– N. Ribar, The Voice of Albania –
Some things just tend to never leave one no matter how much time passes. One such thing is the phrase “the only religion of Albania is Albanianism,” which I first heard years and years ago but still comes back to me frequently, almost every day. This is not just because I hope to be a friend and sincere well-wisher of the Albanian people, it is something more profound.
Anything who knows even a little bit about Albania has heard this phrase, and that it is closely associated by many with the time of Comrade Enver Hoxha and people’s state power, in the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. It is with this phrase that some Western “Albania experts” and internal descendants of Albanian nazi-fascist collaborators that, they allege, Comrade Enver at the head of the Party of Labour of Albania “banned religion.” Nothing of the sort occurred. The aim of this writing is not to disprove this allegation which are too absurd to be true, but it suffices to recall that in those days Article 37 of the Constitution of the PSR of Albania, written up and approved by the people themselves, read: “The state recognizes no religion whatever and supports atheist propaganda for the purpose of inculcating the scientific materialist world outlook in people.” While Article 55 reads: “The creation of any type of organization of a fascist, anti-democratic, religious, and anti-socialist character is prohibited. Fascist, anti-democratic, religious, war-mongering, and anti-socialist activities and propaganda, as well as the incitement of national and racial hatred are prohibited.” This is clear, one would think. The state did not recognize religion, nor did the people permit individuals to form religious organizations or promote religious propaganda, while private worship remained untouched.
Returning to the matter at hand, the origin of this phrase “the only religion of Albania is Albanianism” is elsewhere, though it was indeed raised to a state and party motto during that period. It is found in the well-known poem of the Albanian patriot Pashko Vasa “Oh Albania, Suffering Albania.” Here I reproduce a short excerpt from the poem:
Albanians, you are killing kinfolk,
You’re split in a hundred factions,
Some believe in God or Allah,
Say “I’m Turk,” or “I am Latin,”
Say “I’m Greek,’ or “I am Slavic,”
But you’re brothers, hapless people!
You’ve been duped by priests and hodjas…
Wake, Albanian, from your slumber,
Let us, brothers, swear in common
And not look to church or mosque,
The only religion of Albania is Albanianism!
This poem emerged in the context of the National Renaissance and League of Prizren of the late 19th century. Such figures as Abdyl, Naim and Sami Frasheri, made their name and views known. When this movement emerged in 1878 the Albanian nation was divided into four vilayets by the Ottoman hordes — Janina, Manastir, Shkodra and Kosova. Shortly afterwards the Russians defeated the Turkish in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78) and divided up the spoils of the Balkan Peninsula. The Albanian nation was split into two in the treaties of Berlin and San Stefano — over almost the entire Albanian vilayet of Kosova was given to Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria, and half of the Albanian Manastir vilayet to Bulgaria. The other parts of Albania, which remained within the Ottoman empire for the time being, roughly constituted the borders of modern Albania. This historical injustice is how the borders of modern Albania were determined, and how half of the Albanian nation was left outside of their Homeland, dominated by South Slav chauvinism. If one is left to their own thoughts, one could question what kind of socialism it is which existed in Titoite Yugoslavia, which refused to rectify this crime? However, this is neither here nor there.
Within this context and in the context of tens of centuries of occupations by foreigners, the Albanians were split along religious lines — Islam, Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism — and now were split along the borders of nation-states. It was the National Renaissance which broke with the past in this regard — an Albanian was an Albanian, he was not a Muslim, a Christian or a Catholic. He fought for the independence of his Homeland irrespective of belief — the time when the priests and hodjas could hoodwink the people as part of the great-state scheme of “divide and rule” was over. Do not forget that in this period the imperialists conflated an individual’s religion with their nationality — a Muslim was a Turk, an Orthodox a Slav or a Catholic an Italian. “Oh Albania, Suffering Albania” by Pashko Vasa served as a catalyst, as a summation of these sentiments and this movement.
It was not Comrade Enver Hoxha, the Party of Labour of Albania or the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania which gave rise to the phrase “the only religion of Albania is Albanianism.” The people themselves did this in the National Renaissance of the late 19th century because they knew that the Albanians themselves, split along religious lines, could not exist, could not assert their independence unless they rejected the imperialist conception of nation as religion. The very existence of the Albanian nation is dependent on the rejection of religion. If anyone needs any more proof of this, the struggle of Skanderbeg of the 15th century who first fought the Muslim Turks, the main occupier and enemy, and then the Catholic Venetians when they also wanted to throttle Albania, staving off all enemies for scores of years, is itself indicative enough.
