It's not.

YOU CAN PUT THAT IN THE BANK.

Only country weaker than you is Fyrom. You can't lay a hand on anyone else.

Macedonia is only an exsersise that will increase our apetite
just as was Kossova .Then Montenegro will go independent and we will take it later.Serbia will be ours over time and we are already infiltrating it now and have 400,000 Albanians living in
Serbia ( excluding of course Kossova which has nothing to do with Serbia ).In Greece we have 500,000 Albanians living and also there is 3,000,000 Greeks in Greece who are of Albanian
descent and that includes most of Greece,Athens will reamin a city state while all the Aegean islands,Crete and Thrace will go to their wrightfull owners , our dear friends , Turks.The day is coming when we will liberate our dear confused brothers in Greece and make them Albanain again as they are.

Also this is the map of Albanian regions once we have all the regions back then we will take the rest of former Yugoslavia
and most of Greece and south Italy and Sicily ( as many of these
people have Albanian blood as well ).THE FUTURE IS OURS

We don't recognise minorites because for a special reason: because if we don't (and one of the minorites tries to steal our land) we can kill them and no one can stop us. because it will count as an INTERIOR problem. You can't do anything to us.

YOU THAT ALBANIAN DIASPORA HAS MORE MONEY THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE AND POWER AND THAT OUR PLANS WILL SUCCEED.IF YOU GREEKS ARE NICE WE MIGHT, MIGHT, LET YOU KEEP ATHENS.

WESTERN BALKANS IS ALBANIAN

They steal because they are so poor. All they do is manual labour in Hellas, nothing higher than that.

and in Albania there is some also and they cross the artificial Greek border to go to Greek occupied Epir and other Greek occupied parts of Albania where they every wright to be in the firts place.About them stealing that is a pure propaganda and Albanians are known worldwide as honest and hard working people unlike Greeks who are natural born con artist and criminals.


WESTERN BALKANS IS
ALBANIAN

Albanians job descriptions in Hellas:

1. Murderer
2. Rapist
3. Thief
4. Terrorist

What a nice people huh!

Albanians job descriptions in Hellas:

1. Murderer
2. Rapist
3. Thief
4. Terrorist

What a nice people huh!

AGAINST ALBANIANS WHO ARE KNOWN WORLDWIDE AS HONEST AND HARDWORKING PEOPLE UNLIKE THE NATURAL BORN CAN ARTIST-GREEKS.

WEST BALKANS ALBANIA
EAST BALKANS TURKEY

All your Albanian people sneak over the border cuz they know life in Albania sucks. Then they can't find jobs so they work at low wage jobs building **** like houses for example.

Come over the border and see for yourself...I will treat you to foods and drinks you have never seen or heard of before (mainly bisquits and coffee).

Have you ever been in greece? Please, tell me if you can find anyone who has never been in Germany being in the same ****y situatuion that albanians are.
Ask them what germans use to say about them and you will see.

Pluto why don't you take it up the a s s. Just like the rest of the greeks, especially my ex-girlfriend

You might be able to bull **** someone who has no education with your lies, like your fellow dumd ass geeks. Read non-geek printed propoganda history books because you have much to learn.

Background:
In 1990 Albania ended 44 years of xenophobic communist rule and
established a multiparty democracy. The transition has proven difficult
as corrupt governments have tried to deal with high unemployment, a
dilapidated infrastructure, widespread gangsterism, and disruptive
political opponents. International observers judged local elections in
2000 to be acceptable and a step toward democratic development, but
serious deficiencies remain to be corrected before the the 2001
parliamentary elections.

Economy -
overview:
Poor by European standards, Albania is making the difficult transition
to a more open-market economy. The economy rebounded in 1993-95
after a severe depression accompanying the end of the previous
centrally planned system in 1990 and 1991. However, a weakening of
government resolve to maintain stabilization policies in the election
year of 1996 contributed to renewal of inflationary pressures, spurred
by the budget deficit which exceeded 12% of GDP. The collapse of
financial pyramid schemes in early 1997 - which had attracted deposits
from a substantial portion of Albania's population - triggered severe
social unrest which led to more than 1,500 deaths, widespread
destruction of property, and a 7% drop in GDP. The government has
taken measures to curb violent crime and to revive economic activity
and trade. The economy is bolstered by remittances from some 20% of
the labor force that works abroad, mostly in Greece and Italy. These
remittances supplement GDP and help offset the large foreign trade
deficit. Most agricultural land was privatized in 1992, substantially
improving peasant incomes. In 1998, Albania recovered the 7% drop in
GDP of 1997 and pushed ahead by 8% in 1999 and by 7.5% in 2000.
International aid helped defray the high costs of receiving and returning
refugees from the Kosovo conflict. Privatization scored some
successes in 2000, but other reforms lagged.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $10.5 billion (2000 est.)

GDP - real
growth rate:
7.5% (2000 est.)

GDP - per
capita:
purchasing power parity - $3,000 (2000 est.)

GDP -
composition by
sector:
agriculture: 55%

industry: 24%

services: 21% (2000)

Population
below poverty
line:
19.6% (1996 est.)

Household
income or
consumption by
percentage
share:
lowest 10%: NA%

highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate
(consumer
prices):
1% (2000 est.)

Labor force:
1.692 million (including 352,000 emigrant workers and 261,000
domestically unemployed) (1994 est.)

Labor force - by
occupation:
agriculture 50%, industry and services 50%

Unemployment
rate:
16% (2000 est.) officially; may be as high as 25%

Budget:
revenues: $393 million

expenditures: $676 million, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1997 est.)

Industries:
food processing, textiles and clothing; lumber, oil, cement, chemicals,
mining, basic metals, hydropower

Industrial
production
growth rate:
9% (2000 est.)

Electricity -
production:
5.332 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity -
production by
source:
fossil fuel: 3.81%

hydro: 96.19%

nuclear: 0%

other: 0% (1999)

Electricity -
consumption:
5.379 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity -
exports:
100 million kWh (1999)

Electricity -
imports:
600 million kWh (2000)

Agriculture -
products:
wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, sugar beets, grapes; meat,
dairy products

Exports:
$310 million (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

Exports -
commodities:
textiles and footwear; asphalt, metals and metallic ores, crude oil;
vegetables, fruits, tobacco

Exports -
partners:
Italy 67%, Greece 15%, Germany 5%, Austria 2%, The Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 2% (2000)

Imports:
$1 billion (f.o.b., 2000 est.)

Imports -
commodities:
machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, textiles, chemicals

Imports -
partners:
Italy 37%, Greece 28%, Turkey 6%, Germany 6%, Bulgaria 3% (2000)

Debt - external:
$1 billion (2000)

Economic aid -
recipient:
$NA; aid for energy from China, Germany, Norway (2000)

Currency:
lek (ALL)

Currency code:
ALL

Exchange rates:
leke per US dollar - 146.08 (December 2000),143.71 (2000) 137.69
(1999), 150.63 (1998), 148.93 (1997), 104.50 (1996); note - leke is the
plural of lek

Fiscal year:
calendar year

Albania
Communications
Top of Page

Telephones -
main lines in
use:
87,000 (1997)

Telephones -
mobile cellular:
3,100 (1999)

Telephone
system:
general assessment: Albania has the poorest telephone service in
Europe with fewer than two telephones per 100 inhabitants; it is
doubtful that every village has telephone service

domestic: obsolete wire system; no longer provides a telephone for
every village; in 1992, following the fall of the communist government,
peasants cut the wire to about 1,000 villages and used it to build
fences

international: inadequate; international traffic carried by microwave
radio relay from the Tirana exchange to Italy and Greece

Radio broadcast
stations:
AM 16, FM 3, shortwave 2 (1999)

Radios:
810,000 (1997)

Television
broadcast
stations:
9 (plus 264 repeaters) (1995)

Televisions:
405,000 (1997)

Internet country
code:
.al

Internet Service
Providers (ISPs):
7 (2000)

Internet users:
2,500 (2000)

Albania
Transportation
Top of Page

Railways:
total: 447 km

standard gauge: 447 km 1.435-m gauge (2001)

Highways:
total: 18,000 km

paved: 5,400 km

unpaved: 12,600 km (1998 est.)

