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Rapping with a proud Albanian

  • Mark Mardell
  • 31 Jan 08, 08:12 AM

This week Today and PM are broadcasting my radio reports on my Balkans trip. One of the frustrations of radio or TV is that you can find someone who has some very interesting things to say, but in the quest for balanced pieces reflecting the whole story I can only give them a half-minute or so of airtime. Here, I am not limited in that way. So, over the next few days I'll be posting four different stories about how people are reacting to the Serbian elections or the looming independence of Kosovo. They are not meant to be comprehensive or in themselves balanced: they are a snapshot. But I hope together they add up to a bigger picture.

Rapper's studio

Genc Prevlaka sits on a low, antique wooden stool playing a traditional Albanian wooden flute.
Genc playing an Albanian flute

In the corner of the small studio is a long necked guitar-like instrument which is a couple of centuries old.

Genc says he loves old things and traditions. We move from the studio to a control room-cum-chill-out room, bathed in a low, blue light.

The small but well-equipped studio is up a flight of stairs in a Pristina tower block.

Although Genc is proficient on the flute, he’s not best known as a folk musician but Kosovo’s premier rapper, now on his fifth album, his most famous song ‘Proud to be an Albanian’.

On the big studio computer we watch the video, an oddly successful mix of disparate images - Kosovo Liberation Army fighters, famous Albanians from Mother Teresa to the boxer Kreshnik Qato, prints of the Albanian hero Skanderbeg besting curved sword-carrying cavalry - intercut with Genc making that odd gesture with the fingers and thumbs that I am too old to understand.

Kosovo independence

Smoking a cigarette in a long holder, he tells me what it means to him that Kosovo is on the verge of declaring independence.

“Like every Albanian it means a lot to me, it means everything, we live for this day.

“Always we had hope, we had hope for our state that belongs to us. I must let you know that when we lived in ex-Yugoslavia, it was unfair because we were not Slavs. We were 2 million Albanians and there was not any connection with the Slavs, so we were originally part of Albania.”

I say that it is noticeable that the song is called “Proud to be Albanian”, not proud to be from Kosovo, and ask him why that is what he wants to stress.
Genc rapping in his studio

“Kosovo is just a name for a special border. My identity is Albanian and will always be. Kosovo is OK. When we have an independent state we’ll have lots of jobs to do. The name of Kosovo I accept for political reasons, but my emotional feelings will always be connected with the Albanian nation, it will never change.”

Next, a rather thorny subject. At one time many Serbs, and some American commentators, warned that an independent Kosovo would lead to a Greater Albania, with the Albanians here joining up with those in Macedonia and Albania itself.

No Albanian, even those few who openly campaign for such a country, accepts the term itself. But I am not fully aware of this at the point I talk to Genc, so I ask the question.

Ethnic Albania

“I must correct you, it’s not about a Greater Albania, its ethnic Albania.

“The term ‘Greater Albania’ is kind of connected with Serbian propaganda. It’s just ethnic Albania, so if you ask me for ethnic Albania, OK, it depends on the political scene."

So to be clear: a Greater Albania is Serbian propaganda but he'd welcome a country that included Macedonia and Albania?

His answer is not direct.

“All the threat in the Balkans and eastern Europe was Serbian, the Serbian regime. I’m not telling you that all the Serbian people are bad, but the Serbian regime always for the past 100 years was all the threat to the Balkans."

He says Albanians are a peaceful people and a peaceful nation. "We always want what belongs to us. You can’t compare Kosovo with Albanians who live in Montenegro or Macedonia, that’s a different case."

'An emotional state'

“But if we talk about Kosovo we have all the right in the world to be independent. Ethnic Albania is just nowadays an emotional state, a state from history. What’s important is for Albanians to live free. It’s not necessary, if Kosovo gets independence, to be one state with Albania, that’s for sure.

“I can’t tell you about the future, because the mentality may change, but for now the only vision of Albanians who live in Kosovo is to live in an independent Kosovo, with good relationships with Serbia and Albania. So that was our mission, that was our idea, and that’s our vision about Kosovo.”

It is true that no mainstream politician in Albania itself countenances the idea of one big Albanian country. But on my first trip to a market in that country, I come across a group of market traders, playing a noisy game of dominos at the end of the day.
View of an Albanian village and mosque

I try not to ask a loaded question, and merely say “What about Kosovo, then?”

The answer is immediate: “We are all Albanian, we have one flag and one language.”

So one country, I wonder? “Why not? Yes, of course.”

I have to agree with Genc that this is more of an emotional mood of solidarity that any sort of political project building steam but I think his rap may be getting a few more plays over the next few weeks and months.

