Glezos

Saturday 23 February 2019

Towards a 'Greater' Albania: Albanians in Greece: Marriage or Divorce? (Part 4)



Albanians in Greece: Marriage or Divorce?


“Greek Worker Beware the Bosses Spread Racism” Wall Grafitti in early 2000s

‘We will replace this fascist people with citizens of the world’ #fascistGreeks
Alleged Twittter Statement by Syriza Adviser Karanika

What happened next is that a section of Albanians were adopted co-opted and promoted beyond their real abilities but for the purpose of defeating the Greek working class: in labour and certain individuals were promoted in the sports, the media and in secondary schools to sell the idea they are the same as everyone else.

For that reason alone the labourers who came across in the early 1990’s were essentially unskilled and learnt most of their trades on the job from Greek crews.

This is where the social transformation of the KKE occurred from a party based on labourers with a sprinkling of MPs in Parliament to a party of upwardly mobile petty entrepeneurs. A bourgeoisification took place based on alleged leftwing ideology on ‘anti-racism’ and the building boom that replaced or became a surrogate to the de-industrialisation of Greece as between the mid-1990s and the onset of the Olympic games (we also had the arrival of the ERM and then the Euro) substituted the Greek working class for an imported one whilst at the same time older workers were being fired from industry that was either closing down or relocating to low cost zones (China or Southern Europe eg. Rumania and Bulgaria).

The KKE was never as crass as the leftists who adopted migrants en masse as if they were the saviour of Greece. In the early 1990’s it was the Kurds leaving Iraq who were considered to be ...refugees, whilst Albanians were just seen to be poor neighbours trying to make ends meet, where both Greek and Albanians could benefit. But in reality only Greek bosses benefited by adopting Albanians en masse and the slogan in the beginning of this piece was just Orwellian propaganda. Its purpose was to ensure people accepted Albanians to do otherwise would qualify them as being... racists.

This obviously worked insofar as the economy was in some type of a boom all the way to 2004 (Olympic Games were held) but once new waves of migrants started to come constantly for almost a decade after that led to spiralling crime, chaos on the streets and a general turn by the Greek population against migration in general.

Its a general rule well known for any observers of any society that the first wave of migrants are generally acquiescent as they aren’t really established in anything. The beauty of Greece’s free movement with Albania was that the Albanians were never regulated for over a decade and as such they could be booted out willy nilly but never were and they became pariahs in general as described by Engels in the 19th century classic ‘The Condition of the English Working Class’. They could be used as whipping boys against Greek workers who were truculent or who demanded higher wages. This was superbly manipulated by the KKE in its war against Greek workers. They sidelined Greek militant building workers and slowly replaced them with Albanians. Having achieved their aim what did they gain? A stabilisation of capitalism until the Big Crash.

The evidence of the uselessness of migrant workers is clear for all to see. Almost three decades after their arrival en masse no significant victory has ever been achieved anywhere and never will be. Even during the Olympics building boom, hours weren’t reduced, danger levels weren’t decreased nor were new standards set. Instead the Greek working class as evidenced by the slogans sang in football stadiums, conversations on the radio, conflicts that hit the streets due to provocative attitudes of the Albanians in particular after the NATO bombardment of Serbia in 1999 led to a chant which stated: ‘Albanians You will Never be Greek’.

The above slogan was dominated and overshadowed all conversations which tried to sell the fact that whoever resides in Greece or is born in Greece suddenly is Greek. Assimilationists sold diversity and Greekness at one and the same time. In other words one could be a Nigerian like Antetonkoumpo and declare one is Greek as well. An approach which essentially states that all you require is to cross artificially constructed nation state borders and once in you become one with the locals. Language, history, culture, tradition play no role. The ethnic ghetto was now king and the response from the masses was clear: ‘Albanian you will never be Greek’ which contiues to this day when the same slogan was chanted against citizens of ex-FYROM with the slogan ‘Skopjian you will never be Greek’

Around 70% of Albanians in the 2000 decade were involved in the building trade and another 20% in the agricultural sector. This was the era when the EU compressed prices on farms and the subsidies did not allow a) for workers to be employed legally b) supermarkets imported from outside the EU compressing prices c) land in general was considered an enemy to progress and an office job the solution to all. An overwhelming majority of Greek students ended up studying abroad if not studying at home and a return to the land was considered an anathema as were labouring trades. Thus mass migration led to a breakdown of certain trades ie. only older Greek workers were involved in building trades or they became foremen or small businessmen employing contract labour and then having been removed cut off from the trades. Within this situation it was inevitable Albanians ended up becoming building specialists and then branching out themselves. Subsequently when the crash came Albanians started either to leave and go abroad or also branch out in the food sector setting up cafes or souvlaki joints. Hardly any went back home for work but they did send money home to build any houses on land they owned or houses. Billions of euros left Greece and were never re-invested in the country itself.

