Albanian Federation: Cohesive Factor In Southeast Europe – OpEd

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The Albanian Federation must be a product of active citizenship; it should result as a crowning of the work of the Albanian idealists that the activation of progressive political forces is producing everywhere on the soil of natural Albania, which I am inclined to describe as the golden generation of critical and mature democrats.

In 1945, the French diplomat and poet Paul Claudel wrote: “Germany is no longer her to divide nations, but to make all the people surrounding the German nation that they cannot live without each other.”

It should be clear by now to people living in Southeast Europe that an Albanian Federation would turn out to be a cohesive factor and would be in the interest of the security and stability in the region. Any anxieties from EU countries regarding a possible alignment of the Albanian Federation with ascending geopolitical powers – possibly in contradiction with long-term and vital interests of the European Union, should be squashed urgently and without any delay. Any kind of political dichotomy has no place in this strategic plain. Therefore, cozying up to Erdogan’s Turkey, including more radical elements which were positioned against Kosovo’s independence would lead to treating the Albanian Federation as a destabilizing factor in the EU, as well as German interests, in Southeast Europe and beyond.

We shouldn’t allow ourselves to turn into a divisive factor, but also not a partisan one, in any rivalries within EU. The dream of an Albanian Federation is, thus, not an offshoot of the American Dream, but can become reality only as part of the ‘European Dream.’

In her work ‘The European Dream,’ Aleida Assman, sees this political phenomenon as a shared vision for all nations that are part of the European Union, which should be a product of internalized history lessons, but also as a worthy project.

This dream, partially realized through the European Union, was born out of the long history of violent conflicts on the continent. Therefore, history is not always a nightmare from which we are trying to awake, but also a springtime dream. It is the embodiment of a common future, founded upon principles of political self-determination, as a guarantor of peace, prosperity and freedom.

Modern European history has thankfully refuted pessimist predictions by thinkers like Georg Friedrich Hegel and George Bernard Shaw, who had claimed that the only thing history teaches us is that we cannot learn anything from it.

European Union is a product of a long process of drawing lessons from history

The cohesiveness of the nation-state

In his 1882 lecture entitled ‘What is a nation?,’ Ernest Renan also addressed the future of a nation-state. In this case, he came to the conclusion that ‘Nations are not eternal. A European confederacy will eventually end up extinguishing them.’ 

Had Renan been alive in the past 30 years, he may have easily reconsidered his thesis, considering the resurgence of ethnic nationalism in Europe and around the world, one could argue that he would change his thesis, thus giving primacy to the necessity of strengthening the cohesion of the nation-state, even within the confines of a European confederacy. Considering the realities, this approach would ultimately result in a more sustainable and steady path toward the realization of the European Dream, a common future for all the peoples of the continent. 

Anglo-american historian Tony Judt wrote about the ‘Grand Illusions’ of Europe, while the British political scientist Alon Milvard wrote about the EU as the saviour of nation-states (Tony Judt: 1996)
Both have correctly pointed out the trend prevalent in both Eastern and Western Europe of the ‘rediscovery and the reconfirmation of nation-states.’

To this end, the process of the internal reintegration of the two republics with an Albanian-majority population into a single federal state, would not only be natural, but also necessary.

Central European and Eastern European states, that have emerged from behind the Iron Curtain saw joining the European Union as a strategic process in the interest of long-term national security, apart from liberating themselves from the Russian tutelage.

Nevertheless, this process remains only insofar as the stance of the Russian president Vladimir Putin (2005) that the fall of the Soviet Union was the ‘biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century’ is taken at face value – the Putin doctrine. 

The crises that have plagued EU from 2008 onward, but also the ongoing issues regarding the right to self-determination of European peoples (Ireland, Catalonia, Scotland), as well as the open question of Albanians in North Macedonia (even by recognizing their right to self-determination within the existing borders), the Sandjak of Novi Pazar, Republika Srpska in Bosnia, do not leave much room for optimism, unless we consider the creation of an Albanian Federation as a factor of stability and peace in the region.

Four Lessons from History and the European Dream

In her book ‘Der europaeische Traum‘ (The Europan Dream) Alaida Asman talks about four history lessons that have contributed toward transforming European citizens into the denizens of a utopian society, by virtue of sharing a common history:

  1. The securing of peace
  2. The promotion of the idea of the rule of law and democracy
  3. The historical truth and the development of the German culture of remembrance (Denazification?)
  4. The rediscovery of human rights

The period following May 9, 1945 – a date symbolizing Hitler’s downfall, a turning point in European history – victory over fascism – signifies the beginning of common European history. 