Comments   Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 10:16 AM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Dimitris wrote:

I am sorry but I can't see anyone from the Serbian side have a saying in this blog. Since when Albanian governments just want what belongs to them? What about the opression on the Greeks of south Albania and northern Ipirus? What about the destruction of their churches and houses? It is well known that the Albanian regimes are talking about Great Albania for many years now, an Albania that extends down to Greece. And I am sorry to say Mr. Mardell but Macedonia is not a recognised country as Macedonia. You forgot to mention that too!!!

  • 2.
  • At 11:23 AM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • andi wrote:

I would like to tell Qirie Dimitris that it doesn`t exist any kind of opression of Greek minority in Albania. They have all the rights and freedoms that ethnic Albanians have, and I am sorry to say that all the coments of Dimitris are false. None in Albania or Kosovo is talking about the Great Albania, which is a propagandistic idea of Greece and Serbia. It would be better if Mr. Dimitris would explain the Greek genocide against 250 thousands Albanians in Northern Greece.

  • 3.
  • At 11:34 AM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Tung wrote:

It is true that some Albanians talk about a United Albania, but isn't that the principle behind the United Europe, or the United States? I am sure if you ask anyone living outside their ethnic state they would say, Why not?


So why is the case of the Albanians special, considering that Kosovo is short of independence? Would anyone oppose Greece and Cyprus creating a state together? No, they are two independent states and they have the right to make their own decisions.

However, it is understandable that the other Balkan countries are worried about this concept of United Albania. There is many ethnic Albanians in Greece, Macedonia, and Montenegro, and they are worried about future stability of their countries. THEY SHOULDN’T BE! Why? Because:

a. anyone who knows anything about politics (including the current Albanian and Kosovo politics) will know how hard it is for two sets of governments to give away half their jobs. Which PM would stand down to give the place to the other?

b. Economically the two countries are miles away, and any unification would be practically impossible.

c. They are both countries in transition and they need to deal with the internal problems before they can deal with the problems of another state.

d. Most Albanians on both sides of the border like each other, but United Albania is not really on the agenda. And you need to ask the right question to get the right answer on this point. Superficially they might say yes, but when you make them think, they know that United Albania is more an emotional rather than a real concept.


Having said

  • 4.
  • At 12:23 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Alexander wrote:

As a Serb from Kosovo (who had most of his family killed off in the 1980's by the Albanians) I will not comment on most of this article, because quite frankly my opinions and Genc's are so diametrically opposed it would be funny if it wasn't the cause of such suffering.

I Just wanted to comment on this chunk of text:


.
“I must correct you, it’s not about a Greater Albania, its ethnic Albania.

“The term ‘Greater Albania’ is kind of connected with Serbian propaganda.

You can say that "Greater Serbia" is in fact "Ethnic Serbia", and that the "Greater Serbia" mantra was just anti-serb propaganda. The wars in the 90's were initially fought over areas which had a Serb majority at the time. (The Krajina region in Croatia and the areas of Bosnia with majority populace) and which were in the past part of Serbia itself, and look where that has brought us.

The problem I have with his statement is that it claims ownership and entitlement to the land as being exclusively Albanian, which is dangerous to stability in the Balkans.

The issue with the Balkans is that over the centuries different ethnic groups owned different parts of the area.

For example, at the peak of the Serb state (Tsar Dusan's Serbia, circa 1350AD, before the Ottoman invasion), its landmass stretched from modern day Croatia, whole of Bosnia, bits of Bulgaria, all of Albania and a good chunk of Greece.

At the Peak of the Croat state (during WII when they were allied with the Axis powers) included the whole of Croatia, whole of Bosnia and a good Chunk of Serbia.

From what I have read historically. The Albanians had on 2 occasions had control of Kosovo (not including current situation).

1) Under Ottoman rule, when they allied themselves with the Invaders and we well rewarded with land from "Dusans Serbia" and other conquered areas.

and

2) During WII when they were allied with the Axis powers. When the Albanians annexed Kosovo with the Help of the Italians.

In both these cases, the original Serb Populace was forcibly removed and replaced with Albanian immigrants. In fact so many immigrants settled in Kosovo during WWII that the new leader of Yugoslavia (J.B Tito) just let them stay there, feeling that it would have been too big a job to remove them (plus many argue that this was in order to limit Serbia's influence in the newly formed Yugoslavia) and even then, about 40% of the populace was still Serb.


