Kosovo and Albanian-Yugoslav relations in the period of 1944-1948

The period of the first four years after the end of the Second World War was one of a few examples of cooperation in Albanian-Yugoslav relations. It was one a of a few times when these relations were based not only on ideological similarities but on pragmatic grounds as well. This pragmatic outlook is quite specific for the attitude assumed towards the problem of Kosovo. The abandoning of the concept of Greater Albania propagated in 1941-1944 by the occupation authorities and the incorporation of Kosovo into the Republic of Serbia (within the Yugoslav Federation) aroused resentment among a number of Albanian population living in Kosovo. For the new elite ruling in Tirana cooperation with Belgrade became such an important factor in the process of stabilisation of the state and of the new system that the problem of Kosovo was treated as an internal Yugoslav issue. When in 1948 Yugoslavia was expelled from Cominform, Albanians made the most of this opportunity and freed themselves from under the rule of their northern neighbour. This put an end to the process of unification of the two states. The events of 1948 limited, for quite some time, migration from Albania to Kosovo making the Albanians living in Kosovo „hostages” in Albanian-Yugoslav relations. For Albanian historians, especially those who wrote their works in the period between 1992 and 1997, this short-term Albanian-Yugoslav cooperation resulted in the stigmatisation of a number of people who were labelled traitors of the Albanian nation as they expressed loyalty towards communism joined with a servile attitude towards Belgrade. Serbians pointed to the experiences of 1944-1948 as an example of possible reconciliation between the two states for which the problem of Kosovo was not a destructive issue