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The ancient cradle, heartland and centre of the Serbian nation, culture and religion is the region of Southern Serbia known as Kosovo-Metohija. Kosovo is the location of the most ancient, venerable and beloved monuments of the Serbian historic, ethnic and Orthodox heritage.
Each year on 28 June, Serbian people around the world solemnly celebrate, as their most important and sacred national holiday, the anniversary of the great 14th century battle of Kosovo. In 1389, on the Field of Kosovo, the Serbs laid down their lives in defence of their nation and faith. This hallowed ground in the heart of Serbia became the Flanders Field, the Valley Forge, Gettysburg and Arlington, all in one, of the Serbian nation.
How central and important the region of Kosovo-Metohija is to the national consciousness is well demonstrated by the "New Gracanica" centre, built in recent years near Chicago. When the Serbian-American people wanted to build some monument as an expression of their deepest sense and feeling of their Serbian identity, they chose to build a replica of the famous Gracanica monastery church - the most beloved monument in Kosovo.
The Turkish invaders won the battle of Kosovo and began their five hundred year occupation of Serbia in 1389. During those long, terrible centuries of bondage and martyrdom, Serbian resistance and love of freedom never weakened, and the foremost dream of the Serbs was the liberation of the ancient Serbian holy ground of Kosovo. With much blood and terrible sacrifice, this dream was finally realized in 1912.
Now, however, our traditional heartland, the soul and foundation of Serbia, is being torn asunder with strife, bloodshed and external political power struggles. This catastrophe was sponsored first by the former brutally Stalinist regime in Albania, and tacitly aided by the Communist government of the late Joseph Tito. It is now being sustained with the aid of countries which should have a better sense of international affairs.
Colonists and invaders from Albania, which borders on Serbian Kosovo-Metohija, began to settle in the region during the Turkish occupation. Because they were so readily willing to abandon their Christian faith and adopt the Moslem religion and way of life, the Albanians were imported into Kosovo by the Turks in substantial numbers. Their mission was to help the Turks control the area, undermine Serbian national consciousness and weaken the Serbian hopes for independence. Many Serbs were forced to move northward, and their lands and homes were given to the Albanian invaders. This programme continued for the entire five centuries of the Turkish occupation.
Nevertheless, the profoundly Serbian character of Kosovo-Metohije could not be eradicated even after five hundred years of a powerful, concerted effort to do so. The great Serbian Orthodox monastery of Decani, built in 1327, the great church of Ljeivoska in Prizren, built in 1306, the ancient Serbian Patriarchal See of Pech, completed in the 13th century, and the beloved church and monastery of Gracanica, built in 1313, and many other great Serbian monasteries and Churches grace the landscape of this Serbian sacred land. At the time of the liberation, the population of Kosovo-Metohija was still fifty percent Serbian, and a balance was maintained between the native Serbs and the Albanian occupation colonists. The region remained the focal point of Serbian religious and national pilgrimage - deeply etched in the Serbian consciousness.
Now, however, there is an active, violent and externally supported movement among the Albanian colonial population of Kosovo-Metohija to separate the province from the Serbian Republic, proclaim autonomy, then independence, and finally unite with Albania. This movement began and was strongly supported by the late Stalinist dictator of Albania, Enver Hoxa, with his dreams of a "greater Albania," including Kosovo, the northern Greek province of Epiros and a large portion of the present Macedonian Republic. This plan and these borders are still an active and powerful motivating force in what is taking place in Albania today, a part of the dynamic behind the present problems in Kosovo.
