A manual on confronting Albanian propaganda

Albanci

Foreword

I am writing this manual in English, in order for others to be able to read it and use it effectively, as it wouldn’t be the best idea to make it a “Serb-only” type of manual, as that is not the way to beat the Albanian propaganda machine. There are others who may use it, whether it be our neighbors who do not speak Serbian or people in other regions of the world who may see this as interesting and may use it themselves. Not to note that this is a good way to directly debunk their arguments.

Keep in mind that the Albanian network has a lot of real people, as well as multiple trolls and bots, so be somewhat more cautious when confronting them, and we will be covering how to deal with them accordingly later on in this manual.

Their methods go from fabricating or outright making up historical events, usage of “victimhood”, while accusing others of doing so as well as ad hominem attacks when they actually have nothing. You will also find out another indicator where you will know that they actually ran out of their arguments or have no proof of any of their accusations. They can claim stories on the spot, so be careful there as well, but those are easier to debunk, as those stories are fresh and they haven’t had the time (or their apparatus hasn’t decided to push the story, whether it be because they haven’t noticed it or don’t see it as an argument of a great value) to make up “newsources” to “verify” those claims, whether it be to a domestic audience and/or a foreign one.

Information warfare goes beyond the home front, we all know that, henceforth it is of utmost importance to debunk their claims, especially the ones directed to a foreign audience, where they’ll usually attempt to represent themselves as heroes or victims, while they represent others (the ones they decide to attack) as either butchers, cowards, a genocidal people since day 1 etc. You may have most likely heard such claims or have seen them on social media, which is not surprising as a lot of the information warfare is centered there, with twitter and facebook being the biggest platforms used to spread this form of information, or should we say, disinformation, as it is a way more correct term to use in this case.

I think that my foreword is over, so let’s get to the ‘red meat’ of this document which you have clicked on.

Debunking claims

This part would be more dedicated to debunking the claims used by their propaganda machine, especially the more common ones which are used to justify their goals and methods. They also tend to use this as a deflection to their problems and crimes, using the same “whataboutism” that they claim to be combating and accusing the Serbs (or another ethnicity, such as maybe the Greeks as well) of.

“The genocide trilogy”

Yes, this may sound like a form of mockery, but that is indeed the actual accusation that they are making and have attempted to spread. This story is generally commonly found in their propaganda machine, sometimes even pushed by the people from the top of their system, that Serbia (or Serbs) have committed 3 genocides in a century against the Albanians. It is valid to say that this is one of their biggest claims, especially considering that their population is completely convinced, so they won in the home front there already, which is always step one.

This one is quite common, and quite easy to debunk, considering that there is no proof of said genocides, including the claim that there was a genocide in 1998-1999, during the Kosovo war. The ICTY hasn’t deemed Serbia, or any Serb official sentenced in the ICTY guilty of genocide in Kosovo, so their argument falls flat there, and it’s more based on using previous claims (which have been dismissed) which were made during the NATO bombings, where the US Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, had suggested that 100.000 Kosovo Albanian men have been murdered by the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian Police, and that there are reports that 4.600 were definitely executed by the armed forces and police, which had later on been debunked, primarily during the exhumation period, when the number of bodies didn’t match the claim, not by a long shot.

Sources of the claim made by William Cohen (first one) and the exhumations (second link):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/stories/cohen051699.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/18/balkans3

Another indicator that there was no actual genocide during the late 90s is the fact that even though Kadri Veseli and Albin Kurti have told that they would go to the ICTY to accuse Serbia of genocide in Kosovo, they have not done so, with most foreign experts claiming that their accusation would be defeated in the international court.

Another more commonly used claim (the 3rd magical genocide in the genocide trilogy is usually not identified, with those claims varying among them) is the one during the Balkan wars, when there were massacres against Albanians, which they are claiming to be genocide, with the more pumped up claims (albeit, not called genocide) being said by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, during the late 1990s, when there was a general US interest to put down a military base in the area of Kosovo.

