www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News In Kosovo, Orthodox Churches burning

I don't believe the conflict in Kosovo is about Illyrian vs Slav or Albanian vs Serb, but rather Moslems attempting to drive out the Orthodox Christian population of the region.

For anyone who was wondering what might be being done by way of assistance:

For immediate release

March 22, 2004



IOCC RESPONDING TO HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN KOSOVO,

CALLS FOR AN END TO THE VIOLENCE



Baltimore (IOCC) - Building on years of humanitarian assistance in Kosovo, International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is responding to the needs of refugees and people displaced by the recent ethnic violence in Kosovo.

The humanitarian aid agency of Orthodox Christians, IOCC has been actively assessing the needs in the troubled province and consulting with local authorities and Church officials to determine an appropriate emergency response. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Red Cross, the Kosovo Coordinating Committee and others are being consulted on short-term needs.

IOCC is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of those displaced, especially children. Working with local partners, IOCC expects to focus on vulnerable communities that have an immediate need for food, shelter and medical care.

IOCC has been active in Kosovo since 1993. During the NATO bombing campaign of 1999, IOCC was one of only three relief organizations to maintain an operational presence in the region, providing continuous humanitarian assistance to refugees and displaced persons in Serbia and Montenegro.

IOCC also has done small-scale projects in Kosovo through its office in Podgorica, Montenegro, and in partnership with the Visoki Decani Monastery and His Grace Bishop Artemije of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren (Kosovo).

Through its office in Belgrade, Serbia, IOCC supports a number of local initiatives designed to help displaced persons from Kosovo. IOCC provides legal assistance, up-to-date information and vocational training to displaced people, many of whom have spent years away from their homes.

IOCC encourages all people to pray for peace in the region and for an end to the violence there.

To support IOCC's ongoing humanitarian efforts in the region, please send donations to IOCC, P.O. Box 630225, Baltimore, Md. 21263-0225. Donations may also be made online at www.iocc.org [iocc.org] or by calling toll-free 1-877-803-4622.


For media inquiries, please contact IOCC Communications Associate Stephen Huba at 1-877-803-4622 or shuba@iocc.org.


Gaudior, hoping such a post does not violate forum rules....

Dear Cizinec,

Unfortunately, I believe that your response only confirms what I have termed "the cycle of abuse."

This thread is not the place to debate the origins of the various peoples currently living in the Balkans, but where we can share news related to the Byzantine Catholic faith and encourage each other to live out that faith. I would hope that you would agree.

However, so that others would not be misinformed, I will digress in that direction again, being an Albanian/Illyrian myself and naturally taken to combat all too easily .

The record shows that the Ottoman Turks were MOST oppressive of the Albanian Christians. They briefly remembered Prince Lazar's Serbian resistance at Kosovo Polja in 1389, which, as you know, involved a combined Christian army including Croats, Hungarians, and Albanians. But the battle for Albania went on for 25 bloody years. This was largely because of the resistance led by George Kastrioti (Skenderbeu) until his death in 1468.

The title "Skenderbeu" came from the Turks for whom, while in their service as a general, he invaded and burned Hungary twice and Serbia once. He was one of those Christian children that was taken away to be raised in the harem of the Sultan until age 8 when they began their military training in what later became known as "the Janissary."

That the oppression against the Albanian Christians was greater was simply revenge for what Kastrioti (now a traitor to the Ottomans) and his alliance had done to tie up more than 100,000 Ottoman soldiers and thus slow the Turks up in their quest to take Western Europe. "Skenderbeg" died in 1468, his alliance collapsed in 1479, and we find the Turks landing in Otranto, Italy in 1480 to massacre 20,000 people, not coincidentally.

In Paris, in Rome, in Lecce there are squares named after George Kastrioti Skenderbeg. There aren't any named after Prince Lazar in the major Western European capitals. The Popes gave Kastrioti three titles: Athlete of Christianity, Defender of the Faith, and one other that I've forgotten. He and the Albanian resistance were a
big deal to the Turks.

The Albanians in Kosova (from the Serbian name "Kosovo," as you stated) but known since Alexander the Great's time as Dardania and thus reflected in the modern surname Dardani in Albanian and Dardanis in Greek (and yes, even Dardanic - a Serbianized Illyrian). The Dardani were the Illyrian tribe/nation that Phillip and Alexander fought, but at such great losses that they sued for peace and turned east.