An Albanian Ms Alimani teacher who migrated to Greece explained the situation thus:
“No one knew what migration meant. Migration is a very violent event. Many felt humiliation. No one at the time stopped to think that Greece wasn’t ready for such a wave of migration. In Albania I only ever held books, I studied theatre whilst in Greece I did all the jobs. Degradation I never allowed myself to feel. I just took a decision that we belong to an unlucky generation – my daughter I am sure will live better. The question is how do you go to the other country, with an open heart or with reservations?”
https://www.tovima.gr/2008/11/24/archive/giati-toys-misoyme-ellines-albanoi-giati-mas-misoyn/

It becomes clear with the above that migrants expect a host country to bend over backwards to accept them for what they are which then begs the question why are they there? Is there a lack of domestic labour or an inability of it to perform? Its only due to currency differences and standard of living differentials that the process occurs in other words free flow of surplus labour goes essentially one way, from low cost zones to high cost zones when dealing with labour. In what way does ‘free movement’ help anyone other than the bosses? To date no one ever answers that question only because by hiding behind emotional accusations of racism they cover for the bosses desire to drive down wages and pen them to the floor.

“In Athens they are seven Albanian unions of migrants with the main one being the Forum of Albanian Migrants. Nowadays they don’t send all their money home, they have money in banks, they buy houses, in Athens there are around 50k Albanians who own property, mostly in Kipseli, Platia Vathi and Attiki squares, where they can find cheap flats close to their own people.

….Greeks continue to have a fear of Albanians as renters primarily as they believe they aren’t economically solvent”
In 2008 according to a report around 40% of Albanians didn’t have secondary education, around 11% declares they don’t know how to write and only 4% are graduates of high schools. Around 50% of primary schoolchildren are no longer Greek and around 25% in lower secondary.”
https://www.tovima.gr/2008/11/24/archive/giati-toys-misoyme-ellines-albanoi-giati-mas-misoyn/



Assimilation or Separation?


Before the EU’s much vaunted ‘free movement’ we had ... free movement!
The generation of Albanian children born in Greece have ended up joining the Greek army for national service have been photographed doing the eagle sign (2017) which is the marker for ‘Greater’ Albania. Such is the level of incompetency of the banana republic of NATO going by the name of Greece that anything goes. All they will need in the future is others doing images of their countries flags.
http://web.archive.org/web20170123043331/http://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/647581/salos-me-tous-7-neosullektous-pou-shimatisan-ton-alvaniko-aeto-mesa-se-stratopedo/


2nd Generation Albanians joining the Greek army doing signs of 'Greater' Albania

If as the theory goes Albanian children who grew up in Greece are now Greek why would any of them do the signs of their parents country? To what extent can minorities ever fully integrate in capitalist nation states? No one ever asks or is allowed to debate it as its tantamount to becoming a pariah (due to racism) for questioning the pariah status of migrant arrivals.

According to official government figures there are 480k Albanians in Greece around 53% of the total number of migrants. This occurred in the national census where we have 911.000 migrants with Bulgarians being 8% of the overall total, Rumanians 5%, Pakistanis 3.7% Georgians around 3%

https://www.triklopodia.gr/alvanika-mme-posi-alvani-zoun-stin-ellada/

How many Albanians have actually married Greeks or are in relationships with them? Few and far between. Despite the much vaunted ‘multiculturalism’ there is enmity against both nations by their respective citizens. In a news outlet they refer to a story by two young people that meet one a Greek girl and one an Albanian man and both families nip the relationship in the bud
https://www.newsbeast.gr/weekend/arthro/3422885/mporei-mia-elliniki-oikogeneia-na-apodechthei-enan-alvano-gampro-kai-mia-alvaniki-mia-ellinida-nyfi

In an article in Kathimerini they were praising foreign marriages as if it brings about new blood and gives re-birth to a nation. This was written in 2009. A decade later hundreds of thousands of citizens left Greece. So how did these alleged foreign marriages forestall this? Probably the opposite occurred. The more ‘foreign marriages’ the more fragmentation occurs and national resistance becomes weaker.
But that wont be written anywhere as it leads to social ostracism.
http://www.kathimerini.gr/368068/article/politismos/arxeio-politismoy/otan-o-8anos-gnwrise-th-loyntmila