So Kosovo was never purely Albanian. When I confront Albanians with the above most of their arguments against stem from the idea that they are the "real descendent's" of the Illyrians, who once spanned the whole of the Balkans and bits of Italy before the Slavic Migration, and hence claim sole ownership to the lands. This, in my opinion is a laughable position. When the Slavs settled they mixed with the Illyrians, I'm probably as much Illyrian as the Albanians, if you did genetic testing I think you would find more Genetic Variation within Serbia and Albania than between the Serbs and Albanians, but since when has rational thought ruled the Balkans, eh?

Sorry for the Long post, I hope it was insightful and I thank for you for reading.

Alex.

  • 5.
  • At 12:38 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • whatever wrote:

So will the "West" interfere in the creation of Great Albania, that will just rip parts of surrounding countries because they are the same people? Peacufull? Yeah right !?. Wasn't that what the Milosevics' regime was trying to do (according to the western news groups)? Somehow I don't see anyone in the west saying anything in regards to this issue.
It's amazing how different sets of rules apply to the same scenario depending on which nationality you are... International Law is a big fat joke!!!

  • 6.
  • At 01:14 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Tisi wrote:

Let's state the facts as they are, Dimitris. The Greek minority in Albania have their own political party and schools in Greek and that is in a country that has known democracy for 16 years only.
In your 'western democratic' country, ethnic Albanians have not been able to speak Albanian outside their homes and all Albanian cultural buildings have been completely destroyed in the last century or so. Why?

  • 7.
  • At 01:57 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Max Sceptic wrote:

Mark,

Here in the UK Parliament is debating the EU Reform Treaty (aka 'Constitutional Treaty) a matter crucial to this country's sovereignty.

Why, therefore, have you been packed off to report about the interminable and unsolvable (in our lifetimes) problems of the squabbling Balkans?

Please come home and give some coverage about the efforts of some of our MPs to ensure that we never enter into a political and economic 'union' with these quarrelsome nations.

  • 8.
  • At 01:58 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • george wrote:

Dimitris, thats domino efect my friend. Soon as kosovo get its independence then they will join albania, so what you think who is next? Macedonia is still divided on 3 parts an yes that little independet republic is recognised by many countries on the world including USA, Russia & China so probably its a time those people to get united again as hundreed years ago, God help

  • 9.
  • At 02:22 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Marija wrote:

This story is really funny. If you read it carefully you will see that in this interview all responses that were negative, in the second part are positive. It really made me to laugh.

Looking forward to see how the Europe and world will regret about their support to independent Kosovo.
Did anybody read a bit of history and what is Kosovo for Serbia?

  • 10.
  • At 02:24 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • ari agaj wrote:

This is great, Kosovo is (will be soon) indipendent. regarding Greek minority in Albania, they were always well treated, even better than Albanians during the comunist regime, and they moved in Albania as seasonal workers, into the filds of Delvina, but what is important, that Greeks forget their own evil ethnic cleansing of the çameria, Vorio (north-south)-Epiri is only Chameria. After Kosova, Chameria will be next

  • 11.
  • At 02:30 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • John wrote:

Mark, as an experienced journalist you should avoid putting links in your pieces to articles by 'scholars' of elther Albanian or Serbian origin, like Carl Savich, no matter how renowned they claim to be. They are blatantly one sided in how they view things and your readers will be confused. If you wanted to maintain the BBC's impartiality there are so many other historians you can quote or provide links for, including Noel Malcolm, who provide

  • 12.
  • At 03:28 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Eri wrote:

Let's state the facts as they are, Dimitris. The Greek minority in Albania have their own political party and schools in Greek and that is in a country that has known democracy for 16 years only.
In your 'western democratic' country, ethnic Albanians have not been able to speak Albanian outside their homes and all Albanian cultural buildings have been completely destroyed in the last century or so. Why?

  • 13.
  • At 04:05 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Zeni G wrote:

To Dimitris;

Norther Ipirus does not exist in reality...only in the dreams of the right wing Greeks who still claim in this day of age that Macedonia and southern Albania are theirs! The fact that you mention it tells it all really.

The fact that you also say the "Albanian governments wants what belongs to them" also tells how emotional and irrational you argument is! Albanian governement (even if it had ever been its peoples' outmost desire) does not and has never strived for a "Greater Albania". Current Albanian government (which has been the most democratically elected government in this countrys' modern history) strives for Brussels! It just so happens that alongside itself, it wants independent Kosova and Macedonia (not FYROM) and together enter the family that its always belonged to!

Oh and please do not start with the human rights issue because you will be stabbing yourself on the foot here. I am in the position to give you countless references from "Amnesty International" reports on the apalling and shameful record of Greece on dealing with its immigrants, particularly the Albanians, that will make you think how on earth did you ever become an EU member!

