The Expulsion of the Albanians

The Expulsion of the Albanians[a] (Serbian: Исељавање Арнаута/Iseljavanje Arnauta) was a lecture presented by the Yugoslav historian Vaso Čubrilović (1897–1990) on 7 March 1937.[1] The text elaborates on the ethnic composition dynamics of Kosovo and other Albanian populated areas within Yugoslavia from medieval times to present. While explaining why any previous methods put in place by the Yugoslav authorities to overturn the ethnic majority of the Albanians in those areas, such as slow colonization or agrarian reforms, had failed so far, it suggested in details a radical solution, the mass expulsion of Albanians. The expulsion was seen by Čubrilović as a geopolitical measure, as to prevent potential Albanian irredentism.

Background

In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Albanians were concentrated in the Kosovo region.[2]

In 1923, Greece and Turkey made a successful population exchange. In early 1936, Turkey was interested in signing an agreement for the resettlement of 200,000 Muslims from Yugoslavia.[2]

Čubrilović, a historian at the University of Belgrade, and former member of the Young Bosnia organization,[3] originally presented it as a lecture on 7 March 1937 at the Serbian Cultural Club in Belgrade.[4] It suggested a radical solution, expulsion, of Albanians from Kosovo as a geopolitical measure, a means to prevent Albanian irredentism and to secure a Yugoslav Kosovo.[2]

Points

The paper details a radical solution, the mass expulsion of Albanians.[5][6][1] Čubrilović proposed that the Albanians be forced to emigrate free willingly through harassment and settling of Serbs, calling the state for help to make the "Arnaut suffer as much as he can".[7] This would be done through fines, arrests, ruthless application of all police regulations, punishment, smuggling, deforestation and violence. A ruthless collection of taxes would be used and all public schools be closed. Albanian homes and villages could be burnt down, referring to the 1877–78 expulsions of Albanians in Niš and Kuršumlija.[7] Čubrilović described that the Chetniks and paramilitaries could be of good use where they would pressure the Albanians to leave, making it "the most effective means".[7] Their land was to be confiscated and given to Montenegrin and Serb settlers and thus change the ethnic structure.[8] These methods would result in ethnic cleansing.[9]

"At a time when Germany can expel tens of thousands of Jews and Russia can shift millions of people from one part of the continent to another, the expulsion of a few hundred thousand Albanians will not lead to the outbreak of a world war. However, those who decide should know what they want and persist in achieving this, regardless of the possible international obstacles."
— Čubrilović [10]

Čubrilović believed that the Albanians were fanatic, superstitious and that previous expulsion plans, like those enacted within the wider Niš region during 1878 in areas such as the Toplica and the Morava Valleys, was the only effective way. He proposed that Albanians be called Turks and that their lives should be made as miserable as possible forcing them to leave. Arrangements eventually led to the relocation of tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanians to Turkey.[11]

Aftermath and legacy

The programme was hard to put into practice because of the economical and political situation at the time. The April War and the collapse of Yugoslavia stopped it and the document remained hidden in archives for years. Čubrilović's paper was "erased" by the Communist authorities because they believed that "all non-Slavic" people should be incorporated into Yugoslavia. The International community found the document in the 1960s which was then given to Albanian President Enver Hoxha who used it to criticize the Yugoslav authorities, who denied that such a document even existed.[12]

The document was mentioned and published in January 1988 in the Belgrade newspaper Borba, and later in Zagreb-based magazine Start. Čubrilović's document was not supported by Yugoslav historians and professors except for Ivo Andrić. The text was later often quoted and cited as one of the fundamental documents of the Greater Serbia ideology in the 20th century; that is the basis for methods that were used during the breakup of Yugoslavia by the Serbian authorities for the purpose of ethnic cleansing of Albanians, Muslims, and Croats. Some authors believe that Čubrilović's plan to expel Albanians from Kosovo actualized in 1999 by Slobodan Milošević's government under the name "Operation Horseshoe".[13][14] The report is deemed chauvinistic and nationalistic and was used as a reference to the Serbian atrocities in Kosovo in 1999 by Joe DioGuardi as he spoke to the US parliament demanding that the United States should be launching NATO-attacks against Yugoslavia. During the brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing, over 850,000 Albanians left Kosovo, but soon returned after the withdrawal of Serbian troops.

