LATEST NEWS:

Albanians through the decades: What they went through in 1918, 1928, 1938... 2018! (Photo)

Albanians through the decades: What they went through in 1918, 1928, 1938... 2018! (Photo)

The years that have ended with the number eight - from 1918 to 2018 - have been years of great events, precursors to other developments with long-term consequences... for worse, for better...

Albanians through the decades: What did they go through in 1914, 1924, 1934... and 2014? (Photo/Video)
Read too Albanians through the decades: What did they go through in 1914, 1924, 1934... and 2014? (Photo/Video)
Albanians through the decades: What they went through in 1915, 1925, 1935... 2015! (Photo/Video)
Read too Albanians through the decades: What they went through in 1915, 1925, 1935... 2015! (Photo/Video)
Albanians through the decades: What they went through in 1916, 1926, 1936... 2016! (Photo/Video)
Read too Albanians through the decades: What they went through in 1916, 1926, 1936... 2016! (Photo/Video)
Albanians through the decades: What they went through in 1917, 1927, 1937... 2017! (Photo)
Read too Albanians through the decades: What they went through in 1917, 1927, 1937... 2017! (Photo)

1918: THE END OF THE GREAT WAR AND THE PEACE OF INJUSTICES

At 11 o'clock on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918, the greatest war that history had known until then, which would later be known as the First World War, ended. It is said that nine million soldiers and six million civilians were killed during this war. The chaos caused by the war also helped spread the Spanish Flu, which would cause even more victims: from 50-100 million! The world had turned into a mass grave. But the end of the war was hope for a new beginning. At least it was thought so.


Entente victors emerge from German capitulation train: Ferdinand Foch (French marshal, second from right), Rosslyn Wemyss (British baron and admiral, to Foch's right), and George Hope (British admiral, first right). On the same train, Adolf Hitler will ask for the capitulation of France to be signed on June 22, 1940.

In fact, the end of the First World War was marked by a lot of injustice. The world was divided into the winning camp and the losing camp. Well, the losers lost very badly. The German Empire was extinguished and after the Treaty of Versailles the German people were condemned to pay 269 billion gold marks - nearly 100 thousand tons of gold - very unaffordable for a country economically destroyed by the fighting. The German plan envisaged that this sum could be paid by 1988, but the country was often gripped by crises, for which France occupied the rich Ruhr region.

The "Foch Train" on June 22, 1940, in the same place where it was on November 11, 1918. In the photo, German soldiers are seen getting ready for revenge: the capitulation of France!

In 2010, Germany paid the last installment of this reparation in the amount of 70 million euros. And, this reparation was a lesson for the decisions that the winners took after the Second World War: the people should not be punished, but the leaders! This was evident in the case of the former Yugoslavia, and especially of Kosovo in relation to Serbia as an instigator of wars and implementer of destruction, murders and ethnic cleansing.

Hospitals filled with Spanish Flu patients

On the other hand, the Treaty of Sevres of 1920 endangered the existence of what would later be called Turkey, because it was foreseen that most of this territory would be under the control of France, Italy, Greece, Britain and Armenia. For the first time after 1453, Istanbul would be conquered. The waters of this country touch on every side with Greece, which owns almost all the islands in the Aegean and the Mediterranean (which it still has today). This injustice will lead to another war, the one for independence and the one against Greece. And, from these wars will be born the myth of the father of the Turkish nation, the Albanian who returned hope and dignity to a great state, and who himself supported anti-Albanian policies in the Balkans - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

With this chaotic state of the Ottoman Empire, begins the British administration of Palestine and the beginning of a problem that is still not finding a solution.

Bulgaria was to be fined 2.25 billion gold francs, but since it could not pay, it was forced to send cattle to Greece, Romania and the Kingdom of Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian. The last state was forced to send 50 thousand tons of coal every year. Due to poverty in the country, the Lausanne Conference in 1932 released Bulgaria from reparations.

Turkey under the Treaty of Sevres

The reparations spared the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which fell apart, while the rulers with perhaps the oldest tradition in the world, the Habsburgs, were left with almost nothing. Austria, the country that defined European politics for centuries, that sent culture wherever it stepped, remained landlocked, a poor and hopeless country. With the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the hopes that the fragmented Albanian lands would be united in one state were extinguished.

And, who came out the state that would win the most?

Serbia, the country that was the main cause of the start of the Great War.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, with his wife Sophie, on the day of the assassination in Sarajevo

On June 28, 1914, the Serbian Gavrillo Princip, a member of the nationalist organization "New Bosnia" would kill in Sarajevo the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - Archduke Franz Ferdinand (he would die on April 28, 1918, in Terezin prison) . In fact, "New Bosnia" was a branch of the Serbian terrorist organization "Black Hand" ("Crna Ruka"), headed by Serbian colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, known by the nickname Apis. This, in June 1903, cruelly killed the Serbian king, his wife, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense of Serbia. The then king, Aleksandar Obrenović, was known more for his pro-Western policies, while Apis naturally wanted Serbian politics to lean towards Russia. Thus, with this assassination, in 1903 the dynasty of the House of Obrenović came to an end, while the House of Karagjorgjevic, headed by Petar Karagjorgjević, came to power - from exile.

Italian press illustration of the brutal execution of Aleksandar Obrenović and his wife Draga

Serbia, since 1878 when it was recognized as a state - allegedly as the biggest victim of the Ottoman occupation - had expanded its territories by conquests. After the Balkan wars, it conquered Kosovo, Sanjak, Macedonia... And, its conquering appetites, to be a dominant nation in the southeast of Europe, did not die out. Therefore, the Sarajevo assassination was nothing but Serbia's expansionist ambition to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, which at that time was under the control of Austria-Hungary.

And what happened then?

The June ultimatum with 10 points addressed to Austria-Hungary. Fearful Serbia and without the support of militarily weakened France and Russia, accepted all points except the sixth one - that the Austro-Hungarian policemen act for investigations in Serbia - because this violated its state sovereignty. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and then began what is known as the First World War.

Apisi, one of the main implementers of the plans for "Greater Serbia"

Even today, Serbia tries to wash itself away from this terrorist act, as it has done in the past and as it does today, connecting its crimes only with the names of individuals. Therefore, it is worth remembering that Apis, the most influential man in Serbian political circles, was shot by those who brought him to power, on June 24, 1917, in Corfu, Greece, allegedly for planning the assassination of regent Alexander I- Karagjorgjevic. But, in fact, he was shot by politics to justify to the Austro-Hungarians that the Serbian state was not involved in the assassination of Sarajevo and that Serbia was not to blame for the start of the First World War. Let's not forget that in this year, when the USA was not involved in the war, the world believed that the Central Axis Powers would emerge victorious in this war, therefore the Serbs wanted at all costs to preserve their state and be on the side of the winner!

Plans for "Greater Serbia", according to the Report of the International Commission of Inquiry into the Cause and Development of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913)

The end of the First World War brought injustice: the greatest expansion of Serbia. They had previously conquered Kosovo and Macedonia, but now their land will also be Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vojvodina and Montenegro - whose king, Nicholas I, was dismissed by intrigues through the Montenegrin Parliament on November 26, 1918 Besides these territories, they will also control Slovenia and Croatia. Because, on December 1st, the so-called Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom will be created, which was not a federation, but a state under Serbian rule (the plan was drawn up on July 20th, 1917 in Corfu, where Apisi was also executed). The Kingdom of Yugoslavia, as this state would later be called, would be organized into banovina (districts), established in such a way that in six out of nine of them, the Serbs had the ethnic majority. The Albanian lands were divided into three settlements.

The administrative division of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia: 1. Banovina e Drava (with Ljubljana as the capital); 2. Banovina Sava (with Zagreb as the capital); 3. Banovina Vërbas (Banja Lluka as the capital); 4. Coastal Banovina (with Split as the capital; 5. Banovina e Drina (with Sarajevo as capital; 6. Banovina Zeta (with Cetinje as capital); 7. Banovina Danube (with Novi Sad as capital); 8. Banovina Morava (with Nis as capital; 9. Banovina Vardar (with Skopje as the capital)

The injustices caused after World War I brought the world into World War II. Even from this war, the Serbs came out playing the role of the victim, and even announcing themselves as a people who have suffered as much as the Jews. Serbian propaganda claimed that in the Jasenovac Camp - in independent Croatia under the Usta regime of Ante Pavelic - over a million of them were killed, anathema to anyone who brought other facts (in Jasenovac it is said that over 40 thousand Serbs were killed and as many other nationalities). With this logic, after 1945, Albanians were persecuted as alleged collaborators of Nazi-fascism, that is, violators of the rights of Serbs. With this logic, ostensibly to protect the Serbs from further victimization, "from the repetition of the past", war breaks out in Slovenia, in Croatia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo.

Albanian captives, in 1912 in Belgrade

And were the Serbs ever found guilty? No, because even the last wars are linked by the name of a single man who they raised and kept in power: once with Apis and later with Slobodan Milosevic. The latter died at the Hague Tribunal, without being found guilty.

Serbia's tendency to describe itself as a "victim" is not difficult to notice, especially in its relations with Kosovo. This was also observed on the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, in Paris, where about 80 heads of state were present. Since the president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, was next to the powerful leaders of the world (behind the row where were the French president Emmanuel Macron, the German chancellor Angela Merkel, the American president Donald Trump and the Russian Vladimir Putin), and the one of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić somewhere in an insignificant corner where it was not seen at all, they spoke again about injustice, insults, victimization... They almost started a new war! Therefore, the good thing about this is when you remember that, unlike in 1918, Serbia is neither as big as it used to be, nor powerful enough to impose its will on most of the Balkans, nor does it have the support of the powers that be. big.

Committee "National Defense of Kosovo"

In 1918, the Albanian lands in Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia were reoccupied with crimes. For this reason, in Shkodër, in May 1918, the "National Defense of Kosovo" Committee was formed, whose main goal was the liberation of Kosovo and other Albanian provinces that were unjustly separated in 1913, and their union with Albania. The names related to this Committee are: Bajram Curri, Hoxha Kadri Prishtina, Sali Nivica, Niman Ferizi, Hasan Prishtina, Bedri Pejani, Qamil Bala, Sali Rama, Hafiz Ismet Dibra, etc. In 1918, the armed resistance in Kosovo began, known as the Kaçake Movement, led by Azem Galica.

In 1918, the French continued to be in Korça and the Italians in Vlora, since, based on the secret London Agreement, Italy would take the south of Albania and the protectorate over the Albanian state. At the Congress of Lushnja, the Albanian delegates would decide to expel the Italians from Vlora.

Bombardment of Durrës in October 1918

In order to protect Albanian interests, the Congress of Durrës was held on December 25-27. The goal was to form a new government and present positions at the Paris Peace Conference to be held in 1919. On January 8, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Point Declaration containing principles for peace negotiations was also issued to ended the First World War. In point 11 of the declaration, Serbia was required to have access to the sea. At the Paris Conference, Wilson would be the most vocal defender of Albania's independence, for which Faik Konica would declare: "All Albanians should erect an immortal monument to Wilson in their hearts"!

Before this conference began, on December 15, 1918, the Albanian students of Vienna sent Wilson a letter with the following conclusion: "Mr. President! If in the decision of peace a nation is left unknown and will be used so unjustly, can peace ever be secured in that part of the world? Albania, as the London Conference limited it, could never live, it had the seed of death in its blood since its birth. In this way, Lord, until now the world has used us cruelly, therefore we raise our voice to You, as the protector of mankind, knowing for sure that the participation of the United States under the just and honest leadership of Your Lordship in Peace Congress, justice will be fulfilled and the Albanians, having the right to self-vote on the form of their government, will have the permission, as a free nation, to enter the League of Nations. […] On behalf of the Albanian students in Vienna, the dedicated Jan Basho, Remzi Bape, H. Hifzi, Nush Bushati, Djevat Korça, Luigj Kakariqi, Gjovalin Gjiadri, Raku Buda, Fuad Aslan.”

Representatives of the Albanian association "Vatra", meeting President Wilson in Washington

The year 1918 was the year of independence. In 1917, Finland declared independence from Russia. On January 4, 1918, this independence was recognized by Russia and other major European powers, including Germany and France. On January 22, the People's Republic of Ukraine declared independence from Russia; on February 16, the independence of Lithuania from Russia is also announced; on March 25, the People's Republic of Belarus also announced its independence from Russia; on April 22, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia also declare their independence from Russia, forming the Democratic Federative Republic of Transcaucasia, to be divided again each as a separate state on May 28; on October 7, the Council of Regency declared the independence of Poland from the German Empire and on November 3 from Russia; on October 28, Czechoslovakia declared independence from Austria-Hungary; on November 16, Hungary declared independence from Austria; on November 18, the independence of Latvia from Russia is announced; on November 28, Estonia's war for independence from Russia begins; on December 1 Iceland gains independence from Denmark! The aforementioned countries, which declared independence from Russia (except Poland and Czechoslovakia), would forcibly become part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Map of Europe in 1918

When it comes to rulers, it should be noted that on July 4, Mehmed VI was proclaimed Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (he would rule until 1922, when the Sultanate was abolished by Ataturk). On July 16-17, 1918, the Russian imperial Romanov family was murdered by the Bolshevik revolutionaries. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates on November 9 and decides to live in exile in the Netherlands. On November 11, Emperor Charles I of Austria hands over power, but did not abdicate, while on November 12, Austria is declared a republic.

Future rulers are also born in this year, among whom the most famous will be: Helmut Schmidt (chancellor of Germany), Gamal Abdel Nasseri (president of Egypt), Konstantinos Mitsotakisi (prime minister and founder of a dynasty of politicians in Greece) and Nicolae Ceausescu (Communist dictator of Romania).