Moreso, I think that it is very much irrational for an ancient political forum such as that of Greece to think that our government will do more to accomodate your minorities than what its doing for its own people; which shows how many rights they enjoy in our country...also knowing that what they are asking Albania to do would be just plain wishful thinking for the Albanian minorities in Greece...and that is very much saying the least!

And to John;

Not only does the UK and western Europe have "acclaimed historians" you know...There is more out there than you think!

  • 14.
  • At 04:07 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • tomas soural wrote:

Most of us have heard of Lawrence Of Arabia (british officer who united Arabs against Turks in 1. World War).
Mark Mandell will become known as Lawrence of Albania,for his work in creating The United States of Albania(Greater Albania or to quote an Albanian rapper expert from this article,"Ethnic Albania" as he put it.)There is hardly any other journalist who has worked more tirelessly promoting albanian inrests than Mark,day in day out.

  • 15.
  • At 04:33 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Sasa wrote:

He says that he wanted a state that belongs to Albanians...How about Albania? Go to Albania.
First armed by USA, and then started a terror, thus murdering police officers and prominent Serbs everywhere in Kosovo. State which your NATO friends have given you on our land is never going to have a seat in UN, and it is going to last just as long as American dictatorship in the world, not more than another decade or two.

BBC is well-known for these stand-alone articles about "victims", and of course a complete Serb population must be demonized in the same. I have been watching it for 15 years now.
I wonder just one thing, why than Britons love to come to Exit, Belgrade night-clubs, our mountains… if we are so evil? As far as I know, only Britons who travel to Kosovo are those well-armed.

And don't make a mistake, I'm not a radical Serb, I'm liberal democrat, but I'm just tired of everything that has been done to us for a generation.

  • 16.
  • At 04:37 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Alexander wrote:

As a Serb from Kosovo (who had most of his family killed off in the 1980's by the Albanians) I will not comment on most of this article, because quite frankly my opinions and Genc's are so diametrically opposed it would be funny if it wasn't the cause of such suffering.

I Just wanted to comment on this chunk of text:


.
“I must correct you, it’s not about a Greater Albania, its ethnic Albania.

“The term ‘Greater Albania’ is kind of connected with Serbian propaganda.

You can say that "Greater Serbia" is in fact "Ethnic Serbia", and that the "Greater Serbia" mantra was just anti-serb propaganda. The wars in the 90's were initially fought over areas which had a Serb majority at the time. (The Krajina region in Croatia and the areas of Bosnia with majority populace) and which were in the past part of Serbia itself, and look where that has brought us.

The problem I have with his statement is that it claims ownership and entitlement to the land as being exclusively Albanian, which is dangerous to stability in the Balkans.

The issue with the Balkans is that over the centuries different ethnic groups owned different parts of the area.

For example, at the peak of the Serb state (Tsar Dusan's Serbia, circa 1350AD, before the Ottoman invasion), its landmass stretched from modern day Croatia, whole of Bosnia, bits of Bulgaria, all of Albania and a good chunk of Greece.

At the Peak of the Croat state (during WII when they were allied with the Axis powers) included the whole of Croatia, whole of Bosnia and a good Chunk of Serbia.

From what I have read historically. The Albanians had on 2 occasions had control of Kosovo (not including current situation).

1) Under Ottoman rule, when they allied themselves with the Invaders and we well rewarded with land from "Dusans Serbia" and other conquered areas.

and

2) During WII when they were allied with the Axis powers. When the Albanians annexed Kosovo with the Help of the Italians.

In both these cases, the original Serb Populace was forcibly removed and replaced with Albanian immigrants. In fact so many immigrants settled in Kosovo during WWII that the new leader of Yugoslavia (J.B Tito) just let them stay there, feeling that it would have been too big a job to remove them (plus many argue that this was in order to limit Serbia's influence in the newly formed Yugoslavia) and even then, about 40% of the populace was still Serb.


So Kosovo was never purely Albanian. When I confront Albanians with the above most of their arguments against stem from the idea that they are the "real descendent's" of the Illyrians, who once spanned the whole of the Balkans and bits of Italy before the Slavic Migration, and hence claim sole ownership to the lands. This, in my opinion is a laughable position. When the Slavs settled they mixed with the Illyrians, I'm probably as much Illyrian as the Albanians, if you did genetic testing I think you would find more Genetic Variation within Serbia and Albania than between the Serbs and Albanians, but since when has rational thought ruled the Balkans, eh?

Sorry for the Long post, I hope it was insightful and I thank for you for reading.

