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Creation of the Founding Myth of Kosovo Albanians Vedran Obućina: A War of Myths suvremene TEME, (2011.) god. 4., br. 1. CONTEMPORARY issues, (2011) Vol. 4, No. 1 UDK: 323.1(497.115)”200”=111 Prethodno priopćenje Primljeno: 21.9. 2011. A War of Myths: Creation of the Founding Myth of Kosovo Albanians VEDRAN OBUĆINA Politea: Association for Promotion of Social Sciences and New Media, Zagreb A distinctive Albanian character is present in the shaping of Kosovo’s statehood. The official politics of history and identity diminish the importance of other ethnic communities and focuses on Albanian mythology, represented by mixture of contemporary and historical personalities, events, places and memories. Integrative and European-leaning from outside, Kosovo is more and more particular and Albanian from inside, leaving many doubts and uncertainties about the intercultural future of Europe’s newest state. Keywords: Kosovo, Albanians, founding myth, memory, identity politics 1. Introduction in this paper it will be regarded only as an op- posite to the new myths of the Albanian side. Kosovo mythology might be perceived as The other one, the Albanian one, is the basis one of the indirect causes for bloodshed sur- for Kosovar nation-building. These mythologies rounding the wars, conflicts and atrocities made proclaimed themselves as saviors of the na- in this newly independent state. Kosovo might tion and civilization. In a poor attempt to follow also be regarded as the place where the vio- Samuel Huntington’s version of the clash of lent dissolution of Yugoslavia began. The 1981 civilizations, Serbs and Albanians unconsciously student unrest in Prishtina, the province’s capi- followed the ideas of Fernand Braudel, Oswald tal, showed the fragility of post-Tito Yugosla- Spengler and Arnold Toynbee in arguing that via, as an omen for future years (Ker-Lindsay, states were significantly influenced by their civili- 2009; Ramet, 2000; Udovički, 2000). Kosovo was zational position (Hansen, 2000: 346), i.e. based again, in 1989, a centre of a nationalistic out- on their historical and religious identities, in this break. Then President of Socialist Republic of case presented by Christian Orthodox Serbs and Serbia, Slobodan Milošević gave a speech on mostly Muslim Kosovo Albanians. Although the Kosovo (Gazimestan) Field, marking the 600th concept of Huntington’s conflict of civilizations anniversary of the Kosovo battle, with a refer- (at least understood in a way as Braudel under- ence to the possibility of “armed battles”. Ten stood them) was disputed and still is the subject years later, Serbia attacked Kosovo Albanians, of complex discussions, he correctly pointed out and twenty years later Kosovo was already an the importance of cultural and historical back- independent state. Throughout all these years ground for the events and conflicts in modern two myths fought for the truth about Kosovo, two world, and especially so in the Balkans. The aim political myths with anti-democratic sentiments, of this paper is to explain how and why Kosovo extreme nationalism and new authoritarianism. Albanians use the history and culture to promote One of them is the Serbian one which perceives “Albanianess” of the new Kosovo state. Opinions Kosovo as the heart and soul of Serbian national expressed here are focused on politics of history and religious identity; this one is well known and and identity, on places of memory and specific centar za politološka istraživanja the political science research centre 30 www.cpi.hr Vedran Obućina: A War of Myths suvremene TEME, (2011.) god. 4., br. 1. CONTEMPORARY issues, (2011) Vol. 4, No. 1 events which form the overall official politics of groups. At the same time, this is where interna- Kosovar identity, but which bear an unofficial Al- tional organizations have failed. It would not be banian mark. Under the pretext of a European- conceivable in any specific way to convince, for oriented new state, built upon the togetherness example, Albanians, Goranis and Ashkalis to be of six ethnic communities, this paper shows how, one Kosovar nation, as all three have an already in fact, there is little or no mention of other com- established national consciousness. In this re- munities, except the Albanian one, in the build- gard, the international community has put all its ing of the youngest state in Europe. effort and energy in the biggest national group, the Albanians, as the core of the Kosovar nation. 