See here the historian Timothy Garton Ash, apart from Eurocrisis and larger geopolitical events, as well as the rapport between North (Germany, France, Denmark on one hand and Greece, Italy and Spain, on the other), regarding the future of the European Union, in an interview with Suddeutsche Zeitung:

“Europe, at any rate, is a creature without precedent, created only once.” 

The liberation of Kosovo (June 1999), as part of European progressive history, has created the conditions for the expansion and the conclusion of this project; it created the preconditions for securing peace in Europe and opened further perspectives for the integration of the other states in the region and their integration in Euroatlantic structures.

Without the liberation of Kosovo from Serbia, Albania and Montengro’s acceptance into NATO would have been inconceivable, thus opening the path for EU membership.

Through the vetting in the judiciary, Albania is also transforming the Albanian state into a rule-of-law state. This is important considering the Albanian state would be the nucleus of an eventual Albanian Federation.
Kosovo should follow a similar process, by applying lessons from recent European history.

The third lesson – the one concerning establishing historical truth and building a culture of memory, even if it has more to do with Serbia, should adopt some elements from Albanian history, as well.

The renaming of streets and cultural institutions with the names of Quislings like Xhafer Deva and Rexhep Mitrovica, calls into question educational institutions’ basic knowledge of the history of their own country.

Keeping the memory alive, even when it hurts, as is the case with the notorious Skanderbeg SS Division, contributes toward the creation of a culture of memory. This process should be seen as a valuable lesson for future generations.

As far as the past century, faced with various projects of the Serbian state for the eradication of the Albanian-speaking population under its control, Europe has as much to gain taking a page from our common history as do the involved actors.

Taking into account these lessons that Professor Asman mentions, and while respecting human rights, but also seeing them as an integral part of the modern idea of a nation, an Albanian Federation can become reality within the ‘Europan Dream.’

“Reformatting” democracy – a daily need

The wars in the last decade of the XX  (twentieth) century in the former Yugoslavia, somewhat “unfinished”, but also the resurrection of dictators, initially in the form of authoritarian leaders such as Orban, Erdogan, etc., everywhere in Southeast Europe (the Vuçiq-Thaçi duo are the significance of this phenomenon), there is a danger that they will serve to restore dictatorships of their kind.

In Albanian history, the return of dictator Ahmet Zogu to power (January 1925), after the Democratic Revolution of June 1924, led by FS Noli, cost Albania, among other things, the wrinkling of the political geography of the state (the pearl of St. Naum in the southeast and the Vermoshi Mountains in the north), together with the inauguration of the dictatorship and the transformation of Albania from a rising Democratic Republic into a Monarchy, initially dependent on Belgrade (3), and then sold to fascist Rome (4) .

Even the new republics that had sprung up in the 1930s all over Europe were being overthrown and turned into dictatorships. This phenomenon could not but end in a carnage, such as World War II. The Albanian popular wisdom says: “What we sow we will reap”. Therefore, the second lecture, according to the reading of European history given by Professor A. Asman, who deals with the breeding of law and the building of democracy, remains relevant for Southeast Europe.

The “reformatting” of democracy, its permanent cultivation, its maintenance and settlement, is a daily need; this political process therefore needed both the Nuremberg Trials (1945 after the end of the LDB) and the International Court of Justice based in The Hague after the wars in the former Yugoslavia (1990-1999), which dealt with genocide and Serb crimes, primarily in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Of these two courts, the one of Nuremberg was of particular historical importance, as it liberated justice as a universal notion, taking it out of the shell of the principles of national justice and giving it a genuine universal character. Both of these courts served the project of the “European dream”.

The new legal categories, which were promoted in the Nuremberg Tribunal as new contributions to the international legal fund, are:

1. Crime against peace [offensive wars];

2. War crimes [fight against hostages and prisoners of war];

3)  Crimes against humanity [racist violence against Jews and other minorities], will also serve as a history lesson for the Hague Tribunal and the leaders of the perpetrators of crimes and massacres, which brought back the horrific scenes throughout the former Yugoslavia and, finally, also in Kosovo – the numerous cases of concentration of massacres, such as those in Sarajevo, Bihaq, Srebrenica… up to those in Prekaz, Recak, Meja, etc., committed by the apparatus of violence under Hitler’s command in the Balkans, Slobodan Milosevic.

