Learned Something New

[chris_gerrib]

So, last night I started reading King Zog of Albania. It's an interesting book, and I'm glad I bought it.

While reading it, I learned something that made me rethink a lot of what I thought I knew. Remember the Kosovo War - where NATO had to go in and separate the Serbs from the Albanians? At the time and thereafter, one of the lines used to defend the Serbians was that the Albanian majority were there recently, having immigrated or sneaked across the border over the years.

Well, King Zog of Albania tells me that, when the Ottoman Empire collapsed, there were four majority Albanian provinces. Three of them became modern Albania. The forth, Kosovo, was lost to Serbia, despite several wars between Serbia and Albania. Then, Serbia undertook some ethnic cleansing, shipping out Albanian nobles (really chieftains) and the whole issue of "reclaiming" Kosovo was a major issue in Albanian politics through at least the 1920s. (I haven't gotten farther in the book then that.)

I could turn this post into a major rant about the way our American media ignores history, but I'll cut it short by saying that this little tidbit would have been very nice to know at the time.

Comments

[jetfx.livejournal.com]

History is complex enough as it is, but the history of the Balkans is positively Byzantine, and something easily squeezed into a soundbite. Until recently, the only peace the region has known was the kind imposed on it by some imperial power.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

only peace the region has known was the kind imposed on it

Now that peace is being imposed by NATO.

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

I'm ok with that. Sometimes getting the people to play nice means beating on their pointy heads until they say uncle.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

I am too. I am merely pointing out that the Balkans have not entered some new mystical age - the Ottoman Empire has been replaced by NATO. (Which considering what a Charlie Foxtrot the Ottomans were is a good thing.)

[sinthrex.livejournal.com]

NATO manages to be a pretty decent CF of it's own. (Different perspective, given)