Waterways:
43 km

note: includes Albanian sections of Lake Scutari, Lake Ohrid, and
Lake Prespa (1990)

Pipelines:
crude oil 145 km; petroleum products 55 km; natural gas 64 km (1991)

Ports and
harbors:
Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore

Merchant
marine:
total: 9 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 17,797 GRT/26,324 DWT

ships by type: cargo 9 (2000 est.)

Airports:
11 (2000 est.)

Airports - with
paved runways:
total: 3

2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (2000 est.)

Airports - with
unpaved
runways:
total: 8

over 3,047 m: 1

1,524 to 2,437 m: 1

914 to 1,523 m: 2

under 914 m: 4 (2000 est.)

Heliports:
1 (2000 est.)

Albania
Military
Top of Page

Military
branches:
Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Interior Ministry Troops,
Border Guards

Military
manpower -
military age:
19 years of age

Military
manpower -
availability:
males age 15-49: 870,768 (2001 est.)

Military
manpower - fit
for military
service:
males age 15-49: 712,763 (2001 est.)

Military
manpower -
reaching
military age
annually:
males: 35,792 (2001 est.)

Military
expenditures -
dollar figure:
$42 million (FY99)

Military
expenditures -
percent of GDP:
1.5% (FY99)

Albania
Transnational Issues
Top of Page

Disputes -
international:
the Albanian Government supports protection of the rights of ethnic
Albanians outside of its borders but has downplayed them to further its
primary foreign policy goal of regional cooperation; Albanian majority in
Kosovo seeks independence from Yugoslavia; Albanians in The Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia claim discrimination in education,
access to public-sector jobs, and representation in government

Illicit drugs:
increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian opiates,
hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route and - to a far lesser
extent - cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe;
limited opium and cannabis production; ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking
organizations active and rapidly expanding in Europe

lol

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

The day it is not far away..
Its very possible and it will happen soon...

Slavs And Greeks your days are over. we are getting stronger by the day. soon we'll take what was taken from us. Albanian Blood is sacred and has to be avenged. Your blood is in my hand.History has proven that there is good and bad times for every nation and our bad times are passing, so now it's your turn to sufer

Albanians were, are and will be peaceful People.

The only problem about us is that we didnt accompain ourselves with any of the big so called powers.
We tried to be independet in everything we did, We didnt want to know who is our neighbours because we wanted privacy. And privacy is in our culture as well.
But something is different with our malicious neighbours, they always try to stick their nose in the others affairs.
Like Greece and Serbia they are the biggest Mailicious countries in the world. God knows how diabolic they are.

Albanians dont need money to get what was unjustively taken from them. History has proven that we have strong and big hearts not like serbs and greeks who stab you in the back. Which they always did.

There is no need to say more lets just hope that the history will repeat itself when greeks durin 60-70's were comming in Albania and begging for bread and the Albanian hospitality overrun the hate.

Psomi Psomi were the words that Greeks redundantly said during their "holidays" in Albania.

Now Albania is having problems but with the will of god we will surpass them and regaing power over what is ours.

http://www.shqiperiaebashkuar.org

"They steal because they are so poor. All they do is manual labour in Hellas, nothing higher than that."

Typical narrowminded greek, puttin everyone in the same category. Labor is nothing to be ashamed of you lazy bums who all u do is eat and eat and eat and have become like pigs. Besides that, greeks do not give albanians equal education opportunities in greece like America does.

Greeks are afraid that albanians will take over their universities and their best jobs. There is many good albanian students in greek schools, and greeks hate that. In greece it dont matter if u smart or not, if u not greek u have no chance of developing your full potential.

Long Live America.

Well i will have to agree with you in almmost everything. yes you will take kossovo,if Montenegro goes independent you will take it skopia yes you will take. But Greece thats another story. I know that you say our history is fake or that in our schools the books are propaganda. But even if 50% of that is true then i am still VERY PROUD TO BE GREEK. You think that you can take down serbia and greece? You think that is a walk in the park well dont forget that it may kill you !!!!!!! O well i am not trying to sound that greece is a big power were not. But i will tell you something greeks dont fight like heros HEROS FIGHT LIKE GREEKS. We may have troubles in our country but we know when to unite and then be scared be very scared. I hope that it never cames to war but if that happens then you feel what greeks are made of. And really come on for how long you thing you will have the support of the US not for very long you must not forget also that Russia is caming out of its shell and you know how is Russia going to support. Well thats it I have nothing else to say to you.......

When i was a yougn boy, my grandpa told me, what goes around comes around. Which means the way Albania used to be 2000 years ago, i mean the borders, it will soon be ONE Albania, We know it, the whole world knows it. it's a fact. Albania, Dardania, which is Kosova today, Have of Macedonia, Part of Montenegro, and finally Ionina. Now let's talk about why albanians steal etc. it's because of the very first illyrian people in albania, they were always attacked my italy, greek, it's bloody neighbors. The illyrians were TRUSTFULL, like the people of Albania today, We the Albanians(Illyirians)always trusted are neighbors, wanted to be good friends with them, they pretended liek thyr helping us, but they were only tryign to take Albania, destroy the Albanian race, as usual they FAILED.not just are neighbors, but even western Eurpe, France, Germany, etc, are afraid that if All Albanias are united in to one albania, they will take over the balkans, and begin going north, slovakia, etc. All the people may vanish, the Albanians shall live on.
Day after day, the U.S.A: United States Of Albania get more powerful, the day will come all the albanian states WILL BECOME ONE NATION, and sorry to say but, greeks, serbs, etc better get prepared.

This is a joke, you albanians really think you can take all this neighbouring land, just by yourselevs, your mad!

maybe you will take kosovo and half of fyrom but thats it, but then if serbia decided to attack back cause of kosovo then your ****ed! what are you gonna do then?

ti malakes einai afti h albani, astous na'rthoune sthn ellada mas kai tha thoume th tha yini!

When i was a yougn boy, my grandpa told me, what goes around comes around. Which means the way Albania used to be 2000 years ago, i mean the borders, it will soon be



........hahahahhahahahah omg! are you faucking serious 2000 years ago!!!!!!!!! are you on crak cause i think most albos are 2000 is a very long time my dumb lil shiptar friends do you know how many people have conquerd you and mixed with you since then????? dp you think you are pure illrians ahahahah you peep need to get a life us slavs serbs makos bugars bosnians have been on that land since 6th century do you realy think we will just hand our land over to you? im sorry but i gotta say no other country in the world is even imagining to put there country togethere how it was 2000 years ago.... you guys are pathetic.

