NORWAY AMBASSADOR TO INVESTIGATE ALBANIAN NAZI STATUES

Norwegian Ambassador to Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, 

Mr Arne Sannes Bjørnstad photo credit: Diplomacy and Commerce- link here

by Sasha Uzunov

Norwegian Ambassador to Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, Mr Arne Sannes Bjørnstad, says he was unaware of World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues installed in Macedonia by leading Albanian politicians and will further investigate.

“I will try to give short answers to your questions, but let me also thank you for bringing to my attention the statues mentioned,” said. “To answer your questions: I was not aware of this, and will in due course take this up with relevant political leaders.”

Team Uzunov blog questions:

1. Ambassador, Norway was a victim of brutal Nazi occupation during WWII are you aware about the building of Albanian Nazi statues in Macedonia by Albanian politicians?

2. What measure can Norway take to convince Albanian politicians in Macedonia that Nazi statues are an insulting gesture to Macedonians, Jews and even anti fascist Albanians?

Over the past decade leading Albanian politicians in Macedonia, including Ali Ahmeti, a terrorist turned politician, have built controversial statues to World War II Albanian Nazi collaborators such as Xhem Hasa also known as Xhem Gostivar.

In comparison Nazi statues are banned in Germany.

Hasa was the leader of a Nazi quisling militia known as the Balli Kombetar which terrorised ethnic Macedonians in western Macedonia in the pursuit of a racially pure Greater Albania, which backed by Fascist Italy and later by Nazi Germany.

Ahmeti started a war in Macedonia in 2001 - invoking the fascist ideology of the Balli Kombetar.


Thas there been silence from successive Macedonian governments, as well as various US Ambassadors, EU mandarins over the rise of extremist Albanian nationalist ideology in Macedonia which invokes the likes of Xhem Hasa.

The Balli Kombetar was set up by Fascist Italy and later taken over by Nazi Germany. The Balli Kombetar’s objective was a Greater Albania, involving the ethnic cleansing of Macedonians in western Macedonia. Albanians who opposed the Balli Kombetar also fell victim.

In 2006, a statue to Xhem Hasa was unveiled in his village of birth, Sminica, near the Macedonian town of Gostivar.

In 2015, with much fanfare and nationalist hysteria whipped up against the ‘evil Slavs” - the Macedonians, the ethnic Albanian Mayor of Gostivar Nevzat Bejat unveiled a statue of Aqif Krosi Recani, another WWII Balli Kombetar commander in Macedonia, in the village of Recan.

Both times there was silence from various activists. Would the building of a statue to Hermann Goering or Heinrich Himmler in modern day Germany be tolerated? First and foremost, most Germans wouldn’t even consider the idea to begin with.

The Albanian political bloc in Macedonia has largely supported these Balli Kombetar statues - which then raises question marks over whether its agenda for increased ‘Albanian rights’ in Macedonia is genuine or not? It’s unheard of genuine activists invoking fascists. Genuine activists would be citing Nelson Mandela or the Dalai Lama.

The Albanian Bloc in Macedonia is staunchly pro US and there is a reluctance to go against such allies, the Kosovo Liberation Army’s offshoot in Macedonia, the NLA, which started a war in 2001 in Macedonia.

The objective then was to take territory for a Greater Albania much like the Balli Kombetar during World War II. When the Macedonian security forces thwarted the plan, despite getting off on the back foot militarily, the Western media narrative, in support of the US, changed from grabbing territory to “human rights activism.” Albanian leaders such as Ali Ahmeti, Talat Xhaferi and so on went from being terrorists to “legitimate” political players - in the form of the political party DUI - in Macedonia, courtesy of a 2008 amnesty law introduced by the Macedonian government, no doubt strong armed by the US in the background. The interesting thing is a European Court of Human Rights ruling has laid down that war crimes cannot be “pardoned” or “amnestied” yet no Macedonian court is willing to launch an indictment of Ahmeti or any of the KLA leaders in Macedonia.

Anders Breivik

NORWAY AND MACEDONIA:

The alarming parallels between Norwegian neo Nazi extremist and mass murder Anders Breivik and Albanian extremist Ali Ahmeti.

Both are supporters of neo Nazi ideology and both have a history of mental illness and both have either killed or directed others to kill for their ideology. The exception being Ahmeti is not in prison but protected by the West. Breivik murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011. Ahmeti started a short lived war in Macedonia in 2001 resulting in over 250 deaths, many wounded, injured.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was told: (- link here)

"from 1993 to 2002 Mr. Ahmeti received a 100 per cent invalidity allowance from the Swiss authorities because he suffered from a severe case of schizophrenia paranoia.”

Ali Ahmeti (centre) with US Ambassador to Macedonia Jess Baily (right).

ALI AHMETI ECHOING BALLI KOMBETAR FASCIST IDEOLOGY OF ETHNIC CLEANSING - in 2001 he started a war in Macedonia which lead to the deaths of many innocent people, police and soldiers.

- From the book, The Coming Balkan Caliphate by Chris Deliso: Ahmeti told a western journalist in March 2001, quote: “our aim is solely to remove [Macedonian] Slav forces from territory which is historically Albanian.”

One of Ahmeti’s commanders: “like all wars, ours was for territory- not because of some human rights problems.”