There is no greater challenge in the national life of the Serbs than the Albanian question and our relationship to it. At the same time, we can confidently state that there is no problem we understand less than the Albanians, their origin, development, and their relationship with the outside world, particularly their relationship with the Serbs. Yes, we are aware, we know that we have had many problems with the Albanians in the past 150 years, but the impression is that we have paid too little attention to analyzing our relations and have often been unprepared for each of their actions against the Serbian element.
A MASTERPIECE OF THE BRITISH CROWN
In our historiography, no one has addressed this issue at a high level, as historian Teodora Toleva did in Bulgaria, in her doctoral dissertation titled: The Influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the Creation of the Albanian Nation. However, even she covers only a brief period of about ten years (1896-1906), while it is clear that this issue existed before 1896 and especially afterward, following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. It is quite certain that the most powerful empire of the 19th century, the British Empire, played a key role in shaping this problem—the Albanian national question.
The final withdrawal of Turkey from our region found the Albanians ready, accepting new masters while serving the same purpose. On November 28, 1912, they declared their national program (which they adhere to this day), and they brought their national flag from London (sic!), which indicates that Britain was behind the Albanian national project all along, not just Austro-Hungary, as Toleva wrote.
The Albanian nation is the child, the masterpiece, of the British crown; a nation without a single monument or document in history, without a language, without a script, became a very important factor in the Balkans, which ultimately turned the entire Western world to its side in 1999.
FROM CORFU TO PANČIĆ’S PEAK
The British mentorship that began in the second half of the 19th century culminated at the very end of the 20th century when the British Prime Minister (according to his own admission) played the leading role in the relentless bombing of Serbia in 1999 and the subsequent occupation of part of our state territory, which continues to this day.
Supported primarily by the British crown, the Albanians created a unified ethnic space “from Corfu to Pančić’s Peak,” with the tendency to expand into the Raška region. This is the result of 150 years of reconfiguration of this part of the Balkans to the detriment of Serbian national interests, which was the main vector of British policy in this region.
On the other hand, the Albanians have proven to be absolutely cooperative. They obey their mentors without question, and so far, this has proven to be their great advantage. Many changes occurring within the Albanian body are the result of the Western factor’s need to suppress Serbian interests.
THE SUPREME FAITH – ALBANIANISM
At this moment, the Westernization of the Albanians is the dominant process. Although Albanians are predominantly of Islamic faith, today’s young generation mostly carries Westernized or at least non-Islamic names (Robert, Deborah, Valentina, Ulysses, etc.). In this way, Albanians seek (and succeed) to integrate more easily into “European values” and to facilitate their migration to Western Europe and America. For example, in Kosovo, there is now a very active movement for “returning to the faith of the ancestors,” i.e., the one that existed before Islamization, so people are converting from Islam to Catholicism daily. They themselves say that their supreme faith is “Albanianism,” and that religious affiliation comes after that.
DRUGS, WEAPONS, AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
In this way, the Albanians have formed a very strong diaspora; numerous, strong, and well-organized. The largest diaspora is in America, Switzerland, and Germany, but recently the most influential one has emerged, as you might guess—in the United Kingdom.
Since the formation of a new nation is an “expensive sport” and no one, not even the West, likes to reach into their own pockets, Albanians have been allowed to engage in very lucrative businesses, such as drug trafficking, weapons, and human trafficking. In recent decades, the diaspora in the United Kingdom has been at the forefront of these activities.
Albanian migrants are the most numerous among those heading to the “island.” In 2022 alone, over 12,000 Albanians arrived in Britain by boats across the Channel. If we add those who arrived by other means, we arrive at a figure of about 15,000 in just one year, in a year when then-British Prime Minister Sunak stated that Albania was a “safe, prosperous European country.” How many would have come if, by chance, Albania had been unstable, unsafe, and non-European?
ENGLAND UNDER INVASION?
The British government has begun to frown upon their presence and is trying to reduce their numbers, as their influence grows day by day. The recent British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, almost in desperation, cried out that “southern England is under invasion.”
In London, Albanians firmly control a €30 billion drug market. Since such “lucrative” businesses cannot operate without the tacit consent of the authorities, it is clear that this is a way of financing processes related to Kosovo and generally the Serbian-Albanian relations, which is indeed the dominant vector of British policy in this region.
To avoid giving the wrong impression that all Albanians in London stand on bridges and streets dealing drugs, it should be said that most of them work simple jobs, mainly as construction workers, but the biggest income is generated precisely through the aforementioned illegal businesses.
The money earned this way is invested (“laundered”) through various businesses in the Balkans, primarily in Kosovo and Albania, mainly through various low and high-rise construction projects. To reiterate, unlike the Serbian diaspora, the Albanian diaspora is quite compact and organized.
A MAYOR EDUCATED IN LONDON
Financially well-off, the Albanian diaspora in the United Kingdom also produces personnel who can be significant in diplomacy, public service, and politics. In this way, the Albanian national body is strengthened by raising the level of competence of public figures. The current mayor of Pristina, Përparim Rama, for example, is an architect educated in London.
All in all, we can conclude that, no matter how it might not seem so at first glance, the influence of the United Kingdom on the most important political developments we are facing is still significant. It was significant in the 19th century, it was especially significant during the communist dictatorship of Josip Broz when the Albanian nation experienced its flourishing, it was significant during the tragic 1990s, and it is significant today. And that influence traditionally does not align with Serbian national and state needs and interests. We should think about that.