WHY KOSOVO? FOLLOW THE MONEY!
When the Kosovo war broke out, and the "Allies" took up the cause of that Albanian terrorist gang known as the Kosovo Liberation Army, Antiwar.com received a lot of email from baffled readers who wondered: "Why Kosovo?" Here was an impoverished and isolated country in a notoriously unstable region of the world, without any strategic or military value to the US, the conquest of which could only add to our burdens. Virtually none of my correspondents believed the official explanation – that the Milosevic regime was slaughtering tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians in the province, and was determined to "cleanse" Kosovo so that it would be ethnically Serb. Since the inhabitants of Kosovo were then more than 90 percent Albanians, this would have meant the complete depopulation of the province – a policy that made absolutely no economic or political sense. The supposedly "humanitarian" motives of the NATO-crats were a fraud from the very beginning, it was clear, and in any case their fraudulence was proved after the war when UN forensic experts went in and recovered and identified a little over 2,000 bodies (including Serbs). But this only deepened the mystery, and the question went unanswered: why Kosovo, of all places, the closest thing to a Third World country in all of Europe? Over a year after the "humanitarians" bombed Belgrade and reduced much of Yugoslavia to rubble, the answer is beginning to take shape. . . .




THE $13 BILLION DOOR PRIZE
Yesterday 900 British, Danish, and French troops moved in to take over the Trepca complex of mines in the northern city of Mitrovice – and were met with determined resistance by hundreds of mine workers. Hurling rocks, sticks, and stones, and wielding the tools of their trade as weapons, Serbs downed four Brits, shouting their defiance at this escalation of NATO's war on the last Serbs left in Kosovo. For the Trepca mining complex is an ancient treasure, mined by the Greeks, the Romans, the Turks, and is the richest source of lead and zinc in Europe. There is enough lignite deposits in those mines to last for the next 13 centuries. The capacity of Trepca's refineries ranks third worldwide. The now-deposed mine director reported that "in the last three years we have mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore and produced 286,502 tons of lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and gold." We don't need to ask why this action was taken: we have only to note Trepca's estimated value – over $13 billion. What else do we need to know?

ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT LIES
Naturally, they couldn't just go in there, and grab Kosovo's crown jewels, without coming up with a politically correct rationale. Leave it to "Unmik," the acronymic tyranny set up by the NATO-crats to administer their conquered province, to come up with the most transparent lie imaginable – albeit one that, in its sheer ludicrousness, will appeal to such enthusiasts of the Kosovo war as the German Greens and their even flakier American counterparts. According to a report from MSNBC, French spokesman Colonel Henry Aussavy solemnly declared: "We've noted a significant increase in the level of lead in the air, which was dangerous for the people of Mitrovica and for KFOR (NATO-led) troops. We had to react."

THE ARROGANCE OF POWER
Let's see if I get this straight: after a year and some months of organized ethnic cleansing by the Kosovar Albanians against the defeated Serbs – as NATO not only stood by but actively aided the KLA's campaign for a Serb-free Kosovo – Unmik finally decides to react: not, mind you, to the murder, rape, and pillaging of Kosovo's embattled Serb communities, but to the alleged threat of air pollution. Do these people even care if anyone believes their lies? I don't think so. Real power means that your lies don't even have to be convincing. It means further humiliating your victims – in the process of beating them to the ground and robbing them blind – by constructing the flimsiest of pretexts, the more absurd the better.

DUBIOUS DIAGNOSIS
While the UN bureaucrats insisted that air samples indicated levels of pollution 200 times above World Health Organization standards, the Serbs counter that their measurements indicate ".12 milligrams of lead per cubic metre (permitted level .15 mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted level .4 mg), copper .004 mg (permitted level .01 mg), iron .002 mg (permitted level .2 mg), etc." As to the medical rationale for this brazen act of thievery, doctors from the local hospital were more than skeptical about the veracity of the NATO-crats' diagnosis. Dr. Radoslav Jankovic wryly observed that "we haven't had a patient with a toxicology problem for years. Today only soldiers and Unmik police officers suffer problems of lead in the blood."

THE MONEY TRAIL
Are you beginning to see the answer to "why Kosovo?" A $13 billion prize – but who gets to claim it? Trepca was state-owned under Yugoslav suzerainty, but now it will be "privatized" and sold off to Western investors. In this context, it is important to realize just whom we are talking about. . . .

THE SOROS CONNECTION
When George Soros invested $150 million in the region – most of it backed up by fail-safe US government guarantees – he declared that this was not strictly a humanitarian effort. While known for his philanthropy, Soros said that in the case of his Balkan investments he would be guided by the concept of "tough love" and insisted that the new enterprise must be "driven purely by profit." With $100 million of the US taxpayers' money in his pocket, Soros and his gang are swooping down on the prostrate body of the Serbian nation like vultures feeding on the liver of Prometheus – the Titan of Greek mythology who stole fire from the depths of the earth and gave it to mankind. The Titans, a subterranean race, were the first miners, who taught their metal-smelting techniques to mortal men and were punished for the sin of such extravagant gift-giving, were obliterated by the gods of Olympus. Our own Olympians seem determined to visit a similar fate on the Serbs – who, for their part, seem to be guilty only of getting between George Soros and $13 billion.

JOHNSTONE'S PREDICTION
That the NATO-crats dare to invoke such a pathetic pretext for their plundering is not exactly astonishing. These people are moral monsters, after all, who would have reduced Belgrade to a smoking ruin if they hadn't been too afraid of the political consequences – and they may do so yet. What is truly astonishing is that all this was predicted, down to the details, back in February by Diana Johnstone, in a remarkably prescient article on Emperors-Clothes.com, in which she foretold not only the expropriation of the Trepca complex, but also exposed Soros as the source of the scheme. Analyzing two key documents – a November 1999 International Crisis Group (ICG) paper on the Trepca mining complex, and a February 2000 article in the Toronto Star by ICG consultant Susan Blaustein – Johnstone saw it all coming, and with such stunning accuracy that one can hardly believe that her piece wasn't written yesterday. What is especially revealing is the role of the International Crisis Group in fomenting the takeover of Trepca – and the role of Soros as the ICG's main sugar-daddy. In its report, the ICG drools at the prospect of having such a rich prize fall into its benefactor's hands. As Johnstone relates:

"In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is advised to instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the status of the equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be taken'... Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and deprive the last Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood. Meanwhile, 'Stari Trg, one of the richest mines in Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority for donors interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.'"

PHILANTHROPY FOR FUN – AND PROFIT
Chief among these "donors" is none other than Soros, who now expects to be paid back for his "philanthropy" – with interest. Trepca can be profitable again, but the question is: for whom. Trepca seems to have fallen into Soros's lap – or was it pushed there? Another interesting aspect of this whole affair is that the seizure of the Trepca complex by NATO forces is part of the Sorosian "business strategy" designed to forestall and ultimately nullify the claims of two European companies derived from contracts signed with the Serbs. As the ICG report puts it:

"In July 1999, shortly after the conquest of Kosovo, one Jean-Pierre Rozan showed up claiming that 2.8% ownership of Trepca belonged to the Paris-based SCMM, of which he was a director. Rozan's claim was based on an agreement with Belgrade, in which SCMM took over Jugobanka's subsidiary in Kosovo as a result of Belgrade's default.

SOROSIAN ETHNIC CLEANSING
The ICG derides the Société Commerciale de Métaux et de Minéraux (SCMM) claim as being without foundation on the somewhat questionable grounds that the French government is giving it no backing. But just in case this is not enough, they throw another factor into their argument that Rozan's claim must be summarily dismissed. This being Kosovo, there is an ethnic angle in all this, underscored by the ICG report,

"Some Kosovar Albanians, always ready to believe in a conspiracy however unlikely, are prepared to perceive SCMM as part of a wider Franco-Serbian understanding, which incorporates French KFOR acquiescence in the partition of Mitrovicë, French economic interests in Trepca, and even the appointment of Dr Bernard Kouchner himself as head of UNMIK and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General. The recent award of a GSM telecommunications concession, regardless of the transparency of the process, to French company Alcatel, has fueled the suspicions of such conspiracy-theorists."