That they, the Illyrians, were "warlike" is an understatement. They provided the most militaristic and loyal of all of Rome's soldiers, the Praetorian Guard. Look up Praetoria and you will find it to be the Illyrian-inhabited (civil) diocese near Shkoder, Albania. The Praetorian Guard protected the governors and generals of the empire. They scourged our Lord, Jesus Christ prior to his crucifixion. They were not nice guys.

But they rose up high in a militarized society such as Rome's. Constantine, Diocletian, Justinian, Belisarius are just a few of the emporers and generals who called themselves Illyrians.

The question remains:

Where were the Serbo-Croats prior to 750 AD? They weren't in the Balkans, but on the North side of the Carpathians from where the Byzantine Emporer imported them to fill the gap left when he expelled the Huns and Avars from the south side of the Danube. His Illyrians had been decimated by the Hunnic/Avaric incursions and couldn't fill the void.

So the Serbs and Croats were imported, does this remove their right to live there peacefully now? I think not, you would agree.

The Ottoman persecutions caused many to convert. Thus, in modern Kosova, we find surnames such as Spahiu (horse soldier), Caushi (sergeant), Bajraktari (military administrator). Some of these folks clearly settled lands evacuated by or cleansed of Christians (both Serbian and Albanian).

After all, you surely are not proposing that there were no Christians in Kosova prior to the Serbs. What would we do with Floros and Lauros, the stone mason saints from approx. 118 AD who were martyred at Ulpiana, just outside of Pristina and are commemorated on August 18th?

What people are assuming is that because today they are Muslims and Albanian-speakers that they were always so.

Of course, you and I know better. A Muslim became "a Turk" in the eyes of Christians. It didn't matter be he Serb, Albanian, or otherwise. [My grandmother still refers to Muslim Albanians as "Turks." When she was a girl, Ottoman Troops still patroled her city in Albania.]

So Christian (Eastern Rite) Albanians were absorbed and into the Serb community, just as a Serb or Albanian converting to Islam became part of the community of the Ottoman occupier. So we have the Ottoman "millet system" in which one is either Western Catholic (Rome), or Eastern Catholic (Constantinople), or Islam (Istanbul). Separate courts, laws, customs the whole deal.

So, I think that you may be missing the fact that people identified religiously first, linguistically second, and ethnicly only third. Kastrioti's wife was Donika. Donika's sister was Angelina. Angelina's husband was the King of Serbia. Marriages and alliances fell along religious lines.

Like so many forced conversions, or conversions done for purely economic gain (or to avoid persecution), the conversions in the Balkans were half-hearted. So Bogomils became Bosnian Muslims and Kosovar Albanian Muslims became the super nationalists of today, denying their religious identity as something second to their hoped-for nation state.

The Communist Totalitarian oppression (to be fair) of the Kosovar Albanians was bad from 1945 to 1956 when Tito sacked Razkic (spelling?), another Berya (Stalin's henchman). Obviously, there was revenge to be had for Kosovar's role as part of Hitler's reorganization of the Balkan boundaries, which included Greater Albania. (Hitler had discovered the Albanians were truly Aryans and were to have a major role as part of "the master race.")

Then they "had it good" till 1989 when the University was closed and all manner of oppression began. Of course, the Yugoslav army did crush the demonstrations of 1980 with tanks, but that was a brief affair. 1998-1999 was the darkest period of the Civil War and NATO involvement.

Do you propose to have allowed the massacres to have continued. Leave the two sides to their own devices like we did in Rwanda and Burundi?

A cycle of abuse never ends until someone forgives. And he who forgives wins because he is free.

Man offers us two priciples on which to determine title to land:

(A) "the one who had it first owns it." That means that the Serbs and Croats leave and give it back to the Illyrians, if we can agree on who they are. The Native Americans get title to most of the Western Hemisphere, etc, etc.

(B) "whoever lives there now owns it." This encourages each side to force the other out and say, "you see, we are living here and so it is ours." The Israelis are trying this on the West Bank, the Kosovar Albanians are trying this, Milosevic was trying this approach.

Princes and sons of men don't have solutions to brothers who hate each other. Only Christ has the solution. And He says "follow me."

