In the region’s political opinion, the question of rivalry among leading Albanian politicians is increasingly being carried out, especially Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Their diverse paces towards regional co-operation, relations with neighbours and Western allies spur discussions on whether, in the wake of political disputes, there is a struggle for broader influence among Albanians living in several Balkan states.

As you can see, this has nothing to do with taking the Albanian leadership from any of them: neither Sali Berisha nor Edi Rama nor Ali Ahmeti, nor Albin Kurti, said in an interview for the Montenegrin newspaper yDané prof. Dr. Enver Hasani.

Hasan estimates that political disputes among Albanian leaders do not represent a fight for the entire Albanian leadership, that the idea of the national union today is largely political rhetoric, and that NATO remains the main guarantor of stability in the Balkans.

Hasan, a regular professor of international law and international relations at the Faculty of Jurydical at the University of Pristina, former head of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, former Kosovo University Rector of Pristina and former UN Faculty of Juridicals, former head of the Kosovo Office for Foreign Relations and participants in the peace negotiations in Rambouillet in 1999, considers that recent protests have significantly weakened Edi Rama. It gives severe assessments of relations between Albanian Prime Minister and Albin Kurti and rejects the possibility that any of the leading Albanian politicians today represent all Albanians in the region.

• How do you assess recent protests and political tensions in Albania? Can they seriously weaken Edi Rama’s position and political influence in the region?

Enver Hasani: Of course, they have greatly weakened her. The odds are small for Edi Rama to survive politically the ongoing protests and riots. The reason he does not resign and does not want a technical government that would organise new elections is fear, which is real, from the SPAK (The Special Anti-Corruption and Organised Crime Plan in the Republic of Albania).

Measures of corruption and narcotics trafficking during Edi Rama’s time have reached funlopante proportions, a phenomenon that must be brought under control because it jeopardises other regional processes. A roughly similar situation exists in Serbia.

• Is there really a rivalry between Edi Rama and Albin Kurti for the political leadership of Albanians in the region? How much impact do they have outside the borders of Albania and Kosovo?

Enver Hasani: Absolutely not. What seems to be rivalry between them is essentially Albin Kurti’s policy from the positions of a classic intellectual inferiority complex he feels in relation to Eddie Rama.

Edi Rama has tremendous talent and knowledge in other fields, which is not the case with Albin Kurti, whose knowledge relates to the extreme left and to literature that is essentially antiliberal and anti-Western, primarily anti-American.

Edi Rama is extremely extravagant, which is seen by his conduct at European forums and others, so Albini avoids him because Rama, whenever they met, has humiliated him, treating him as inferior and immature.

Edi Rama’s influence in the region does not rely on non-Albanianism at all because Edi Rama has been and remains the most loyal supporter of Euro-Atlantic politics on both sides of the border, in all its aspects: political, security and military, economic and cultural.

This fact has prompted Albin Kurti to pursue a policy contrary to that of Eddie Rama in the field of foreign and security policy, as well as in economic, military, cultural and other areas.

• What role do Sali Berisha and Ali Ahmeti play in Albanian politics today? Do they have ambition and influence to present themselves as political representatives of Albanians outside the countries in which they operate?

Enver Hasani: Sali Berisha has never had influence outside Kosovo’s borders. He once experienced this in 1996, and he suffered a serious defeat in his confrontation with Rugova.

Ali Ahmeti, meanwhile, as the entire KLA leadership, has been blind followers of Albanian left — originally Fatos Nano — and then Edi Rama. This situation continues today.

The clashes between Ali Ahmeti and Albin Kurt are the result of the reflexes and rivalry Albin Kurti has with Eddie Rama, which is based on Mr. Kurti’s intense inferiority complex, which I described earlier. Fighting against Ali Ahmeti, Albin Kurti fights against Eddie Rama’s ally, who has never had the courage to confront him openly.

Instead of Kurti, Edi Rama is attacked by other leftist currents in Kosovo, which have a pronounced neo-Yugoslav and proserb orientation, and which, on a conceptual level, detects every dimension, down to micromenage, foreign and domestic policy orientation of Mr. Albin Kurti.

Obviously, this has nothing to do with taking the Albanian leadership from either of them – either Sali Berisha or Edi Rama or Ali Ahmeti or Albin Kurti.

• Do you see today a revival of the idea of Greater Albania in Albanian political discourse, or is it largely political rhetoric? Is there a real political project in this regard?

Enver Hasani: Never! Albin Kurti has used this card in a non-stop, just as he has used and continues to use extreme left nationalism to the local community, in the function of vote preservation and political power. Never, in his political record since he came to power, has he expressed a desire to deal with the national unity project.

On the contrary, Mr. Kurti, in 2023 in Ohrid, accepted political-territorial autonomy for Serbs in Kosovo, under the strong influence of pro-Yugoslav and pro-Serb currents in Kosovo, which have great influence over it. This is now an international obligation of Kosovo, which Kosovo will soon implement.

In that sense, the project of the national unity of Albanians continues to exist as an idea, as do other Balkan peoples, but is kept alive in the background and outside local political power. It survives more like demagogic discurs, as being cultivated in the absence of other concrete ideas for citizens.

It takes decades to revive the idea of the Albanian national union. For now, nobody takes it seriously.

• Can a single political leader exist of all Albanians living in different countries without violating the sovereignty and institutions of those states?

Enver Hasani: Never! That’s how it feels. Any outside intervention from Albania to Kosovo and vice versa is linked exclusively to the institutional orientation of the two states in foreign policy. While Albania has been extremely close to every aspect of the American politics and European Union policy, Kosovo has pursued and continues to follow the path of confrontation. This has nothing to do with the Albanian leadership.

Kosovo, Albania are two states

• Can a single political leader exist of all Albanians living in different countries without violating the sovereignty and institutions of those states?

Enver Hasani: Never! That’s how it feels. Any outside intervention from Albania to Kosovo and vice versa is linked exclusively to the institutional orientation of the two states in foreign policy. While Albania has been extremely close to every aspect of the American politics and European Union policy, Kosovo has pursued and continues to follow the path of confrontation. This has nothing to do with the Albanian leadership.

NATO is Balkan security umbrella

• How do you assess the current relations in the region, especially between Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia?

Enver Hasani: The point of reference and criterion for everything in the Balkans is security and stability. In this respect, relations between the Balkan countries, except for Serbia, are excellent. Even Serbia, in its foreign policy, has not shown any strong military and security aggression that would jeopardise the existence of any neighbouring state and wider regional stability. The reason for this is NATO’s presence in the region. It represents the security and military umbrella that has enabled overall Balkan development.

Source Layer: Insander