OUR CONSPIRACY THEORIES, AND THEIRS
Soros and his hired hands have an inherent hostility to "conspiracy theorists," quite naturally, but that doesn't stop them from placing the blame for everything that goes wrong in the Balkans on Slobodan Milosevic

"To other veteran observers of the Balkans, however, the involvement of SCMM looks like a Miloševic-style attempt to create a diversion (including by encouraging exactly that Balkan and Kosovar propensity for conspiracy-identification outlined above), and confuse the thinking of international officials charged with working out the problem. By putting this and other claims to due process of arbitration, and meanwhile getting on with what needs to be done, the problem can be neatly sidestepped. "

ARREST THAT MAN!
How's that for a conspiracy theory? SCMM's claims are all part of a plot by Milosevic to "create a diversion." How convenient for Soros & Company that their chief competitors turn out to be enemy agents. Now that the NATO-crats have definitively settled the question of the ownership of the Trepca mines by force of arms, the next logical step is to lock up Monsieur Rozan and be done with it. In any case, it is clear that the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo will be carried out in the mines, if the ICG has anything to say about it. The author of the ICG report notes with some irritation that:

"The UNMIK regional office in Mitrovica meanwhile occupies the Jugobanka building and continues to display Jugobanka insignia in the very meeting room to which Kosovars are invited to discuss Trepca – some report that they feel uneasy in such surroundings. Rozan, as 'owner' of Jugobanka and the building, is demanding rent, which UNMIK has refused to pay."

OUR ORWELLIAN AGE
Who cares about property rights when those poor sensitive souls, the Kosovars, reportedly feel "uncomfortable" in close proximity to anything Serbian, even a company logo. The ICG is basically making the argument that the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo must be completed: not only churches and other historical monuments must be destroyed – and there is hardly a Serbian church left standing in Kosovo – but everything Serbian must go. The ICG describes itself as a "private, multinational" organization devoted to strengthening the capacity of the international community to anticipate, understand and act to contain and prevent conflict." In our Orwellian age this means a government-connected tool of corporate plunderers devoted to anticipating the profits to be made from military conflict, and acting to furthering the interests of war profiteers.

THE GREEK CLAIM
Another company, the Greek firm of Mytineleos, has a claim through contracts with Yugoslav companies to market Trepca's lead and zinc, and this claim is going to be "a harder problem than SCMM for UNMIK" as the ICG report admits. With close ties to the Greek government, and a sterling international track record for solidity and performance, Mytineleos can make a strong case. The report also somewhat reluctantly notes that

"UNMIK cannot simply ignore claims which may be genuine, and the UN legal advisers in New York have concluded that the rights of claimants like Mytilineos must go to adjudication. The question arises as to which court. So far that is left in abeyance, as is the nature of the legal proceedings themselves. If all other decisions are left to depend upon the resolution of this issue, it could be many years before Trepca starts working again."

A PROBLEM NEATLY SOLVED
The military occupation of Trepca solves Soros's two major problems by arrogating de facto ownership of the mines to "the international community" embodied by Unmik – and deftly sidelines the French and the Greeks. Never mind the legal technicalities, and the risks of adjudication: just go in there and grab it! This is how the much-vaunted "Third Way" between socialism and capitalism, touted by the Clintonians and their British Laborite first cousins, works in practice. First, you invade a country; then you strip it of its assets, and sell them off to your politically connected friends, such as Soros – this is called "privatization," but there is nothing "private" about it. The source of Soros's Balkan coup is government power: the armed fist of the State, and not the invisible hand of the market. As the declared enemy of laissez-faire capitalism, which he rails against in several unbearably pretentious books, Soros practices what he preaches: using NATO and the UN as his instruments, he profits from the plundering of a proud nation – while his bought-and-paid-for shills rationalize the schemes of this modern Visigoth in the name of "humanitarianism" and "multiculturalism."

It kind of makes you want to puke, doesn't it?

A QUESTION NEATLY ANSWERED
For years, Soros funded the American Committee to Save Bosnia, the Balkan Action Council, and a plethora of other groups devoted to persuading US policy makers that nothing less than American military intervention in the region could save the Kosovar Albanians from "genocide." Soros himself spoke out on the issue, and chided the West for "appeasing" the Serbs. Now comes the payoff. Trepca is his, or will be shortly. So we have finally come up with the answer to the question that has been haunting us for over a year: why Kosovo? The answer consists of two words: George Soros. All you would-be tycoons out there, take heed: If you want to know what investment strategy to follow in era of the Third Way, then Soros has certainly set the example

this aritcle is from 1 of ur american brothers.............

In the midst of conflicts in Southwest Asia and the Middle East, I cannot help but wonder: Whatever happened to the Balkans?


We Americans spent more than a decade listening to and watching CNN and BBC clips of the war-torn region and the countless war crimes that had taken place at the hands of various ethnic groups.


What about Kosovo? A 78-day bombing campaign was undertaken to "liberate Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population" from the hands of "terror-invoking Serbs."


Why was there no media follow- up of the accomplishments of peace-loving and newly liberated Kosovo Albanians? Quite simply, because there are no accomplishments.


Could it be because the international community made a grave mistake and has now found itself in a quagmire with no solution in sight? Is it possible that some of the very people NATO was trying to "protect" have turned out, in fact, to be terrorists? Yes!


After spending a grueling 27 months working in Serbia's Kosovo province, I learned and witnessed far more than I had bargained for. Although I was fully versed in the rich and blood- soaked history of the region, I was not prepared for all that took place.


Albanian rebel offensives resulted in bus explosions of NATO- escorted civilian convoys, brutal murders of civilians tending their fields, random sniper attacks, shootings of children swimming in lakes, night beatings and torture of the elderly, and arson - all against Serbian civilians and all under the watchful eyes of the U.S. and international community.


I once asked a NATO commanding general why ethnic Albanian extremists were not unmasked for what they truly are - bloodthirsty, war-waging terrorists. He looked at me, paused, and replied, "How do you begin to go against the very group you supposedly came to help? We obviously did not know who we were dealing with. We bombed the wrong side."


I stared at him in disbelief while he merely looked down at his freshly shined boots, straightened his shoulders and turned to walk away. Not quite the response I had expected.


Observations in Kosovo recorded chilling acts from the "peacekeepers" as well. Germany's military contingent used bright yellow tape to mark large Xs on Serbian homes throughout their designated area of responsibility. Similar to the 1940s Nazi-style branding of Jews and other minorities deemed unworthy of life.


Strangely enough, I was the only one who questioned this and personally brought it to the attention of a senior member of the U.S. Army Command Group.


But let's focus on something near and dear to all Americans: attacks on U.S. Army and media personnel. While on a border patrol, monitoring Albanian rebel insurgency, the U.S. unit I was working with came under direct mortar fire in a village named Krivenik. An Associated Press journalist, Kerim Lawton, was seriously injured. I administered first aid and attempted to stop the bleeding from the dozens of shrapnel wounds he incurred, to no avail. He died shortly afterward.


How was this incident portrayed to the media? In a noncommittal diplomatic fashion, officials announced that, "An investigation will take place as to the day's chain of events," from all sides, U.S. Army, NATO and U.N.