The last emperor of Austria

The year 1918 is perhaps one of the years when the most Nobel winners were born - 22 such: Gertrude B. Elion, Julian Schwinger, Arthur Kornberg, James Tobin, Frederick Reines, Kai Siegbahn, Richard Feynman, Edward B. Lewis, Edwin G .Krebs, Jerome Karle, Franco Modigliani, Bertram Brockhouse, Nelson Mandela, Paul D. Boyer, Frederick Sanger, Derek Barton, Martin Ryle, Kenichi Fukui, Jens Christian Skou, Ernst Otto Fischer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anwar Sadat. Meanwhile, three Nobel laureates died: Louis Renault, Ernesto Teodoro Moneta and Karl Ferdinand Braun.

In 1918, the mother of an Albanian Nobel laureate was also born: the mother of Ferid Murat - Henrietta Josephine Bowman.

In 1918, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the name mentioned in every textbook: Max Planck - the father of quantum physics. Well, 100 years later, a series of sexual scandals will be associated with the Nobel name!

Max Planck and Albert Einstein

1928: DOWN WITH THE REPUBLIC, LONG LIVE THE KINGDOM

The careerist and opportunist Ahmet Zogu dissolved the Parliament in August and on September 1, 1928 he was proclaimed King of Albania. He changed his last name from Zogolli to Zogu. His mother Sadije Toptani was declared Queen Mother, while his other family members received the titles of Prince and Princess. The Kingdom of Albania was a constitutional, parliamentary and hereditary kingdom. 10 years later, in 1938, Zogu would become Queen after marrying the Hungarian Countess – Geraldine Margit Virginia Olga Maria Apponyi de Nagy-Appony.

Young Ahmet Zogu, as a tourist in Vienna

What is the truth, many Albanians welcomed this decision, because they thought that a state, in order to develop (as other states in the Balkans were developing), had to have a king as its leader. It is even said that illegal movements with monarchist ideology were formed in Kosovo in the 1930s, as they would later be Marxist-Leninist - depending on the political system that prevailed in Albania. Historian Ramadan Haziri thought that Mark Krasniqi and Gjon Serreqi could have been members of such monarchist organizations as young people. But there is no evidence for this!

The 20th century is the century when many monarchies are extinguished. Zogu and the psychopath Jean-Bedel Bokassa are the only ones who, in order not to endanger their rule, organized the state according to their interests: the first became king and the second emperor. Neither the first nor the second had the dream of ruling until their deathbed.

Geraldine Appony

One of those who did not welcome Zog's announcement as king was Ataturk. It is said that when he learned the news, the ruler of Turkey hit the table with his fist and said: "What! Do I accept it? No, no. I will never know him! Maybe I will be the only one in the world. That doesn't matter. I swear to you; I give you my word that I don't know! An example must be set. A man chosen by the people must never betray his oath! Never"!

Another truth is that Zogu tried to create a modern state. Above all, he invested in education by giving scholarships to many to study in prestigious schools in the West. And, after graduating, they returned to their homeland to contribute to the development of the country and to the education of the younger generations. Many of these cadres educated abroad, who brought a new intellectual spirit to Albania, suffered after 1945 from the other scholar of Zog - Enver Hoxha.

Photograph from Albania in 1938, published in the French magazine "Regards"

In addition to education, Zogu increased security in the country: he reduced the mentality of cubism and blood feuds, disarming the population and extending the influence of the rule of law. In his time, bridges, airport runways were built, industrialization of the country, electrification began, the first steps were taken to develop tourism, investments were made in health, in culture, polygamy and divorce were banned... Unfortunately, a reference point for Zogu - to show how much his reign was bringing development - it was 1912, a year when Albania was divided, poor, disorganized... The communists will do the same later, for whom their achievements thought to prove by comparing everything with 1938. Not with the year 1939 or 1940 of the Italian occupation, and especially not with the year 1941 when during this occupation the union with Kosovo took place and when with another anti-Zogist political elite in power, Albanians experienced greater development - especially in education.

However, then as now, Bird will never forget the political murders; the sin that in 1924 he returned to power with the help of the Serbs, while for personal interests he violated the national interests by signing an infamous agreement with the anti-Albanian Prime Minister of Serbia, Nikola Pašić; and that in 1939, during the Italian occupation, he would abandon the people and take with him incredible wealth to continue his luxurious life.

In the meantime, in Kosovo, according to some statistics, 4,326 Albanians fled to Turkey in 1928; 149 families left for Albania. Meanwhile, the Serbian colonizers were exempted from taxes for five years.

View from the assassination of June 20, 1928, in the Assembly of Yugoslavia

On June 20, 1920, the entity called the Kingdom of Serbo-Croatian-Slovenia (also known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but which as the only name would be officially used from October 1929) was shaken from its foundations that were supposedly based on the brotherhood of the South Slavs, when the ultra-nationalist Punisha Racic, in the Yugoslav Parliament in Belgrade, shoots a gun at the deputies of the Croatian Peasant Party. All this because the Croatian MP, Stjepan Radić, had called some Serbian ministers thugs, robbers and criminals, while Raçiqi and others could not declare him insane or stop him from expressing his opinion that contradicted the Serbian policies. The death of Radić and others (including the Croatian Serb Svetozar Pribičević, who criticized the policies of King Aleksandar Karagjorgjevic), had been sought by the media in Belgrade for days, and some Serbian MPs had warned about it. Radiqi would die in the Zagreb hospital on August 8, from the wounds received in the Parliament. In Zagreb, at least five demonstrators who condemned the act of Punisha Racic, who had already become a great hero in Serbia, would be killed.

Raçiqi came from the Montenegrin Vasojevic tribe, the same as Slobodan Millosheviqi (Vasojevics are anti-Albanians of Albanian origin) and bad actions of Albanians are associated with his name. Initially, during the Balkan wars, he collaborated with the Catholic Albanians of northern Albania, whom he briefly convinced to fight on the side of the Montenegrins against the Ottomans (that is, against the Muslim Albanians and the Catholic Albanians who defended Shkodra). Then, in 1920, he was elected deputy from Tetova, as a representative of the Xhemijet party that represented Albanians, Turks and Muslims (Nikolla Pashiqi, who was a Vlach, also came from Tetova).

The power called… TV!

The year 1928 is the year when the English bacteriologist, Frederick Griffith, would prove the existence of DNA. This year is important for the history of television, because for the first time the transatlantic transmission of the television signal (from London to New York) was made, as well as the first color television was introduced. This device would later become the main source of information and entertainment.

In the USSR, on October 1, 1927, Joseph Stalin launched the first five-year plan; on November 1, Turkey switched from the Arabic to the Latin alphabet; while on November 22, the ballet "Bolero" premiered in Paris (with the amazing music of Maurice Ravel and choreography of Bronislava Nijinskas).

Che Guevara - the signer of death certificates, who surprisingly became the idol of rebellious youth. until today

In 1928, great names of the XNUMXth century were born: directors Stanley Kubrick and Nicolas Roeg, pop artist Andy Warhol, actors James Coburn and Shirley Temple, composer Ennio Morricone, singers Serge Gainsborough and Fats Domino, political scientists Zbigniew Brzezinski and Noam Chomsky, activist Elie Wiesel, the revolutionary Che Guevara, the politicians Hosni Mubarak and Ariel Sharon... Meanwhile, actresses Kate Dulaj (known as Katarina Josipi) and Esma Agolli, writer Enver Gjerqeku, historian Ali Hadri were born among the Albanians...

Katarina Josipi

1938: READY FOR THE NEXT GREAT WAR

Parliamentary elections were held in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia where the Yugoslav Radical Union won, taking 306 out of a total of 373 seats. Although the United Opposition led by Croatian Vladko Macek won no less than 44.9 percent of the vote, the Serbs had rigged the laws to give them only 67 seats. According to the statistics of that time, Serbs made up 38 percent of the state's population, but they had absolute power, which is also shown by these elections.

From 1918 to 1938 - according to data from the archives of Serbia - the Serbs burned and destroyed hundreds of villages and thousands of houses, tens of thousands of Albanians were killed and over 215 thousand people moved to Turkey. On July 9-11, 1938, the Yugoslav and Turkish sides agreed in Istanbul that in the next six years 40 Albanian families would be moved from the lands occupied by the Serbs. This is the so-called Yugoslav-Turkish Convention that aimed to remove the Albanians from Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Sanjak and the Presheva Valley.

"Hey, good luck to you, Selman Kadria/ That's what they're saying, get over it, Albania/ Boys, how are you in Kosovo again/ Oh, again, between us, we'll take revenge".

Meanwhile, the colonization of Kosovo and violence against Albanians continued. Among the biggest Serbian oppressors was Milliq Kërstiqi (Kërsta) who was killed in 1938 and with his murder the myth of Selman Kadri was born. As many things from Albanian history are kept secret, as many moments and details are misinterpreted and embellished, such is the case with Selman Kadri, who is sung the song that shook the bones of Tsar Dushan and that from his rifle "with his mouth open he remain Serbia".

The researcher Liman Rushiti, in his work "Memories of the Kachak movement", mentions interesting facts about many historical characters, said by the witnesses of the time (which he collected in the 70s-80s of the last century, and which published them in a valuable work in 2003). He says that Kërsta was killed behind his back (which does not coincide with Albanian manhood, for which the song glorifies those who face the enemy face to face) and that Selman Kadria was a reliable man of Milliq, as a grandson of the Kërstiqs of Istog - for which was also entrusted with holding a weapon.

View from Zog's wedding

In the Albanian tradition, one is not killed behind the back. Do you remember the assassination that Beqir Valteri did to Ahmet Zogut in the Parliament of Albania? Although he had speech problems, he called the Bird by name and said: "Bless my angel"! Because this was the Albanian manly tradition of taking revenge: to call the enemy by name and to show him the reason why he is taking revenge!

When it comes to Zogu, it must be said that considering Kërsta's atrocities against the Albanians, he had offered money for the one who saves him and sends Selman Kadri to Tirana. But here a low act takes place: he is betrayed by his father's nephew, Ramë Vuthaj, who also hits Selman Kadri on the back with an ax, while signaling the Serbian gendarmes to take him. Under the most barbaric torture of the Serbian settlers, Selman Kadria dies in the yard of the Orthodox church in Istog, in June 1938.

King Zog's Wedding Cake

In the year of Selman Kadri, Zogu, who led a state with 860 thousand Albanians, had become a "man" because he was getting married. For marriage he needed permission from the Pope (Geraldine was Catholic). It is said that the Vatican required a marriage according to the Catholic rites - before a civil marriage - and that children born out of wedlock had to be raised as Catholics. But, in the end, they agreed that instead of a wedding, the children would grow up as Catholics and that the marriage would be civil.

"The wedding will take place in the old palace in Tirana and it will be completely civil... There is no doubt that my brother and his queen will visit the Pope during their honeymoon to receive his blessing," he said. for the British media Princess Myzejen, who became famous in 1938 with her sisters, after traveling to Hollywood. Western media reported that the famous producer, Samuel Goldwin, wanted the Bird sisters to star in a new version of the film "Graustark" - the fictional country mentioned in the writings of George Barr McCutcheon.

The Bird Sisters

The most important events in the world were: King Farouk of Egypt, of the Albanian dynasty founded by Mehmet Ali Pasha, marries the beautiful Safinaz Zulficar; the premiere of the first full-length animated film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"; the first Superman comic is published; the Bolshevik revolutionary Nikolai Bukharin is executed in the USSR; Atatürk dies, while Ismet Inonu becomes the second president of Turkey...

On October 30, 1938, director Orson Welles broadcasts the radio adaptation of HG Wells' science fiction work, The War of the Worlds. The radio drama was full of tonic effects, narrations and interludes that resembled special news editions. Such simulations led listeners to believe that the Martians had landed in New Jersey and were ready to attack New York as well. Telephone lines were jammed as thousands upon thousands left their homes to seek shelter elsewhere. This radio drama continues today to be the subject of analyzes of the influence of the media on the masses and as a source for many conspiracy theories.

Media reports on the "War of the Worlds"

The world was on the brink of another Great War. Germany annexed Austria and the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia. In Austria, the Germans built the first concentration camp in Mauthasen, while Hermann Goring called the Czechoslovaks a "terrible race of dwarfs" who "disturbing the human race". This year, the previous passports of the Jews were declared invalid and those seeking new ones for emigration were marked with the letter "J" (for "Jude", i.e. Jews). Many of them, at this time, were provided with Albanian passports.

On November 9-10, 1938, what would be known as Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass (since the windows of Jewish bars are broken) takes place. This action, instigated by SA paramilitary groups, was an act of pogrom. Everything is said to be a reaction to the murder of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, in the German Embassy in Paris, by 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan. Jewish property was marked and destroyed. 91 Jews were killed and 30 were arrested and sent to camps.

View from Kristallnacht

Actors Natalie Wood, Christopher Lloyd, Elliott Gould and Oliver Reed were born in 1938; dancer Rudolf Nureyev; singers Kenny Rogers, Ben E. King and Nico (the model and actress who starred in the films of Federico Fellini and Andy Warhol and who became famous with the cult rock group Velvet Underground); the politician who will be the Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan; media mogul (founder of CNN), Ted Turner…

Actress Antoneta Papapavli was born among Albanians; the linguist Emil Lafe and the great writer for children, Rifat Kukaj, whose life shows how cruel Serbian rule was. Kukaj in 1945 would kill his father with several other family members. When later, the writer Faruk Tasholli would ask him if he remembers his father, Rifat Kukaj would say: "Yes, I remember him as dead. I saw the trace of the bullet where it entered one side and exited the other"!.