In a previous article in the main globalist daily paper Ta Nea it stated: “ that in the last years we can notice an increase in the rise of mixed marriages amongst Greek men and Albanian women in general – the opposite is rare. “Few marriages stabilise” according to Ms Malliou “usually they break down due to everyone in their environment being opposed to the Albanian bride -very rarely does a Greek woman marry an Albanian, whilst many times Albanian women are more educated than their partners. In these instances the biggest victims are the children who cannot work out what their identity is. There is another category of Albanians who try to hide their tru identity aided by their parents. Does one know how many children have psychological problems and they hide it?”

https://www.tovima.gr/2008/11/24/archive/giati-toys-misoyme-ellines-albanoi-giati-mas-misoyn/

So what is the conclusion? The Greek bourgeois nation state was only created fully in in its present borders in 1948. Fifty years later hundreds of thousands of Albanians arrived which questioned its essence as a monoethnic nation state. Generations of grandparents know and lived through the role of Albania during WW2. Enmity existed, by both parties. The difference being that Albanians arrival led to the undercutting of Greek workers wages and due to the criminal role of the Left they were adopted and integrated. Assimilation never occurred and every now and again demands are made for their expulsion and there have been instances when Albanians have been forced to hand over criminals in their midst in village areas where crime has spiralled out of control.

The creation of a ‘Greater’ Albania will create the issue anew. Do they stay in Greece or go home and build the vision of the country they allege is lacking since WW1? Should the Left aid them in revolutionary repatriation as Marx envisioned during his tenure of the First International? Is there a Left interested in the indigenous Greek working class anymore? Or has globalism irrevocably won?






Central Athens: What Greeks were missing and required them to become cosmopolitan






















Thursday 14 February 2019

Towards a ‘Greater’ Albania : Albanians we Learnt to Love not Hate (Part 3)



Greek Serbian Nationalism Bad, Albanian Nationalism Good
KLA Commander Sylejman Selimi insisted:
"There is de facto Albanian nation. The tragedy is that European powers after World War I decided to divide that nation between several Balkan states. We are now fighting to unify the nation, to liberate all Albanians, including those in Macedonia, Montenegro, and other parts of Serbia. We are not just a liberation army for Kosovo."




The onset of the new world order in the break up of Yugoslavia and the myth of Serbian nationalism ie the creation of a ‘Greater Serbia’ hid beneath it the push for the creation of a ‘Greater Albania’ by ethnically cleansing Serbs from their ancestral areas and key to this was the creation of ‘multicultural’ Bosnia as the example to be set for all other areas. This NATO protectorate never had a possibility of a viable state structure as a religious minority was elevated to the levers of power and division remained ingrained as ever if not more so after bloodshed was shed. Similar developments took part in Kosovo where the Serb minority became the new Palestinians of Europe.

A couple of decades later an ex-British diplomat helping in EU Accenssion for what they term the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, FYROM) admits essentially without saying so directly that the multicultural experiment on the debris of ex-Yugoslavia was an abject failure:
“Bosnia has long been the most dysfunctional state in the region, wasted by civil war in the 1990s and afflicted by ethnic divisions ever since. The Serbs and Croats have never abandoned their goal of separation. Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska (Bosnia’s Serbian “entity”), is being squeezed by political rivals at home and investigated by police in Sarajevo for alleged money laundering. To shore up his position, he has threatened a referendum on independence for Republika Srpska, scheduled for 2018.”

“The Office of the High Representative adjudicated in ethnic disputes, clamped down on nationalist rhetoric and focused the locals on questions of social and economic reform rather than borders and territory. If politicians refused to co-operate, they were removed from their positions or presented with criminal charges. Nato troops on the ground did the enforcing.”

“Not far behind is Kosovo, an impoverished plateau in the Šar Mountains. It is unrecognised by half of the world, run by a corrupt elite and saddled with an embittered Serb minority. After years of resistance, Kosovo’s Serbs have recently extracted the right to territorial autonomy from the country’s notional EU supervisors. This has provoked a ferocious backlash from Albanian nationalists, who have attacked the parliament and held a series of violent street demonstrations.
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2016/06/next-balkan-wars

So the question that emerges is if the multicultural experiment promoted by the West in the debris of ex-Yugoslavia was such an abject failure why would it be a success in neighbouring Greece with the mass importation of Albanians?