In the processes in Nuremberg and The Hague, states A. Asman, the nation-state was no longer the last instance that would have to do with the definition of good and evil. [A. Asman: 2019] But from this historic moment, all nations take on responsibilities and obligations to face these high legal norms. These legal norms, which de facto derive from the Nuremberg process (1945), will find a place in legal acts of international character (Declaration of Human Rights, 1948), but also in the constitutions of the states that were being built on the ruins. of World War II (referred to in the constitution of Federal Germany).

The notion of legal-political postulate, that “human dignity is inviolable”, as a wording was adapted in the preamble of the German constitution.

Such is it in the two constitutions of the two Albanian republics today.

Hour Zero, self-determination! and the European Dream

The liberation of Kosovo (June 1999) was an event of historical importance for the Albanian nation. June 1999, KLA’s resistance and the military intervention by NATO, i.e. Western democracies, put an end to the colonization project and the nearly century-long exploitation of the Piedmont of the Albanian nation. Let us recall the fact that the main events that lead to the creation of the modern Albanian state took place in Kosovo – not only the creation of the Albanian League in Prizren (1878), but also a lion’s share of the contribution to the Albanian independence movement (1910-1912) fell on the shoulders of this Albanian province.

The Liberation of Kosovo (1999) was a de facto turning point in the country’s history, marking a shift towards democracy.

Professor Ukshin Hoti, justly marked the martyrdom of four in the village of Brestoc as the  inception of Kosovar democracy (U. Hoti: 1995). But if this event didn’t spark the Hour Zero, that of a new beginning, as did the NATO intervention on June 12, 1999 – it still opened the path to the creation of KLA. Therefore, the sacrifice of these early martyrs of democracy ushered a significant shift in consciousness, akin to the student demonstrations in the spring of 1981.

Nevertheless, it is the founding of Lëvizja Vetëvendosje! that we the see Hour Zero, in the sense of a symbolic turning point that makes an alternative future possible, made immune to the virus of repression by blocking the tendency to regress into authoritarianism.

The cooperation between political forces in Kosovo and those in the EU, following the model of the Socialdemocratic Party of Germany and the Socialist Party of Spain (1977) during the ‘soft’ transition from dictatorship to democracy, as well as other similar processes in other parts Southern Europe (Portugal, Greece), could serve the democratization and functionalization of the Republic of Kosovo. This complex endeavour, according to A. Asman, would need to take place on three fronts:

1] Political: covering political representation based on the rule of law.

2] Legal:  building a viable legal system through the process of transitional justice.

3] Social and Cultural – consisting of transformative civic education to set the stage for a robust, mature, democratic society.

 The activity of parliamentary investigative committees (especially those that resulted in the deportation of six Turkish ‘Gulenist’ teachers to their home country, at the request of Turkish authorities is a bellwether, in this regard. The pretext for the arrest notwithstanding, the real reason for the deportation had more to do with the sale of Kosovo’s telecommunications network to a Turkish company – another strong sign for an urgent need to build a republic on the foundations of the rule of law, as an antidote to state capture.

Implementing the second phase – nation building – is a more complicated matter, given the urgence of establishing a transitional judiciary system and an accelerated vetting process imposed on us. If we now accept the assertion by credible international organizations that the legal system in Kosovo is ‘controlled by the Mafia’ (T. Sommer: 2019) and the fact that this same judiciary has enacted international agreements and legislation with new, far-reaching consequence, then the urgency for democratic change becomes necessary.

In a lengthy analysis regarding this phenomenon, Christiane Hess concludes that there is a need for new legal instruments to deal with the new challenges created by this event.

These instruments, she notes, would need to take into account the ‘ammelioration of the victim’s position, in a legal as well as a practical sense. (Christine Hess: 2007) In the meantime, following the first indictments issued by the Special Court in the Hague, these new legal instruments, as per Hess, would remove the burden from the Kosovar judiciary, in this critical phase.

Literary critic Fielder has stressed that the American nation, unlike the British or the French one, was not formed based on a common collective memory, but a common vision.