Does this seem all too familiar? Is this not mere repetition of scenarios that got the United States involved in both Bosnia and Kosovo in the first place - only later to discover that "smoking gun" incidences were staged? It is interesting how concrete evidence has surfaced, that incidences were staged by the very groups claiming to have been wronged.


Perhaps the international community should be more forthcoming as to who the real Balkans' terrorists are and how they are draining our tax dollars, manpower and resources.


The public has a right to know what is happening in the Balkans

listen shiptar... that is not you land can i ask if you know what time period was the 6th 7th century? can i ask how long ago were ancient macedonians and ancient greeks and illrians? do you have any logic? no 1 anymore has the exact borders of the past... and if you are pure illrians which you are not, i mean after thousands of years of slav domination turkish domination and greek you are tellin me that you are not some sort of mix???? the slav never took your land we simply invaded and sadly mixed with you.......answere me this if you know somthing about illlrians i though illrians were tall warlike people which we know the only tall albanians are the ones in montenegro that have been mixed with slavs, come on man the avrege albanian is like 5"8 ,the greter albania agenda is nothing but a albanian mafioso dream we know that many albanians moved to italy in the 1940s and 1960s and they have been dealin in wepons drugs and prostution ever since, the greter albania dream was created by the nazis to distbalize the region we know this and its a fact. and also can ask why america has helped you out , i will tell you why because kosovo makes a 13 billion a year from its natural resources this is enogh for the albanian mafia and freedom fighters like ucka and kla to make a huge proffit i should call them terrorists. most of the albanian community is brainwashed by the greter albania dream and does not see the hidden agenda basicly you are brainwashed my friend and you dont even know it. serbia did not 1 day just decide "o what the hek lets go kill albos in kosovo"............ no my friend that was in retalition of the constant abuse and murders by albanians , can i ask how come there is no serbs in albania or no more serbs in kosovo or even less and less macedonians in western macedonia??? or even in greece less and less greeks over there more and more albanians whats goin on here???? ANSWERE THESE QESTIONS! how come you say in macedonia you have no rights and you say you want to live side by side with macedonians when you have just as many equal rights as them how come the macedonians are moving sellin there houses???? answere me
how come in the city of ttovo in the year 95 the albanian population consited of 30% albaniand 70 % macedonians how come now its the other way around? answere me.....you are the mexico of europe you will cause a major war if this keeps up, you need to stop living in 400ad
and welcome urself in the 21st century, answere me these qestions and we will see who is right.

4 ever motha fkaaas

and the final pice of the puzzel!!!!!!!!!!!




read!!!!!!!!!!! read!!!!!!!! alll about it!


The practical implementation of the Greater Albania ideology was achieved during World War II when Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini established a German/Italian sponsored Albanian state which incorporated Western Macedonia, Illirida, Kosovo-Metohija, Kosova, and southern Montenegro. Hitler and Mussolini set the historical and political precedent for the creation of Greater Albania which existed from 1941 to 1944. The Orthodox Slavic populations, the Roma and Jewish populations were to be exterminated and deported. Albanian was made the official language in Kosovo, Western Macedonia, and southern Montenegro. The Albanian Lek was introduced as the official currency. The Albanian national flag, a double-headed black eagle on a red background, was raised in the occupied areas. Hitler and Mussolini had achieved a Greater or Ethnic Albania. The UCK, the so-called Albanian Liberation Army, known also by the acronyms the NLA/KLA/ANA/KPC/LAPMB, seeks to re-establish and to re-create the Greater Albania first created by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The agenda, the goals, and the objectives of the UCK are identical to those of the ideologues of Greater Albania during World War II who created a Greater Albania in Western Macedonia, Kosovo-Metohija, and southern Montenegro. Western Macedonia and the city of Tetovo are integral and inseparable components or parts of the Greater Albania ideology. Greater Albania would be incomplete without Western Macedonia. What is being witnessed in Kosovo and in Macedonia today is a repeat or replay of what occurred during World War II, when Hitler and Mussolini established Greater Albania.


Tetovo during World War II: Italian Occupation, 1941-1943

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini established Greater Albania in 1941 following the occupation and dismemberment of Yugoslavia. On April 6, 1941, Germany and allies Italy, Albania, Hungary, and Bulgaria invaded Yugoslavia in Operation Punishment. Yugoslavia was subsequently occupied and dismembered. Hitler and Mussolini then sponsored a Greater Albanian state which included territory from Western Macedonia, Kosovo-Metohija, and southern Montenegro.

Tetovo became a part of Albania. The borders of Albania were enlarged to include not only Tetovo or Tetova in Albanian, but all of Western Macedonia (Illirida), Kosovo-Metohija, and regions of Montenegro. Present-day Macedonia (FYROM) was divided between Albania and Bulgaria. Tetovo was in the Italian zone of occupation until September 3,1943, when Italy surrendered and Germany re-occupied Macedonia. Ethnic Albanians in Macedonia formed the National Albanian Committee to advance the Greater Albania movement and agenda. The Balli Kombetar (BK, National Union) was formed by Midhat Frasheri and Ali Klissura to advance the Greater Albania ideology or cause. The Slavic Orthodox populations were targeted for deportation or murder. The Jews and Roma were similarly to be deported or killed.

Hitler and Mussolini had given the ethnic Albanians Greater Albania. In August, 1941, the Italian occupation forces in Tetovo established a prison for prisoners of war. The Italian occupation authorities gave the civil authority and administration to the Albanian population. All Albanian-inhabited territories, Western Macedonia, Illirida, Kosovo-Metohija, Kosova, and southern Montenegro, were integrated completely into Albania proper. Albanian language schools, an Albanian press, an Albanian radio network were established and an Albanian governmental and political administration was created. Vulnetara, an Albanian paramilitary formation, was organized. Albanian police units were established by the Italian occupation force. Albanian became the official language as Western Macedonia or Illirida became a part of Albania. The Albanian national flag, the double-headed black eagle on a red background, was raised in Tetovo and other cities and towns in Western Macedonia. The Albanian Lek was introduced as the official currency. Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Debar, and Kichevo were the key municipalities and districts in Western Macedonia incorporated into Albania, a Greater Albania. Eastern Macedonia was occupied by Bulgarian military forces.

Macedonia was divided between Albania and Bulgaria. Hitler and Mussolini sought to delineate the borders between Greater Albania and Greater Bulgaria. The Albanians and their Italian sponsors wanted to enlarge the borders of Albania eastward encroaching on Bulgarian occupied territory. The Bulgarians sought to expand westward. On April 20 and 21, 1941, the German foreign minister, Joachim Ribbentrop, and the Italian foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, met in Vienna to discuss the Bulgarian occupation zone and the enlargement of the borders of Greater Albania eastward. Ribbentrop emphasized the importance of the mines in Kosovo-Metohija and Macedonia that were vital to the strategic interests of Germany. The German and Italian supreme commands reached an agreement on the final demarcation line in Macedonia. Hitler approved the agreement on April 25. The agreement was tentative, however, and was not a final, complete agreement on demarcation lines. The agreement was abandoned later as Italy and Bulgaria could not agree on a border between their two occupation zones in Macedonia and Kosovo-Metohija. Later in 1941, the two sides were able to reach an understanding on where the border should be.

The Italian occupation forces appointed Albanian Dzaferi Sulejmani the president of the Tetovo district. The vice-president was Albanian Munir Tevshana who had come from Albania. Later, Zejnel Starova and Shaib Kamberi replaced him. Kamberi worked for the Italian intelligence service. Selim Shaipi was the representative for Tetovo and was the leader of the Albanian youth movement. Shaipi was also a representative of the Second League of Prizren and was the president of the Third Balli Kombetar Committee. Shaipi fled with the German Army when Tetovo was evacuated in 1944. Husein Derala was made the commander of the gendarmes units in Tetovo by the Italian occupation forces.

