[ALBSA-Info] Kathimerini commentary

[Kreshnik Bejko]

Commentary
Two-and-a-half Albanian states

By Stavros Lygeros
The bloody interethnic clashes in FYROM are nothing but the final act in the 
drama of Yugoslavia. The wars in Croatia and Bosnia centered on the attempts 
of the ethnic groups which made up former Yugoslavia to divide up its 
territory, as happened with the empires of the past. Since the internal 
borders had been drawn up arbitrarily, according to the needs of the Tito 
regime, when the time for separation came, each ethnic group tried to create 
its own ethnically pure state at the expense of the others. Slovenia eluded 
the fate of the other federal states because it was ethnically homogeneous.

The wars in both Kosovo and FYROM were caused by the attempt of the Albanian 
population of former Yugoslavia at first to secede, and if possible, in the 
long term, to unite with Albania. Armed by NATO, the Albanian Kosovars 
achieved de facto secession from Serbia, and now are pressuring for 
international recognition of this fait accompli. The Albanians of FYROM do 
not have the support of the West, but its tolerance is all they need, 
because they are fighting a weak opponent. This allowed them to achieve 
military successes, and now they are negotiating from a position of 
strength. The West's official rhetoric notwithstanding, the most likely 
outcome is that the Albanian question will be resolved by the creation of 
two-and-a-half Albanian states. Kosovo will at some point cease to be a 
protectorate of the West, while FYROM is being ineluctably drawn into a 
federation, or at least the creation of an Albanian province with 
wide-ranging autonomy.

The gradual shift of the clashes from north to south (Croatia, Bosnia, 
Kosovo and now FYROM) has led to expressions of fear that the crisis might 
spread to Greece. Albanian bravado about the formation of the Cam Liberation 
Army has fed these fears, but in fact they are unlikely to take shape; not 
only because is Greece a military, political and economic superpower by 
Balkan standards, but because it is ethnically homogeneous.

There is every indication that the crisis has been confined within the 
borders of the old Yugoslavia. In this context, Athens has both an ethical 
obligation and geopolitical interest in keeping Northern Epirotes and 
Orthodox Christians in general in their homelands in southern Albania, 
because they act as a bulwark against Albanian expansionism.

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