‘As Americans, we share in a collective utopia, and not collective history” (Leslie Fielder: 1988).
This dream has an individual and not a collective character, since entire segments of society are excluded from this dream.

To this end, the Albanian dream can only be realized within the European framework, since it not only fulfills an individual vision, but a collective, national one, as well.

One of the ten theses on the future of the European Union postulated by the Swiss political scientist N.Nuspigler, touches upon the deepening of the European integration process. 

‘A possible escalation of the Euro crisis could make the centralization of EU financial policies unavoidable. As a result, the geopolitical environment would change, as well, through the process of integration (unification) of policies in the defence and foreign policy fields.” (Niklaus Nuspigler: 2019)

In this sense of the deepening of European integrations, an Albanian Federation cannot stay at the level of an utopian vision, but since it is an expression of the will for unification, as a national dream, becomes a historical reality, or a vessel of collective historical memory and part of a common European vision.

If the EU represents the voluntary union of states – where independent countries give up part of their sovereignty in exchange of a common union absorbing the differences between individual states, it is easy to see an Albanian Federation as a vehicle towards integration into this community of nations, as an equal partner.

Cultural authenticity: an optimist perspective

The cultural authenticity of our people should be treated as a driving force in the process of the creation of an Albanian Federation.

Similiraly, Kosovo’s  100-year path from a de-facto Serbian colony to statehood did not result in economic independence.

Even under UNMIK administration, followed by EULEX (1999-2008), Kosovo continued to depend on Serbia economically, given that Serbian goods and products constitute the lion’s share of Kosovo’s market.
Serbia’s favorable position is likely to be shaken, however, only in the energy sector with the establishment of the United Albanian Energetic System.

 Despite of this, the Albanian Kulturraum remains in the periphery, in the sense of Immanuel Walerstein’s notion of separating states in economic zones – from a central zone to a peripherical one, while remaining under the radar of the Central Zone (USA and EU), but with a tendency to slip into a semi-peripherical zone (Turkey and Russia).

In this system of a strict segregation, and not only in the economic sense, the path toward the factorization of our nation in the form of an Albanian Federation, has political stability as a precondition, respectively the consolidation of a political elite.

The creation of a Common Energetic Bloc should be understood as one of the first political steps in the service of the unification and development of our Economic Zone, would have to be followed by the creation of political blocs. The opening of the Vetevendosje centre in Tirana in 2019 is a significant step in this regard.

The Albanian Federation ought to be seen as a cohesive factor contributing to this people’s return to its national character, in the spirit of Western civilization.

A federation of Albanian-speaking people would accelerate the process of cultural homogenization to speak with one voice. The completion of this project relies on at least three factors: 

  1. The development of a political-economical elite
  2. The people’s will
  3. Decision-making centres in the EU – Berlin, in particular. 
  4. The political-economical elite would materialize through the cooperation of the two Albanian-dominated countries – Kosovo and Albania. 
  5. The people factor is a step ahead our elites, as demonstrated in the way local population in Albania sprung to action to help the deportees from Kosovo during the war.

This solidarity was confirmed again on November 26, 2019, after the earthquake in Durrës, Albania, where there was a clear demonstration of unity and mutual aid, not only between Kosovo and Albania, but also other countries in the region.

The establishment of an Albanian Federation is a national project worth pursuing, protecting and cultivating our common language –  and cultural heritage, in the first line.

The Albanian Federation would be the fulfillment of the national project of Rilindja Kombetare (Albanian risorgimento – which incidentally, also included Pashko Vasa, who had fought with Garibaldi in the Italian Risorgimento).

An Albanian Federation would serve as a bulwark against neo-Ottomanist tendencies in the Islamic religious right in Europe. Williams sees this as a representation of a cultural awakening, of strategic, lively and dynamic nature.

The Albanian Federation would be a perfect antidote to political Islam. Some traditional values like besa (oath), but also more contemporary values like tolerance, co-existence, individualist spirit, group dynamic, State power, and fair competition. This is well-reflected in different fields, like science, medicine, and information technology.