Rifat Kukaj

Branislav Nushiqi died in 1938, one of the greatest dramatists of Serbia who, like many other great "Serbs", was a Vlach. Nushiqi - whom some Albanian "scientists" want to adopt, since for them he has the surname Nushi and is originally from Gjakova - was the consul of Serbia in Pristina, during the Ottoman Empire. He wrote a book about Kosovo, while he said about the Albanians: "Albanians are autochthonous, who, during all the influxes of peoples, preserved their type and character in a pronounced way. They faced the attacks of the Romans, the heavy attacks of the Slavs, who conquered all their plains, lowlands, and rivers".

Branislav Nušić

1948: THE BIRTH OF ALBANIA-USSR LOVE AND FORMER YUGOSLAVIC BROTHERS...

In February 1948, the Albanian communists planned to merge the economy and the military with that of Yugoslavia. One of the supporters of the economic plan to transform Albania into a producer of raw materials for Yugoslavia and the economic dependence of Yugoslavians, was the Minister of Interior and Defense, Koçi Xoxe, who at the inauguration of the completion of the Durrës-Peqin railway works, had said: "The existence of the People's Federative Yugoslavia on the border is a fortune for Albania, it is a great security for our life, for our general development. Otherwise, without a Yugoslavia of the peoples of Yugoslavia and strong from every point of view, our existence as a free people would be in danger".

View from the construction of railways in Albania

The biggest opponent of such plans was Nako Spiru (husband of Liri Belishova) who, under great pressure from Xoxe, committed suicide in 1947. But, in 1948, Xoxe also suffered when, after the exclusion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform - the irritation of the Yugoslav-Soviet relations - Albania took the side of the Soviet Union. The above plans failed and Albania's communist leader, Enver Hoxha, abrogated the Treaty of Friendship with Yugoslavia of 1946 (which, among other things, provided for customs union and the equalization of the lek with the dinar). Then began the purges of elements that Hoxha called titists. Koçi Xoxe, who is sentenced to death, was among the first to suffer. In the trial against him, Xoxe did not deny that he felt good when Nako Spiru killed himself.

The original and retouched photo of Enver Hoxha with "Flora" cigarettes produced by the factory of the "enemy of the people", Ibrahim Biçakçi. Biçakçi had helped Hoxha during his studies at the Korça High School (living with Ibrahim's aunt), but also during his stay in Tirana in 1940 (where he lived for free with Esat Dishnica, the son of Ibrahim's aunt).

Xoxe was pro-Yugoslav and a cruel person who in 1947 had started a war against the anti-Yugoslav communists. Among other things, it is also known for the special trial against 60 people (March-April 1945), which the communist regime described as "war criminals". Among those arrested and convicted was Ibrahim Biçakçiu, the only son of Aqif Pasha Elbasan - the patriot and intellectual who, among other things, is known as the organizer of the plan to kill Esat Pasha Toptan. Ibrahimi spoke German, Italian, Turkish and English, while in Vienna he graduated from the Faculty of Commerce and Political Science. He was well-known as well as rich, as he owned large properties and businesses - including the "Flora" cigarette factory in Tirana and the cafe of the same name where Enver Hoxha also worked. He was to be sentenced to death, but after a petition he would serve his sentence in prison. In 1962 he was released from Burreli. The aristocrat and intellectual who was also Prime Minister of Albania from September 1943 to November 1944, would be forced to clean the streets, wells and public baths of Elbasan.

"Lumo Skendo" bookstore (which until 1941 was owned by Mit'hat Frashëri), near which Enver Hoxha sold "Flora" cigarettes

After breaking with the Yugoslavs, Albania receives aid from the Soviet Union. Two years ago, when Enver Hoxha visited Belgrade (a visit during which he did not request to meet any Albanians from Kosovo), he ordered that people in Tirana be greeted with the following slogans: "Long live the agreement between the Albanian people and the peoples of Yugoslavia" , "Long live Marshal Tito", "Enver-Tito", "Long live the brotherhood of the Albanian national army and the heroic Yugoslav army", "Long live the heroic peoples of Yugoslavia"... But now the Yugoslavs were his enemies, and especially their leader, Josip Broz Tito. Therefore, 1,300 Yugoslavs who were engaged in every political and social institution were expelled from Albania, allegedly for the organization of the Albanian state apparatus.

Enver Hoxha's requests for pro-Yugoslav banners in Tirana

In November, the First Congress of the Communist Party would be held in Tirana, where it was decided that this political body would change its name to the "Labor Party of Albania" (PPSH). There, Enver Hoxha would be appointed First Secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP, a position he would hold until his death in 1985. Also, the "unmasking and punishment of the Yugoslav revisionists" would take place in the Congress. "The Titists", the Congress pointed out, "have tried with all their strength and means to impose their anti-Marxist ideology, politics and methods on the Communist Party of Albania. For this purpose, they had organized, among others, the conspiracy group of Koçi Xoxes... However, the pressures and the intervention of the Yugoslav revisionists had not been able to affect the Party's proletarian policy for class struggle, economic policy and its revolutionary political line in general" .

Enver Hoxha going to the First Congress of the Party

In Kosovo, after the breakdown of Albania-Yugoslavia relations, Prizren (which was the administrative center of Kosovo after 1941, in the Time of Albania, when Koço Tasi founded the first local administration) will no longer be the "capital". Since it was close to Albania, the Yugoslavs decided that the capital of Kosovo should be moved to a small and not very important settlement - in Pristina.

In 1948, a population census was held, according to which Kosovo had 727,820 inhabitants, of which 498,242 (68.46 percent) were Albanians. But, even though they were the majority, the power was in the hands of the Serbs.

One of the strongest people in communist Yugoslavia, as Minister of the Interior, was the anti-Albanian Aleksandar Ranković (former head of the notorious information service, OZNA), who did not stop the oppressive policies, as a result of which the migration of Albanians from Kosovo continues . After the breakdown of relations with the USSR, many Albanians would be arrested as "Comintern people". Because, whatever the ideology was in Albania, this was the "resistance" in Kosovo: feudal, monarchist, Ballistic, titist, Stalinist, Enverist... until Ibrahim Rugova did not make a break of inspiration from across the border!

The ALP symbol

Regarding the breakdown of relations between Albania and Yugoslavia, Fadil Hoxha (who in 1948 was the president of the Assembly and Executive of Kosovo) would say: "In truth, until Albania and Yugoslavia broke up, we in Kosovo had fewer problems, but then the situation worsened. I think that the Albanians in Kosovo and in the former Yugoslavia could have passed more easily, if the Albanian-Yugoslav relations had not been broken. So, as if we had normal interstate relations everywhere".

In 1948, it can be said that the activity of the Albanian National-Democratic Movement (LNDSH), which operated with two Central Committees (one in Prizren and one in Skopje), whose members gave this oath: "I swear in the holy book, in the Albanian blood, in the flag, that I will stay and become loyal, in the national organization for the liberation of the homeland. I will sacrifice my life if it falls into the hands of the enemy. I will not declare anything about the participants of the organization. I will rely on all the laws that the organization supports. At the price of my life, I will complete every task that the organization sets before me".

Fadil Hoxha with the partisans of Albania, in Malësi

In this year of great violations of the rights of Albanians, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was approved, which had 30 articles, before which there are seven paragraphs that begin with: "Considering that..."! And, "keeping in mind" this, this Declaration is one of the most violated in the second half of the 1948th century... until today! Such as in Burma (today's Myanmar) that gained independence in XNUMX, the year when the USSR began the terrible deportation of Lithuanians to Siberia.

One of the main events of 1948 is the signing of the Marshall Plan by US President Harry S. Truman, which offered five billion dollars in aid to 16 states. This plan would rebuild Europe devastated by World War II. But the biggest event is the establishment of the state of Israel, on May 14, 1948, with David Ben-Gurion as the first prime minister.

"The Jewish people were created in the land of Israel. This is where his spiritual, religious and political being was created," Ben-Gurion declared then.

From left: Shimon Peres, David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan

The formation of this state was the culmination of the goals of the Zionist Movement that started in Europe in the 19th century. The journalist Theodor Herzl was the first to publicly seek this state through his work "Jewish State". To achieve this goal, the migration of Jews to Palestine began at the beginning of the 20th century.

The book of memories of Eqrem Bey Vlora gives details of these migrations. In 1904, while living in Turkey, he set out with a government commission to inaugurate the Hexhaz railway. After the inauguration, the ship on which it was traveling to Jaffa had another mission to perform: to collect information about the "Jewish Study Mission" in Tel-Aviv.

Eqrem Bey Vlora with his wife Hadija - the daughter of Salih I saw Vrioni

"In December 1903, I happened to be in the palace of the Grand Vizier at that time, Feri saw Vlora. He told us that in the afternoon he would be waiting for Baron Rothschild (Rothschild) from Paris. Later we learned that he had sought a concession, for 99 years, of 20,000 hectares of land (sand dunes) in Tel-Aviv, for which he was ready to pay a rather high rent to the Government," he wrote in his memoirs, as he adds that the Sultan (Abdul Hamid II) had allowed the formation of the "Mission..." which was being investigated.

"On the beach of Tel-Aviv, two small, very simple houses were built where five agents worked - employees of the World Jewish Congress, and they collected data on the economic conditions of the Arabs in Palestine", wrote Vlora further, according to which , the creation of the state of Israel hides in itself the seed of future unrest, "because it will always remain unimaginable for the Arab peoples to silently accept that a Jewish wedge divides the Arab world in two".

View from the migrations of the Jews to Palestine

"Palestine was once Jewish, but thousands of years have passed since the time of the great Solomon and the little David. Rightly or wrongly, today it is 100 percent Arab and the Ottoman Empire has no reason, be it political or sentimental, to change this situation", said the Albanian Vizier, who intended to stop the granting of concession lands for the realization of emigration of the Jews, but which did not succeed as the Sultan had bargained with the controversial baron from Paris.

Immediately after the declaration of the state of Israel, the First Arab-Israeli War began. On May 14, Israel is attacked by five Arab states (Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq). But, from these battles and others that would follow, Israel always came out victorious and always with a larger territory.

Palestinian lands from 1917 to today (yellow color)

Actors Samuel L. Jackson, Billy Crystal, Carl Weathers, Jeremy Irons, Gerard Depardieu and Jean Reno were born this year; singers Donna Summer, Grace Jones and Olivia Newton-John; writer George RR Martin; politician Al Gore; electronic music genius Jean-Michel Jarre; and the great rockers: Ozzy Osbourne, Steven Tyler, Alice Cooper, Stevie Nicks, Robert Plant, John Bonham, Brian Eno, Johnny Ramone, Klaus Meine, Jeremy Spencer and Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf Islam). Jan Palachu was also born in 1948, who, to oppose the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, in January 1969 set himself on fire in a street in Prague.

In 1948 die: the symbol of peaceful resistance, Mahatma Gandhi; Orville Wright who with his brother Wilbur made the first airplane flight; as well as the famous film director, Sergei Eisenstein.

Meanwhile, among the Albanians: the politician Arbën Xhaferi; actors Bujar Lako and Timo Flloko; writers Agim Deva, Eqrem Basha, Ymer Elshani, Hida Halimi and Natasha Lako; historian Jusuf Bajraktari...

Jan Palachu is on fire

1958: DOWN WITH THE REVISIONISTS!

The chairman of the Presidium of the People's Assembly of Albania was Haxhi Lleshi, while the prime minister was Mehmet Shehu. After the Soviet communist leader, Nikita Khrushchev (from this year he was also prime minister), had criticized the policies of his predecessor, Joseph Stalin, in 1958, the cooling of relations between Albania and the USSR seems more obvious. For the Albanian political elite, de-Stalinization was a mistake, just as it was a mistake that the USSR did not sufficiently judge Yugoslav socialism centered on their unique system of self-government.

Nikita Khrushchev, Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu

Enver Hoxha continued to defend Stalin and accuse Tito of being a heretic who even incited riots in Poland and Hungary. Therefore, he made other purges of the elements he considered pro-Soviet and pro-Yugoslav. In 1958, Hoxha accused Tito of being a fascist and committing genocide against Kosovo Albanians. Meanwhile, Mehmet Shehu declared that revisionism had to be fought, because it was being used by imperialism to hinder the unity of the communist bloc.

However, Albania had also given signals that it intended to improve relations with Yugoslavia, "based on Marxist-Leninist principles of proletarian internationalism". In an interview with the American journalist Harrison Salisbury (correspondent of the "New York Times" newspaper in Moscow), Mehmet Shehu said about Yugoslavia: "In our policy with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, we start from the fact that both our countries are building socialism, therefore, our relations should be based on mutual respect, cooperation and non-interference".

Tito, the statesman who knew how to best play the game between East and West

Since Yugoslavia at this time did not obey the USSR (since, thanks to the aid of the West, with South Korea, it was marking the fastest development in the world), the Soviet military presence in Albania increased, when four more submarines were sent to Vlora, making made this Albanian city one of the main points of the military fleets of the Adriatic, the Ionian, but also the Mediterranean.

Khrushchev called Yugoslavia the "Trojan horse of the imperialists". He stated that the Soviet attitude towards the revisionist Yugoslavia was that of 1948. But, in fact, he played double games because Albania started to prioritize its relations with China from this year.

In 1958, the Americans compiled a report, where they emphasized that Albania and Bulgaria do not have many differences for the Americans. They were the poorest communist countries in Europe and the only ones with which the US did not have diplomatic relations. Therefore, the least amount of information was extracted from these countries. However, communism was so morbid in Albania that the difference still remained great, for which the report said: "Albania is a good hand smaller and less populated, more backward in every way, more isolated geographically from Moscow, more Stalinist and in more irritated relations with its neighbors..."! The report also mentions another fact, that regardless of the system, Albanians, unlike their neighbors, have anti-Russian prejudices.