The Albanian administration targeted the Orthodox, Slavic populations for elimination, disenfranchisement, de-recognition, and expulsion. Feyzi Alizoti called for the extermination and deportation of non-Muslims. The Greater Albania ideology was anti-Orthodox, anti-Slavic in nature, and atrocities, deportations, and murders were committed against the Slavic, Orthodox populations. Josip Kovac, a Slovenian who was placed in charge of the Tetovo hospital by the Axis forces, described the anti-Orthodox, anti-Christian, anti-Slavic activity of Alizoti as follows:

There were exceptionally hard times in the annexed areas of Western Macedonia and Kosovo-Metohija when Fejzi Alizoti, the High Commissioner, visited. He gave a speech in Tetovo that demanded the annihilation of the non-Muslim communities. Publicly and openly he stated that there will be no peace until the last foreigner---Orthodox Christians---leaves his territory and settles across the border and only ethnic Albanians are left behind. Following his visit, the situation deteriorated and became unbearable for all non-Muslims.

The Italian military intelligence service, OVRA, formed an independent battalion in occupied Tetovo. The battalion was named “Ljuboten”, a special unit made up of ethnic Albanians in the Tetovo region. This Italian-created Albanian Axis unit was to uncover, question, and annihilate any resistance to the occupation. After the surrender of Italy in 1943, the German forces retained this Albanian formation allowing the unit to keep their Italian-issued uniforms and weapons. Members of the Balli Kombetar later joined the Ljuboten battalion. At the end of 1943, the Ljuboten unit was engaged in the attack on Kichevo in Macedonia.

The Italian occupation of Western Macedonia allowed the Albanian population to create an ethnic Albanian-ruled region. Albanian police and paramilitary units were formed as a proxy army by the Italian forces. The civil administration was entrusted by the Italians to Albanian leaders. Albanian became the official language;the civil and police administration was taken over by ethnic Albanians; Albanian schools, newspapers, and radio stations were established. Tetovo became Tetova, an Albanian Muslim city in the newly-expanded Albanian state.

Early History

From the 14th century, Tetovo has been an Orthodox Slavic settlement founded around the Orthodox Church of Sveta Bogorodica (Saint Mother of God)near the mountain source of the Pena river in the Polog valley. Sveta Bogorodica was built in the 13th century when Tetovo began to be regarded as a major Orthodox Church center. Tetovo was the first center of the Orthodox episcopate. The oldest settlement in Tetovo is the region around the Sveta Bogorodica Orthodox Church. The modern city of Tetovo grew from this small medieval Orthodox Slavic settlement of Htetovo with the building and construction of houses around the Orthodox Church.



The Ottoman Turkish Muslim Empire invaded and occupied present-day Macedonia beginning in the 14th century. The Muslim Turks began settling and colonizing Macedonia with Turkish settlers. The Ottoman Turks began the Turkification and Islamicization of Macedonia. The Ottoman Turks altered the Orthodox Slavic nature of Tetovo, which in Turkish was renamed Kalkandele. The Ottoman Turks began settling the level lowlands of Tetovo. The Colored or Painted Mosque (Aladzha or Sharena Dzamija), also known as the Pasha Mosque, was built in 1459 by the Ottoman Turks. The earlier Slavic Orthodox population concentration in Tetovo was on the high ground and on the foothills of the Shar Planina or Mountain range.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the city began to expand greatly. The city was divided into the Orthodox Slavic quarter and the Muslim Turkish quarter. The Orthodox Slavic quarter or section was on the left side, on the Pena River, made up of the Potok, Dva Bresta, Koltuk, Sveti Nikola, Dol, Pevchina, and Dolno regions. The Turkish Muslim quarter or section included the following regions: The Colored Mosque (Sharena Dzamija) region, Banja, Gorna Charshija, Gamgan, and Saat. After World War II, the ethnic mosaic of the city changed with the displacement of the Serbian Orthodox and Turkish Muslim populations. The city then acquired its present ethnic configuration of Macedonian Orthodox Slavs and Muslim Albanians. Different city subdivisions emerged. New settlements and districts were formed such as Przhova Bavcha, Tabakaana, Gazaana, the Teteks textile plant district, and the Boulevard “Boris Kidric”.

In the town of Leshok, which had been known as Legen Grad, in the Tetovo municipality, is located the Leshok Monastery which includes the Orthodox Church of the Holy Virgin built in 1326 and the Sveti Athanasius Orthodox Church built in 1924. The tomb of the Orthodox scholar Kiril Pejchinovic lies in the Leshok Monastery. The Church has three layers of frescoes: The lower layer was built in 1326, the middle layer was built in the 17th century, and the top layer was built in 1879. The Leshok Monastery symbolizes the Orthodox and Slavic presence in the region. The UCK separatists deliberately mined and demolished the Monastery in August, 2001, to eradicate and cleanse the Orthodox Slavic influence. Cultural cleansing is followed by the ethnic cleansing of the Orthodox Slavic population. The UCK has ethnically cleansed or driven out much of the non-Albanian population from the Tetovo district.

Tetovo and its population have undergone an evolution and development over the centuries. Like a palimpsest, a parchment that has been written upon over time but that leaves impressions made on earlier layers and substrata, the city of Tetovo has accumulated layers and strata of the different populations, religions, and cultures that have existed in the city. The city presents a palimpsest or mosaic of the differing populations and cultures that have not been erased but remain to reveal the development and growth of the city.

In the 15th century, Tetovo began to be regarded as a major city in the region. The Turkish writer Mehmed Beg in 1436 in the Vakuf noted that Tetovo had stores and shops and was one of the most prosperous regions in the Polog valley. In 1470, Mehmed Kebir Chelebija noted the rapid development of Tetovo. In 1565, under Ottoman Turkish rule and occupation, Tetovo was refereed to as the “episcopal religious place Htetovo”, an Orthodox religious center, the seat of the Orthodox Church and domicile of the Orthodox religious leader. Haji Kalfa in the 17th century noted in his writings that Kalkandele, the Turkish name for Tetovo, that the city was expanding.

In the 19th century, the population of Tetovo began to increase with settlement from the surrounding villages. The French traveler Ami Bue noted that the population was approximately 4,000-5,000 persons in the 1900s. Half of the population was made up of Orthodox Slavs. In the Turkish quarter, there were the upper and lower Turkish charshi and the Konaci of the wealthy Turkish begs. Many clean streets were noted by the travelers. A. Griezenbach estimated there were 1,500 houses or dwellings in the city. By the end of the 19th century, the population increased as Tetovo became an important trading center. In 1912, the population declined due to the migration of the Turkish population and their resettlement to Turkey.

A large garrison of Ottoman Turkish troops was stationed in Tetovo during the 19th century when the city was a major military/strategic base. During the latter half of the 19th century, Ottoman Turkey was referred to as “the sick man of Europe” because it could not maintain its occupation and colonies in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Ottoman Turkey suffered military defeats following the Bosnian Insurrection by the Serbian Orthodox populations of 1875 and the First Balkan War in 1912.