Albanians we Learnt to Love and not Hate



PM Tsipras wearing Antetonkoumpos name on a tshirt to protest 'racism'

It is illuminating that they were either elements that were involved with the Albanian security services or were co-opted by the Greek ones or both. I will forcus on three famous cases : Kaplani from Ta Nea, Pirros Dimas from Olympic gold medal winner in weightlifting, Chenai the student from holding the Greek flag on OXI day. It was a psychological war which continues to this day. The latest version of this story is the Nigerian born in Greece Antentokoumpo that fills adverts from AegeanAirways, recycling centres and even the PM wears his shirt in Parliament.
The migrant in any way shape or form was now best at everything despite the fact that those who came from Albania in reality learnt most of their trades whilst in capitalist Greece. They were experts in rock breaking and moulding, animal thefts and other type of thefts no doubt as the Albanian regime essentially emptied its prisons and its country to wipe out unemployment and this was in accordance with the wishes of the Western politicians.
http://palmosbh.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_09.html

The issue at the end of the day aren’t Albanians per se although many of them pose an existential threat for Greeks. It’s the whole concept of surplus labour under capitalism. But not any type of capitalism but capitalism which is going into reverse ie it requires always less and less hands to do work and the onset of technological advances means productivity since the 1970s has increased exponentially. So under conditions of the scarcity of labour to be a proponent of more and more surplus labour to be added to any given nation it implies one is a globalist pure and simple at a first stage but more importantly a support of ethnicide ie. the erasure of nations.

“When they first In what environment did I grow up and what do you remember from your years as a child?
Unfortunately I was born with my back against the wall. There is a picture when I was one year old where I am by the window and my mother is holding me up in her hands. The window is in a hut those which the communist regime sent the ‘internal enemies’. That is where my once rich family of my father had been exiled. The communists chased them when they occupied power, night, from their large house. They weren’t even allowed to take their family photographs. They put my uncle in prison. When he came out he had lost his marbles due to the torture. He never recovered. I lived and grew up in that hut until I was five. I remember these years as being happy. My granny was a very important woman she did everything in her power in making this hell bearable. She placed flowers all around, cooked superbly with whatever she could find and all the time cracked jokes. My aunties were some of the most beautiful woman I ever found. They used to gather all the relatives in the hut. They remembered the past when they were rich. They used to say ‘life then’...I believe my passion in saying stories grew from then….”
https://www.lifo.gr/articles/sunenteukseis_articles/212854/gkazment-kaplani-oi-ellines-kai-oi-alvanoi-einai-prota-ksaderfia-poy-toys-emathan-na-mi-xoneyontai-metaksy-toys

On reading the above it is a classic statement from most of those who came from E Europe. They were either multimillionaires or brain surgeons who flew on the Russian space programmes but were held back by ….communism. Its reminiscent of the scenes in Scarface where the drug dealer Montana alleges he was a political refugee under Castro when he was just a bum who wanted to make money at any and all cost to human life which he did not respect one iota.

Further down the same Albanian journalist of Ta Nea writes the following: “Practically the last attempt at a Big Idea was Milosevic (popular in Greece) for Big Serbia. He smashed his face and took a proud nation, the Serbians downhill. Whoever dreamt of Big Ideas in the Balkans suffered. I hope the Albanian understand this.” Implying the Serbs were fighting for a Greater Serbia when in reality they were trying to forestall being a minority in their own country by the globalist forces of the New World Order.
The same gentleman was arrested at one point by the Greek police for unknown reasons or reasons that weren’t declared and then left for the USA….Papandreou it was alleged got him out.



Albanian Kaplani a pseudo-globalist ‘intellectual’. By product of Americas attempt at unipolarity after 1990.

Kaplani then appeared not to be able to get Greek nationality. Question is why would a hard core Albanian nationalist who found only racism and fascism in Greece want Greek nationality? What’s wrong with Albanian? Or is it a case of continuing the propaganda when over one million Albanians were granted Greek nationality but their start reporter wasn’t? Nothing with what he writes is at it seems, in particular when he criticises Syriza for not being globalist enough. They make Soros look like a nationalist on a good day.
“I will never forget the revengeful and hated case which is exclusively owned by today’s government ie. Syriza.
“I will never forget all those who appear as defenders of the rights of minorities and migrants as being essentially low life’s a deeply stalinist approach: whoever disagrees with us and we dont control them we crush them so they become an example to others”
Whatever they do I will remain in Greece with my books and my physical presence.
Those who are responsible for my case will remain in the dark, sad bureaucratic shadows, thieves and parasites of a system who think only how to crush human lives and crush rights.
“I will always have many valuable friends in Greece. I will have my readers. From this point of view they can go to hell with their miserly nationality”