In Christ,
Andrew

Dear Andrew,

But is it not difficult to expect Muslims to obey Christ's words?

Alex

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for the information on how and when the Croats and Serbs arrived in the Balkans. I had always known that they originated from North of the Carpathalians (thanks to the 'Atlas of Ukraine' by Robert Magosci - University of Toronto) and always marvelled at how much of the two languages I could understand with my limited knowledge of Ukrainian.

I agree with Alex on this one 100%. IMHO, forgiveness only works when both sides are Christians (or have taken on Christian ethos).

For this reason I believe that peace will never come to the Middle East with the current religiuous affiliation of most of the population.

In the early 1990's Patriarch (Cardinal) Ivan Lubachivsky of the UGCC asked the Moscow Patriarch (ROC) to mutually forgive each other for past sins against their respective churches. The Moscow Patriarch did not respond to the repeated offers. Hmmmmmm - makes you wonder.

Hritzko.

Cizinec,
My friend you have hit it right on the head...burn the churches, but don't touch the mosques...after all, what happens to us if those oil barrels keep coming. Remember when the US first went in there to protect the Albanian Moslems from the evil Serbian Christians...at the same time, Sudanese Christians were being murdered by Sudenese Moslems, and the US didn't lift a finger...some people thought it was about racism, I think it's all about oil.

Vie

http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu/g/slideshow_eng/monastery_21.html

http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu/g/slideshow_eng/nasilje_1.html

Who da man?

YOU da man!

You da ORTHOMAN!!

(Great to see you here, by the way!)

Alex

By saying that we had both had Nazis and Soviets on our soil, I didn't mean that they both occupied us, at least that's not the way we see it here.

We were occupied by Nazi-Germany in 1940, and in 1944 Northern Norway was liberated by the Soviet Army. Norway, along with Austria, were the only countries in Europe the Soviets actually withdrew from without establishing Communist puppet governemnts...

Christian

Dear Alex,

You are indeed right to question the premise. Christ tells us (the Christians) to forgive our enemy and to love our enemy. He's not speaking to the people outside of the Church, but telling those in His Church how to relate to those outside of His Church. At the same time, He doesn't tell us to die for our enemy.

We had a big argument about this one day when I was in seminary. It was quite a hot one. As I argued then and now:

Only Christ is obligated to die for his enemy. ICXC becomes incarnate with the express purpose and will of the Father that He would die for the sins of all. He is the only born only to die. All of the rest of have the Father's goal that we would have everlasting life, but because of sin....(you know the rest).

The rest of us are expected to die for our wives, and possibly our brothers and sisters. Of course, I'm speaking scripturally and so "brothers and sisters" are the members of the Church. [When I look around at the folks in the Church I get a little nervous about this one. But then again, when the others see me, they also probably get a little nervous. My wife is more fortunate than they are, she doesn't have to die for me. ]

We are not even called to die for our neighbors, only to love them as ourselves (share our compassion, time, and resources with them). The Good Samaritan and all that.

And so, it is very clear that we are not called to die for our enemies.


I mention this to make clear that I am not a pacifist and am not calling upon either Serb or Albanian to put down their "right to self-defense," speaking secularly now. And, I'll even admit that this is a right that is both individual and collective, and to some degree supported scripturally and canonically by the failure to mention anywhere that the Christian must be willing to die for his enemy. He may be obligated to die at the hands of his enemy for refusing to deny Christ, but this is not the same as dieing FOR THE SAKE OF one's enemy.

What I have come to understand is that both sides can be both right and wrong simultaneously (not just in Kosova, but in any conflict) as long as they think and act within the confines of "the wisdom of this world." Who is really, fundamentally right on the issue of the West Bank? Aren't both sides both right and wrong in their claims and actions?

Christ is saying "love your enemy" and "do good to your enemy" (and you will thus soften him up considerably). He may even come to tolerate you and someday like you. Certainly, if his stomach is full, he'll feel less need to eat you.

Even the jaded, secularized Byzantine Empire did this on a collective level for centuries to the various would-be invaders. They said to themselves, 'these poor barbarians, they just want something to drink and eat. Give it to them and they'll be peaceful, just drinking and eating all the day long. It is much less expensive than fighting them AND God will approve of it' They pacified the Bulgarians and numerous other tribes, eventually converting them to Orthodoxy in the process. Even the Illyrians were Christianized! So the Gospel teaching must be pretty powerful and effective.