Footage from the documentary aimed at attracting foreign tourists

In 1958, Shkelzen Shala and Agim Furtuzi would make a short film through which they aimed to attract foreign tourists. This year, the first Albanian feature film, "Tana", directed by Kristaq Dhamo, with a script by Kristaq Dhamo, Fatmir Gjata and Nasho Jorgaqi, and music by Česk Zadeja, was made. The main role, that of Tana, was played by Tinka Kurti. Meanwhile, Stefan, who was in love with Tana, was played by Naim Frashëri. Tana and Stefani even kiss in the movie.

Another event that aroused curiosity in the West was the visit to Albania by the journalist of the British newspaper "Daily Express", Sydney Smith. This is due to the fact that Albania was an isolated country, while Great Britain, like the USA, did not have diplomatic relations with this country.

"When children look at a tourist, they automatically ask you in Russian if you have a gum. But if you are an Englishman, then you are a sensation in Tirana. Not only being English, but everything English, everything British, British ideas... are off the map for this satellite country filled with Russian rubles that looks at Moscow as the center of the world", he wrote, calling Albania a room of good looking little one that is a soviet trophy and a bottle neck near nato.

On August 25, 1958, after being held for several years in prison, 60 captured soldiers were deported to Greece. The photo shows them kissing the Greek soil

In 1958, Kosovo had 890 thousand inhabitants. Albanians suffered from the rule of Rankovic. According to some data, it is said that this year 41,000 Syrians move to Turkey. This same year, Adem Demaçi was arrested, shortly after publishing the novel "Blood Snakes". In his trial, he would declare: "If Serbia and Yugoslavia continue with this policy against the Albanians, there will be no peace in Yugoslavia. If Serbia continues with this policy, it will become the cause of the destruction of all of Yugoslavia and, in the end, it will be left without Kosovo."

By 1958, Kosovo had 10,690 square kilometers. This year its area is increased by another 197 square kilometers (Serbia takes this area from the district of Studeniçan and joins it with the district of Zveçan). The total area of ​​Kosovo became 10,887 square kilometers.

Scene from the movie Tana

The year 1958 was the year of technological advancement of the USSR, after the third satellite, "Sputnik 3" was launched into orbit (the first two burned up after falling from orbit). But what horror the Bolshevik Revolution has brought to Russia, this was proven by the book "Doctor Zhivago", the writer Boris Pasternak who in 1958 won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Many great singers and actors were born in 1958. Among the singers it is worth mentioning: Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Joan Jett, Andrea Bocelli, Bruce Dickinson and Kate Bush. Meanwhile, from the actors: Alec Baldwin, Kevin Bacon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gary Oldman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sharon Stone and Viggo Mortensen.

Sketch of the operation of the satellite "Sputnik 3"

1968: THE DEMONSTRATION, FOR CHANGE…

The year 1968 is a year of great developments for Albanians. First, it is worth mentioning the Albanianological Conference held in Tirana (January 17, 1968) and the Scientific Symposium held in Pristina (May 9-12, 1968), on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Gjergj Kastriot-Skënderbeu, where Albanian researchers participated and foreigners in the fields of history, literature, linguistics, folklore and ethnography. Then, there was the Consultation on the unification of the Albanian language, held on April 22-23, 1968 in Pristina, in which it was established that "the literary language of the Albanians in Yugoslavia was unanimously recognized as the literary language of the mother country (Albania)". Then there were the numerous demonstrations on the occasion of the 90th anniversary (June 1968) of the Albanian League of Prizren and the 60th anniversary of the Congress of Manastir. It was in 1968 that discussions began on constitutional changes in the Yugoslav Federation, with which the advancement of Kosovo's status was foreseen.

Veli Deva, Ali Shukriu and Tito in Brione, on June 24, 1968

After the fall of Ranković in the 4th Plenum of the Central Committee of the LKJ (known as the Plenum of Briones), things start to change for the better for the Albanians in Yugoslavia. The Albanian staff was added to the schools, but there was still a lack of qualified staff, which is why many subjects continued to be taught in Serbian. Magazines, such as "Jeta e re" and "Zëri i Rinija", published historical writings, including those of historians from Albania. Meanwhile, the "Rilindja" Publications Editorial Office attached importance to the works that spoke about the life and deeds of Skenderbeu.

In this year, the insulting name that Serbs use for Albanians, "shiptar" or "shiftar", is avoided, while instead of Metohija, the term Rrafshi i Dukagjini begins to be used.

However, Albanians continued to be the most discriminated against in Yugoslavia. This has led to the explosion of demonstrations for the advancement of their national rights. The first demonstration was held on October 6, 1968 in Prizren, to continue in October, November and December in other cities of Kosovo, even in Ulcinj, Preševo ​​and Tetovo.

View from the demonstration of November 27, 1968 in Pristina

The slogans that were used in these demonstrations were: "Long live the red and black flag!", "Long live the Albanian people!", "We want the University!", "We want equality!", "We want self-determination", "No one should play with fate." ours", "Down with the colonialist policy towards Kosovo", "Albanian-inhabited villages should join Kosovo", "We will shed blood for our rights", "A pickaxe in one hand and a rifle in the other", "We want the Republic" , "We want self-determination until secession", "The LNC did not bring us freedom!", "We want the Constitution!", "We want the union of Presheva with Kosovo!", "Down with the bureaucracy!", "Down with the traitors!", "Down with Veli Deva!", "Long live the working class!", "Long live the miners", "Long live the peasantry", "Long live the youth", "Down with Fadil Hoxha", "Long live the Albanian brotherhood", "Long live Adem Demaçi", "Long live Kadri Halimi" , "We want the release of political prisoners"...

Dozens of demonstrators were arrested and sentenced; many of them were wounded; Meanwhile, 17-year-old Murat Mehmeti was killed - a student of the Technical High School in Pristina.

That equality in Yugoslavia did not apply to the Albanians is proven by the article of the journalist Christine Von Kohl, in the Austrian daily "Die Presse", on December 9, 1968, in which the Serbs openly said that "all Albanians should move to Albania"!

Murat Mehmeti

For the demonstrations, the Yugoslav side had accused Albania of being the instigator. However, regarding these events, there was no clear statement or position from the Albanian side, especially regarding the status of Kosovo as a republic. However, the demonstrations of 1968 influenced Albanians to use the flag without fear. Then, in 1970, the University of Pristina was founded. Meanwhile, in 1974, the new Constitution was approved that made Kosovo a part of the Yugoslav Federation. Apart from that, Albania-Yugoslavia relations also improved, which increased the contacts between Albanian creators and intellectuals on both sides of the border.

With these demonstrations, an urban myth was born, about how "tolerant" Tito has been. Then, and even today, it is believed that when Tito "accidentally" heard that the Albanians had taken over Kosovo, he asked what they were looking for. "The flag", the advisers tell him. "Yes, give it to them", was Tito's immediate and easy "answer". In fact, he had said "the students have the right" for the student protests in Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Sarajevo, which were very different from those of the Albanians and which were mainly related to the economic reforms that caused unemployment and youth leaving for in the West. The demands of the Albanian students differed from the demands of the Western students who in 1968 protested for gender, social, racial equality, liberalization, environmentalism...

In 1968, Kosovo had 1,159,000 inhabitants, while Albania had 2,052,778. Hashim Thaçi and Ramush Haradinaj were born this year.

The show "Skënderbeu" by Lec Shllak, in the "Skampa" Theater of Elbasan

When it comes to the flag, it should be noted that after the fall of Ranković, the political elite of Kosovo that in 1967 had initiated the issue of the flag, even in the meetings they had with Tito. The Serbs - led by Dobrica Qosić - at a meeting of the Central Committee of the LK of Serbia, had openly opposed the discussions on the restoration of the right to use the Albanian national flag, that is, the regulation of that right by law and by the Constitution. However, this right was approved at a meeting of the Socialist League of the Working People of Kosovo, on October 4, 1968, in Pristina. Ilaz Kurteshi, in his capacity as the then chairman of the LSPP, in his introductory speech had emphasized that the free use of the Albanian flag is an element of national equality. In that meeting were also Fadil Hoxha (at that time Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo), Veli Deva (chairman of LK of Kosovo), Avdi Bakalli, Ismet Gunga and other personalities of the time.

Photo of October 6, 1968, when the use of the national flag was released for Albanians in the former Yugoslavia. In the photo (from the left), are: publicist Bajram Mjeku and his aunt's son, Jakup Mjeku

The Cold War continued to keep the world divided into capitalist and communist blocks. But there was division even among the communist bloc. Most of the states were satellites of the USSR. Two of them had independent policies – North Korea and Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, two other states opposed the USSR, but were bound by the same ideology - China and Albania.

On August 20-21, 1968, the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia, an act which little Albania strongly condemned. For this very reason, on September 13, 1968, Albania officially left the Warsaw Pact, where it had joined on May 14, 1955.

The Vietnam War was at the center of world developments. In January 1968, the Tet Offensive begins, which includes attacks by the Viet Cong in 100 cities. The fighting was so fierce that American General William Westmoreland mentioned the use of the atomic bomb. To worsen the situation, the communist group Khmer Rouge was founded, which was mainly financed by China.

Scenes from the fighting in Vietnam

In 1968, the rise of Saddam Hussein began in Iraq, while Mao Zedong seeks the re-education of urban youth in the villages, through the movement: "Up in the mountains and down in the fields".

The year 1968 is also noteworthy for technological developments, because US President Lyndon B. Johnson required that all government computers support ASCII. Republican President Richard Nixon continued the same policy, since in this year's US presidential elections, he defeated Democrat William Westmoreland.

This year, one of the greatest masterpieces of cinematography, "2001: A Space Odyssey", directed by Stanley Kubrick, is being premiered in cinemas. In the USSR, this cinematic masterpiece was conceived as another competition between the East and the West, so in 1972 came their "counter-response" with the film "Solaris" by another genius of film direction - Andrei Tarkovsky.

In 1968, actors: Will Smith, Hugh Jackman, Owen Wilson, Daniel Craig, Josh Brolin are born... singers: Celine Dion, Kylie Minogue, Lisa Marie Presley (daughter of Elvis)... while the first man to fly in space, Yuri Gagarin, dies , and after the gun attack, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Martin Luther King Jr.

Homage to the Nobel laureate and the great human rights fighter

1978: THE WISE CAME TO EXPRESSION... IN KOSOVO!

Parliamentary elections were held in Albania on November 12. The Democratic Front - an organization of the Labor Party - as many times before, was the only force that participated in the elections, winning all 250 seats in the Assembly. The voting turnout was 100 percent (1,436,285 Albanians with the right to vote), while only three votes were invalid.

Nothing new in Albania! The chairman of the presidium of the People's Assembly continued to be Haxhi Lleshi, and the prime minister Mehmet Shehu. The only "innovation" was that China cut off economic and military aid to Albania, which added to the misery of the Albanians. So there was no more friendship between Albania and China.

The Albanian tractor

From the Chinese aid that was given before, the first tractor comes out of the Tractor Plant in Tirana, which Mehmet Shehu tests. During the drive, he almost tramples to death some workers, as if to show the morbid reality in which the Albanians of Albania lived. While this testing was being done, the previous Chinese "brothers" had started the economic reforms led by Deng Xiaoping, the result of which can be seen today with the rise and great influence of this state in the world economy. In this paradox, Albania produced the "documentary" called "Lumja ti moj Albania", where the central figure is Enver Hoxha and his friends, in which the past was falsified and the reality of the time was distorted, glorifying communism.

The "happy" masses, in the presence of Enver Hoxha

In the meantime, in Kosovo as part of Yugoslavia, things are going smoothly. The University of Pristina was functioning and had the right criteria and standards, as the knowledgeable came to express themselves more and more. Kosovo created the artistic and intellectual elite for greed, while the ignorant had no voice and influence in society. This is also proven by the following names who held high positions in political bodies.

With the Constitution of 1974, the Executive Council (or the Government of Kosovo) also had the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs" and the right to conclude treaties with other countries. The first Executive Council of Kosovo (1974-1978) had the Serbian Bogolub Nedelkovic as chairman. In 1978, the new president was elected Bahri Oruqi, while the vice presidents were: Pajazit Nushi, Riza Sapunxhiu and Enver Rexhepi. Otherwise, the secretary of the Provincial Secretariat for Relations with the External World ("Foreign Ministry") under the composition of the Executive Council, in the years 1974-1978, was Ukshin Hoti (killed during the last war in Kosovo, in 1999, whose body not yet found).

Ukshin Hoti

In Kosovo, in 1978, the 100th anniversary of the League of Prizren was marked. Until 2018, the marking of the 140th anniversary of this great event for Albanian history is characterized by protocol omissions and even scandal, in 1978 the chairman of the Council for the commemoration of the Albanian League of Prizren was an intellectual, Pajazit Nushi. He also delivered the main lecture at the event, which was attended by important figures from Albania.

"A cultured, wise, wise man", the journalist Viktor Meier, who was in Kosovo in 1978, described Nushin.

This anniversary will be of great importance for raising Albanian national consciousness in Kosovo.

"Assembly of the Albanian League of Prizren" by the painter Abdurrahim Buza

In 1978, the drama of Ekrem Kryeziu, "Epoka before the trial", whose events are related to the League of Prizren, was of great value. In Kosovo, this text would be staged as a television drama by Kryeziu, with actors: Faruk Begolli, Hadi Shehu, Shani Pallaska, Istref Begolli, Ragip Loxha, Afrim Kasapolli, etc. In Albania, the theatrical performance will feature: Sandër Prosi, Kadri Roshi, Sulejman Pitarka, Ndrekë Luca, Robert Ndrenika, Anastas Kristofori, Xhemil Tagani, etc. The direction in Albania was made by Pirro Mani, who in 1972 in Pristina staged the best theatrical version of "The General of the Dead Army", based on the work with the same title by Ismail Kadare.

