November 24, 1968: What was said in the editorial comment in "Voice of the People" about the developments in Kosovo?

In the late 24s, a strict propaganda war was waged in Albania-Yugoslavia relations. The spears of the propaganda duel broke where else but in the issue of Kosovo and generally the position of Albanians in Yugoslavia. The Albanian state, its Government and the first man of the ALP, Enver Hoxha, were more active than ever before in protecting the legitimate rights of the Albanian people in Kosovo. The Albanian state and its leadership, in this plan, had proven visionary and historical courage. Telegraph below brings you the full text of the editorial comment of "Voice of the People", dated November 968, XNUMX, four days before the Albanian demonstrations in Kosovo. The text with mestizos was prepared by Agim Zogaj.

THE SERBIANS AND THE TITOISTS WERE FORCED TO ISSUE PE

Every people and every nation is sacred and dear to its national flag. She is also loved and glorified by the Albanians in Kosovo, as a symbol of their nation, of their existence as a national whole, in the centuries-old wars that they have led together with the entire Albanian people, against foreign occupation and for national liberation. and independence, as a symbol of national pride and respect as Albanians and of the brave people invincible in the face of any enemy, challenges, obstacles and the distortion of history.

However, the right to the national flag in Yugoslavia has been violated for a long time. And not only that. Each of their demands for this legal right drew ever greater and more brutal reprisals. Serbo-Mediterranean chauvinists have never wanted to hear about Kosovo Albanians, about their most basic rights as a people and a nation. Their only goal and preoccupation was the discrimination of Albanians in Kosovo, their denationalization, their destruction as a national entity and assimilation, using all means, from economic exploitation to forced displacement and genocide.

The old Serbian kings have contested the right to the national flag to the Kosovar Albanians. Tito's leaders have also contested this. This, as well as many other rights, have been contested as in the war against Hitler's fascism, when the Albanian people with rifles in hand together with the Serbian, Montenegrin, Macedonian and other people fought for the liberation of Yugoslavia. Instead of accepting the legal rights as a nation, the Albanians in Kosovo have been subjected to them as during the reigns, persecutions, tortures and murders, as accused sometimes as "tool and collaborator] of the Italian and German fascists", especially in the first years of liberation, sometimes as "nationalists" and "chauvinists" etc.

Although in the Second Meeting of the KAÇKJ, in November 1943, the Constitution of Yugoslavia proclaimed the equality of each people and their right to self-determination, even secession, the Albanians in Kosovo, as a national minority, even today they have acquired basic national rights. It is precisely for this reason that the people of Kosovo have not stopped their struggle to preserve their national identity, their language and customs, to gain their rights as an Albanian people, the right to have an Albanian school and to cultivate their national culture. to have its own cadres, to live freely in its own land and to carry the national flag as a symbol of the Albanian people.

Recently, as a result of this continuous determination and the increasingly determined struggle of the entire people of Kosovo and especially of the patriotic intellectuals and the patriotic Kosovar youth, the Kosovar Albanians have achieved great success: they have won the right to they use their national flag, the red flag with the double-headed eagle and the golden star on it. The Titoists were forced to release pe.

This victory and the realization of the long-standing dream have made every Albanian in Yugoslavia happy. For this reason, which is quite natural, now in all countries in Kosovo, in official manifestations, or in the case of private parties and weddings, Kosovars hold it strongly in their hands and decorate their homes with the national flag. Every reasonable person understands this expression of joy, which has included the Albanians of Kosovo, as something that is very logical and reasonable.

However, this is not what the Titoists think, nor the Serbian reaction, who allowed the Kosovar Albanians to carry the flag, not because they wanted to. The aforementioned victory and the joy of the Kosovar Albanians have greatly worried, embittered and shaken both the Titoist government and the Serbian chauvinists. Therefore, those who are alarmed by this, have started to trumpet and raise the voice of the protest, accusing the Kosovars of "Albanian chauvinism", "nationalism", etc.

These protests and accusations are accompanied by warnings and threats that strict measures will be taken and purges will be made in education, culture and institutions against all those people who "present ideological views foreign to the LKJ", namely against intellectuals and patriots of Kosovo who raise their voices and fight for the national rights of Albanians.

Thus, the ground is created for a new campaign of reprisals and for the sufferings for the Albanians of Kosovo, similar to those that they have often felt since the liberation.