Herbert Vivian published his account of his travels to Macedonia in 1904 and offered his eyewitness accounts of Kalkandele (Tetovo) under Turkish rule. Vivian described Tetovo as follows:

Kalkandele is even more beautiful than most Turkish towns. Every house has its garden and a rippling rivulet, tall poplars and cypresses rise up beside the glistening minarets, storks’ nests, are poised upon the chimneys, weather-beaten wooden dwellings of fantastic shape are relieved by the gay arrangement, always artistic, of Turkish shops, and the women are among the most gorgeously attired in all Macedonia.

Vivian described the Macedonian system as a “semi-feudal system”. The landed estates are governed by chifji or seigneurs. The peasants have to pay a third of their crop every year in lieu of rent. Macedonians “lead a medieval life”. Vivian noted the tension between the Slavic Orthodox Christians and the Muslim Albanians. Muslims were allowed to own weapons, but Christians were forbidden to own any arms. Vivian explained:

This question of arms is one which exercises the Macedonians excessively. It is a standing grievance with the Christians that they are forbidden to possess arms, while the Albanians bristle with weapons.

Vivian observed the ethnic and religious polarization and animus between the Orthodox Slavic Christian population and the Muslim Albanian population. In Tetovo, he was a guest of the Serbian Orthodox Prota, or archdeacon. Vivian described the residence as follows:

His house was like a fortress. A high wall protected his smiling garden and huge doors were heavily barricaded at sundown. … I asked the cause of all these precautions, and was told much about the fanaticism of the population, who might at any time wish to raid a Christian household.

Albanian Muslims sought to incorporate Western Macedonia, Illirida, into a Greater Albanian state following the 1878 Albanian League of Prizren in Kosovo-Metohija, which enunciated the Greater Albania ideology. In 1912, Albanian insurgents seized and occupied Skopje itself, demanding that the Ottoman Turkish regime grant them a Greater Albania.



Settlement

In the 18th century, the population of Tetovo began to increase. Residents from the following surrounding villages and suburbs began to settle in Tetovo: Brodec, Lisec, Selce, Poroj, Shipkovica, Gajre, Zhelino, Dobri Dol, Zherovjane, Novake, Gorno Palchiste, Senokos, Kamenane, and Gradec. Macedonian Orthodox Slavs, Bektashi and Sunni Muslim Albanians, Sunni Muslim Turks, Orthodox Serbian, and Roma were the major population groups of the city. By the end of the 19th century, the population of Tetovo was 19,000. The Slavic Orthodox villages and towns in the Tetovo municipality or district included Vratnica, Staro Selo, Tearce, Leshok, Belovishte, Jegunovce, Rogachevo, and Neproshteno.

Tetovo or Htetovo was originally an Orthodox Slavic settlement. With the Ottoman Turkish conquest, the city was settled by Turks from Anatolia, Asia Minor, and Bulgaria. For much of its history, Tetovo was divided between the Orthodox Slavic section and a Muslim Turkish section. The majority of the Albanian settlement of Tetovo and the surrounding villages resulted due to the influx of Albanian migration and settlement from Albania. Albanian settlement is relatively recent and is due to Albanian migrations from Albania proper into the Polog valley. The Albanian migrations originated in the Albanian districts of Findi Berdita and Luma in Albania. Albanian migration and settlement in Tetovo and the surrounding villages from Albania began only in the 18th and 19th centuries. The massive, intensive migrations of Albanian settlers from Albania proper began slowly to alter the ethnic composition of the majority Orthodox Slavic city. Settlers also came from Kosovo-Metohija. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the Slavic Orthodox migrated out of Tetovo for economic and political reasons. The total Slavic Orthodox migration out of the city amounted to 5,500 during this period. During World War I, 2,000 left. After World War I, 5,000 Turks migrated to Turkey. Following World War II, another large group of Turks migrated out of the city. These migrations of Turks again changed the ethnic make-up of the city leaving the Orthodox Slavic and Albanian Muslim populations as the bulk of the population of the city.



Tetovo: German Occupation, 1943-44

The surrender of Italy on September 3,1943 forced Germany to re-occupy Tetovo and Western Macedonia. Germany organized the XXI Mountain Corps, led by General Paul Bader, made up of the 100th Jaeger Division, the 297th Infantry Division and the German 1st Mountain Division, to occupy the territory abandoned by the Italian forces. The German forces wanted to recruit and enlist ethnic Albanians into proxy armies that would assist the German occupation. The Germans retained the Albanian “Ljuboten” battalion initially formed by the Italian occupation forces. The Waffen SS sought to incorporate the Albanian manpower of the region into Waffen SS formations, as a German/SS proxy army to maintain the military occupation of the Orthodox Slavic populations. In 1943, the German occupation authorities sponsored the formation of the Second League of Prizren, reviving the 1878 League. The Germans sought to use the racist, extremist, anti-democratic, anti-Orthodox, anti-Slavic agenda of the Greater Albania ideology to maintain and support their occupation of Kosovo and Western Macedonia. Bedri Pejani, the president of the central committee of the Second League of Prizren, a militant and extremist Greater Albania ideologue, even wrote Himmler personally to request his assistance in establishing a Greater Albania and volunteering Albanian troops to work jointly with the Waffen SS and German Wehrmacht. Himmler read the Pejani letter and agreed to form two ethnic Albanian Waffen SS Divisions. Like Hitler and Mussolini, Himmler became an active sponsor of the Greater Albania ideology.

On April 17, 1944, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler approved the formation of an Albanian Waffen SS Division, which was then subsequently approved by Adolf Hitler. The SS Main Office envisioned an Albanian division of 10,000 troops. The Balli Kombetar, the Albanian Committees, and the Second League of Prizren submitted the names of 11,398 recruits for the division. Of these, 9,275 were adjudged to be suitable for drafting into the Waffen SS. Of this number, 6,491 ethnic Albanians were actually drafted into the Waffen SS. A reinforced battalion of approximately 200-300 ethnic Albanians, the III/Waffen Gebirgsjaeger Regiment 50, serving in the Bosnian Muslim 13th Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS “Handzar” or “Handschar” were transferred to the newly forming division. To this Albanian core were added veteran German troops from Austria and Volksdeutsche officers, NCOS, and enlisted men. The total strength of the Albanian Waffen SS Division would be 8,500-9,000 men.

The official designation of the division would be 21. Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS “Skanderbeg” (Albanische Nr.1). Himmler planned to form a second Albanian division, Albanische Nr. 2. The SS Main Office designed a special arm patch for the division, consisting of a black, double-headed eagle on a red background, the national flag/symbol for Albania. The UCK/KLA/NLA/ANA/LAMBP would have an identical arm patch in their separatist/terrorist war for “greater rights” and “human rights” in the 1998/99 Kosovo conflict and the “insurgency” in Macedonia in 2001.The SS Main Office also designed a strip with the word “Skanderbeg” embroidered across it as well as a gray skullcap with the Totenkopf (Death’s Head) insignia of the SS below the Hoheitszeichen (the national symbol of Nazi Germany, consisting of a silver eagle over a Nazi swastika). Josef Fitzhum, the SS leader in Albania, commanded the division during the formation stages. In June, 1944, August Schmidhuber, the SS Stardartenfuehrer in the 7th SS Division “Prinz Eugen”, was transferred to command the division. Alfred Graf commanded the division in August and subsequently when the division was reorganized.