Scene from the play, "The Age before the Trial"

In 1978, the Grand Hotel was opened in Pristina. This top hotel had five stars. Those stars still stand there, while inside everything has degraded and no new trend has been followed for the evaluation of hotel facilities (not to mention the scandals about its privatization). Therefore, 40 years later, the New York Times will declare it the worst hotel in the world.

"This hotel is lost in the memories of Kosovo's past", wrote the journalist Andrew Higgings, as he briefly quoted the evaluations given on the Internet: "Disgusting", "disaster", "a real horror", " probably the worst I've ever been to"…

Prishtina in the 1970s

In 1978, Roman Polanski fled to France after being found guilty of having sex with a 13-year-old minor. From this year he will be wanted by American justice. English singer and songwriter Kate Bush, after being discovered and financially supported by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, launches the single "Wuthering Heights". Kate Bush's appearance on the stage will influence musical trends, as she continues to be one of the most inspiring artists of the pop and rock scene. Of the creative women influenced by her, it is worth mentioning: Madonna, Adele, Alison Moyet, Bjork, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey...

This year, priest Karol Jozef Wojtyla will become Pope John Paul II – the new head of the Vatican and the Catholic Church. The role of this Pole will be very big in the destruction of communism. Also, it will positively influence the awareness of the Kosovo issue. In 1993, together with Mother Teresa, he visited Albania, while in 2004, the president of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, will award him the Gold Medal of Freedom.

Karol Jozef Wojtyla

In 1978, the famous video game "Space Invaders" was released. A new digital industry was taking off and with it different concepts for the definition of generations. According to studies, those born between 1960-1980 belong to Generation X; those born between 1980-2000 belong to Generation Y. But Professor of Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Dan Woodman, says this division should be revised as those born between 1977-1983 belong to the micro-generation , whose members are called Xennials, as they have the characteristics of Generation X and Generation Y (years 1980-2000). So, they are the best, digital-analog, and in 1978 their second generation was born.

This year is not good for the Vatican, as two popes died: Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul I. Two more billionaires died this year: John D. MacArthur and John D. Rockefeller III. But composers suffered the worst, because in 1978 all these names died: Don Gillis, Robert Heger, Ivan Ivonovich Dzerzhinsky, Marguerite Canal, Vadim Nikolayevich Salmanov, Tolchard Evans, David McKinley Williams, Gino Contilli, Nicolas Nabokov, Russian composer, Ernest Kanitz, Aram Katchaturian, Bjarne Brustad, Theodore Karyotakis, Zoltán Aladár, Michel Gusikoff, Antonio Veretti, Aasan Ferit Alnar, Willem Van Otterloo, Wesley La Violette, Carlos Chavez y Ramires, Franz Alphons Wolpert, Harrison Kerr, Ivan Jirko, Charles Trowbridge Haubiel, Pancho Vladigerov, Tibor Serly, Jacques Brel, Otto Siegl, Howard Swanson...

Kate Bush

YEAR 1988: "YOGURT REVOLUTION", "HONEST ALBANIANS", THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF YUGOSLAVIA AND THE EMERGENCE OF IBRAHIM RUGOVA ON THE POLITICAL SCENE OF KOSOVO

The situation was not good in Kosovo. Slobodan Milosevic began to take absolute power in Serbia and openly display the anti-Albanian plans drawn up by the Serbian Academy of Sciences - to turn the Yugoslav federation into a Serb-dominated entity.

Serbian intentions were allegedly hidden behind the so-called Antibureaucratic Revolution, with protests in various parts of Yugoslavia. Thus, on October 5, 1988, 150 Serbian protesters, led among others by the infamous Hungarian Mihal Kertesh, gathered in front of the Assembly of Vojvodina in Novi Sad. The next day, the entire Presidency of this region resigns (Kerteshi will later declare that he has to cut off two fingers of the Albanians - they used to make the "V" as a symbol of peace and democracy). On October 7, such a plan failed in Montenegro, but the goal was to be achieved on January 10, 1989. The Serbs also taught the Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution in Slovenia, the richest region of Yugoslavia, but were stopped by the Slovenian police, with a little help from Croats.

View from "Yogurt Revolucioni" in Novi Sad. To accommodate the protesters, the government gives them free bread and yogurt. But the yogurt would be thrown towards the building of the Vojvodina Assembly

On November 17, 1988, the communist leaders of Kosovo, Kaqusha Jashari and Azem Vllasi, were dismissed by the Central Committee of the Communist League of Kosovo (LKK). This was the first step towards the suppression of the autonomy of Kosovo, a goal that would be realized a few months later, on March 23, 1989, when the Serbs will have absolute dominance in the majority of the eight units of the Yugoslav Federation (Serbia, Kosovo, Vojvodina and Mal Black, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, although they were not under direct Serbian influence, did not strongly oppose Milosevic's policies).

Aware of Milosevic's final plans, the miners of "Trepça" undertake a march towards Pristina. This walking march, which started on November 17, 1988, will be joined by nearly 22 people from all over Kosovo - until November 500. But the peaceful Albanian protesters - who held up pictures of Tito as proof that they are not for the destruction of Yugoslavia, as the Serbs claimed when they attacked Kosovo - were alone. No one came to their aid.

View from the Miners' March

On November 19, 1988, the Serbs gathered in Belgrade, in the wake of protests that they otherwise called the Truth Rally, where Milosevic said: "We will win the battle of Kosovo despite the obstacles we have inside the state and outside it. So we will win in spite of the union of our enemies without and those within. That this people will win the battle of freedom, this has been known since the time of the Turkish and German invaders.

The Albanian resistance would continue with demonstrations next year as well. Many were killed, many were injured and arrested. A state of emergency was declared in Kosovo. Along with the Serbian police, special forces from all federal units of Yugoslavia appear. Each worse than the other!

Remzi Kolgeci, Kaqusha Jashari, Azem Vllasi and Kolë Shiroka at one of the meetings of the Central Committee of the LKJ (1988).

After the dismissal of Jashar and Vllas, the most powerful man in Kosovo was Remzi Kolgeci, who was the chairman of the Presidency of the Autonomous Socialist Province of Kosovo and the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist League of Kosovo. He told the masses in Pristina, in November 1988: "I can't do anything for you"! In January, Rrahman Morina would take his place at the head of the LKK. On April 30, 1989, Kolgeci resigned from the post of Chairman of the Presidency.

From 1988, the number of opportunistic Albanians who would obey Milosevic's rule increased. They would later be called, by the Serbs themselves: "Honest Albanians"!

Irritation, disappointment, fear everywhere among Albanians...

Serbian protesters who raised the monster to power

In April 1988, a meeting was held in Belgrade between the writers of Kosovo and those of Serbia, from which meeting Ibrahim Rugova (chairman of the Association of Writers of Kosovo), will begin to be identified as the most vocal fighter for the defense of the Albanian cause in Kosovo.

In the interview given to "Start" magazine in 1989, he will say: "The educated are always to blame for everything. It prevents you that the Albanian intelligentsia, which for the first time appears as an autonomous entity, and that in this difficult situation. Intellectuals appear and take risks. I think that in this disaster that is exactly what is good, that independent show of ours - albeit dangerous. Our danger is the new quality and maybe I am not exaggerating to say that it is also a sign of our maturity".

The photo of Ibrahim Rugova published in "Start" magazine, in 1989. The photo was taken by the photojournalist of "Zëri" Weekly, Hazir Reka. Serbia has exerted great pressure so that this number does not go on sale at all, precisely because of the interview with Rugova. In the end, Serbia stops selling wherever it had control in the former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Vojvodina, Montenegro and Kosovo).

In January 1988, Andrija Artukovic, an associate of the Usta regime of Ante Pavelic - the leader of independent Croatia during the Second World War - died in prison. He was extradited to Yugoslavia from the US – where he had lived since 1945 – on charges of mass murder of Serbian civilians. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was not carried out due to his age and health. During the extradition, the media released footage of him getting into the car, where he moves a little and raises his head. From the Albanians then comes the barsoleta that in those moments he wanted to know how many of his Serbian Chetnik enemies were left alive. "He decided to return, to die in his land", was the other Albanian version, about the end of his life. In fact, the Yugoslav communist government had been asking for his extradition since 1951, a request that had always fallen on deaf ears from the Americans.

Andrija Artukoviqi during the trial

Meanwhile, the French magazine "GEO" published the article: "Albania, the strangest country in Europe". Reporter Edouard Bailby and photographer Michel Setboun, when they entered Albania through Yugoslavia, were warned by the Yugoslav border guards with these words: "When you return, if you pass through here, we will confiscate every article published in Albania." The same was true in Albania where they were told: "Materials printed outside Albania are not authorized to enter the country. Especially, prospectuses (tracts) on Yugoslavia and pornographic magazines".

In this article, the Albania of paradoxes was analyzed. This was especially noticeable with the following four paragraphs:

“There are no individual vehicles (forbidden because they represent 'bourgeois selfishness'), but bullock carts, herds of sheep, cows strolling, peasants walking or workers on bicycles, and sometimes a few cars. There are no tractors either, but some trucks and jeeps that belong to official bodies. These vehicles zigzag through animals and pedestrians walking in the middle of the road or on the side of it.”

"Along the way, at the entrance to the factories, on the facades of the buildings, some of them dilapidated, there were slogans: 'Glory to the SSR'; 'Forever with Enver'. Sometimes, a script commands the citizens: 'Take your book, your pickaxe and your rifle'. Albania belongs to a world which is no longer that of the Europeans of the late 20th century. Does it belong to the past or the future? 'The Japanese have no reason to come to us,' says our companion. 'They put technology over man'! This opinion is related to the nationalism introduced by Enver Hoxha and the will to resist the progress-development experienced by the entire western society".

Durrës in 1988

"In the cities, in the villages, I have not seen anyone hurrying. The world seems to spin slowly. 'Relax,' our guide repeated. In fact, we felt as if we had been catapulted into the orbit of a forgotten time."

"A few facts are enough to show that the People's Socialist Republic of Albania is special in its kind. Thus, prices have not increased since 1944! Even recently, the price of a kilogram of sugar has gone from 10 to 8 Lek. Regarding salaries, there are two types: minimum 500 ALL per month and maximum 1,000 ALL. There is no luxury, no privileged and no nomenclature like in the Soviet Union. The land (property) belongs to the state, and almost all housing. Household appliances are expensive and rare: 3,000 lek for a washing machine; 4,500 for a TV. While the bicycle, the only officially accepted means of individual travel, costs about 750 Lek each... It is difficult to distinguish a worker from a functionary, a villager from a minister, a villager from a citizen, even a soldier from an officer on the street . In all simplicity is rigor".

In 1988, Albania had 3.19 million inhabitants. Kosovo had 1.85 million inhabitants.

Tirana Square, without any cars in 1988

A big event became world news and the name of a controversial historian of Kosovo - Hakif Bajrami - was connected with it. It is about the implications of Kurt Waldheim - the former Secretary of the UN who in 1988 was the president of Austria - in alleged crimes during the Second World War.

On February 7, 1988, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported that Waldheim had participated in the execution of "104 Albanians in the Pristina Camp" in 1944. But German historians who began researching Waldheim's past could not they found the documents that connected him with these crimes or the deportation of civilians of the former Yugoslavia to labor and death camps. The office of Waldheim (Austrian Presidency), as reported by JTA, had denied these accusations which were also published by the German weekly Der Spiegel.

The accusations came precisely from Bajrami, who was the director of the Archive of Kosovo and the chairman of the Commission of Historians dealing with the writing of the history of the Communist Party of Kosovo. It was said that he had the permission of Ali Shukri - the "honest Albanian", the loyal communist of Serbian politics - to research the Belgrade archives. Therefore, there are still doubts that the publications related to the figure of Waldhem were served to Bajram for the interests of the politics of that time. That something suspicious was here is evidenced by the fact that Bajrami had refused to cooperate with an international commission of historians, formed by Austria, to research Waldheim's military past.

Kurt waldheim

After eight years of occupation and fighting, in 1988 the USSR withdrew from Afghanistan. One of the leaders of the Mujahideen forces that successfully resisted the Soviets, Osama bin Laden, would form this year the infamous terrorist group, al-Qaeda. In 1988, the Iraq-Iran war ended, which for eight years, caused over a million victims. But the war between Israelis and Palestinians did not stop. In fact, these fights intensified after the independent state of Palestine was declared on November 15, 1988.

The foundations of the communist Eastern Bloc in Europe were shaken, first after the Nagorno-Karabakh region sought to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia. Then, started the Candle Demonstrations in Bratislava of Czechoslovakia and the Song Revolution in Estonia which was part of the USSR. For some analysts, it was actually the economic development plan called Perestroika, initiated by Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, that dealt the biggest blow to communism.

Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the 1980s

On November 10, Libyan terrorists shot down a Pan Am airliner over Scotland, killing over 270 people. This terrorist act would never be forgotten by the Americans and it would cost the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who two years ago had already been bombed by the USA led by President Ronald Reagan (after the terrorist attack on a nightclub in Berlin, which was visited by American soldiers).

In 1988, the first computer virus (worm) was announced, while Tim Berners-Lee at CERN would discuss the concept of the WWW (World Wide Web). The concept of the WWW would come to life on August 6, 1991, and the world would never be the same again.

Today's famous artists were born in 1988: Rihanna, Adele and Emma Stone

On December 7, 1988, a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale struck Armenia. The number of victims is said to have reached 50. After this earthquake, the humanitarian activity known as Rock Aid Armenia started in Great Britain. The goal was to help the victims of this earthquake through music. As part of this action, the single "Smoke on the Water" by the group Deep Purple was launched. The 1972 song would be covered by the biggest names in the rock industry: Bryan Adams, Ritchie Blackmore, Bruce Dickinson, Geoff Downes, Keith Emerson, Ian Gillan, David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Alex Lifeson, Brian May, Paul Rodgers, Chris Squire, Roger Taylor, John Paul Jones and Jon Lord.

