Ethnic Albanians Conflicts With Serbian Officials example essay topic

Kosovo: Conflicts Between Serbians and Ethnic Albanians. Introduction A. Thesis- The conflict between the Serbs and Albanians shows us the amount of intolerance with religious, political, and racial conflicts throughout the history of the relationship between the Serbs and Albanians. II. History of Kosovo.

Battles 1.1913 Albanian rebellion against Serbian officials. 2. The cause was the rape of an Albanian women. B. Kosovo's extra problems. Religious conflicts. Albania religion 1. Islamic belief 2.

The Koran criticised Jews and Christians. Serb religion 1. Serbian Orthodox 2. A division in the Christian belief. IV. Political ConflictA.

Fascism B. Democracy 1. Milosevic's wife a well-known communist. 2. Democracy had their fights with communism during the Cold War. V. Racial ConflictA. Serbs. Albanians 1.

Ethnic Albanians conflicts with Serbian officials. 2. Milosevic's determination on getting rid of Ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo. VI. Conclusion Pham Pantoja 1 The conflict in Kosovo right not reflects to us the intolerance of race and religion demonstrated by the Serbs toward the ethnic Albanians. The situation right now is the evacuation of all ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo.

This situation began on February 1990 after fighting broke out between ethnic Albanians, police, and the Slavic minority (Satyendra, paragraph 2). Many other situations that have occurred in the past have contributed to the conflict that is happening now. The conflict between the Serbs and Albanians shows us the amount of intolerance with religious, political, and racial conflicts throughout the history of the relationship between the Serbs and Albanians. The history of Kosovo have been very turbulent and conflicts rose up at every incident that occurred.

Some 600 years ago, the Serbs confronted the Turkish invader on June 15, 1389 at their homeland that resulted in Battle of Kosovo. The Serb was led by Prince Lazar and they fought brilliantly to the end. Though he was wounded and was captured and beheaded by the Turks (Satyendra, paragraph 1, "Kosovo deeply embedded in psyche of the Serb people"). One of the early conflicts that occurred in 1913 with small bands of Albanian rebels, known as kayaks were protesting against a Serbian officer in September. He had tried to rape a Albanian women but a women's husband shot the Serbian official dead in the village of Fsh aj. The result was Serbian officials destroying that village with two others and killing 35 Albanians (Malcolm, 257).

During the end of the war in Kosovo in October 1912, Edith Durham, anew's reporter that was in Montenegro at the time asked a wounded soldier why she can't go up to one of their posts in Albania. The soldier would reply "Weave not left a nose on an Albanian up there!" She would later find out when she had a chance of visiting a northern Albanian outpost, where she saw Ottoman Pham Pantoja 2 soldier's noses and lips cut off. A Danish reporter managed to get some news out of Kosovo where it is reported that 5,000 Albanians had been killed in Prishtina. The reporter would later wrote the Serbian campaign had taken on the character of a horrific massacring of the Albanian population (Malcolm, 254). During the reimposition of Serbian rule, the Serbian soldiers entered Kosovo in October 1918 planning on revenge for the hostile attitude of the Albanians at the time of Serbia's withdrawal from Kosovo in 1915.

Albanians resisted against Serb's onslaught. Even though Montenegrin's helped the Albanians, 200 were killed at the beginning and would later escalate. Serbian troops killed 6,040 people and destroyed 3,873 houses (Malcolm, 273). Serbs have tried to counteract their images as the good guys and the Albanians as the bad guys by using Serbian media by accusing Albanian men raping Serbian women.

Serbian Orthodox name Atanasije Jevtic wrote in his book that Albanians rape anything they can get their hands on. This was definitely a false statement which was proved by human rights experts (Malcolm, 339). On September 30, 1991, Kosovars voted in a referendum, which would make Kosovo a independent state. A conflict would arose that Albanian politicians could no longer ignore the fate of the Kosovars. Fearing a massive influx of Kosovars refugees, the Tirana government issued statements criticising policy of Kosovo's Serbian leadership (Vickers and Pettifer, 150). Another Kosovo problem occurred in 1690 when Serbians planned a insurrection against the occupying forces of the Turkish-Ottoman Empire which failed.

A good part of the Serbian population left Kosovo to escape enslavement by the Turks. The immigration of the Serbs increased again with another failed insurrection in 1735 that would change Kosovo's ethnic composition. Albanian's now settled in the Pham Pantoja 3 abandoned villages and towns. They would later convert to Muslim to be the same as their conquerors (Satyendra, paragraph 3, "Kosovo deeply embedded in psyche of the Serb people"). In the early 1980's, the Serbs were convinced that Tirana, which can only survive if they are isolationists, who was not interested in including Kosovo within Albania's borders. Although, Albanian leadership often used the situation that is happening in Kosovo as a means in of deflecting domestic discontent, the realised how unrealistic it would be to unify the two Albanian communities.

Decades of separation would widen the differences socially and psychologically between the Kosovars and the isolated Albanians (Vickers and Pettifer, 144). The ethnic Albanians are part of the Islam faith. Islam is like Judaism and Christianity, but they believe in Allah which means belief in one God. He is refer to as creator of the world and life in it.

Their messenger was Muhammad who lived in Mecca at the time of his revelation which is now known as the Koran (Gordan, 10-11). The Koran have criticised Jews and Christians in the Koran. The Koran says the Jews and Christians can be claiming themselves as the devine people. The Koran would state that only God can decide who is devine, if any. Christians are definitely criticised for their claim as Christ as devine that would anger the Muslims because God can not share his divine nature, or that Pham Pantoja 4 God has a divine partner.

This idea contradicts one of the most fundamental ideas of the Islamic faith (Gordan, 23). The Koran believes that their role is to correct the errors and false ideas that men and women have added to God's earlier revelations (Gordan, 27). Throughout the history of the Serbian and Albanian relations in Kosovo, they have separated each other as far as they can. Both of their language are completely different.