It suffices to only consult THINK BANK ALBANIA FOUNDATION (an Albanian think tank focusing on scientific innovation), to single out scientists (Dr.Kristi Panqe, Dr Tomorr Imeri, Dr Eriona Heta, Dr Edi Prifti, Dr Liva Tepshi, Dr Edor Kabashi, etc); culture workers (Opera singers of Albanian origin are now a mainstay on the world stage;  sports (soccer and judo, in particular); pop-music (e.g. Era Istrefi, locally, as well as Diaspora Albanian performers like Rita Ora, Bebe Rexha, Dua Lipa, etc.) The survival of Albanian culture in former Yugoslavia, under a dominant Slavic culture, is largely thanks to the local population’s resistance. 

Facing the challenges of political Islam, we should recall our honorable tradition of ecumenicalism, reflected in our national figures like: Gjon Buzuku, Pjetër Budi, Pjetër Bogdani, Frang Bardhi, Gjon Nikollë Kazazi, e Gjergj Fishta.

Albania’s return in the European fold, through its membership in international security organizations, like NATO, and its progression towards EU membership, as well as Kosovo’s independent status, would fulfill our common dream of living in one state.

Significant Albanian urban centres, Arta (Ioannina) in Greece, and Skopje in modern North Macedonia, were also the centres where Albanian national identity was forged.

Emancipation and the cultivation of the same institutions (the state, the judiciary, constitutionalism, pluralism and individual freedoms, free-market economy and welfare state, would finally put Albanians on equal footing with the rest of Europe. 

Albanian Federation and economy

The Albanian Federation in the process of its creation, as a model of prosperity can have the Federal Republic of Germany, merging within this positive experience the authentic elements of our state organization over the centuries. However, as a modern state, the Albanian Federation will be based on the principles of economics, based on its own tax revenues. On this basis, the Albanian Federation is transferred from a developing country to a modern developed country. The income of the modern developed state is based mainly on income tax and profit, while some states live, first of all, on income and rents, on the sale of mineral resources, especially oil and gas. This is why the distribution and breeding of the tax burden remains part of the components of each country’s domestic political strategies. As the Albanian Federation in its strategic objective, based on vital national interests, is committed to be part of Euro-Atlantic structures as a whole, in line with EU policies, it should also be committed to taking three of the basic issues, as follows:

1. A growing economy and prosperity is the basic interest of every state. Consequently, each state remains interested in attracting as many profitable economic enterprises as possible within its borders.

2. With the clear objective of creating the image of an attractive country for investment, the state builds the most attractive tax policies for serious investors, even moving towards a tax-free zone. In this regard, the objective of the tax policies of the Albanian Federation should be multinational corporations. With this card, Ireland has played for years as a peripheral country of the EU, but also other countries, supporting the so-called “Free Economic Zones”, which provides for the abolition of tax and other state obligations.

3. In the end, the Albanian Federation should focus, in the absence of our corporations with economic activity outside the Republic, to attract through tax policies, respectively through the avoidance of double taxation, to make possible the bringing in instead of corporations or parts of corporations led by our compatriots or personalities with high scientific and managerial backgrounds. In this context, the services sector in general and the IT sector in particular, take on a more specific weight.

When state revenues in the form of tax are based, respectively come from sources that have weight in the world economy, then state subsidies, ie the hand of the state (in the form of tax waiver) for the benefit of private persons or legal entities, will to have multidimensional effects. These policies would serve, in our concrete case, various branches of the economy, for example, tourism, support of local producers, agribusiness, mining industry, science and education, etc., giving a deserved place to the national economic thought .

Political Albania, given that it has recently gained the status of a candidate country for EU accession (meanwhile, the real opportunity for accession is expected to be somewhere from the beginning of the third decade – 2030-2035), but within this period should it also opened the process of full internal integration. In function of this strategy goes the beginning of the vetting process in justice, the political retirement of the class of olhocrats, who were and continue to be for more than two decades at the helm of our two republics, and the announcement of coming to the political scene i a new generation of idealists, intellectually formed and with dignity. The joint meetings of our two governments should also be used for the benefit of this strategy. Ministers and state officials, who are genuine patriots, must insist on the full implementation of the decisions taken at those meetings of our governments, not allowing them to turn into friendly meetings with purely propaganda motives.