Kaplanis cover was blown when he appeared in Tirana launching a book with a tirade about the Greeks slaughtering Albanian collaborators of Mussolini and Hitler in their made up state of Chameria. From here one understands the quality of migrant promoters of... multicultural diversity. They stoop to any level promote any crime but in particular they are fascinated with those of the 3rd Reich and they have diplomatic immunity from the Greek anti-racists. One could take it a step further. The Greek anti-racists only ever defend or cover for minority promoters of the 3rd Reich. Kaplani is an example par excellence.
https://www.tribune.gr/world/news/article/532663/o-talaiporimenos-metanastis-gkazment-kaplani-egrapse-vivlio-gia-to-pos-oi-ellines-esfaxan-toys-tsamides.html

Tsenai- The ‘Top Albanian’ Student
There was big hue and cry when an Albanian student who arrived in Greece after the age of ten was promoted to hold the flag during secondary school celebrations for Greek OXI day when we said no to Mussolinis invasion of Greece which the Albanians supported. It’s like inviting a German student to an anniversary of the massacre of Distomo to speak of the dead.






Tsenai in Boston USA studying

Such is the hatred of the Greek political class against Greeks in general that they will promote anything that is first of all anti-Greek and secondly and above all foreign. Anyone who disagreed was labelled racist. This solidified the middle class teachers behind ‘multiculturalism and globalism’ Anyone against the concept of ‘bright students’ (under capitalist education which ironically was a hallmark of the Left) and of migrants being promoted to that position were deemed to be reactionary, but and being pro-Albanian was the hallmark of being ...progressive until the next but last wave of migrant blow ins arrived reaching a crescendo when Interior Ministry (signed Antifa) graffiti appeared on walls stating we want Albanian students Pakistani co workers and ...Afghani neighbours. In short anything but Greek. This of course being promoted by globalists who live in areas were there are only Greeks. If irony was for sale globalists would have an overabundance of it.




Tsenai at one point was quoted as saying years later:
“Of course there is a logic of assimilation that creates big pressures. On my own I responded to these pressures as the first time round I had created a tragic scenario. At one point due to the pressure I was forced to state that I felt more Greek than Albanian. What meaning did it have?”
Οδυσσέας Τσενάι, Εψιλον 24/10/04, διαθέσιμο στο: http://dimitrisangelidis.blogspot.com/search/label/%CE%A3%CF%85%CE%BD%CE%B5%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%B5%CF%8D%CE%BE%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%82?updated-max=2011-06-06T23:51:00%2B03:00&max-results=20 Πηγή: www.lifo.gr



Coca Colas Olympics being sold by adopting Greeks from Abroad




“Here I was Albanian and in Albania I was Greek, confusion. I entered the bus and was grabbed the bars from the highest point so they could see my hands. I was frightened that if a wallet was stolen they would blame me...”

https://www.alphanews.live/entertainment/pyrros-demassten-ellada-emoyn-albanos-kai-sten-albania-emoyn-ellenas






In order to popularise the Olympic games which was being touted would come to Greece from the early 1990’s, Greek migrants from abroad were adopted the most famous being Pirros Dimas from Himarra in Southern Albania.

The ruling parties in this decade started to adopt celebrities to cope with cataclysmic collapse in their fortunes after adopting the EU-IMFs economic genocide programme. One of them was Pirros Dimas. He recounts that he “entered Parliament in a difficult period. It wasn’t bright and rosy. People are experiencing harsh times, they dont have fuel to heat their homes to warm up. I felt the need to do it and I will not regret it. We cant all sit on our backsides and want things to happen on their own. I am daily on the streets. I enter the metro and the buses. I believe that I am the only person who has the right to look people in the eyes who are suffering and feel injustice. I didn’t join politics to leave, I came to stay. Only via politics can you change things”

In an interview in Lifo Magazine Pirros Dimas is asked:
“Are Greeks racist?
I believe Greeks are racist towards weaker people and poor people. If I never became an Olympic winner they wouldn’t accept me easily. They would look at us in a dodgy manner. The same for Antentokoumpo. He would just be a black person who sells CD’s. He became famous and Samaras called him the Presidential Palace to give him Greek citizenship. Isn’t that all hypocracy. They loved us because we had something which each peoples loves more: Pride”

Whilst paying lip service to Greeks in Northern Ipirus Pirros Dimas is now living in the USA in charge of the Weightlifting Team… Not a pipsqueak about the murder of a compatriot in Albania Katsifas killed by Ramas paramilitary death squads,but enough energy to brandish Greeks as being racist.

