This research contains various information and a number of conclusions could be drawn. We shall offer only one, which is related most directly to the Kosovo future:

Albanians have almost never in the course of their history existed independently or in a state of continuous unification - going back to ancient times and the early Middle Ages. They had been for a shorter or longer time under the domination of Rome, Byzantium, Bulgaria, Sicily, Serbia, the Ottoman Empire, etc., until 1912. Thus, in the course of history a perfect system for alternative existence has been built, i.e. a crypto-doubling of the needed social relations, institutions and functions of an independent state. 

During the Ottoman Empire the Albanian crypto-society was quite typical since it functioned for long during the historical time of the Balkans. The Ottoman power nominally existed with the assistance of representatives of the Albanian clans and the territorial communities. The Elders represented before the authorities their family or town/village community, and they observed all engagements – taxes, military service, etc. De jure, for centuries Albania had been ruled by the Sublime Porte and the Islam was in power, but de facto – there was an alternative local administration and Crypto-Christianity. Under the obvious observance of the stringent norms of the Ottoman-Islam sheriat, it is the Kanun – the common law that is really in power. 

This is a system of perfectly acting and tested during the centuries mechanisms of independent existence under the ostensible form of the subjection, of adopting or reconciling with the alien government, even of demonstrated loyalty. 

Such is the existence of the Albanians within the boundaries of the Yugoslav federation especially after the deprivation of the Albanians’ autonomy in the province of Kosovo. It is then that the set principles of the parallel existence in all spheres of the social, political and economic life get unlocked.

Such is the future of Kosovo under the ostensible form of an international protectorate. The Elders will be given power (at present these are former UCK commanders), who wear European costumes and have European behavior and who will demonstrate before the media and the international observers the absolute loyalty and affiliation of the Kosovo society towards the European values and the world civilization. This will be illusory – under this inevitable and internationally supported scenery of an official administration and observance of legality, all parameters of an alternative, close and undemocratic system will develop, where no one will be able to penetrate in order to study it, unless he becomes a part of it or risks his life for the shown scholarly interest*. 
 
 
 

October-December 1999                  Dr. Antonina Zhelyazkova