HISTORY by Martin Essenberg
9th April 1999
The modern Albanians and the Croatians, are considered descendants of the Illyrians, an Indo-European people who settled the western part of the Balkan Peninsula at, or shortly after, the end of the Bronze Age (circa 1000 BC).
The Greeks established cities on the coast of Croatia in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, and in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC Macedonian kings conquered parts of it.
The Romans invaded what is now Albania In 168 BC and ruled it for more than five centuries.
The Romans invaded what is now Croatia in 35 BC and finally subdued it in 9 BC
Several Roman emperors were Albanian- namely, Claudius II, Aurelian, Diocletian, and Probus in the 3rd century AD, Constantine the Great in the 4th century (converted the Roman empire to Christianity), and Justinian in the 6th century.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the region that included Albania and Croatia became part of the Byzantine Empire the capital of which was Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey),
Croatia was conquered by the Avars- a Mongolian people- in the 6th century AD. During the 7th century, the Croats conquered the Avars; subsequently the Croats were conquered by the Franks. (Similarly with the Slovenes)
Between the 5th and 7th century migrating tribes of Bulgars (Bulgarians) and Serbs settled in the area and subsequently gave allegiance to the Byzantines.
Faced with the danger of assimilation, the Christian Albanians moved southward, concentrating mainly in the rugged mountain regions where they remained under the rule of the Byzantine Empire.
TO RECAP- at the 7th century
RELIGION in the 11th century
The Schism in the Christian church occurred in the 11th century - dividing it into Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox
During the 11th century the Moslem Seljuk Empire of Baghdad invaded Asia Minor. In 1071 they routed the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert.
The Ottomans emerged in history as leaders of those Turks who fought the Byzantines. The Ottoman dynasty took advantage of Byzantine weakness to secure booty by raids into and to expand by force at the expense of the declining Christian states to the west.
ALBANIA 7th to 15th Century
During the 11th and the 12th centuries Albania was over run by the Normans (Relatives of William the Conqueror who had conquered England in 1066),
In 1190, during a period of Byzantine weakness, the Albanians established an independent state that lasted until conquered by the Serbs in the 14th century
The Moslem Ottoman Turks invaded Albania at the end of the 14th century. The Albanians waged a successful 25-year struggle against Turkish occupation. Turkish expeditions were defeated in 1448 and in 1466. In 1468 Albania became part of the Ottoman Empire.
A large number of Albanians immigrated to Italy, and the majority of the population was forcibly converted to Islam.
Despite the conversion to Islam the Turks were never able to establish total control over Albania in nearly five centuries.
CROATIA 7th to 15th Century
In 925 Croatia became an independent kingdom that lasted until the end of the 11th century when it was taken over by Hungary.
SERBIA 7TH TO 15TH Century
The Serbs were united into the first kingdom of Serbia about 1168. Serbia gradually expanded until it controlled most of what are now Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, and Greece.
At the same time, however, the Moslem Ottoman Empire was also expanding. At Kosovo in 1389 a historic battle for the area occurred. The Ottoman Turks routed the Christian armies of Serbia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria there. Sporadic fighting, however, continued until 1459, when the Turks captured Smederevo, south of Belgrade. Serbia then came under direct Turkish rule, as did Bosnia.
The Moslem Ottomans continued to expand by moving across the Danube to conquer Hungary and besiege Vienna (1529)
Montenegro was Serbian territory that never was conquered by the Turks.
TO RECAP- at the end of the 15th century
THE BALKANS 16TH Century to 1918
The non-Turkish peoples of the empire fought for independence. Greece was the first country to do so in 1829. This was followed by revolts of the Serbs, Bulgars, and Albanians, as well as of the Armenians
ALBANIA 16th Century to 1918
During the period of the Albanian League (1878-81), the Albanians waged a heroic struggle to preserve their territorial integrity against encroachments from their neighbours and to win autonomy from Turkey.
On November 28, 1912, after a series of revolts against Turkey Albania proclaimed its independence. At the London Conference of December 1912, the Great Powers recognised Albania's independence and set its borders. The 1913 frontier demarcation excluded from Albania more than half its territory, including Kosovo and Çamëria, and about 40 percent of its people.
CROATIA 16th Century to 1918
Croatia remained with Hungary until 1849 when it came under the control of Austria. In 1867 it became part of the unified Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
SERBIA 16th Century to 1918
After 345 years of subjugation the Serbs were reunited. Beginning in 1804, they waged a nine-year revolt, but Turkey regained control in 1813. Two years later a second revolt occurred. Serbia was granted limited self-government although still under the Turks.
Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, Serbia gained greater autonomy, and the number of Turkish garrisons was reduced.
Further fighting by the Serbs resulted in total Turkish withdrawal from Serbia in 1867.
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Serbia and Russia allied to defeat Turkey in the Balkans. The 1878 Congress of Berlin recognised Serbian independence, but in effect made the country subservient to the Austrian Empire.
In 1885 Serbia declared war on Bulgaria. The Serbs were quickly routed but saved from conquest by Austrian intervention.