David Gilmour and Brian May

YEAR 1998: KOSOVO IN FLAME

The beginning of 1998 started with terrible massacres in Drenica. During the fighting on February 28, 1998, between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Serbian forces, after several policemen were killed, the Serbian revenge followed in Likoshan and Qirez where 24 Albanian civilians were killed and massacred. Meanwhile, in the early hours of the morning of March 5, 1998, the Jashari family was attacked again in Prekaz. After several days of resistance, the brothers Adem and Hamëz Jashari were killed with 18 other members of the immediate family. The total number of those killed by the extended family reached 56.

These events marked the turning point in American policy towards Kosovo. The American delegate, Robert Gelbard - who had earlier incited the Albanians to war by saying "are you waiting for Superman", while later inciting the Serbs to attack when he called the KLA members terrorists - will take the footage from these massacres and will throw Slobodan Milosevic on the table, telling him in harsh tones: "Here's what you've done"! Gelbard's name will soon disappear from the currents in Kosovo, as the USA appoints Christopher Hill (their ambassador in Skopje) as special representative for Kosovo, in the mission that Henry Kissinger called earlier "Shuttle-Diplomacy".

Prekazi after the fighting of March 1998

1998 is the year when the war spread throughout Kosovo. The next attack, on March 24, took place in Gllogjan. The actor Sylë Kuçi, who was translating for foreign media, would "accidentally" describe the situation prevailing on the ground. He was accompanying the reporter Lorent Boussie - who was interested in visiting the Monastery of Deçan, regarding the topic "Coexistence of the Orthodox (Serbian) monastery and the surrounding Albanian population" - when he suddenly found himself in a war zone.

"Upon reaching Prelep, you could hear the krismas. We stopped in the village square of Irzniq. Since our car had license plates with 'BG', the villagers ran away from us as if from the devil... Someone ordered us to stop and someone to come closer. It seemed that even time stopped. We just looked at the muzzles of the guns and waited for them to fire. One who seemed to be superior shouted: 'Ne pucajte, imaju beogradescu registricciju!' (Don't hunt, they have Belgrade registration!). From the right window the cameraman took out the camera and shouted 'France television, fran…'! 'Ah, your mother! We only needed you" - vented the man. They teach us like beasts. They took us out and supported us by car. Who taught with a mouth and who with a rifle butt. The 'tonisti' suffered the worst. Once we were asked for the documents. When they found out my name, they were all furious... 'And you, what are you begging here...?' I told them that I am a translator and that is what I have the permit for. 'No, no!' - they said - "You are a terrorist." You have been commissioned to bring these here…'!

Later, Kuçi and the journalists were released, with this warning: "If even a word of what I told you is published, I promise that I will exterminate you with a bang!" Did you understand?”

Albanians taken hostage by Serbian forces

"Not only me, but also the French were clear. He wanted to say something to me, but his words were interrupted by the sound of the helicopter, which landed nearby. They brought three bloody policemen. For the first time I saw wounded Serbian policemen. Surprise! No, no, strange feeling. Are these also "getting" the bullet? As it seems, yes, another vig came. Near him – Seal. 'Načellnik' Seal. I said: It worked! When he notices me, he will deal with me personally - just as he used to 'deal' with his fellow Albanian citizens. Fortunately, they dispersed. They called for help from a walkie-talkie. They said they were being attacked with bombs. A long shelling followed. The whole neighborhood was covered in smoke. The shelling was still going on when we were ordered to leave. Shooter Gerek advised me to lie down on the floor of the car. He told me that there is a possibility that they will shoot you with a sniper, and then declare that they killed him themselves", the article says.

Violence against protesters in Pristina, on March 2, 1998, during solidarity with the people of Drenica

In fact, Serbs tend to kill and take responsibility for others. This is what happened on the night of December 14-15, 1998, when five young Serbs were killed in the "Panda" bar in Peja. Although the Serbian authorities in the 2010s published the data that this crime was staged by the Serbs, in 1998 they accused the Albanians of these murders. And, this crime was a pretext for the subsequent ethnic cleansing of Peja as well as to recruit criminals in the murderous march against the Albanians.

Ordinary scenes of Kosovo in 1998: Murders and mass graves

There were also fights in the vicinity of Peja, Gjakova and Suhareka and even in the suburbs of Pristina, when the village of Bardhi i Madh fell under the KLA, as Malisheva and Rahoveci will fall. Jakup Krasniqi, who on June 11 appeared publicly as the spokesman of the KLA, will declare that in Malisheva - as the provisional "capital" of Kosovo - the identity cards and passports of the KLA would be given. The political representative of the KLA at that time was Adem Demaçi, while his deputy was Albin Kurti.

In July 1998, the Battle of Loxha took place, one of the biggest of 1998. However, in August and September, the great Serbian offensive began, during which the KLA lost control over almost all of Kosovo. After these offensives, the lands were left in ruins, with hundreds killed and massacred. Within Kosovo, there were nearly 400 displaced civilians. The country was being overtaken by a humanitarian disaster.

About the massacres of 1998, which attracted the attention of the world, the English publicist Tim Judah will say that they were no different from those described by Edith Durham at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. So, they were a horror that only Serbia knows how to do!

During the offensives, on September 26, 1998, in Abri e Eperme of Drenica, the Serbian forces carried out another terrible massacre, where 23 members of the Deliu family were killed, and the photo of the baby with a pacifier, Valmir, shocked the whole world. Eight children were killed in this massacre: 18-month-old Valmiri, 4-year-old Menduhia, 5-year-old Gentiana, 6-year-old Donjeta, 10-year-old Jetoni, 14-year-old Antigona and 16-year-old Mihanja (on top of these two, according to evidence, sexual violence was practiced). The 6-week-old Suria, who miraculously survived the massacre, died after the incident.

According to some data, during the period January 1998-December 1999, of those killed and massacred in Kosovo, 945 were children: 45 babies, 21 were 1-year-olds, 26 were 2-year-olds, 24 were 3-year-olds, 16 were 4 -years old, 19 were 5 years old, 23 were 6 years old, 32 were 7 years old, 16 were 8 years old, 28 were 9 years old, 34 were 10 years old, 38 were 11 years old, 43 were 12 years old , 49 were 13-year-olds, 63 were 14-year-olds, 68 were 15-year-olds, 93 were 16-year-olds, 163 were 17-year-olds, and 144 were 18-year-olds.

Albanian children, surviving under the open sky, in 1998

In 1998 the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted Major Jean Paul Akayesu of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. For the first time, the international court described the violations as an act of genocide, with the aim of destroying a certain group. In 1998, the first testimonies were given about the rape of Albanian girls by Serbian military, paramilitary and police forces. But, this bitter reality passed in silence since then.

For example, in Vranić, although there was evidence that in September 1998 Serbian forces raped a group of women, they refused to answer. "The phenomenon of rape seems to have larger proportions than we were informed. We have many indications and very few or no witnesses to the occurrence of the rape of women. It is understood that our environment experiences this phenomenon very seriously, which is really serious... I think that no one has to hesitate to tell the truth, because the disappearance of the truth is more serious than witnessing it", said Pajazit Nushi. , chairman of KMDLNJ, in 1999.

Unfortunately, the Albanians during this period did not work enough in gathering evidence for Serbian crimes. In many cases, it has happened that local organizations for the protection of human rights are informed by Human Rights Watch and make mistakes during the translation. For example, the paragraph from Serbian about the murder of Valmir Deli, "ubili su Valmira" (they killed Valmir), is translated as a girl named Valmira was killed (as they read it)!

Mothers mourn their loved ones

Meanwhile, the Socialist Party of Serbia, of Slobodan Milosevic, approves a document on December 14, 1998, which was about the colonization of Kosovo with refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. "There is a real possibility that they will be allocated working land, since we have proven that in Kosovo there are over 44,529 hectares of land that can be allocated to Serbian and Montenegrin settlers", the document states, insisting on a registration that would greatly reduced the number of Albanians. "The bearers of the separatist activity in Kosovo were always immigrants from Albania. For this reason, it is necessary to verify their number (immigrants - vj) by registering the population and in different ways and for the state to take a legal position towards them. It is estimated that the number of immigrants from Albania is over 400 thousand".

Ratomir Taniq, a member of the Serbian delegation in the negotiations with the Kosovo Albanians, later admitted that they had a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. In fact, the London newspaper "Times", on April 8, 1999, regarding the plan in question, reported the following: "As early as the fall of 1998, the CIA had information about the plan codenamed 'Operation Horseshoe', with the aim that for several months kill or expel the Albanians.

Mother with children left without a home

Unfortunately, at the time of the great fighting with the Serbian forces, on September 21 in Tirana, the fighter and colonel Ahmet Krasniqi, who was the Minister of Defense of Kosovo, was killed. This serious and still unexplained murder would damage what is known today as the Oslo Agreement of May 21-23, 1998, for the coordination and unification of the KLA with the Kosovo Armed Forces (FARK). .

"Even in Kosovo, during the war years (1998, 1999) our politicians failed to overcome their selfishness and understand that only together they can face the challenges of the war. If it weren't for the American mediators, our politicians would never have come together to go to the Rambouillet Conference", said Blerim Shala in one of his articles.

Therefore, June 1998 would mark the great American involvement in Kosovo to save the Albanians from themselves. "Bulldozer" Richard Holbrooke was engaged for this task, who will describe Kyiv as "the most dangerous place in Europe". This same month, on the 24th, he was going to meet the members of the KLA, from where the moment remains unforgettable when he took off his shoes in an ode of Junik when he entered, and Lum Haxhiu (Hajdin Abazi) sat next to him with boots and a gun ). This was the first time that the Americans accepted the KLA as a party in the process of the Kosovo issue. And, this action was a reaction to Belgrade's reluctance to find a peaceful solution and to guarantee the rights of Albanians in Kosovo.

Holbrooke in Junic

Before this meeting, Holbrooke was the one who asked the political leader of the Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova, to meet the president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic. This meeting, supported by the Americans, would be followed by the meeting between US President Bill Clinton and Rugova, in the Oval Office, on May 27 in Washington. Fehmi Agani, Mahmut Bakalli and Veton Surroi were also present at the meeting with Milosevic. The meeting in Belgrade was more proof that the Albanians are for a peaceful solution. While, the benefit was the visit to the USA, where Bill Clinton promised the delegation of Albanians supported by Rugova, that "America will not allow Bosnia to repeat itself in Kosovo". This promise was a confirmation of the "Red Line" that was drawn for Kosovo by President George Bush in December 1992, known as the "Kiršendella Threat", through which Serbia was warned of the consequences if it starts a war in Kosovo. This is also confirmed by this data: on September 15, 1998, when Clinton asked General Wesley Clark if "he will be ready to take care of the Kosovars, or not...", Clark replied: "Yes, sir..."!

The Rugova-Clinton meeting in Washington

So, things start to change in favor of Kosovo. Until May 2, 1998, the Foreign Ministers of the NATO member countries declared for a peaceful solution to the problems in Kosovo. On June 12 of the same year, the NATO Defense Ministers announced that depending on the further course of events, NATO could take concrete measures, including military intervention.

One of the biggest supporters of Kosovo was the British Foreign Minister, Robin Cook, who, on behalf of the Contact Group (which was convened after the Jasharaj massacre), made the first attempt, in March 1998, to initiate the process of international mediation. Meanwhile, his prime minister, Tony Blair, was one of the biggest promoters of NATO's military intervention. "Today I remember the meeting with Rugova in 'Downing Street'. He had a precious stone with him that he gave me and I still wear it today. He told me a lot about Kosovo, he didn't shout, he was very wise and he spoke to me with the greatest sincerity. He begged me and said: 'Don't let my people suffer in Kosovo'. I promised him that I would help him", said Blair during his visit to Pristina in 2010.

Tony Blair and Robin Cook

But all these warnings fell on deaf ears of the Serbian regime. Therefore, the October 13 ultimatum and the so-called Holbrooke-Milosevic agreement, and later also Resolution 1199 of the UN Security Council, took place. On this occasion, General Clark delivered the memorandum to Milosevic, in which he was presented with a choice: to stop the repression in Kosovo and allow the entry of international observers or count on NATO airstrikes. According to the agreement, the war had to stop. At the same time, it was requested that the NATO forces also carry out air control of the area. Under this agreement, the Serbs were allowed to maintain military posts in Peja, Prizren, Gjilan, Pristina, Mitrovica and Ferizaj and the number of forces that were present before February 1998. In this way, the number of military that would be allowed in Kosovo , reached the figure of 10 troops of the federal army and 15 of the police. At that time, there were 40 military and paramilitary forces in Kosovo, including Arkan's troops. In addition, based on Resolution 1199, the issue of all people in custody, as hostages of war, was specified. According to these documents, they should be released without bail - except for those accused of war crimes, for which the Hague Tribunal would be competent.

Wesley Clark and Richard Holbrooke

This agreement gave time to the KLA, weakened by the previous offensives, to regroup and reorganize with the formation of brigades and the expansion of resistance in the Podujeva region, also due to the fact that the Serbian troops did not withdraw from Kosovo, but only that they moved from one area to another. Proof of this is the ambush murder - on December 2 in Pristina - of Hyzri Talla, Afrim Maliqi and Ilir Durmish. Therefore, fighting soon resumed, culminating in December.

However, this time the truth could not be hidden, because according to the October 13 agreement, Serbia accepted the formation of the Kosovo Verification Mission, according to UNSC Resolution 1203, as an OSCE mission that would have 1800 observers. foreigners, at the head of which was William Walker - the American who will tell the truth and accuse Serbia of crimes against humanity.