Alex.

  • 17.
  • At 04:58 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Alba wrote:

Well Genci is not really making a lot of sense in what he is saying (the "ethnic albania" is not an answer to economic prosperity and n one needs it, by the way the "ethnic" terms cringes me anyway...)anyway...I guess he is too young, therefore not so convincing.

For therest of te curious ones -please do not quote a ne sided historian without doing justice to the other, in any case there are many of those available to please all the nationalists in the world.
We can then decide on who has the rights to ask for what.
We must not forget that Yugoslavia was a "manufactured" state that has been desintegrating at a very costly price.
The last piece of the puzzle must be placed for us all to start (for some to continue) building the future. There has been more han enough suffering in this region...please LET MY PEOPLE GO!!!

Alba

  • 18.
  • At 05:00 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Leslie wrote:

The nationalities in this part of the world are all small, and hence all fantasize about size and bigness. Their mental maps don't match the actual one; also their claims are competing and mutually exclusive. They have all been thieves to one another in previous centuries, but are unwilling to see it this way. They have not always been nice to each other in the past, and so there is still a lot of fear and suspicion in the air. People feel they need more territory to make up for a collective deficiency of power, wealth and status.

What these third and fourth class euro nations need is not more territorial aggrandisement, (as they cannot fully utilise what they already have), but more economic and political development that brings them into the modern Western European mainstream. They need supervision and membership in a larger entity that will help save them from themselves. Both Serbs and Albanians are delusional if they think they can go it alone. They can't, and it's a blow to their pride.

Territorial size alone will not make either Serbia or Albania a great place to live, nor will it alone enable these peoples to realize their potential. It will take time and a new generation, fed up with all the old attitudes that caused this part of the world to languish for so long, to make a real difference. Patience, Europe, you will need it.

  • 19.
  • At 05:02 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • adi wrote:

Mark thank you for visiting our Land(ILIRIA)

  • 20.
  • At 11:04 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Jovica wrote:

It's quite sweet really: a hapless hack bumbling around the Balkans with a brief that could have been written by Jamie O'Shea (NATO 'mouthpiece' for those with short memories). Enjoy your jolly, Mark - you'll have lots of Islington dinner-party stories. Just one thing: please don't pretend that any of it amounts to journalism.

Cheerio, and the best of Anglo-Serbian in your future bumbling!

-Jovica

  • 21.
  • At 11:33 PM on 31 Jan 2008,
  • Noel, UK wrote:

Mark, John hit the nail on the head. I do not think BBC's policy is to proliferate hate. Carl Savich and 'Serbianna' does precisely that.

Kosova must become independent NOW.

  • 22.
  • At 12:48 AM on 01 Feb 2008,
  • Af wrote:

Impressive article Mark, Kosovo is a sensitive situation however what must be understood is that is you go back in history the inhabitants of Kosovo were Albanian, the Serbs came in later. (That’s the history side of it)

Like it or not it was Serbia who killed thousands of Albanians, so now they have to be responsible for their actions. I mean if Serbia was smart it would not be in this situation where it is today, as it did not have to cause all those wars which obviously was going to lead to loss of territory as it has done.

I mean now they offer Kosovo “autonomy within Serbia” I think if they would have done that before killing thousands of Albanians, independence for Kosovo would not even have benn considered now it's too late.

Stupidity cannot be forgiven and Serbia is no exception.

  • 23.
  • At 01:42 AM on 01 Feb 2008,
  • Sean wrote:

Part 1

I have a serious issue with the idea presented in the original article that, first because a group of people share a language they should be recognized as a state of their own. Whatever happened to multiculturalism? Is the fact that more than a hundred different languages are spoken inside Canada's boarders, or for that matter more than 87 different languages in Colombia and vastly more in African nations, that these should not be considered nations? A common language is not a defining feature of a nation state. Politically recognized official languages are recognizable features of nation states.

  • 24.
  • At 05:28 AM on 01 Feb 2008,
  • Adrian Ellis wrote:

Mr Mardell,

I'm neither a Serb nor an Albanian, yet to me your blog seems very pro-Albanian.

What do you think will happen to a small neighbouring country such as Macedonia when Kosovo gets its independence? It has a 25% of its population as ethnic Albanians. Would you also support their plea for joining Ethnic Albania?

Why is it that the BBC shows this great sympathy towards the Albanians as the great sufferers of Europe, and they somehow deserve the right to have an ethnic state, while previously all such attempts by the Serbs, Croats, were stopped?

Will a minority community that becomes a majority in parts of the UK, and then decides it wants an independence, receive the same sympathies?

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