DISCRIMINATION OF KOSOVO ALBANIANS

Why and for what all this noise, accusations and threats when it comes to the minimal and legal rights of every people? Why all that noise about the so-called "Albanian chauvinism", instead of highlighting the real causes of the injustice that have been done to the Albanian people in Kosovo throughout history?

Such an analysis, based on the teachings of Marxism-Leninism and historical materialism, would explain the reasons for the joy that involved the Albanians there on the occasion of winning the right to have their national symbols and not the anti-Marxist acrobatics of Eduard Kardel. which in the spirit of chauvinism tries to explain the realization of the principles of self-determination. Why not point the finger at those who have barbarically enslaved the Albanians in Yugoslavia for decades, who have incited so much misery, longing and tears in their homes, from the Serbian kings to the Titoist executioners of the UDB ? Why is that furious chauvinism not accused, but the fact that Albanians use their national flag on their land whenever they want is called chauvinism? Or is this not done so as not to upset the Serbian and Montenegrin reactionary chauvinists?

It is clear that here we are dealing with deep and rude discrimination against Albanians in Kosovo, who represent an important national majority. Macedonia has 1.800.000 inhabitants, of which 300.000 are Albanians, natives and not immigrants. The Titoist leadership accepted the Macedonians' national rights and is making efforts to protect those rights. But when it comes to the Albanians of Kosovo and the Albanians in Yugoslavia in general, the Tito clique thinks that it has offered them a lot. The rights which, after so much suffering, have been accepted by the Kosovars, even the right to use the national flag, are still too small and the Kosovar Albanians should understand what they really are in the context of the situation. their general oppression and national discrimination.

Titoists and Serbian chauvinists declare that Kosovo Albanians, proving their patriotism and using the right to use the flag, are destroying the friendship of the Albanian people of Kosovo with other peoples of Yugoslavia. This statement is completely absurd and a reactionary view, behind which hides the chauvinism of the great power. We are convinced that the people of Kosovo are not and do not have to be against the people of Yugoslavia, but were, are and will be against the Serbian and Montenegrin reaction, as well as against the regime that protects them. This essential difference must be clarified.

It is completely understandable to us that the above defamed argument is deliberately emphasized so that the right that the Kosovar Albanians won remains only formal, but is also used as a means of provocation, to undertake repressive and punitive measures against the people of Kosovo, in order to get in the way of his efforts to secure his full national rights.

The Titoist leaders, especially those in Kosovo, have said that we must not forget that there are 1,200.000 Albanians in Yugoslavia. We thank them for reminding us of this.

TO END THE BARBARIC PERSECUTIONS AGAINST ALBANIANS

We wish to tell the Titoist leaders that good relations with the Republic of Albania are not based on the exchange of some goods for general consumption, but on the respect and protection of the rights of the Albanian people. We say that we have not forgotten them and never will. We forget our Albanian brothers in Yugoslavia.

This is precisely why we have not forgotten them and we will never forget them, we have always raised our voice in defense of their interests and rights, we have demanded and demand that once and for all the barbaric persecution of the Albanians ends and be brought before the court and the perpetrators of monstrous crimes be deservedly punished, the chauvinistic policy of denationalization, serbization and the displacement of Albanian residents from Kosovo should be stopped, discrimination and injustices against the Albanian population in the field of employment, language, education, culture and the state administration, to put an end to colonization and chauvinist economic policies, the exploitation of Kosovo, to take efficient measures to overcome the deep economic backwardness of Kosovo, to liquidate the inequality in relation to other parts of Yugoslavia, to the Albanian people in Kosovo as a whole to accept the national rights.

We will repeat to the Titoists not to forget that at least 1,200.000 Albanians live in Yugoslavia. As always, with the Marxist-Leninist path, we will protect the brothers of Kosovo and tell the Titoists to give up their chauvinistic policy of oppressing and persecuting the Albanian residents of Kosovo, who demand their national rights.

We tell today's leaders of Kosovo to be more realistic, to study more deeply the glorious history of the Albanian people of Kosovo, who have never submitted to slavery, no matter how harsh and merciless it was. If they do this, it will be clear to them that any measure of oppression and discrimination and any persecution against the people of Kosovo will only bring new and continuous losses. /Telegraph/