2. Building a New Nation In this way, they jeopardized the possibility for other ethnic groups to perceive themselves as Nation-building gained broad acceptance in part of the Kosovar nation. the 1990s after the end of the Cold War. Numer- In Hippler’s opinion, a crucial component of ous multi-national states experienced heavy con- nation-building is the development of a function- flicts and the policy of nation-building came after al state apparatus that can actually control its peace operations conducted by various interna- national territory (Hippler, 2005: 9). In Kosovo, tional organizations, primarily United Nations, a substantial role is carried out by international NATO, European Union and African Union. Koso- organizations, including the protection of nation- vo is one such case. The United Nations Mission al territory, and it thus lacks the Weberian prin- in Kosovo (UNMIK) authorities, together with the ciple of statehood: monopoly of legitimate use military presence of North Atlantic Treaty Orga- of physical force in the enforcement of its order. nization (NATO) and the European Union Rule of In that way, state-building is an important aspect Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), with the help of nation-building, with loyal personnel that does of other European Union (EU) initiatives, and not identify primarily with individual social, eth- the Organization for Security and Cooperation in nic or religious communities, but rather with the Europe (OSCE) are making the nation-building state and the nation. Without social mobiliza- process coming true. Jochen Hippler considers tion and political integration, there is no nation nation-building as a policy that “constitutes a state in pluralistic societies and no process of hinge between foreign, development and military socio-political development, which ideally allows policy for the purpose of preventing or manag- initially loosely linked communities to become a ing violent conflicts, achieving local and regional common society with a nation state correspond- stability, and facilitating development” (Hippler, ing to it. Hippler acknowledges it takes quite 2005: 4). Such a presence of various interna- an amount of luck for everything to be solved tional organizations in Kosovo bears a question correctly, because the new nation has to bear of legality to enter internal state-building, despite economic integration, cultural integration, politi- the principle of non-interference under the UN cal centralization, bureaucratic control, military Charter, which can always be overruled by the conquest or subjugation, creation of common Security Council. External nation-building, like in interests, democratization and establishment of the case of Kosovo, is thus always questioned common citizenship or repression. Hippler also and disputed. Hippler conceives nation-building understands a problem which heavily persists as a three-fold process, including a process of in Kosovo, namely if belonging to the nation is socio-political development, a political objective, to be determined according to language, ethnic as well as a strategy, and integrative ideology. origin or religion rather than on the basis of civil The latter includes the founding myth of the Kos- equality. Hippler sees two arising problems here: ovar nation. Nation-building will only be success- ful in the long term if it stems from an integrative “First, there is a danger that ethicizing the po- ideology. This is not an easy task. Hippler sees litical discourse in the context of latent conflicts nation-building necessarily as a process of form- and social mobilization will lower the threshold ing of a nation which has no specific identity or for violence and trigger violent conflicts which loyalty attached to a tribe, a clan, or an ethnic are ethnically structured. Secondly, such a or ethno-religious group (Hippler, 2005: 8). In context transforms the nation-building pro- Kosovo, as we shall see, this is not so easily dis- cess: instead of striving for or achieving the tinguishable, even among the Kosovo Albanians integration of society as a whole, the alterna- themselves. Integration of a society is what Hip- tive then arises of conducting nation-building pler names as the core pattern of communica- either as a repressive project of hegemony tion between different and loosely associated by one ethnic group over others or bringing centar za politološka istraživanja the political science research centre 31 www.cpi.hr Vedran Obućina: A War of Myths suvremene TEME, (2011.) god. 4., br. 1. CONTEMPORARY issues, (2011) Vol. 4, No. 1 about a situation of competition between dif- of the future state (Ahtisaari, 2007). Ahtisaari ferent nation-building projects conducted by stressed the importance of a multi-ethnic soci- the various ethnic groups. Both lead to the ety, with several official languages. But, the situ- intensification of existing conflicts and the risk ation on the ground is quite different. Albanians of these being waged in a violent manner in basically can offer quite big minority rights be- the future” (Hippler, 2005: 12). cause they themselves are the overwhelmingly biggest ethnic group in Kosovo. Of the 230.000 In Kosovo, this problem arises from the bot- Serbs and other non-Albanians who fled Kosovo tom up. The Constitution of Kosovo, much differ- before the international peace-keeping troops ent from most surrounding countries, does not arrived only a small number returned. The Alba- recognize one particular ethnic group as a domi- nians themselves are victims of terror, corruption cile nation. The preamble is approved by “the and organized crime. Kosovo institutionalized people of Kosovo”, and Article 2 states that “The ethnicity (Bieber, 2004: 2) and the power-shar- Republic of Kosovo is a state of its citizens”.
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