There are lessons to be learned here, not just for Kosova/Kosovo and the Balkans, but for all governments that seek stability and peace in their respective regions. But these governments 'have ears but hear not, they have eyes but they are blind.'

While I do vote and am active politically, I don't expect too much from them anymore. It's up to the Christians to change the world for the better, one heart at a time.

In Christ,
Andrew

Dear Andrew,

Then we understand each other . . .

Have a wonderful Pascha, Big Guy!

Alex

Andrew,

I stand corrected concerning Albanian Christians and their persecution by the Turks.

However, I don't believe ethnic Albanians have demonstrated the ability to govern Kosovo in a way that is better than Milosevic or the Turks. I think Serbia has demonstrated that they do have a post-Milosevic government that can fairly govern Kosovo. See the B92 discussion of the arrests of the people who burned the mosques.

Dear Brother Cizinec,

I agree with your assessment that the Kosovar Albanians haven't demonstrated the ability to govern well the disputed territory.

In their defence, they would say that they haven't been given full authority yet, so in a sense, the jury is out. UN KFOR still calls the shots.

But the recent events in and around Mitrovica demonstrate that there is an organized movement to scuttle attempts at peaceful cohabitation. (These organized movements exists on both sides of the ethnic divide.) Veton Surroi, the Editor of a major Albanian-language daily, publicly expressed his shame over what his countyymen have done in recent days in and around Mitrovica, especially the desecration of sacred temples.

At the same time, the Kosovar Albanians have demonstrated a continuing propensity to traffic in "underage" prostitutes, weapons, and drugs. Previously, they (unjustifiably) would defend themselves by saying that all of this illegal activity was to fund their upcoming war of liberation. They pretty much succeeded (at liberation), in a de facto sense, with NATOs help in 1999, but the trafficking continues.

Could Rugova, by the estimate of most, a fairly balanced and prudent man, really bring the gangsters down? Have Milosevic's successors been able to bring the Serbian mobsters under control? And especially when the mobsters and the totalitarian Communists or ultanationalists are the same folks? It is not easy, especially in any society that attempts to respect some level of due process, as the new Serbian government and the KFOR administration are attempting to do.

I think that it is fair to say that for the majority of Kosova's inhabitants, (who have been majority Albanian for decades, if not centuries - I know, a point of dispute) life is undoubtedly much better since NATO involvement. For the Serb minority, it is undoubtedly worse.

I wouldn't agree that the current Kosovar Albanian government would govern worse that Milosevic or the Turks. But I would agree that they are not ready for self-government, and certainly not ready to govern a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.

Ask next door, the citizens of the Republic of Albania, if they are ready to join their state with an independent Kosova, and the answer would probably be "no." They fear that Kosovar gangsterism could end up dominating Albania. They already have more than enough trouble fighting their own home-grown gangsters. They also feel that the Kosovar Albanians need more experience working side by side with folks who know how to govern (i.e. UN KFOR).

Pointing back to my previous post: In the Republic of Albania, a majority "Muslim" population on paper (60%), the President, Prime Minister and a majority of senior ministers in the current Albanian government are part of the Orthodox minority (25%). And their spiritual leader, Archbishop Anastasios, a Greek citizen, is, without a doubt, the most respected living person in the whole country.

The number of conversions there from "Muslim" to Orthodox are now in the tens of thousands as the result of the Holy witnesses of our Church throughout the decades of persecution and recent resurrection.

So there are some longterm things to think about that insert the power of the Gospel message into all of these secular concerns.

With love in Christ,
Andrew

Dear Andrew and Cizinec,

Come on, guys - all this mutual understanding and affection stuff . . . it's nauseating!

God bless the two of you, y'hear?

Alex

Dear Andrew

It's wonderful the great missionary labour of Archbishop Anastas and his Church converting thousands of Muslims, mainly in South Albania.

Now, what's the situation of Roman Catholicism? Are they also converting faithful in the areas where the Christians are mainly Latin Rite?

It seems that the RC is failing there, and also in Kosova, where there was a "boom" of conversions to RC during the war but has stopped and the people there are now very Muslim.