The one that stands out the most was thear religion which the Serb built their identity with the Serbian Orthodox Church. This church acquired it's status within the Greek Orthodox Church which they will become independent in 1346. The Serbian Orthodoxy has a type of Christianity to it and it is much furthered removed from social and political matters than in the case with Protestant or Roman Catholicism (Malcolm, 12). In Kosovo, Serbians treat the Church very differently. They stay very involved in politics but it is very loyal to the Church.

Cedomil Mijatovic, a Serbian diplomatic, explains it very well by saying, "The religious sentiment of the Serbians [ie. Serbians] is neither deep nor warm. Their churches are generally empty, except on very great Church festivals, and on political festivals. The Serbians of our day consider the Church as a political institution, in some mysterious manner connected with the existence of the nation.

They do not allow anyone to attack her, nor to compromise her, although, when she is not attacked, they neglect her" (Malcolm 13-14). These two religions amazingly does not have conflict with each other. Pham Pantoja 5 Islamic, Catholicism, and Christianity or Orthodoxy have gotten along very finely in Kosovo. Each religion would use the others rituals like protecting from disease or curing it, they would use it.

Peter Bogdan i was a visitor in 1681 and he said that they glorify the religious diversity. Though the only conflict if it could be called that way that Muslims have a higher social and economical advantage in Kosovo. So Christian men would marry Christian women and then the man would only convert to Muslim while keeping his ties to Christianity which they call crypto-Christianity (Malcolm, 130-131). The structural causes of the Kosovo crisis from national conflicts to economic backwardness did not disappear during the forty five years of communist rule, but they even intensified. The main intention of the communists has never been to really resolve the basic contradictions in Yugoslavia, but rather to secure their own power. The aging dictator was a master in conducting such a utilitarian, cynical and even luxuriant policy.

(Okey Eastern Europe) The Democratic regime was deteriorating according to another recurring media stereotype, these 'forces' were supposed to exist inside most of the states of eastern Europe. They are claimed to be the common opposition, to the warmongering politicians. How do you recognise 'democratic forces'? Because democracy remains weak in Serbia, it has been unable to prevent nationalism from spilling across the Balkans. In Bosnia, municipal elections held in September revealed the hopes that the Bosnian people yet Pham Pantoja 6 share in democratic values as the solution to their problems, and the determination of nationalist parties to frustrate those hopes. The elections also exposed the shocking extent of the OSCE's connivance with Bosnian Serb and Croat ultra nationalists to pre-determine electoral results.

By certifying patently undemocratic elections and accommodating war criminals whose political credentials were established through genocide, OSCE leaders in Bosnia compromised the integrity of an important organization responsible for strengthening democratization in post-Cold War Europe. The Helsinki Commission should investigate the failure of the OSCE to uphold its democratic mandate in Bosnia. What can be done about the threat? National integration in Southeastern Europe has been effected under the strong influence of several factors. They have varied depending on the local conditions, from historicism to religion, as a result, shaping particular types of national movements. The victory of the Communists in the civil war, gained with the decisive support of the Red Army in 1944, resulted in a Leninist-type federation, based upon 'brotherhood and unity' of all Yugoslav peoples, in conformity with he new social and totalitarian vision.

Yugoslavia's post-war internal re organisation was based on the national policy of the Communist Party. As early as 1920, the Comintern considered Yugoslavia to be an 'expanded Serbia". (Sugar Lederer) Although according to the inter-war ethnic composition the Serbs constituted either an absolute or a relative majority in Montenegro, Pham Pantoja 7 Bosnia-Herzegovina and Vojvodina, the CPY considered that the possibility should be left open for each of these regions to become independent units within the future federal and communist Yugoslavia. An important and only strategic turnabout took place in 1935 when the Comintern's policy took the course of joining forces into a 'Popular Front' against 'the growing danger of Nazism and Fascism in Europe.

(Shoup, Communism) The powerful wife of Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic criticized her political opponents, saying opposition leaders were pushing Serbia into civil war. 'We are hearing in Serbia calls to violence and the type of violence which will inevitably end in a civil war,' Milosevic's wife -- In turn, opposition organizers appealed to Milosevic not to divide Serbs by painting his foes as traitors -- saying that such accusations could lead to civil war. the Balkans have had a standard flow of influence and infiltration from bordering states throughout its history. That area is constantly undergoing reform and uprisings from its inhabitants. The Serbs and the Albanians have been the two major opposing forces in Kosovo. The two could either begin to make amends for past incidents and proceed with reconstruction, or they could feud against each other until one falls in a terrible bloody mess. Anything could start unfortunate event.

However, we predict that the situation will resemble something that has occurred in the past, they will circulate around; religious, political, and racial conflicts within Kosovo. Pham Pantoja 8

Bibliography

Gordan, Matthew. Islam: World Religions. New York: Brown, 1991 Malcolm, Noel.
Kosovo: A Short History. New York: New York, 1998 Osborn, Kevin.
Tolerance. New York: Rosen, 1993 Satyendra, Nadesan.
Understanding Kosovo: "Kosovo deeply embedded in psyche of the Serb people". Online Internet. 31 Oct. 1998.
Satyendra, Nadesan. Understanding Kosovo: "Similarities". Online Internet. 31 Oct. 1998.
Vickers, Miranda, and James Pettifer. Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity. New York: New York, 1997.
P. Shoup, Communism and the National Question in Yugoslavia, London and New York: Columbia University Press. Sugar and I. Lederer, Nationalism in Eastern Europe, Washington 1970, R.
Okey, Eastern Europe 1740-1985.
Feudalism to Communism, London: Unwin Hyman, 1986.