William Walker inspects the positions of Serbian forces in Podujevo

The year 1998 was the year of assassinations. On February 6, 1998, in France, two armed men killed Claude Erignac, the prefect of Corsica; on September 12, one of the founders and deputy of the Democratic Party of Albania, Azem Hajdari, is killed in Tirana; on November 19, the deputy of the lower house of the Russian Parliament, Galina Starovoitova, is killed in St. Petersburg, Russia; on November 10, 1998, the Deputy Minister of Defense, Vagram Khorkhoruni, is killed in Yerevan, Armenia. This same year, a Bosnian from Konjic named Muamer Topallovic, says that he planned to assassinate Milosevic. But his plan soon failed due to his hot temper.

"In the vicinity of Shabac, I took a taxi (October). The taxi driver thought I was a Bosnian Serb and started bragging about the number of Muslims he had killed in Sarajevo. It took me out of tact. At the end of the road I told him that I will not pay you, I took the rifle out of my bag and threatened to kill him. He went straight to the police and informed me", he will say later. "Very quickly the police surrounded me, arrested me and sent me to the police station. There they interrogated me for 24 hours and continuously beat me. I didn't tell them that I went to kill Milosevic, but I told them that I went to Kosovo. They didn't believe me. They beat me with rubber sticks, with hands, with feet... They put me in prison like a criminal".

That the Serbs do not respect international agreements is also shown by this Bosnian who has suffered in Serbian prisons for 35 months and who in his testimony said that there were 400 Albanians in Mitrovica and Srem Prison who did not even have a bed to sleep on.

Muamer Topalloviqi, again in court, for the murder of three members of the Serbian Angjeliq family in Konjiq, on Christmas night in 2002

In 1998, Albania began to be gripped by the refugee crisis from Kosovo, but also by the internal political and economic problems that had shaken the country a year before. The head of state was Rexhep Meidani, while on October 2, Pandeli Majko would become prime minister.

In 1998 the singer Falco dies, the actor Lloyd Bridges, the pediatrician Benjamin Spock with whose book "Baby and Child Care" the generation of hippies grew up, the Cambodian psychopath Pol Pot, who killed up to three million inhabitants of the state he led, the Nobel laureate Octavio Paz, actor Frank Sinatra and director Akira Kurosawa. Meanwhile, the movie "Titanic" is the first movie in the world that would earn a billion dollars.

Benjamin Spock has said: As a peace activist, I am shocked by the aggressiveness and violence that is fueled by television, movies and war toys!

2008: THE REALIZATION OF THE DREAM FOR THE STATE AND THE POWER THAT RUINS DREAMS FOR LIFE

Almost three years after the process for establishing the final status of Kosovo began, on November 10, 2005 - when the UN Security Council approved the appointment of the Finnish Martti Ahtisaari as a special representative for the future status of Kosovo (his deputy was Albert Rohan). - the day of the declaration of independence came. It seems strange, but the negotiations for independence that took place in Vienna, Austria, between the Kosovar and Serbian sides, lasted less than those for the normalization of Kosovo-Serbia relations in Brussels, which started in 2011 and did not bring anything important to Kosovo. until 2018 (they will continue in 2019). In fact, the Vienna negotiations officially started in July 2006 with the so-called "Elephant Meeting" and ended in March 2007. That's it! And, for this mission and several other negotiations in international conflicts, Ahtisaari would be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.

Albert Rohan and Martti Ahtisaari

However, the day came for Kosovo to declare independence. This independence had a "tail" behind it - the so-called "Ahtisaari Package". Independence was conditional and under international supervision. From the evils that the Albanian rulers will do to them after Independence, it appears that this supervision was "enough to be". However, a big problem from the Package (as it is today) remained the asymmetric decentralization and the creation of the so-called protected areas for the Serbian minority (the north of Mitrovica was expected to become a municipality). Then, the right to a referendum was denied, while the Serbs had reserved seats in the Assembly of Kosovo and the right to a double vote, without which constitutional changes could not be made for important processes for Kosovo.

After the elections of November 17, 2007, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) took power. This party won 34.3 percent of the votes. The next government of Kosovo, with Prime Minister Thaçi, will be that of the coalition between the PDK and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), which won 22.6 percent of the votes (the New Kosovo Alliance won 12.3 percent, the Democratic League of Dardania 10 percent and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo 9.6 percent). Hashim Thaçi from PDK would be appointed prime minister, while Fatmir Sejdiu from LDK would be appointed president.

The declaration of independence was conveyed with problems among political actors, so much so that it was said that there was severe interference from foreign Liaison Offices, especially from the US led by Tina Kaidanow. These problems would be highlighted later by the then Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo from the ranks of the PDK, Jakup Krasniqi, who says that there was a tendency to personalize the moment of the declaration of this independence. Meanwhile, Sejdiu of the LDK would say that the Declaration of Independence should have been read by Krasniqi and not by Thaçi

Hashim Thaçi and Fatmir Sejdiu

Independence was announced on February 17, 2008, in the Assembly of Kosovo, by Hashim Thaçi. 109 out of a total of 120 deputies participated in the meeting. The statement has 12 points. The first paragraph of the first point said: "We, the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this Declaration declare Kosovo an independent and sovereign state". Whereas, the last paragraph of the last point said: "We publicly announce that all countries have the right to rely on this Declaration, and we appeal to them to offer us their support and support"!

The first countries that would accept Kosovo's independence were Costa Rica and Afghanistan, followed by Albania, the USA, Great Britain, Germany and France. 53 countries recognized Kosovo in 2008. For 10 years, Kosovo did not manage to double this number of recognitions. Unfortunately, in 2018 many states declare that they have withdrawn recognition.

View from the Declaration of Independence of Kosovo, written by designer Shyqri Nimani and signed by 109 MPs

Three years before Independence, in 2005, the flags of the Presidency, or the Flag of Dardania, conceived by Ibrahim Rugova, were burned in Pristina. The associations that emerged from the war have said that this was done after a provocation "with personal flags" took place. "The only flag of the Albanians should be the current national flag", said Faik Fazliu, who was the chairman of the Association of War Invalids of the former Kosovo Liberation Army. But, immediately after the declaration of independence, the yellow-and-blue national flag with six stars, which was conceived by Trim Ibrahimi, was released. There was neither a red spot nor a black spot. For this, in 2008, on the pages of former Internet forums, virtual polls were conducted for and against this flag. Most did not like it.

The Constitution of the Republic was approved on April 9, 2008, and entered into force on June 15, 2008, when the "full transfer" of powers from UNMIK to local institutions took place. On June 11, 2008, the Anthem of Kosovo composed by Mendi Mengjiqi was approved. This anthem, along with that of Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina and San Marino, has no lyrics.

View from the celebrations of February 17, 2008, near the main monument of the Independence of Kosovo - NEWBORN

After the Declaration of Independence, 27 EU member states approved the establishment of a non-military mission for the rule of law, called EULEX (operating under UN Resolution 1244), tasked with developing the police sector and of justice in Kosovo. Since independence was supervised, the International Civilian Office (ICO) also functioned. The mandate of the ICO ended in September 2012, and that of EULEX still continues.

It should be emphasized that the EULEX mission was very well received by the residents of Kosovo. According to them, Kosovo would be helped by the progressive EU, and not as before by UNMIK, which also had missionaries from poor and dictatorial states. It seems strange, but with this mission, the rapid integration into the EU and the development of the country were envisaged. Unfortunately, the disappointment will soon be great, because after the declaration of Independence the biggest development had to do with corruption (even, since the first day of Independence, in the case of tenders for demonstrations and the purchase of flags). This has caused Kosovars' hopes for a dignified life to be extinguished. Most of those hundreds of thousands of deportees who after June 11, 1999 (after the entry into force of the Kumanovo Agreement) returned to Kosovo through minefields and ruined houses, are today looking for ways to escape the country. "Goodbye to free Kosovo", it used to be sung. "It will be good... in the West", they say today!

Until 2015, 1.5 billion euros were given to the EULEX mission. The designer Rrezeart Galica, disappointed by the inactivity of this mission, in 2009 exhibited the poster "EUSEX"

On March 26, 2008, Serbia (which maintained its parallel structures, especially in the north of Kosovo, where Prishtina's authority did not extend - since the post-war until today), declared that it will seek the opinion of the International Court of Justice, regarding the act of declaring Kosovo's Independence. the official request for this was made on August 15, 2008, at the UN, by the then Foreign Minister of Serbia, Vuk Jeremic. 77 states approved his request; six votes were against, while 74 states abstained. On July 22, 2010, an advisory opinion was announced regarding the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence, according to which "Kosovo's declaration of independence has not violated international law."

It should not be forgotten that on February 17, 2008, Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia protested against this independence - for several days in a row. In Belgrade, protesters attacked the Slovenian, American and Croatian embassies... Neither foreign businesses nor Albanian, Croatian, Hungarian residents were spared from the protests... And, in the following months, Serbia withdrew ambassadors from countries that recognized Kosovo as an independent state.

View of the fire that engulfed the American embassy in Belgrade on February 17, 2008

At the beginning of 2008, John Bolton - today's national security advisor to US President Donald Trump - in collaboration with diplomats Lawrence Eagleburger and Peter W. Rodman, spoke out against the declaration of Kosovo's independence. According to them, President George W. Bush should not have created a clash with Russia through independent Kosovo. But their request fell on deaf ears. Kosovo became independent and this was one of the biggest events in the world. This was said in 2008 by the head of German diplomacy, Frank Walter-Steinmeier.

Kosovo, after February 17, 2008, for three years in a row will keep a good epithet: the youngest country in the world... until 2011, when the independence of South Sudan is declared, this year when the Brussels negotiations also start, the "footnotes" of "bubbles", when the root in Kosovo's politics becomes a trend and Albanian politicians are "amputated" by the reception. The evils that were done to the dream of freedom and independence, by the Albanians themselves, will push the group Troja to release the song "Amaneti i Clownit" in 2009, where, among other things, Mllefi expresses himself - for the political people who were and unfortunately still are today they are in power - with these words: "No matter how many years it takes for me to leave, I have to bear with these people who have taken all my strength... these are the people who can't help me anymore".

"H-Government" ("H" for hate) - another poster of Rrezeart Galica, exhibited in 2010, showing the frustration with the corrupt and visionless politics of the Kosovo state

In Albania, in 2008 the president was Bamir Topi and the prime minister was Sali Berisha. In this country, on March 15, 2008, the explosion of Gërdec (weapons dumps) took place, leaving 26 dead and 300 injured. Due to this tragedy, the Minister of Defense, Fatmir Mediu, resigned.

On April 2, 2008, at the Bucharest Summit, Albania received an invitation to join the North Atlantic Military Alliance, NATO, of which it would become a full member a year later.

On May 23, Dritan Hoxha, one of the most inventive people in the Albanian media world, died in a traffic accident.

View from the explosions in Gërdec

In 2008, the world was gripped by the second biggest economic crisis of the XNUMXth century; a crisis that brought the banking system to its knees, shook the stock markets and prompted radical government interventions in many countries around the world.

The crisis started in 2007 in the US, with real estate market loans. Loans were numerous, there were few opportunities to wash, the price of real estate fell, while the way the loans were conceived was questionable. When the debt was not repaid, the banks started to go bankrupt one after the other. Millions of people lost their savings, millions were left on the streets... This crisis prompted the creation of the US plan of 700 billion dollars to buy bad debts.

Soon the American crisis crossed the Atlantic and captured Europe, for which the same rescue plans would be undertaken by Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The worst situation was in Iceland, where the entire banking system collapsed. Iceland requested help from the International Monetary Fund, as did Hungary and Latvia...

This crisis raised the dilemma of whether governments should provide aid that will be a burden to new generations. Meanwhile, a barsolete is born in Kosovo: "The economic crisis is carried around the world, and in the end it returns to Kosovo and says: 'Home, sweet home'"!

After the "Lehman Brothers" bank went bankrupt, many others will have the same fate

Major catastrophes occur in the world in 2008. This year the fighting in the Gaza Strip would intensify. 13 Israelis and nearly 1,500 Palestinians were killed in the fighting.

This year the war between Russia and Georgia started. After separatists from South Ossetia and Abkhazia violated the 1992 ceasefire, Georgian forces intervened in these pro-Russian regions. Russia, which invaded the territory of Georgia, came to the aid of the separatists. South Ossetia and Abkhazia declared independence, to be recognized separately from Russia. This war highlighted Russian plans to reclaim the USSR's former role as the world's second military superpower, with a sphere of influence beyond state borders. This would become known a few years later – after the invasion of Ukraine's Crimea and the sending of Russian troops to Syria. Therefore, such expansionist plans prompted the US and Poland to sign the agreement in 2008 to deploy some anti-missile defenses on Polish territory.

This year, the EU launched a battle against Somali pirates who terrorized commercial and passenger ships passing near the waters of this African country.

Footage from the fighting in Georgia

In 2008, the Russian Duma elected the acting president, Vladimir Putin, as prime minister. In the extraordinary parliamentary elections in Serbia, the coalition of the Democratic Party led by Boris Tadiqi won. The cause of the government crisis, the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, dissolved the Assembly. Meanwhile, Borut Pahor's social democrats won the elections in Slovenia.

The former leader of the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Radovan Karadžić, was arrested in Belgrade, accused of genocide and war crimes. He would be extradited to the Hague Tribunal, where in 2008 the former spokesperson of this international institution of justice, Florence Hartmann, would also be accused, because she published the parts of the secret decisions of the Appeals Council in the case against the Butcher of the Balkans - Slobodan Milosevic.