Since political Albania, meanwhile, was neither a member of the EU nor, consequently, of the EUROZONE, it easily overcame the financial crisis (2008-2010), in which a large part of the southern states of the continent were plunged. ours, first of all Greece and Italy. The Albanian Central Bank did not pay much attention to the low inflation target applied by the European Central Bank, even on the “full employment and growth target” (Thomas Piketyy: 2016). As a reflection of the ideological reflection, which made possible the occasional intervention of the Bank of Albania in the financial market, enabling the slight devaluation of our currency, the lek, thus allowing the policy to restore competitiveness, in favor of the resumption of economic activities, especially in the field of tourism.

The creation of the Albanian Federation within this period, the Republic of Kosovo would automatically include within the interests and policies of the BSH, removing the “convertible euro” from the Kosovo market as a central currency, but reserving and maintaining its competitive position with the dollar american. In this case, the Bank of Albania could apply the same measures of economic activity for the mining and agrarian sector, as it had put them in action for the tourism sector in the years 2010-2015. For Kosovo as a federal unit, it would automatically mean that dividends from sovereignty in the monetary field are added to it, being part of the unique national monetary policies, since then in maintaining the national interest, which in this case means maintaining the low and predictable.

The Albanian Federation has already become a priority issue.

As long as this project is postponed, we will continue to lose territory: 8200 ha that were given to Montenegro without proper explanations and in complete contradiction with our vital interests, but also the tendencies that, in the name of correcting the borders between Albanians and Serbs, in the name of the partition of Kosovo, remain open!

Albanian Federation – compatible with the European project

Albanian Federation, respectively the unification of the two Albanian-dominated republics into a single federal unit will never take place if we base it on the delirious theses of Rama and Thaci, which is sometimes manifested as a vague threat to EU.

The kind of national unification that Rama and Thaci talk is folkloristic, per Dr. Islam Lauka, invoking rhapsodes singing patriotic songs with cifteli and is bound to lead to further disintegration of the region.
It wouldn’t have the character of illiberal democracies or negate the European project, as is the case with Poland, Hungary or Italy. On the contrary, since the time of National Renaissance in the 19th century, Albanians based their political doctrine on their desire for freedom and progressive principles promoted by the European Enlightenment.

If, for example, in the political discourse of official Poland, the European project is nothing more than a version that would lead to the extinction of the Polish state, and by extension, the Polish people, the Albanian Federation should be seen as a compatible project with “Europe project” and that they, together, fulfill and complement one-another, since based on our judgement, nation-state in complete cohesion with Federal Europe.

Europe is not a project that extinguishes the nation-state, but on the contrary – it offers a chance to preserve national identity and create the conditions for further development (Aleida Assman: 2019). In this context, the Albania Federation would be an additional positive factor that would influence the advancement or reconcile the differences between eastern and western European. 

Albanian Independence [1912] is a product of a multigenerational struggle, with modern Albania seen as a nucleus of a national homeland. 

The independence of Kosovo is also the result of multigenerational popular resistance, with the armed resistance led by KLA being its crowning glory.
Not only the living, but also those who died in the war – 11,000 civilians, including 1,333 children that made the path to an Albanian Federation possible. 

“The dead may be invisible, but are not missing,” writes Victor Hugo. 

Georges Bernos is clear on this point: The future does not belong to the dead, but those who testify and talk about the dead and wonder why they died.” 

The ideal of martyrdom that has brought us to the present can become reality only through an Albanian Federation and only us, the living who testify about the sublime ideals they sacrificed themselves for. The example of the German Federal Republic could serve as a role model, combined with positive experiences and authentic elements that have followed us over centuries.

At any rate, as a modern state the Albanian Federation would be built on sound economic principles and tax policy. This would be the basis of the transformation of the Albanian Federation from a developing country into a developed one. 

The revenue of a modern developed state is largely based on income and profit taxation, while a whole row of countries survives primarily on rent and the sale of national resources.

The Albanian Federation should be accepted by our neighbours, as well, as factual regional power, but also as normative factum. In a near future, the Albanian Federation, like all the other countries of this political community, would be interdependent with other states, to be sure, as its sovereignty would be limited by that of other EU states.

The Albanian Federation may not be a simple copy of the German and Austrian Federation, since it would keep its political and cultural authenticity, while borrowing a lot from the German hmodel.

Albanian Federation needs to be not only sovereign but also democratic, as this is the only way it can establish international political relations.