While today's tragedy in Kosovo-Metohija had its roots in the forced migrations and colonialism of the Turkish occupation, the present catastrophe really crystallized during the Second World War. During the Nazi and Italian Fascist occupation, the Serbian people resisted valiantly. As a result, the Serbs were brutally massacred everywhere. The results in Kosovo were disastrous. At the end of the war, the Serbian population in its native Kosovo had been decimated. The 1948 census showed that the Albanian colonists (who did not suffer such retribution from the Nazis) now made up 68.5% of the population. Again, the valiant defence of their sacred heartland had cost the Serbian people dearly. They gave their lives not only for Serbia, but for the freedom of Europe from the Nazi terror, but this is little appreciated. Thousands of Serbs were killed in action, cut down by Nazis and other Fascists on one side and by the Communist insurgents on the other. Thousands were slaughtered in the Nazi "pacification" programme and thousands more were forced to flee into exile either to other parts of Yugoslavia or abroad. Not only did the Albanian population, which collaborated with the Nazis, not suffer such retribution, but they took advantage of the situation and turned against the native Serbian population with bestial fury. They tried to continue what the Nazis had begin. The Albanian colonists found the Nazi "pacification" programme a convenient launching platform for a systematic campaign of terror and extermination against the native Serbian population, and began to carry this out with stunning inhumanity.
Following the Second World War, allied betrayal and Soviet military power inflicted the harsh Communist dictatorship on the Yugoslav state. The Communist government of Joseph Tito was completely indifferent to the sufferings and aspirations of the people it ruled. An accord between the Communist dictatorships in Yugoslavia and Albania made the immigration of Albanians into Kosovo more open and easy. A flood of new colonists entered the area, under the guise of family reunification and student visas (which turned out to be permanent immigration). The Tito regime began to remove Serbs from all administrative positions in Kosovo and replaced them with dedicated Communist Albanians. It became more and more difficult for Serbs to be educated and their children were openly persecuted, often beaten at school or on the way home from school. A large number of well documented incidents of Serbian girls being raped by Albanians occurred. As the Albanian control grew, native Serbs began to be fired from jobs and denied employment in favour of the Albanian colonists. As a result of all this, Serbs were forced to migrate out of their native area.
By 1981, the Albanians numbered 77.5% of the population of Serbian Kosovo-Metohije. In that year, the real plans of the Stalinist government in Albania became clear. President Hoxa publicly announced his doctrine of "Greater Albania," and began moves to annex Kosovo. As if on signal, a new wave of terror broke about against the Serbian population of Kosovo. Crops and homes of Serbian farmers were burned, ancient Serbian churches, monasteries, shrines and historical monuments were set fire or desecrated. Albanian terrorists even attacked nuns in their convents, Serbian girls and women were subjected to brutal assault and rape. The monument on the Field of Kosovo was attacked, as was the beloved Gracanica Church. The perpetrators of these crimes were never found, if they were even sought after.
If these things happened elsewhere, if, for example, some group of terrorists set fire to Canterbury Cathedral or vandalized graves in Arlington National Cemetery or destroyed the cenotaphs in Canadian war memorials, what an outcry would be heard. People in other countries would raise money for restoration; friends and allies would express their shock and support for the offended people.
It is heartbreaking to ask now, where are the friends and allies of the Serbian people? Where were they through the 1970's and 80's when such outrageous acts were being perpetrated and Serbs being driven out of their homeland? Where are those who fought side by side with the Serbs in two world wars for the sake of freedom and democracy?
It would be well for those who support the efforts of the Albanian colonists to take a more serious minded look at the circumstances in the Balkans. It appears they either do not know or choose not to know that Albanian designs are not limited to the Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohije, but that Albania also claims the Greek province of Epiros and a very large area in the present Republic of Macedonia. Today's Albanian actions in Kosovo are only an introduction. If they are successful in Kosovo, and consolidate their power there, Greek Epiros and part of Macedonia will certainly be next. Can Europe really afford to allow the ill-informed and myopic American anti-Serbianism to create such a situation in the Balkans? Why would the West betray its courageous ally of two world wars for the sake of advancing the dangerous cause of Albanian megalomania at the risk of another Balkan war? Is the pressure coming simply from the American desire to cement a greater sphere of influence before Russia recovers economically? Whatever the cause, the game is as dangerous as it is unjust.