Serbian relations with Austria deteriorated badly during the so-called Pig War of 1905-1907,and worsened after 1908 when Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1912 and 1913 Serbia took an active part in the Balkan Wars, which gained it territory in Macedonia; it also received the district, of Novi Pazar and Kosovo-Mitohiyan. Austria now became alarmed by the growing strength of Serbia in the Balkans.
Tension was already extremely high on June 28, 1914, when the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and his wife were assassinated by a Serb nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, at Sarajevo, Bosnia.
The Austrian government, holding Serbia responsible, declared war and in August invaded Serbia. This started WW1
The Serbs repelled the invaders until October 1915, when Bulgaria also invaded. By December, the country had been occupied. The Serbian army and government fled to the Greek island of Corfu in 1916.
YUGOSLAVIA 1918 to 1945
The government in exile agreed to the terms of the Corfu Declaration calling for Slavic unity. In 1918, after the war, following the overthrow of the monarchy of Austria-Hungary, the leaders of Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro proclaimed the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929 (Land of the South Slavs).
During WW2 the German and Italian governments set up the pro-Fascist puppet state called the Ustasha regime. It encompassed much of Croatia and Bosnia and was headed by nationalists in Croatia.
Yugoslavs fought against each other during the remainder of the war. The Ustasha was reputedly worse than the German SS in their methods and hundreds of thousands of Serbs were killed.
NEW YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC
After the Axis defeat, a Yugoslav republic was declared, and Serbia became a constituent republic with limited powers.
Yugoslavia began to splinter in 1991. By the end of April 1992, the independence of four of the other republics was recognised, and Serbia and Montenegro were the only two unified republics remaining. They subsequently declared themselves the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but the international community refused to recognise the country and denied Serbia and Montenegro Yugoslavia's seat in the United Nations.
The BALKANS Today
The 3 main ethnic and religious divides that have lasted over 1200 years in the Balkans are the Albanians and the Croatians and Serbs. The Montenegrans are related to the Serbians. The Bosnians are split amongst the Serbs, Croatians and Moslems and do not exist now as a united people.
ALBANIANS
The Albanians have been around some 3000 years in the Balkans. They lost some of their territory to the Serbians in the 7th century and their religion to the Moslems in the 14th.
The vagaries of history have left them divided.
In addition to those in Albania several hundred thousand Albanians live in Greece, about 500,000 live in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and nearly 1.5 million live in the other countries of the former Yugoslavia, primarily in Kosovo and Montenegro.
CROATIANS
Originally related to the Albanians 3000 years ago the Croatians have gone along a separate path.
The land now known as Croatia has only been free for brief periods of History. They have been usually subject to foreign rulers.
The largely Roman Catholic Croatians now have a language which is closely related to Serbian but is written in the Roman alphabet, while the Greek Orthodox Serbians utilises the Cyrillic alphabet common among Slavic languages, particularly Greek Orthodox Russians.
SERBIANS
Originally invading the area in the 7th century the Greek Orthodox Serbians have been there 1200 years which is surely long enough to claim rights to exist in their lands.
THE PROBLEM
Many of the problems of the region stem from the numerous invasions that have occurred in the region over millennia.
Borders of regions have been made by conquest in the past. The most recent meddling in their borders was in 1913 when the European Great Powers created an Albanian state that left 40% of Albanians in other states. Most states in the region include many ethnic or religious groups. These groups have traditionally fought each other for at least a millennia.
War in the area is also a bloody affair. Wholesale slaughter of each others populace’s has often occurred on a regular basis. The Serbs did not introduce ethnic cleansing. It is a traditional method used in the Balkans by each culture to minimise cultural and religious contamination by other cultures.
In this modern world multiculturalism is seen as a method of reducing conflict between groups. The Albanians, Croatians, Serbians and others in this area have maintained their societies as intact as possible under difficult circumstances for several thousand years BECAUSE they do not accept the culture of others.
This surely is their right and if in so doing they continue to kill each other that is the price they pay to ensure that their societies will still exist in another 1000 years.
The Serbians are currently seen as the “bad guys”. In WW2 and previous wars it was the Serbians who were being massacred by the Croatians and the Albanians. There are no “bad guys” in the Balkans, just bad politics.
The NATO alliance in their moral arrogance is attempting to correct what they (the European powers) in their moral arrogance created in 1913.
In the guise of humanitarianism NATO will change the borders again and create a “diaspora” for the Kosovo Albanians from which most won’t return. They will bomb Serbia back into the stone age for behaviour that they themselves have forced.
This time the faults in this European meddling in the Balkans will be blamed not on them but on their “patsies” the USA. The new “final solution” to the Balkan problem will cause ongoing warfare and no doubt a new wave of retaliation against American embassies and people.
SOLUTIONS
For between 1200 years and 3000 years the Serbs, Croats, Albanian and related peoples have been living and fighting in this region. Most of their troubles have come from outside as foreign rulers imposed their will on the area.
Perhaps it about time they were left to it come what may. What right do new nations that count their existences in centuries or decades to tell them how to live or how to die.
The Western nations in particular have become interfering busy bodies unable to solve their own internal problems yet righteously and militarily telling others how to solve theirs.
WW1 an WW2 were largely western wars. Why should the Pot call the Kettle black