By Gëzim Mekuli. Translation Petrit Latifi
Gëzim Mekuli is an expert in Media Sciences and Rhetoric.

Summary

The text critiques modern criticism of Albania, particularly when it targets the nation as a whole rather than focusing on political issues. Gëzim Mekuli compares contemporary criticism of Albania to a 1937 Serbian propaganda document by Vaso Çubrilović, which advocated for the expulsion of Albanians. Mekuli argues that while criticizing the government is important, attacking Albania as a nation or its people aligns with divisive Serbian narratives that aim to undermine Albanian identity and unity. He calls for a distinction between criticizing political regimes and disparaging the nation itself, emphasizing the need for historical awareness and national solidarity.

The Myth That You Have About Albania and the Albanians

In 1937, Serbian academic Vaso Çubrilović drafted a notorious document titled “The Expulsion of the Albanians,” a memorandum that was not merely a theoretical plan but a concrete project for the ethnic cleansing of Albanians from their lands in Kosovo, Sanjak, Skopje, and beyond. This document openly proposed measures such as psychological terror, mass expulsion with killings, national division, and the spreading of propaganda portraying Albanians as backward and stateless.

Dear readers,

Today, more than 80 years later, when we hear some analysts, journalists, civil society activists, and debaters speak with contempt about Albania as a “failed state,” “mafia-run,” “with savage and uncultured Albanians,” or as a “hopeless and unworthy country to live in,” it is impossible not to recall Çubrilović’s memorandum word for word.

Because what these people often do, sometimes unknowingly, is serve as unconscious (or conscious) tools of Serbian propaganda, nurturing a narrative that mirrors the Serbian doctrine for the division and removal of Albanians from their own identity—from Albania.

Those who today criticize Albania as a political entity and not as a social reality that can be improved, those who disdain the language, history, culture, daily life, and the Albanian people living within it, are “pouring water into Çubrilović’s mill” and the mill of Belgrade. Because this was and still is the strategy: to present Albania as terrible, so that it never becomes a refuge, a strength, or a reference for Albanians everywhere. Hence, the distinction between “THEM” and “US…”

Why do I say this, and why do I think so?

Did we forget that nearly one million Albanians from Kosovo suffered the terror of Serbian occupation during the Kosovo War of 1999?

Did we not go to Albania during that time? Where else, but to your own home, your sister’s or brother’s house? In that poor, tired, stripped Albania, yet open, hospitable, sacrificial, and generous. The Albanian people in Albania shared their last bread with us, the last bits of food with our children, the shelter and spirit with their brothers and sisters, and not for politics or pomp, but because this is the nature of the Albanian: with honor, with heart, for each other.

Albania is not the government. Albania is the Albanian people.
Kosovo is not the government. Kosovo is the Albanian people.

It is a grave mistake and a lack of understanding of the historical, social, and political context for those who identify Albania (or any state or nation) with its government or a political figure in a moment of misrule. Because Albania is not Edi Rama, nor was it Sali Berisha, nor Fatos Nano, nor Enver Hoxha. Just as Germany was not Adolf Hitler, Norway was not Quisling’s Norway, and Italy was not Benito Mussolini’s Italy. Nor is Serbia the kings or the ideologues of the past. Do not confuse the people with the rulers!

Albania is what remains without these figures: the land, the flag, the Albanian language, the Albanian people—generous, kind, and noble—we, the Albanians.

Dear readers,

Criticizing the government is a civic duty. We must do that. But to smear Albania as an idea, as history, as a nation, as hope, is to serve the ancient propaganda of Serbia.

Instead of declaring Albania an enemy, look towards Belgrade, where since 1878 until today, military-political plans against Albanians have been crafted—through money, divisions, religion, media, analysts, NGOs (Civil Society), and other destabilizing elements.

On Rron Gjinovci and those who share similar views:

Figures like Rron Gjinovci, who constantly disparage Albania as an idea, as a nation, and as a history (almost everything Albanian), are not bringing constructive criticism but rather showing contempt. When you say “Albania does not want you” or “Albanian’s from Albania are different,” when you equate criminals and corrupt politicians with the people, when you portray Albania almost like Serbia, you are feeding the agenda that seeks to convince the world and the Albanians that Albanians do not deserve to have a state—not in Kosovo and not in Albania.

And this is exactly what Vaso Çubrilović wanted: to convince the world that Albanians are incapable, wild, hopeless, and do not deserve land, a state, or an identity.

Here is a bitter but necessary comparison:

Çubrilović’s Plan (1937) – The Narrative of Contemporary Criticism (2025)

1. Albanians must be expelled — 1. Albanians must leave Albania.
2. Albania is a problem for the Balkans — 2. Albania is a problem for Albanians.
3. Albanians are backward — 3. Albanians lack culture and civilization.
4. Divide the Albanians — 4. “Kosovars” despise Albania, and vice versa.
5. Control the propaganda — 5. Albanian media spread self-destructive propaganda.

Albanians are not perfect, and Albania has serious problems, just as we do in Kosovo, Montenegro, the Presevo Valley, North Macedonia, and Chameria. The reasons are known, right? But what has allowed us to survive as a nation was not perfection or flawlessness; it was the love for our homeland and the political awareness that without Albania, we are lost.

Albanians do not need to boast, but they have every reason to be proud of what they have preserved through blood and sacrifice. And it is our duty not to serve the plans of Çubrilović, even with “modern analyses.”

In the end, Albania does not need protection from its critics, but intelligence requires national self-awareness. And this begins by knowing history, not forgetting who the enemy is and who the friend is, and never confusing “the nation” with “the regime.”

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This translation maintains the original structure and themes of the text. It addresses historical context, the dangers of divisive rhetoric, and the importance of national unity, while critiquing those who, whether intentionally or unintentionally, align with ideas that echo past Serbian propaganda.