destroyed, for example. Up to 1.2 million Albanians became refugees, and a UN initiative allowed around 848,000 to return, but many, fearful of retributions, chose not to. Among those who remained in exile include singer/songwriter Rita Ora and Dua Lipa’s parents.
Since 1998
Despite the Kosovo War ending, ethnic clashes continued. Two clashes (2000 and 2004) happened within Kosovo, and some militants in the dissolved KLA went on to join guerrilla campaigns in Macedonia and Greece. Since the early-2000s there have been various ideas about Greater Albania. In Kosovo, which legally remains part of Serbia due to mixed recognition from the international community, it remains fairly strong – a 2010 paper by Gallup Poll found that 81% of Kosovar Albanians supported Greater Albania, compared to just 54% in 2008. In that report, 42% said that regional ties needed strengthening, but support for Greater Albania was actually decreasing. Part of the wider history of Albanian nationalism since 1912, the nationalism of Albania and Kosovo remain distinct. This does not mean that Greater Albania was not used in Albania. The Albanian right has used Greater Albania to appeal to voters, using irridentist calls to support their political careers. One of the most recent is the Red and Black Alliance, formed in 2012, which is a far-right party calling for the ‘native’ Albanian lands to be ‘returned’ to Albania. Part of this is the growing xenophobia which has hit the world since the 2008 Banking Crisis – minorities are deemed to be ‘exploiting’ countries. This is not limited to Albania – Croatia in recent years has been rehabilitating the fascist Ustase which engaged in the Holocaust during the Second World War, the fascist Golden Dawn almost came to power in Greece, and hate crimes against Romani communities have been on the rise Europe-wide. A key facet of this exclusionary nationalism, which Dua Lipa fed into, was the ‘Illyrian theory’ – that ethnic Albanians originated in the western Balkans making them the ‘indigenous’ people of the region, and have a greater right to the land.
Conclusion
Is Dua Lipa a far-right ideologue? Florian Bieber, a Luxembourgian political scientist and historian specialising in ethnicity in the Balkans, described her tweet as ‘stupid nationalism’. Her posting of the Greater Albanian flag, and its connoections with ethnonationalism and ethnic cleansing, does seem to contradict with some of her other progressive stances – such as supporting refugees in Lebanon, and challenging sexism and homophobia in the music industry. However, Bieber’s description of her tweet as ‘stupid nationalism’ is very apt, especially when supporting the Illyrian theory. The land claimed by Greater Albania is home to a wide range of people including Serbians, Romani, Bulgarians, Greeks, Macedonians, Montenegrans, and Turkish to name a few – does this mean that their claim to the land is less valid? While rights to land by being indigenous does have validity – mainly in settler colonies ranging from Australia to Indonesian rule in West Papua – in the case of Greater Albania not so much. The claim of being indigenous is not to bring justice to victims of colonialism and genocide, but instead to push those deemed ‘less worthy’ out – something Dua Lipa should be aware of considering that, while she was born in London, her parents are from Kosovo. Greater Albania will not liberate the people of Kosovo, instead it will encourage ethnonationalism just as it did in the 1940s and 1990s.
The sources I have used are as follows:
- Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, (London: 2005)
- Dusan Batakovic, ‘Serbia, the Serbo-Albanian Conflict and the First Balkan War’, Balcanica, 45, (2014), 317-352
- Arjan Hilaj, ‘The Albanian National Question and the Myth of Greater Albania’, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 26:3, (2013), 393,413
- Balkan Monitor: 2010 Summary of Findings, (Gallup: 2010)
- Josh Milton, ‘Absolutely nobody had ‘Dua Lipa comes out as an Albanian nationalist’ on their 2020 bingo cards, so everyone is confused’, PinkNews, (20/07/2020), [Accessed 24/07/2020]
- Robert Austin, ‘Greater Albania: The Albanian State and the Question of Kosovo, 1912-2001’, in John Lampe and Mark Mazower, (eds.), Ideologies and National Identities: The Case of Twentieth-Century Southeastern Europe, (Budapest: 2003), 235-253
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