“The only religion of Albania is Albanianism” raises a question pertinent not only to the Albanians but to all of humanity — what kind of nation? Will we raise a new generation filled with enmity towards one another on the basis of dogmatic reaction, or will we raise this generation filled with amity towards one another on the basis of common socialized humanity? Will we embark on the road of degeneration and decay, or the high road of civilization, a modern society fit for human beings?
Why not “the only religion of India is Indianism”? “The only religion of Ireland is Irishism”? “The only religion of Russia is Russianism”? “The only religion of Bosnia is Bosnianism”? Indeed, why not “the only religion of Yugoslavia is Yugoslavism” as a whole? I know not a few people of Yugoslav background who would be resistant to such a proposal. But it is a matter of discussion and elaboration — shouldn’t peoples who have identical ethnic stock, who speak the same language, inhabit a common territory and share a psychology be one? Why should it matter that some spent centuries under Austro-Hungarian influence, some under Turkish influence and some under Bulgarian influence, and why should this difference which manifests itself in separate religions define a nation? These distinctions are not organic but are in fact synthetic, not decided by the people themselves but imposed on them by the Great Powers. The Albanians had such distinctions and yet they remain one nation due to the work taken up by the patriots of the National Renaissance. This proves it is not a matter of ancient primordial hatred but about who will take up the work to realize building unity.
When we look at history, there are all these things that pop out. One is what is called the “Illyrian movement” of the 19th century, mainly the result of Croatian intellectuals. This is of interest to us, even though one has to be cognizant that the South Slavs are not descendants of the ancient Illyrians as this movement claimed. In this context, the Serbian kingdom was already independent, while the Croats were under the domination of the Austro-Hungarians. The Croatian people were striving to break free of this domination, and raised this cultural movement to smash the Austro-Hungarians and realize their unity with the other South Slavs, first of all the Serbs. This movement was pro-Croat, pro-Serb, pro-Slav and anti-Austo-Hungarian. There is a tremendous historical fraud with regards to this because when the Ustaše and Ante Pavelić came to power with Hitler and Mussolini’s jackboots in the “Independent State of Croatia” they based their national anthem, also the national anthem of today’s Republic of Croatia, on the poem Croatian Homeland by Antun Mihanović of the “Illyrian movement.” They claimed inheritance and continuance with the “Illyrian movement” in all fields… while exterminating the Serbs and bowing at the alter of a nazi Germany with an Austrian at the head.
This all raises the question again — why should modern nations be divided along religion? All these things make sense to me, while the thesis put forward by imperialism and fascism that nations must have an official religion does not. Woe betide those who push disunity, factionalism and splittism for their own gains.
Nor is chauvinism or oppression put on this basis. One of the things imperialism does with regards to the Balkan Peninsula is to blame everything on religion — how many times have we heard that in the 1990s Milošević the Serb attacked the Muslims? What we call Great-Serb chauvinism has not attacked and does not attack Islam in the abstract. How else are we to explain the distinction made by the Karadjordjevićes, Titos and Rankovićes with regards to the Slavic Muslims and the Kosovar Albanians? Yes, in demographical surveys and the like they grouped these two peoples together as “Muslims” but how are we to explain the dramatic difference in the policy towards them? Vaso Čubrilović and others planned for the expulsion and extermination of the Albanian nation, and were the most trusted ministers and advisors of the kraljs and Tito. These plans were actually carried out, with hundreds of thousands of Albanians deported to Turkey. Why didn’t the Slavic Muslims face a similar fate? Why were Prishtina, Prizren, Peja and other cities of Kosova languishing in poverty and misery in pseudo-socialist Yugoslavia while Sarajevo was built as a modern European city? The answer is that there are Slavs and then there are Albanians, the latter of whom have faced the most barbarous oppression at the hands of the former.
One way or another, history has its own way of sorting out these problems, and it does not bode well for reaction. The people have to settle scores with the imperialists and expel them from all regions of the world, including the Balkan Peninsula, and then the peoples who inhabit these regions will be able to take these matters into their own hands. The imperialists and Great Powers, who are responsible as the source of all local wars in history, for inciting hatred and violence, will simply have to go.
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