The only two sources they use is the CEIP and the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo, with one if it’s main members (when it existed in the 1910s and 1920s) being Hysni Curri, one of the main Kaçaks (Albanian bandits and separatists, primarily in the Kosovo area), with a direct interest. Said organization also had Bajram Curri, someone who had participated in rebellions lead by the Besëlidhja e Prizrenit, or the League of Prizren (who first made the idea of a Greater Albania).

Said Bajram Curri was also a member of Lidhja e Pejës, or the League of Peć/Peja, which was lead by Haxhi Zeka, a former Prizren League member, with all having the same intentions.

Some Albanians, seeing this would then cite the following claim made by Willar Howard in a 1914 “Daily Mirror” article that “General Carlos Popovitch would shout, „Don’t run away, we are brothers and friends. We don’t mean to do any harm.“ Peasants who trusted Popovitch were shot or burned to death, and elderly women unable to leave their homes were also burned. Howard said that the atrocities were committed after the war ended.”, as a way to say “A-ha! See? An unbiased source!”

This would be all fine and dandy (as an argument, not the alleged crime of course), but there is only one problem…there is no Carlos Popovitch. The only Popović who was a general in the armies of the Principality or Kingdom of Serbia was Damjan Popović
Here you can see a list of generals of the Principality and Kingdom of Serbia.
https://sr.wikipedia.org/sr/%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BA_%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0_%D0%92%D0%BE%D1%98%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B5_%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B5_%D0%B8_%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%99%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B5_%D0%A1%D1%80%D0%B1%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B5

Now, as the claim says that this was done after the war ended, it is important to note that very much soon after the First Balkan War, the Second Balkan War erupted, meaning that there is no logical reason for Serbia and Montenegro to waste men and resources, when they had their entire army fighting off the Bulgarian surprise offensive. Said Damjan Popović (the only Popović as a general in the army) was in Pirot, so he wasn’t able to shout to Kosovo Albanians said words and to do said actions. Carlos Popovitch isn’t even listed as a high-ranking officer, he only exists in that claim.

“Reçak, Reçak, Reçaaaaaaaaaaaaak!”

This one goes perfectly hand in hand to the genocide arguments. Most of us know about the Račak massacre that had occurred, and here, upfront, before the debunking, I’ll warn you of some NSFW/NSFL war images upfront, so if you are sensitive to that, you can freely skip that part, I’ll even mark it as a specific section, so you can skip it without viewing it.

The argument is used as “proof” of a Serbian genocide against Albanians or that there was massive ethnic cleansing before March 24th 1999. This case was the most important one in the trial of Slobodan Milošević in the ICTY, as then it would have justified the NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and it would give substantial future proof of ethnic cleansing against Albanians.
The issue in this is that during the trial itself, the claims of the Albanians varied. Here are some excerpts from the witness testimonies, primarily between the KLA and the residents, which is fascinating:

Nusret Shabani (a resident of Račak at the time): “There was no KLA there. I’m telling you, the KLA didn’t operate there. It was in Rance, in the forest. There were only women, children, the sick and the elderly in Račak.
A similar claim was given by Agron Mehmeti, another resident of Račak.
But, when Jeffrey Nice, the prosecutor of the ICTY asked Shukri Buja, the commander of the KLA in the region and the Nerodimlje Operation Zone “How many KLA altogether were there, in this general area of Račak?”, Buja replied with “The KLA unit IN Račak had 47 members, including the staff that manned the kitchen.” (which may be extremely similar to the number of people killed in Račak on that day in January). When the defendant, Slobodan Milošević asked “What weapons did they possess?”, the witnesses had different answers:

Shabani: “Weapons, weapons… They didn’t have any weapons. They had old hunting rifles.”
When Richard May, the judge in the ICTY asked Buja about the weapons the soldiers had, Buja replied with:
“Our soldiers had automatic rifles, mortars; 7,9 mm machine guns; a 12,7 mm machine gun, one 60 mm grenade launcher; and M-48 rifles. As well as a 50 mm grenade launcher”
Why are weapons so important? Well, they are largely identical to the ones that the Serb police had captured in Račak:
– 1 Browning 12,7 mm machine gun
– 1 Browning 7,9 mm machine gun with a mount
– 1 sache with munition
– 36 automatic rifles
– 2 snipers
– 5 RPGs of Chinese origin (most likely from the old arsenals of communist Albania, taken after the 1997 revolt)
– 12 mines

– 12 hand grenades
– 7.282 pieces of munitions of different calibers

Now whom do you believe: the witnesses that were used by the prosecution or the regional KLA commander? I’ll leave it up to you, as it is none of my business to make you think a certain way.

