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Albania--For understanding the conflict, and Lushnje,
for help in praying for the region, the following may aid
you in visualizing this area in the context of its history.
The area as far north as Vienna, Austria, was
Albanian/Illyrian from shortly after the time of the
tower of Babel in the Old Testament times. Greece
hadn't even surfaced as a nation yet. So, try to envision
these early Albanians as contemporaries of Abraham,
the Hittites, the Chaldeans and Melchizedek.
Time has shrunk this country considerably. For the last
2,500 years, it has had to fight continually just to
maintain its identity, and is now the size of Wales, of
Great Britain. The Celts, Romans, Greeks, Ottoman
Turks, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Communism
have all held sway here.
The Serbs were a Slavic tribe that came into the area
from the north about 1,5000 years ago and took land at
a time when Catholics and the Orthodox/Byzantines
were already fighting with each other.
It is very important to understand that people in this
area--especially Croats and Serbs--have a very deep
religious hatred. Here, poetry and ballads are the heart
cry of the people and help them to remember every
detail of everything that has been done to them for the
past 1,000-plus years, as if it were yesterday. Don't
judge them too readily for this. It is a very powerfully
evil force here and needs to be understood as such. It is
what is driving people to acts of intolerant and
incomprehensible hatred.
The Kosovars are simply people who, under the Turks,
turned Muslim. The reason? Five hundred years ago,
under their political system, you couldn't get a job or an
education if you didn't convert. The Serbs feel superior
because they didn't slink over into the enemy camp.
Until that time, Albanians/Illyrians and Serbs had
intermarried and had really become one people in many
ways, with the only sharp division being along the
Catholic and Orthodox line. As Kosovars converted to
Islam, divisions could be split three ways--Catholic
and Orthodox Christian, and Muslim. As a result, equal
enmity could be felt against anyone who belonged to the
religion which was not one's own.
For hundreds of years, people married within these
religious borders and when they fought, it was against
these other "camps." What we see today is only a
continuation of this.
Each time a war starts in these parts, the old ballads
are sung again. Old borders are remembered.
Macedonians remember a kingdom that stretched from
"sea to sea" (Aegean to Black); Greece recalls the
height of its epoch, with Alexander in power and and
the Spartans initiating the Olympics; Serbs go to their
ancient monasteries and light a thousand candles to the
mother of God and remember bitterly the great enemy
which stole their very culture from them in the height of
its bloom.
Both World Wars started here. Both were triggered by
this religious hatred. In all cases, religious hatred has
become political hatred. It is inseparable in the
people's minds of the region.
--by Dan and Melike Smeenge
Eastern Mennonite Missions workers in Lushnje, Albania
http://home.rica.net/vmconf/albania_missionary_update.htm
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