Pirros Dimas whole career was a business venture and his foray into politics whilst PASOK-ND were embarking on economic genocide another business venture. So his stories about dual racism are there to sell the rottenness of the Greek nation. That didn’t seem to sell enough as he wasn’t re-elected, this ‘man of the people’, Coca Colas Olympics poster boy. If he wanted to battle racism in his own field he should have at least said something when Greeces Kenteris and Thanou were banned ad hoc in the 2004 Olympic Games by the Americans in case Nike lost the sponsored finals. But hey life is short and it appears in Pirros Dimas case so is money.

Thursday 7 February 2019

Towards a ‘Greater’ Albania: From an agricultural backwater to...a marijuana heroin exporter (Part 2)




Part TWO

‘Greater’ Albania: From an agricultural backwater to...a marijuana heroin exporter

‘Greece does not have territorial demands on Albania’
Greek Premier Mitsotakis 1992
How did a small isolated ex - socialist country become the Columbia of Europe?

Its very difficult to source materials regarding the relationship between Greece and Albania in the last two centuries as we are dealing essentially with agricultural countries and putting pen to paper wasn’t necessarily their strong point nor were the areas clearly demarcated as the collapse of the Ottoman Empire may have occurred in certain areas of current Greece but they weren’t really clear until the 20th century.

As part of the Ottoman Empire the region of Albania was primarily islamiscised and worked for the Ottomans. In terms of foreign associations due to their size and historical development they appear to have followed always Empires that were on the wane. Fanatically in support of the Ottomans, then the Austro-Hungarians, then the Italians, then the Germans subsequently Stalin's Russia, then Mao's China and then finally the Americans under Bush senior and Clinton. One could argue if one wanted to, look who the Albanians are fanatically in support of and work out who is about to lose. They resemble a gambling man who always believes he will win and always bets on the losing horse. Sad but true.

The point of division between Greece and Albania is an area of around 6-7000sq miles which is labelled ‘Northern Ipirus’ by the Greeks and ‘Southern Albania’ by the Albanians. This area was granted to Albania in 1913 by the Florence Protocol so as to make Albania a viable state. This division of Ipirus enraged the Greeks as it was part of Greece from ancient times with settlements there. This area has continued to be a bone of contention for the two countries (recent killing of a Greek called Katsifas a day before OXI on October 27th 2018 by armed Albanian paramilitary police created tension).

During the Sevres Agreement in 1920 Greece was granted the right to assimilate Northern Ipirus, but the political situation made this impossible at the time in Greece. Between 1927 and 1939 when King Zog of Albania was in charge he handed over control to Mussolini’s Italy and Albania became a province of Italy with the scope of uniting other Albanians areas under one region. Here was first born the concepts of ‘Greater Albania’…

Albanians in Albania and neighbouring countries


The problem of the Balkans was that populations of different identity lived in areas that never became part of the bourgeois transformation of each nation state ie minorities ended up on the wrong side of the border. Bigger powers played on this in order to gain a political foothold in each country promised them something that was never granted. Such was born the concept of ‘Greater Albania’ begging the question what was ever great in Albania? The concept of a Greater Albania adopted by Mussolini’s foreign policy to justify neo-colonialism to a desperate home population suffering severely from the onset of the 1929 Wall Street Crash is an irredentist concept of lands that are considered to form the national homeland by many Albanians, based on claims on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in those areas. In addition to the existing Republic of Albania, the term incorporates claims to regions in the neighbouring states, the areas include Kosovo and the Preševo Valley of Serbia, territories in southern Montenegro, northwestern Greece (the Greek regional units of Thesprotia and Preveza) , referred by Albanians as Chameria, and other territories that were part of the Vilayet of Yanina during the Ottoman Empire and a part of western FYROM.

At some point prior to WW2 Italy adopted them officially and turned them into a province of Italy and then to keep them on board Mussolini sold the idea of a ‘Greater Albania’, in other words uniting all the Albanian speaking areas of the Balkans which in today’s time it implies uniting the Albanians in ex-FYROM and Kosovo thus affecting the operation of two states.

When Mussolini’s invasion of Greece failed and in part that was helped by the refusal of the Greeks in what is now southern albania to play ball, Hitlers 3rd Reich adopted them alongside the short lived ‘Republic of Macedonia’, but obviously to no avail as the whole experiment ignominiously collapsed. Both Serbia and Greece were a hard nut to crack to dismember….

Chamouria – Modern Albanian myths related to the Ottoman period

Albanians harp on about a quarter of northern Greece being theirs despite not having citizens living there and they call the region Chamouria.