* Distinguished Lecturer at ILIRIA University College, Prishtina, Republik of Kosova

Literature

1. Hans-Dietrich Genscher: Erinerungen, Hamburg 1997.

2. J.A.Williams, Themes of Islamic Civilization (University of California Press), Los Angeles, 1971.

3. Alajda Asman, Der europaeische Traum, 2018.

4. Islam Lauka, Gjarpri i shtëpisë rrezikon Kosovën, 2019.

5. J.A.Williams, Themes of Islamic Civilization (University of California Press), Los Angeles, 1971.

6. Franc Fokuyama, Identiteti, Hamburg 2019.

7. Thomas Piketyy, Kapitali në shekullin XXI, Tiranë, 2016.

Websites

1. https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_shqip

2. https://a2news.com/2020/01/11/20-vite-ne-pushtet-karriera-politike-e-carit-putin/

3. Süddeutsche Zeitung

4. https://a2news.com/2020/01/11/20-vite-ne-pushtet-karriera-politike-e-carit-putin/

5. On April 25, 2005, Putin addressed the Russian people in parliament with a message from the Soviet Union, which had collapsed years earlier. “The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. It was a real drama for Russian citizens. Millions of Russian citizens and patriots ended up outside Russia. The collapse epidemic affected, above all, Russia itself, the people’s savings were destroyed, together with them even our strongest ideals, “he said. See:

https://a2news.com/2020/01/11/20-vite-ne-pushtet-karriera-politike-e-carit-putin/

6. At the beginning of December 1924, Zogu came from Belgrade near the border with Albania.

Note:

Most of the 4,000 troops made available were Serbs, Montenegrins and Belarusians. Armaments and military spending were covered by Belgrade. [Frashëri 2014, p. 68-69] The intervention was carried out from Yugoslav and Greek soil. At Zog’s disposal were initially two regular Yugoslav army battalions, equipped with heavy weapons, cannons and machine guns. [Academy, 2007, p. 238] On December 24, Zogu entered Tirana. [Academy 2007, p. 246]

Dr. Sadri Ramabaja

Dr. Sadri Ramabaja was born on October 4th, 1961 in the Village of Gollak, in the town of Dardania, Republic of Kosovo. Dr. Ramabaja has been an active member of the National Albanian Union Party for over fifteen years (1990-2005) until this political party ceased to exist and later on actively participated in the Social Democratic Party of Kosovo. Since 2010 has emerged as one of the leaders of the Self Determination Movement while promoting the main principles of this alliance and is a member of the National Assembly of Prishtina for two terms. In 1983 he was arrested by the Serbian Secret Service for his active role in Kosovo’s quest for independence. Thereafter Dr. Ramabaja was jailed as a political disident for three years in the penitentiary of Vraja. During his residence in Switzerland (1987-2002) he continued his University studies in Tirana, and his postgraduate studies in the University of Basel, in the European Studies Institute. For three years in a row (1987-1990) Dr. Ramabaja was the editor of VOICE OF KOSOVO, a newspaper published in Switezerland. During the years 2001-2004 he was the professional collaborator for Communications Media at the OST Institute-West in Bern, Switzerland. In 2002 returned to Kosovo and continued with his post-graduate studies at the College of Law and International Relations, where he graduated with a Masters Degree in International Law Sciences. In 2004-2006 Dr. Ramabaja served as a Senior Political Adviser in the Office of the Prime Minister of Kosovo. In November 2008 was a PHD Student of Political Sciences and International Relations, in the European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD) at the Peace University of the United Nations. In 2012 was transferred at the Graduate School of the European University of Tirana, to continue with his postgraduate degree defended through the presentation of his dissertation: “Albanian Federation-Cohesion of a Nation-State and the European Union” Dr. Ramabaja, has been published abroad in many renowned newspapers and magazines; has published eleven scientific and research papers in the field of international affairs and geopolitical studies. He is a Fellow of the International Political Studies Institute of Skopie, Macedonia. Dr. Ramabaja is the author of four Books in Albanian Language: “Realizmi politik dhe çështja kombëtare” (Tiranë, 1998); “UE-ja shpresë apo ringjallje utopish” (Prishtinë, 2003); “Gazetaria” (one of four co-authors of this university text book- Tiranë,2002); “Feniksit ia gjeta çerdhen”(Poetry - Tiranë, 1993); “Federata Shqiptare – Kohezioni i shteti-komb në BE”(Ph.D. Dissertation).

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