Annotations

  1. ^ Iseljavanje Arnauta (Исељавање Арнаута), the name of the paper of the lecture archived at the Military History Institute,[15] is known in English as "The Expulsion of the Arnauts",[16][3][17] Arnauts being a Turkish term for Albanians.[17] It is also translated into English as The departure of the Arnauts[18] and The Resettlement of the Albanians.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 Roger D. Petersen (30 September 2011). Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict. Cambridge University Press. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-139-50330-3. The colonization program, despite the emigration of tens of thousands, failed to significantly change the ethnic imbalance in Kosovo. The idea, however, persisted. Vaso Čubrilović, a respected historian, wrote in a March 7, 1937, government memorandum entitled "The Expulsion of the Albanians", "It is impossible to repel the Albanians just by gradual colonization...The only possibility and method is the brutal power of a well-organized state... We have already stressed that for us the only efficient way is the mass deportation of the Albanians out of their triange".
  2. 1 2 3 Mylonas, Harris (2012). The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities. Cambridge University Press. pp. 163–. ISBN 978-1-107-02045-0.
  3. 1 2 Paulin Kola (January 2003). The Search for Greater Albania. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. pp. 101–. ISBN 978-1-85065-664-7.
  4. ↑ Philip J. Cohen; David Riesman (1996). Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 160–. ISBN 978-0-89096-760-7.
  5. ↑ Petar V. Grujić (18 September 2014). KOSOVO KNOT. Dorrance Publishing. pp. 394–. ISBN 978-1-4809-9845-2.
  6. ↑ Jasna Dragovic-Soso (9 October 2002). Saviours of the Nation: Serbia's Intellectual Opposition and the Revival of Nationalism. MQUP. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-7735-7092-4. a 'hardy, resistant, and prolific race', incapable of assimilation, and advocated a 'mode of evacuation' that ranged from 'private initiatives' and a variety of state pressures to 'secretly raising the Albanian villages and settlements to the ground'....a desire to solve the Kosovo question by mass deportation.
  7. 1 2 3 Danijela Nadj. "Medjunarodni znanstveni skup "Jugoistocna Europa 1918.-1995." Ideologija Velike Srbije". Hic.hr. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  8. ↑ Dr Denisa Kostovicova (9 October 2005). Kosovo: The Politics of Identity and Space. Routledge. pp. 151–. ISBN 978-1-134-27632-5.
  9. ↑ The International Journal of Albanian Studies. 1. Department of Political Science, Columbia University. 1997. p. 37.
  10. ↑ Stjepan Mestrovic (13 September 2013). Genocide After Emotion: The Post-Emotional Balkan War. Routledge. pp. 44–. ISBN 978-1-136-16349-4.
  11. ↑ Henry H. Perritt (2010). The Road to Independence for Kosovo: A Chronicle of the Ahtisaari Plan. Cambridge University Press. pp. 19–. ISBN 978-0-521-11624-4.
  12. ↑ Danijela Nadj. "Medjunarodni znanstveni skup "Jugoistocna Europa 1918.-1995." Ideologija Velike Srbije". Hic.hr. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  13. ↑ Louis Sell (4 August 2003). Slobodan Milosevic and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. Duke University Press. pp. 304–. ISBN 0-8223-3223-X.
  14. ↑ "NIN / Da li je postojao "Plan potkovica"". Nin.co.rs. 1999-07-16. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  15. ↑ Čubrilović 1937.
  16. ↑ Stevan M. Weine (1999). When History is a Nightmare: Lives and Memories of Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Rutgers University Press. pp. 238–. ISBN 978-0-8135-2676-8.
  17. 1 2 Tozun Bahcheli; Barry Bartmann; Henry Srebrnik (9 September 2004). De Facto States: The Quest for Sovereignty. Routledge. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-135-77121-8. 'The Expulsion of the Arnauts' [a Turkish word for Albanians]
  18. ↑ Čubrilović, Vasa. "Iseljavanje Arnauta." The departure of the Arnauts] In Kosovo in the Heart of the Powder Keg, edited by Elsie, Robert (1991): 400-424.
  19. ↑ Reka, Blerim (2014), "The Ohrid Peace Process: The Past, the Present, and the Future Perspective", Südosteuropa. Zeitschrift für Politik und Gesellschaft, 1: 19–33, Even an early key ideologue of the Serbian policy towards the Albanians, Vasa Čubrilović, in his 1937 pamphlet “iseljavanje Arnauta” (The Resettlement of the Albanians), characterized the Serbian policy as the “colonization of Kosovo and Metohija”

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