During the Ottoman rule, the region was under the Vilayet of Ioannina, and later under the Pashalik of Yanina. During this time, the region was known as Chameria (also spelled Tsamouria, Tzamouria) and became a district in the Vilayet of Yanina.The wars of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries between Russia and the Ottoman Empire negatively impacted upon the region.Increased conversions to Islam followed, often forced. Its ironic that history appears to be repeating itself.

https://www.mixanitouxronou.gr/sfagi-tis-paramithias-apo-tous-tsamides-ke-epemvasi-tou-napoleonta-zerva-vinteo/

During the phases of implosion of the Ottoman period enforced islamisication occurred in the regions encompassing modern day Greece. Today we have a similar situation with the promotion of everything islamic (from the opening of the first state funded Greek mosque, to migrant blow ins of islamic heritage being funded to settle in big cities and on the islands of Greece.)


Albanians marching for their Ottoman past for the made up kingdom of Chamouria

Citizens of theirs that collaborated with the 3rd Reich in brutal killings of Greeks were expelled. That fear always lingers on in the back of the mind of every Albanian. It explains in part why Albania wants to be shot of all Greeks within their midst and Eddie Rama has pushed for the expropriation of Greek property whilst the President has provisionally blocked it.

Albania itself for most of its modern existence was an agricultural country and remains so. It never really industrialised.

In the conflict between Albanians Hoxha and Russias Khrushchev Russia didn’t want Albania to industrialise and saw no reason for it to do so as Russia could provide it with industrialised goods in return for agricultural ones. So emphasis was placed on investments in agriculture and Albania did become self -sufficient in food but lacked in industrial and consumer goods and its perpetual conflicts with both Russia and China meant that for a couple of decades they were isolated from the world market and did not update their infrastructure. Under Hoxha they built a national railway and a port they built did station a Russian submarine but once they fell out with each other Albanians took it over and sold it for parts.

This isn’t the area to analyse the merits or non merits of the socialist experiment under Hoxha. That can be left to future historians.

What concerns us is the interaction between those who departed from Albania and Greek labour. The reason being is twofold. Did they raise the experience of Greek labour and increase the general standard of living of both the host working class and themselves or did they lower the general standard pinning it to the floor? Did the free movement of labour between Greece and Albania create better conditions for life in general or make it all worse? The irony of the whole situation is that although they alleged free movement only really applied for countries that negotiated it in the EU with its four freedoms, this was brought to Greece a couple of decades early and the results have been catastrophic.

The Albanians having been socialised under Hoxha as he died in 1985 so if they were a minimum of 20 when they made a dash across the Albanian border to Greece they were born in 1970, 5 odd years before Hoxha broke off all relationships with the outside world, they came full on anti-communist only interested in making a fast buck. If they were 30 they were born in 1960. However which way one looks at it there is no explanation as to how a country emptied by half in the space of a decade or so after Hoxhas death and they were all ready made to undercut the labour of foreign workers, to be viciously anti-communist and at the same time in various sectors of the Greek economy to become one with the KKE (allegedly pro-communist)

Albania Rocks: Marijuana Galore & Imported Heroin

Albanian marijuana plantations

The mainstream BBC has even reported on the business which is Albanias main export.
“In Albania, a kilo of this illegal drug sells for between 100 and 200 euros (£85 to £170). In Italy it will fetch about 1,500 euros. And most of the country's cannabis crop is trafficked out - north through Montenegro, south to Greece, or west across the Adriatic to Italy. There is no significant home market. One source estimates the illicit industry may be worth five billion euros (£4.25bn) per year - about half of Albania's GDP.

The 20kg of stinking greenery slowly drying in the sunlight that streams through an open window does not represent this man's entire crop.
"I've produced 350kg," he says. "This year almost every single house in the village grew cannabis - tons and tons have been produced in this community alone."
This man employs 15 people to pick and process, and armed guards to defend his crop. He says he is in charge here, but he probably belongs to a wider network. So if everyone is growing it, and that seems to be common knowledge, why has there been no police raid?
"I pay the police 20%. Everybody has to pay. If you don't pay they will take you to jail," he says.
Then, he gets defensive.
"This is our curse - there are no jobs, no work here. There's no money in growing anything else. I know it's not a good thing I'm doing, but there's no other way."
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38111945

