In a recent meeting Turkish Minister of Education, Omer Dincer, requested from his Kosova colleague Rame Buja to make changes on Kosova's history textbooks. Dincer said that Turkey's portrayal in textbooks is offensive and they should be changed. Buja has agreed to form a special commission that would make changes which would be implemented next year.

This news stirred some heat in Kosova.

To help our readers and to avoid confusion, lets restate: native people of Kosovo are in fact Albanians, who share same history with Albania. But, from here on in this article, I will refer to Kosovars as Albanians in Kosovo, as a somewhat distinct part of the general ethnic Albanian nation which lives throughout the region.

Textbooks and Ottoman Rule

All Kosova's schoolbooks dedicate large sections on Albania's 523 year history under Ottomans, but they often refer to it as "Turkish rule." From a Turkish and Muslim point of view, the spread of Ottoman rule was was equated with the spread of the justice, equality and faith of Islam. Some Albanian historians tend to suggest that Turkey occupied Albanian lands, massacred the population, deprived them of prosperity and stole the riches of the native people.

It might be true that Turkey fought many battles in the Balkans and won. The Ottoman Empire was guarded with unmatched sacrifices of many. Any rebellion was crushed by the state, and such things will happen even today. Remember what the Serbian state did in Kosova to crush the rebellion, what Gaddafi is doing in Libya, or Assad in Syria, or Russians in Chechnya, or Britain in Northern Ireland. Obviously these are the tools of state used to crush rebellions anywhere. The Ottoman state was not much different in that sense.

What Albanian historians often overlook, or fail to see, is how the Ottomans were the savior of the Albanian nation. Albanian lands and people under the Ottomans were shielded and protected from the surrounding Slavic kingdoms. Albanians had their own non-Slavic language and with voluntary acceptance of Islam in mass, they actually sealed their good fortune as a nation.

Even centuries later during Serb, Bulgarian, Macedonian,and Montenegrin ruthless occupations, there was never a risk of Albanians losing their primary markers of identity. That is because Albanians had deep roots in non-Slavic religion, culture and language, which was to them guaranteed under the Ottomans and Islam. If, on the other hand, they remained Christians, I will propose that Albanians would've been much "less" Albanian today.

Under the Ottomans

Under the Ottoman rule Albanians had prospered enormously. Albanians held the highest posts in the Ottoman administration, they were Begs, Pashas, scholars, architects, Grand Vezirs ... Albanians were freely working, gaining knowledge, and holding important positions throughout the Ottoman Empire, from Egypt (Albanian Mehmet Ali Pasha, also known as the founder of the modern Egypt) to the Balkans. All this, while Albanian language was recognized as the official language on the Ottoman royal court. Under the Ottomans, Albanians were able to freely travel and settle throughout the region without fear of persecution and killings.

The best example of what happened to Albanians after the Ottoman withdrawal was given by no other then the Serbian ultranationalist Vasa Cubrilovic in his book "The Emigration of the Albanians: Roots of Greater-Serbian Aggression." On page 117 he writes:

... with the resolutions of the Berlin Congress in 1878, Serbia became independent and territorially stretched towards the south. Thus, in her frame then entered Nis, Pirot, Leskovac, Vranje and Prokuplje. The entire Albanian-Islamized population that was expelled from these parts settled down on the territory known today as Kosovo.

Or what Dr. Justin McCarthy wrote in his book "Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims" which provides detailed numbers of these ethnic cleansing of Albanians and others which were possible only after the Ottoman withdrawal from the Balkans.

My question to Albanians then would be: without the Ottomans (or how today they are reffered as "Turks"), would Albanians have ever survived in midst of such vultures neighborhood? What history has shown us (mass Albanian exodus of 1912-1941 and 1999) Serbs had planned a much less "friendly" policy towards Albanians which, as we know too well, they tried hard to implement.

Present Identity and History

Going back to question of how history is written. This is a start of something very controversial. Where will this train stop? Was Turkey the slayer or the savior? Will Albanian school children find out that their national hero Skanderbeg was actually half Serbian? His mother, Vojislava, was orthodox Christian Serb.

How should Albanians feel in light of the fact that their national hero was one of the fiercest fighters against their national religion, Islam? Were Albanians really forced to convert to Islam, as it is sometimes asserted by quasi scholars? How then would they explain Slavs and Greeks who stayed Christian? Will they be taught that Albanian double headed eagle flag is actually borrowed from Byzantine Empire, and now the same Byzantin-style eagle is also on Serbian flag? Will Hamza Kastrioti who stayed loyal to Islam and turned against Skanderbeg still be considered a traitor?

The direction to which current history textbooks in Kosova are pointing, also are forcing all these question to be answered, and Kosova's national identity and Albanian unity to be reconsidered carefully. And this is not because what Turkiya is suggesting to Kosovars, but because these books create confusion which is going to undermine a sense of national unity for generations to come.

The Ottoman Empire made Albania an integral part of the whole empire by incorporating the land and its people -- while Serbia did the opposite, as it wanted to erase all the elements of Albanian identity, from language and customs, to religion. For Albanians, we can say, both were occupiers -- but let us make no mistake, they were not the same! And as such, if historical memories have any role to play today, Turkey and Serbia shouldn't be considered alike in history textbooks ... while in business dealings - definitely yes!

For more check the following links:

- The Expulsion of Albanians

- Expulsions of Albanians and Colonisation of Kosova

- Robert Elsie Research

(2011 © Shahin Haxhiu)

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