In June 2008, Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton (Bill Clinton's wife) withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. With this, she opened the way for Senator Barack Obama, who would become the official candidate of the Democratic Party in August. The appointment of the African-American Obama and his victory in the American presidential elections of November 2008, represents one of the most important events on the stage of international politics that year. In December he unveiled the national security team, which included Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Robert Gates as secretary of defense and retired general Jim Jones as an adviser. This team was also good news for Kosovo.

Barack Obama, one of the most beloved presidents in American history

In 2008, two major disasters occurred. Myanmar was engulfed by a devastating cyclone during which 130 thousand people drowned. Meanwhile, an earthquake in China claimed 90 lives.

Actors Heath Ledger, Roy Scheider, Charlton Heston and Paul Newman died in 2008; director Sydney Pollack; musicians Jeff Healey, Isaac Hayes and Richard Wright; the Slovenian politician, Janez Drnovsek (president of the RSFJ in 1989-90); American politician and great friend of the cause of Kosovo Albanians, Tom Lantos; chess genius – the American hero who defeated the USSR at chess but became an enemy after breaking the American blockade against Serbia, Bobby Fischer; the Nobel Prize winner for Literature who witnessed the horrors of communism, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; the great science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke; Edmund Hillary - the man who first stepped on the highest peak in the world - Everest...

The monument in Budapest of the great friend of the Albanians, the American congressman of Jewish origin, Tom Lantos. Lantos and Bob Dole will be the first names of American politics that will draw the attention of the American government to the interests of Kosovo Albanians

2018: ANNIVERSARY, NATIONWIDE, ARMY, "CORRECTION", DEMARCATION, LIBERALIZATION, BOYCOTT, TALES, ISOLATION...

The year 2018 is best broken down by the great Albanian artist, the artist Murat Mehmeti, through one of his caricatures: people in jackets go into a detector, they come out napping in 2019. So, the reception has come to an end.

Did 2018 mark the 10th anniversary of Kosovo's Independence? But what can be said about this anniversary, which was celebrated faintly, as was life in these 10 years? What weighs more on the scale of successes and failures?

Failures, most say.

Failures are seen in the education system, in the health system, in the justice system, in the fight against corruption, against economic crimes, in economic development, in the fight against unemployment, in increasing the number of recognitions, in membership in important international institutions (p .e.g. UNESCO, INTERPOL... why not the UN... why not the EU), in free movement, in the perspective of living in Kosovo...

Caricature of Gëzim Pozheg, for independence as in thera. As recognitions of Kosovo. On February 15, Barbados was said to have recognized Kosovo's independence, becoming the 116th country to recognize Kosovo's independence. Then recognitions were suspended. Today, no one knows exactly how many countries have recognized Kosovo's independence

The year 2018 was the 550th year of the death of the National Hero of the Albanians, Gjergj Kastrioti - Skënderbeu. Therefore, this year was the Year of Skanderbeg. More precisely, it was a Nationwide Year! Interestingly, all peoples have national activities, except the nationwide Albanians.

But do you remember any activities from this National Year?

It seems strange, but in worse times, e.g. in 1968, Skenderbeu is better remembered. Both in Kosovo and Albania. As it was better organized, in 1978, the 100th anniversary of the League of Prizren. In fact, the 140th anniversary of this date of great historical importance in 2018 was accompanied by dilettantism and misconduct. Especially when you know what men were gathered on June 10, 1878. E.g. an intellectual like Abdyl Frashëri...

According to Tafil Boletini's memoirs, when his uncle Isa Boletini went to Vlora, after the declaration of Albania's Independence, Ismail Qemali offered him the post of Minister of War. But Isa Bey says: "No, that's not the place for me, because even here and back I have many tasks". And, Mehmet recommended to Deralla... Well, a woman who says that she is a descendant of Deralla, heads up to the pulpit of the League of Prizren complex, on June 10, 2018, where "patriotic" politicians from all Albanian lands in The Balkans were marking this great national event. Since this woman could not be heard, the Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo, Kadri Veseli, turned on her microphone. When her voice was heard, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, interrupted her speech and removed her from there...

Abdyl Frashëri said: "The foundation of knowledge and patriotism is the Albanian language. We cannot work for our country, but we did not have a love for every corner of Albania. Freedom is that no one disturbs you"

On March 21, the Demarcation Agreement with Montenegro was finally voted on. But which border was voted and which border has been previously opposed with tear gas in the Assembly? Where are the changes? No one knows this, but this vote was considered a great achievement of Kosovo, as a step towards visa liberalization.

Enthusiasm for liberalization was very great on July 18, when Kosovo remains "desert" without the heads of state. Everyone went to Brussels, not to be far from the merits, as the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, announces the positive recommendation for the liberalization of visas for Kosovo.

But, the year 2018 passed and the residents of Kosovo continue to be the most isolated on the European continent. And, for this, the EU was accused... Because the Albanians are not to blame!

This is probably the most used photo in the electronic media, how many times have visa liberalization and European integration been mentioned...! It will surely be used in 2019!

On March 26, after he was not allowed to enter Kosovo and after the head of the so-called Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Marko Gjurić, did not respect this ban, he was arrested in the north of Mitrovica by Kosovo's special units. Gjiriq behaves tied to Pristina. After Djuric, it was warned that the visit of the Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, will also be banned. However, he entered Kosovo on September 8, stayed two days, and provoked with this speech on the 30th anniversary of the "Yogurt Revolution": "Milosevic was a great leader. He had the best goals, but we had bad results'.

By many, this visit of Vučić and his speech were compared to the marking of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, on June 28, 1989, when Slobodan Milosevic told hundreds of thousands of Serbs gathered in Gazimestan, from all sides of the former Yugoslavia: "No one should be surprised why Serbia raised its head for Kosovo this summer. Kosovo is the pure center of its history, culture and memory. Every nation has a love that warms its heart. For Serbia it is Kosovo". In this speech, Milosevic also warned of war: "Six centuries later, here, we are engaged in battles again and we are facing battles. They are not armed battles, although such things cannot be ruled out."

View from the former "rally" in Gazimestan

On March 29, six Turks were deported from Kosovo to Turkey, who were considered "terrorists" of the FETO organization by the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The three highest state officials, President Hashim Thaçi, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, and Speaker Kadri Veseli, say that they have no interest in this matter. Unfortunately, in Kosovo throughout the year there will be developments when state officials will declare that "they were informed about this by the media"!

However, the director of Kosovo's intelligence, Driton Gashi, as well as the Minister of Internal Affairs, Flamur Sefaj, who long ago bragged about the action against Gjuric in the north, was dismissed for the scandal involving Turkish citizens. Bejtush Gashi is appointed minister instead of Sefaj. But even Gashi will not be far away, because the deputy known as the corner of Tallava, Labinot Tahiri, had strong localist "criteria": that a government minister should be from his town, Ferizaj. And, he succeeded and the anonymous Ekrem Mustafa, who has reading problems, like most government officials, became the minister. PISA, bro...!

In Kosovo, the calculations are unique...!

Negotiations with Serbia, as with Serbia... On June 24, Thaçi and his Serbian counterpart, Vuçiqi, meet in Brussels. After the meeting, Thaçi said that this was "a difficult meeting, but the parties have agreed that this negotiation process will gain momentum and that a final agreement is in the interest of both countries".

On August 2, Thaçi announces "correction" of the borders. According to him, Kosovo will not lose anything, but will gain the Presheva Valley. No one believed him, so opposition parties began to protest, but also from Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj. Because, for them, the "correction" meant the loss of the north of Kosovo, even Lake Ujman, which is of vital importance for Kosovo.

In order to "stop" Thaci from this "correction", the position appoints a negotiating team which will be headed by Fatmir Limaj from Nisma and Shpend Ahmeti from PSD (in 2018, 12 deputies split from the Vetëvendosje Movement and take the leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Kaqusha Jashari). LDK and Vetëvendosje do not join this team in 2018. Meanwhile, the high representative of the EU, Federica Mohgerini, demands that the negotiations be led by Thaçi, while the American president Donald Trump sends a letter to Thaçi and Vucic asking for a "historic agreement". This has led many to suspect that between Kosovo and Serbia, that is, between Thaci and Vučić, there were secret negotiations for changing the borders.

"A big devil has entered here", said the infamous Rrahman Morina who left "big words".

This is what "correction" looks like...

On June 26, the joint meeting of the Governments of Kosovo and Albania was held in Peja. As in many previous such meetings, many words were said, many promises were made, many pictures were sold and many folklore patriotisms, but... "What the Fuck", as Edi Rama said.

This meeting was held after an important decision by the Government of Kosovo, for the tax of 100 percent for products from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (excluding international brands). After this decision, the Serbian mayors of four municipalities in the north of Kosovo reacted by resigning from their positions. Mogherini and the European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, also reacted to this decision. But, fortunately, the tax was not removed.

And, apart from the tax, another important event for Kosovo in 2018 was the approval - with an absolute majority by the Assembly of Kosovo - of three draft laws for the transformation of the Kosovo Security Force into an army. Regarding this decision, there were great reactions from Serbia, from where many letters were sent to the statesmen of the world (including Edi Rama) to withdraw the recognition of Kosovo. But, as many times before, for the army it was the strong countries, with the USA at the top.

There are voices that say that the compromise for the army is a signal for "correction". But, the truth will be learned in 2019, this year when Kosovars will again hope that it will be done well and that visa liberalization will happen.

Boycott, so...

There were many reactions in the world to Russian spies disguised as diplomats. Albania, on March 26, declares two such "diplomats" undesirable (100 are expelled from 20 countries). This decision came after the nerve agent attack on the double spy in Britain, Sergei Skripal. Meanwhile, on March 31, in Albania, there were protests by the residents of Kukës and the surrounding areas, who, near the Kalimashi tunnel on the "Rrugën e Kombit", opposed the not cheap tariff - especially for the general Albanian standard, and in particular for the areas of poor people of the north – of five euros for a pass. In this case, the payment desks are set on fire. For a while the tax was removed, but this did not last long. It was soon decided that the residents of Kukës should have a "release", but not for those of Kosovo. However, the patriotic declarations will not be stopped by Rama, who on November 28 makes two Kosovar Albanians ministers of his government.

On April 30, Albania and Greece officially started negotiations on open issues between the two countries, especially on the limitation of maritime areas. There is still no agreement, while relations between the two countries became tense on October 28, when the 35-year-old extremist from the Gjirokastra District, Kostandinos Kacifas, was killed during the exchange of fire with the law enforcement. This event caused numerous reactions in Greece, where anti-Albanian feelings returned. After the burial of Kacifas, Albania will declare persona non grata MEP Eleni Theocharous. In addition to her, "for organized activity to the detriment of the country's sovereignty and displays and statements challenging the constitutional order", 52 other persons with Greek citizenship were declared undesirable.

2018 is the year of protests in Albania. In November, the protests of the residents of Tirana begin, who oppose the construction project of the Great Ring Road, as this project foresees the demolition of their residential buildings. Meanwhile, on December 5, the students of Albania's public universities started the biggest and most hopeful protest in recent years, with eight conditions - the main ones being the halving of annual tuition fees, the improvement of conditions in dormitories and the increase of the education budget ! Rama asked for "negotiations", but the students rejected them. Simply, they no longer believe in the demagoguery of Albanian politics. They want solutions, not talk. But, as many other times, Rama shifted attention from real problems with spur-of-the-moment decisions: on December 28, he dismissed nine ministers!

View from student protests in Tirana

When it comes to Macedonia, it should be noted that after 27 years this country resolved the name dispute with Greece, with the June 17 agreement that changes the name of the country to North Macedonia, which enables the unblocking of the Euro-Atlantic processes (membership in NATO and the EU ) and perhaps the economic prosperity of the country. Another big event for this country was the escape to Hungary of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who was sentenced to two years in prison for abuse of office by the country's courts.

Not only the trial against Gruevski, but also the other former officials of his Government, were also among the main news of 2018 in Macedonia, this country which in 2019 will also face presidential elections, which analysts see as a new test for the Government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, but also for the opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, which has Hristijan Mickoskin as its new leader.

Fugitive Gruevski next to Hungary's controversial leader, Viktor Orban, who defies the EU's democratic principles

The main events that marked the world in 2018 are: the war in Syria has not yet stopped, while no one knows what will happen after the warning of American President Donald Trump, about the withdrawal of troops from this country; in China, Xi Jinping secures the status of "president for life"; in Russia, Vladimir Putin elected for the fourth time as president of the country; Erdogan is re-elected president of Turkey; the North Korean leader goes to South Korea to meet President Moon Jae-in (in 2018 he also meets the American president); Trump withdraws from the nuclear agreement with Iran; Eritrea and Ethiopia end 20-year conflict; fires in Greece claim the lives of 87 people; journalist Jamal Khashoggi is killed in the Arab Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey; France faces its biggest protests since 1968...

In 2018 died: the man who was rumored to be the richest in the world - the owner of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad; one of humanity's greatest minds, Stephen Hawking; directors Milos Forman and Nicolas Roeg; the English diplomat engaged in the political processes at the beginning of the breakup of communist Yugoslavia, Lord Peter Carington; the American icon of spiritual music (soul), Aretha Franklin; former UN Secretary Kofi Annan, actor Burt Reynolds; one of the greatest stars of French chanson, Charles Aznavour; soprano Montserrat Caballe; the great friends of Kosovo in the most difficult days: Senator John McCain and former American President George Bush.

In 2018, conductor Bahri Çela also died; the well-known journalist Ibrahim Rexhepi; director Bekim Lumi; the Albanian who spent the most years in the prisons of former Yugoslavia, Adem Demaçi; the legend of Kosovo football - the president of the Football Federation of Kosovo, Fadil Vokrri, whose work is also worthy of the most successful Albanian story in 2018: the representative of Kosovo in football...

John McCain and George W. Bush

2028: AND…

Everything is possible in 2028... in Kosovo. /Telegraph/

All over Kosovo... "Dabadaba"...