The road to the EU
The issues that will arise is that if a US retreat occurs from Afghanistan, Albania – Kosovo loses its pivotal role as a Heroin processing and distribution hotspot and if moves are made to bring it into the EU, loses its status as a state where its citizens have essentially diplomatic immunity from criminal acts in neighbouring countries as all they need to do is rush back across the border and all is well. Extradition does not apply. Famous in this was a corporate lawyer (Zafiropoulos) for top politicians in Greece who got paid by Albanian mobsters to spring one of their own from a Greek prison and when that didn’t materialise was shot at point blank range in his office and the perpetrators went back to Albania no questions asked.
https://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/858056/dolofonia-zafeiropoulou-sokarei-o-teleutaios-dialogos-tou-dikigorou-me-tous-ektelestes-tou/

This is where Albanias problems arise. Having carved out a niche as a narco terror state the Columbia of the EU they have to tone down their act as eg France and Holland aren't happy in being undercut in marijuana production and for Albanian citizens having diplomatic immunity from criminal acts.

Saturday 2 February 2019

Towards a 'Greater' Albania: The Coming Crash: The Albanian Conumdrum in Greece (Part 1)




The Coming Crash: The Albanian Conundrum in Greece


When the Soviet Union collapsed a whole series of satellite states emerged in Eastern Europe which ended up on the path of the Western orbit. The West European ruling classes were instructed by their big boss across the Atlantic to prop up and support these states. Greece adopted Albania and the political parties did all in their power to try to integrate them into economic life. The Albanian experience was the beginning of the end of the Greek labour movement.

For decades the mass media railed against the Soviet Union that the peoples weren’t free and they counldn’t travel to the West. This was of course a smokescreen to justify the demarcation points of the Cold War. The Russians responded in kind by highlighting the degrading conditions of Blacks in America or the Western unemployed. This obviously could no longer hold water come the 1980’s when in Russia they had no unemployment but no actual goods in the stores, making the old dictum now infamous: they pretend to pay us we pretend to work.

1980’s Greece

Greece went through the post war boom in a strong fashion. Money from shipping when there were Greek crews helped the country rebuild itself after the devastations of the 3rd Reich and the subseqent British/US sponsored civil war that sent back the country a decade in fighting and almost total economic devastation and loss in manpower.

Poor but unbowed Greeks rebuilt the country from ashes which resulted in a first class tourist destination, a range of really marketable agricultural products, the development of 14 universities, a national health service and the rise of strong industries: cement, plastics, leather, solar power etc. Alongside this the working class ended up owning a roof over their heads to an extent unparalleled in relation to the rest of Europe. Almost all major utilities were state owned in the 1980’s and Greece was around 40% self-sufficient in energy production for the needs of its civilians.

The strength of labour was such that the six day week gradually gave way to a five day week and zero holidays to six week holidays were granted. The usually non-union building industry set the agenda throughout the 1960’s till the 1980’s and was dominated by the KKE. They set the wages for almost every sector and all governments were frightened of them running amok (ripping up paving slabs and lobbing them at the police were their tricks of their trade when it came to demos).

After all the building trade hadn’t really progressed too much from the 1960’s in terms of technology. Workers still carried cement in buckets after mixing it up wooden ladders in buckets and it was back breaking work and let’s not forget that was the only industry you could work in without a police check, hence thousands of labourers who couldn’t emigrate after the end of the civil war (who were on the left) ended up working in the building trades. But by the mid to late 1980s the building trade had reached saturation point as most things had been built and bosses were frightened of new investments.

So when the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse they got the green signal to become unhinged. Via cross party agreements as we had coalition governments in 1989-90 amongst the three main parties New Democracy PASOK and the KKE the agenda was set for the next decade. The bosses would rail against the failure of ‘communism’ and the now without a home (plus source of financing) Greek Left would adopt the multitudes of economic migrants who were going West to make a …killing. Slowly but surely over a period of a decade and a half up until the Olympics 2004 whole swathes of Greek labour were replaced by migrants and when the crash came in 2010 we had an absolute collapse.


Albanians Arrival

Almost all the Albanians that arrived were hard core anticommunists, those that the Greek Left adopted en masse under the guise of helping the imported poor to the detriment of the local population as after all if you are interested in the most recent arrivals that implies defacto that you aren’t interested in your own citizens.



The most infamous case was that of the Foreign Minister at the time Samaras who organised a trip to the Greek areas in Albania and wished them all to be free by next Xmas (in reality stating come on over to Greece). He spoke about Greek business investing in Albania which was one of the demands by US imperialism to co-opt all the old Soviet sattelites. Business would save them if only they came on over….




http://palmosbh.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_09.html
By our decade Greek business was the 2nd biggest foreign investor in Albania. Cross border trade in drugs, women, weapons went through the roof and Greece supported indirectly/directly all operations in the break up of yugoslavia without formal participation the NATO war....