The 21st SS Skanderbeg Division indiscriminately massacred Serbian Orthodox civilians in Kosovo-Metohija, forcing 10,000 Kosovo Serbian Orthodox families to flee Kosovo. Albanian colonists and settlers from northern Albania then took over the lands and homes of the displaced/cleansed Serbian Orthodox Slavs. The goal of the Skanderbeg SS division was to create a Serbien frei and Juden frei and Roma frei Kosova, an ethnically pure and homogenous region of Greater Albania. In Illirida, or Western Macedonia, the Skanderbeg SS Division sought to create a Macedonian frei, Orthodox frei, Slavic frei region. The Albanian SS troops played a key role in the Holocaust, the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem, which the sponsor of the Greater Albania ideology, Heinrich Himmler, organized. On May 14, 1944, the Skanderbeg SS Division raided Kosovo Jewish homes and businesses in Pristina. The Albanian SS troops acting as a proxy for the German occupation forces rounded up 281 Kosovo Jews who were subsequently killed at Bergen-Belsen. The Skanderbeg SS Division targeted Macedonian Orthodox Slavs, Serbian Orthodox Slavs, Roma, and Jews when the division occupied Tetovo and Skopje and other towns and cities in Western Macedonia. The goal and agenda of the ethnic Albanian Skanderbeg Waffen SS Division was to advance the Greater Albania ideology by deporting and killing the non-Albanian populations of Western Macedonia.

The Skanderbeg SS Division was formed at a time in the war when Germany was retreating and withdrawing its forces from the Balkans. The Russian Red Army was inflicting severe losses on the German military forces. By November, 1944, the Germans were withdrawing their forces from the Aegean islands and from Greece. At this time, the Skanderbeg Division remnants were reorganized into Regimentgruppe 21. SS Gebirgs “Skanderbeg” when it was transferred to Skopje. The Kampfgruppe “Skanderbeg”, in conjunction with the 7th SS Mountain Division “Prinz Eugen”, defended the Vardar River valley in Macedonia to allow Alexander Loehr’s Army Group E to retreat from Greece and the Aegean. The Vardar Valley was crucial as an escape corridor for the retreating German military forces.

The Skanderbeg SS Division crossed into Macedonia and occupied Tetovo and Skopje in the early part of September, 1944. The purpose for the occupation was to garrison Macedonia and safeguard the retreat of German troops from Greece and the Aegean peninsula. By 1944, the German forces in the Balkans were in a defensive posture and were focusing their strategic efforts on a well-ordered retreat and withdrawal. The Bulgarian forces and the Italian forces had occupied Macedonia. The Bulgarian army continued to occupy Macedonia and their presence threatened the German retreat. The Skanderbeg SS Division occupied the Skopje and Kumanovo regions of Macedonia and the Preshevo and Bujanovac region of southern Serbia. The German XXI Mountain Corps was based in Tirana. The Germans also had the 181st Infantry Division at Lake Scutari and the 297 Infantry Division at Valona, both based in Albania, to prevent an Allied landing force in the Adriatic. The German XXI Mountain Corps crossed into Macedonia from Tirana, the capital of Albania and moved northward past Debar and the Tetovo and Gostivar area. By October 1, 1944, the 21st SS Division Skanderbeg then occupied Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. The first Regiment of the Skanderbeg Division occupied Tetovo. A Reconnaissance Battalion of Skanderbeg occupied Djakovica while a Signals Battalion occupied Prizen in Kosovo-Metohija. The Skanderbeg SS Division was based in the towns of Tetovo, Skopje, Prizren, Pec, Djakovica, Kosovska Mitrovica, Pristina, and Novi Pazar.

The SS ideology in forming “volunteer” Waffen SS Divisions of non-German nationalities was that the Waffen SS was advancing the cause of national liberation and national freedom for oppressed/repressed nationalities and aggrieved ethnic minorities. So the Waffen SS perceived itself as a military organization under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler which was made up of national “freedom fighters” advancing the cause of national liberation, freedom, and independence. NATO/US/EU would adopt the identical interventionist/occupation strategy or paradigm in the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict and the 2001 Macedonian conflict. The policy was divide and conquer. The SS exploited minorities and nationality groups in the various countries they sought to occupy and dismember. These oppressed/repressed national/ethnic groups and minorities were a natural Fifth Column in every country targeted for military occupation. Heinrich Himmler’s SS took on the cause of “liberation” and freedom/independence for oppressed/repressed minorities and nationality groups. Foremost amongst the groups for SS sponsorship were the ethnic Albanians in the Balkans and the Palestinians in the Middle East. Indeed, Palestinian national leader Haj Amin el Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, worked closely with Himmler and the SS and supported the Albanian and Bosnian Muslim aspirations to “independence” and separatism from Slavic Orthodox Christian countries. The SS argued that the countries the SS sought to occupy and dismember were “artificial” nations or states. But how is an artificial state to be defined and who was to make the conclusion? Germany itself was an “artificial” state established by Prussian leader Otto von Bismarck through military occupation and annexation. Germany consisted of many ethnic groups and many different religions. Bismarck launched wars against Denmark and Austria-Hungary to dismember those nations and to annex their territory to a Greater Germany. The creation of the artificial German state was through military force, through annexation and occupation, achieved by a Prussian military dictatorship and not through democratic means. Germany was thus itself an “artificial” state achieved through war by the Prussian army. National liberation of oppressed/repressed nationalities and minorities nevertheless remained the ideological basis for the Waffen SS. Later, this identical paradigm would be adopted by NATO/US/EU.

Heinrich Himmler was buttressed in his support of the Greater Albania ideology by Italian archeological research that purported to show that the Albanian Ghegs were of Aryan/Nordic origin, that they were the herrenmensch, the master race. Himmler planned to establish two ethnic Albanian Waffen SS Divisions but the war ended before this could be accomplished. This is the reason the Skanderbeg SS Division is referred to as the “Albanische Nr.1” in the SS records.

By January, 1945, remnants of the Skanderbeg Waffen SS Division would retreat to Kosovska Mitrovica in Kosovo and then to Brcko in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The Skanderbeg remnants would reach Austria in May, 1945, when Germany surrendered following the military and political collapse of the regime.



Albanian and German Occupation Forces in Macedonia

The German occupation forces retained the Albanian civil, political, military, and police control and administration of Western Macedonia. The Albanian national flag was flown, the official language was Albanian, and the Albanian Lek remained the official currency in Illirida. The Germans retained the incorporation of Western Macedonia and Kosovo-Metohija into a Greater Albania. Rejeb Bey Mitrovica, however, was replaced by Fikri Dine as the Prime Minister of the Greater Albanian state occupied by the German Wehrmacht. The Albanian Minister of the Interior was Dzafer Deva. Mustafa Kruja and Mehdi Bey Frasheri also held high positions in the Albanian regime. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who had replaced Reinhard Heydrich as the leader of the SD, was instrumental in setting up the Albanian Nazi Party, which replaced the Albanian Fascist Party that the Italian authorities had set up previously. Much of the civilian and military administration was exercised by ethnic Albanians during both the Italian and German occupations. In Tetovo, there was a total of 1,500 ethnic Albanian Waffen SS troops, members of the 1st Regiment of the Skanderbeg SS Division. In Gostivar, there were 1,000 Albanian SS troops, while in Struga there were 100, and 900 in Debar. In Kichevo, there were 1,500 Albanian SS troops. The total number of Albanian SS troops in Western Macedonia was 5,000. The Albanians made up the police force in Western Macedonia: In Tetovo, there were 16 members of the police force, in Gostivar 10, in Struga 11, in Debar 16, and in Kichevo, 5. There were a total of 5,500 members of the Balli Kombetar in Macedonia, 2,000 of which were based in Tetovo. There was a total of 250 Albanian gendarme units, or armed police units, in Tetovo. An Albanian Battalion for Security made up of 800 members was based in Tetovo. In addition, there were 80 Albanian finasi troops and border guards. The