Isuf B. Bajrami
“No other nation has been so ruthlessly trampled by neighboring countries” – Byron
One of the issues that has not been talked about and is not being talked about is: How much has the fragmentation of 1913 damaged the part that has remained free within the borders of the existing Albanian state?
Is this part of the nation really free?
It is not just a matter of knowing these things, but of realizing a vibrant national movement. All means of information must be heard, studies and books must be published, in order to scientifically affirm the truths that have been denied to us and are being denied to us so unjustly even today.
The main, most urgent problem is that we need to know and show in detail to ourselves and the world how much and how much Albania and Albanians have been further damaged by the division and establishment of violent borders between us.
The great disappointment towards the neighbors, for all the blood that the Albanians shed on the altar of their freedom, makes you always remember Byron’s words about Albania: ” No other nation has been so ruthlessly trampled by the neighboring countries .”
( 1. “Correspondence de Lord Bureau”, Paris, 1825 ).
Where are the autochthonous lands of the Albanians?
What are the real Albanian lands?
Various authors and geography specialists have explained with their data on the size of Albanian lands.
Sami Frashëri said that: “Albania has an area of 70,000 km 2 ( 2. Sami Frashëri,” Dheshkronja “, Bucharest, 1886 ).)
The French scholar L. Uelavitch says that: “The size of the surface of Albania is 75,000 km 2 ” (3. L. Uelavitch, “L’Albania”, Paris, 1902).
The other Albanian researcher T. Selenica gives us an “area of Albania of 80,000 km 2 “. ( 4. T. Selenica, “Albania in the years 1927”, “Nezioni geografiche sul Albania”, Rome, 1902, p.5 ).
Within these borders is Albania, which lies to the south-west of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, from south to north from Preveza and Bar, east of Vraja to Nis. ( 5. “Kosovo” (OSHAPK.), Tirana no. 20, December 8, 1991, p. 1 ).
With the Balkan Wars and the London Conference in 1913, the neighboring countries, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, fulfilled their dreams and the present border was established, which includes less than half of the real Albania ( 6. Dr. Muhamet Pirraku, “Reconquest Yugoslav Republic of Kosovo ”, p. 7 ).
Ethnic Albania before the arrival of the Turks in the Balkans occupied an area of about 110,000 km 2 ( 7. Dr. Muhamet Pirraku, “Albanian national culture until the League of Prizren”, Pristina 1979, pp. 11-20 ).
In the period of independence of the states of Serbia, Montenegro and Greece, Turkey “forgave” to these states about 5,000 km 2 of Albanian land. ( 8. “Dielli”, no. 21/27, 1979 ).
After the war of 1876 – 1877 with Russia, Turkey donated in the interest of the Orthodox peoples of the Balkans about 25,500 km 2 of Albanian lands. ( 9. Mr. Kole Krasniqi, “The role of religion in preserving the identity and national harmony of Albanians”, Vienna 1996, pp. 56-58 ).
At the end of the 19th century, the land of ethnic Albania would shrink to 80,000 km 2 with 2.5 million inhabitants ( 10. Ahmet Hamiti, “The Albanian Question”, Koha, no. 14/1991, p. 26 ), while the Peace Conference that was held in Versailles in 1919 – 1920 would accept that Albanian lands in the years 1912-1913 occupied an area of 90,270 km 2 with about 3 million inhabitants. ( 11. Liman Rushiti, “Stradanja albanskog Naroda na Kosovu” 1912-1918, Zagreb 1991, p. 24 ).)
Despite these assertions, this Conference allowed the decisions of the “Peace” Treaty of London (1913) by detaching from the ethnic Albanian trunk about 80,000 km 2 that was distributed to neighboring countries, so that Albania had only about 28,700 km 2 left ( 12. Dr. Muhamet Pirraku , “Albanian national culture up to the League of Prizren”, Prishtina 1979, p. 6 ).
While according to the State Statistical Yearbook of Albania the area in km 2 of the Albanian State is 28,748 km 2 . ( 13. Statistical Yearbook of Albania, 1991, p. 12 ).
Lekë place, 06.12.2020