.: Greater Albania Petition Ruffles Feathers in Montenegro

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Greater Albania Petition Ruffles Feathers in Montenegro

A petition calling for the creation of a “Natural" - enlarged - Albania has caused a flurry in Montenegro after a local Albanian leader said he intended to sign it.

Vaselj Sinistaj, leader of the Citizens Initiative, a small ethnic Albanian party in the Montenegrin government, caused a stir on Thursday after saying he intended to sign a petition calling for an enlarged "Natural" Albania.

The project, launched by Albanian historian Koco Danaj in 2010, calls for the creation of new borders for Albania along the lines of those prescribed in the declaration adopted when Albania declared independence from the town of Vlora on November 28, 1912.

The declaration called for Albania to include all four of the Ottoman units, known as vilayets, that were home to Albanians, including Presevo in present-day Serbia, Preveza, now in Greece and Skopje, now capital of Macedonia.

In the event, the great powers agreed on very restricted borders for the new Albanian state, excluding many majority-Albanian areas. As a result, almost half of all Albanians were left outside the new country.

Sinistaj said that signing the petition did not mean he supported the redrawing of state borders.

But some Montenegrin law experts said Sinistaj could still face a prison sentence for appearing to advocate a change of borders - to which Sinistaj said that he would be happy to answer a summons by the prosecution, if it was well argumented.

Mirko Stanic, spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party, SDP, a minor partner of the ruling coalition, avoided talk of prison sentences, but said on Wednesday that projects to form “large” and “natural” states had never brought anything good to the Balkans.

Stanic went on to dismiss Danaj as a marginal politician who was “seeking media attention."

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New York Times article published May 21, 1911

"ALBANIAN JOAN OF ARC: Handsome Heroine Takes Father's Place and Vanquishes Turks" – Cetinja, May 21, 1911 - A young girl, whose first name corresponds to that of the given name of the Maid of Orleans, is now being sung in the songs of the Montenegrin bards in the inns and coffee houses in Podgorica. When at the battle of Vranje last week, her father, the hereditary commander of his clan, fell, she immediately stepped to his place and led the Martinajs to victory against the Turks. Aside from the romantic phase of the affair, for Janitza Martinaj (Tringa e Grudes) is very beautiful, the battle is important as showing that the Montenegrins on the frontier had joined with the Albanians. According to a person who is well acquainted with her, this new Joan of Arc is “a tall, handsome, well-developed young woman. All the Albanian women are brave, and are trained from their girlhood to the use of firearms, and in times of war, as there are no mules, they carry the provisions and ammunition for their soldiers and go into the firing line to distribute them.” “And are sometimes killed?” “Yes, often that happens.” Janitza would probably have carried a Martini rifle; or, as many of the Marininis were collected last year by the Turks, her weapon may perhaps have been one of the old-fashioned Albanian rifles, which are handsomely decorated with silver and have very long, narrow barrels. Shooting is almost the only amusement of the young men and women in Albania. Both boys and girls learn to shoot when they are 12 years old. At weddings the parties amuse themselves by dancing and shooting: at christenings shootings is again the principal amusement – firing at large targets for some little prize – and at festivals there is shooting all day long. It’s one of the great difficulties that Turks have to contend with, for it is part of the national life; the people use their rifles by day and sleep with them by their side by night. The custom has grown up with the prevailing insecurity from vendettas at home and border troubles abroad. Physically, the Albanians are the finest race in Europe. Their women are handsome, with dark hair, though their eyes are sometimes gray. To see them walk is a delight. We like to see the ballet in Servia. The first time I saw the Albanians walk it gave me just the same pleasure. Their movements are so graceful, elegance and strength together. Yes, they are a very fine and very gifted race. They are like the Scots in the 17th century, and they will be by and by the finest race, intellectually as well as physically, in the Balkans. If you go to Constantinople you will find that many of the finest men, not only soldiers but also statesmen are Albanians. Their fault, due to their present degree of civilization, is that they cannot grasp the idea of State. The clan is their highest organization; they are unable to see the importance of combining the clan with the higher organization of making a state. But that will come.

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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Greater Albania Petition Ruffles Feathers in Montenegro

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