If you thought that those were the holes in the testimonies, here is one more:
When Slobodan Milošević, the defendant and former president of the FRY had asked: “Did you personally see them get shot?”, these were the replies of some of the witnesses:
Bilaj Avdiu: “Yes, there were 7-8 people that were massacred. They took Ragip Bajrami’s heart out while he was still alive.”
Milošević proceeded to reply to Avdiu in the following way: “Do you know that all the reports done about the bodies say that none of the bodies were mutilated, let alone mentioning their heart being ripped out, while they were alive? Why did you make that up?”
Avdiu: “I saw it. He had no bullet wounds, just the knife wound where his heart was taken out.”

Nusret Shabani: “There were no police officers or soldiers anymore. So we went uphill, to the bodies. Corpses, corpses… Someone’s heart was taken, teeth broken, eyes gouged.”
Djemail Beçiri: “Heads were cut off, eyes gouged, hearts taken. Only barbaric Chetnik forces could do that. Albanians don’t do that.”
Keep in mind that autopsies have recognized wounds made by projectiles, with no such injuries being reported by the forensic experts, lead by Helena Rante.

Jeffrey Nice: “There has been quite a lot of evidence in this trial already of people not telling the truth. Everybody observed that the early Albanian witnesses seemed rather shy about acknowledging the presence of the KLA. Maybe it’s gonna go on, maybe it’s understandable, but that certainly doesn’t invalidate the rest of their evidence.”
It is very interesting that the prosecutor himself is acknowledging the presence of the KLA, as that is a type of argument used in court when the side of the prosecution tends to start losing its case against the defendant “yes, they may have lied there, but…”.

Remember when Avdiu had mentioned Ragip Bajrami in particular, as the man who had his heart ripped out of him, according to Avdiu? Well, guess what?

These are the ones whom we have photographic evidence of them being KLA members, there were many others who haven’t taken photos.
If you mention the civilian clothing, keep in mind, January is quite cold, especially in a mountainous area and the locals didn’t have much cash to afford insulating military gear, so they usually had uniforms and general clothing (if they even had uniforms, some didn’t use them either, as these are insurgents, not a very professional army) behind the uniform to keep them warm.

Of course, this isn’t to say that ALL were combatants, as some were physically unable to be combatants, such as the case of Avdyl S. Sejdiu, who was too old, but they may have been collateral damage victims, as there was more intense combat in the area, and, unfortunately, some civilians die in such combat operations.

RTS did make a decent documentary on it. I’d suggest you watch it, but take it with some grains of salt, as it would be intellectually dishonest of me to blindly follow one narrative. (There are subtitles as well) (there are multiple witness compilations there which I have mentioned above, so you don’t have to listen and search for these among the many ICTY hearings.)
Dosije Kosovo – Račak (EN, RU, SQ)

Disclaimer part:

Here is the disclaimer that I have noted about the potential gore, so please, if you are sensitive and don’t want to watch this, skip this part and click on the next part.

Here you can see some suspicious positions, as well as the fact that there was a lack of empty cartridges in the place where the people were allegedly executed. In one instance, one’s hat was still on his head, which is impossible when one is shot. Multiple positions indicate that at least some of the bodies have been moved, either to be more clumped up in the pit, to make it look like an execution. In the 4th image, you could also see that many of the bodies are lying in a pattern that is through the ditch, rather than across it, meaning that they were most likely retreating and that they were caught in an ambush. If they were executed, they would have naturally been in a different position, because of the angle of shooting. Was that a mistake that the KLA made while moving the bodies, or were they left in the original position, we don’t fully know.

“JUDENFREI, JUDENFREI, JUDENFREI *unintelligible screeching*”

You have probably seen this one A LOT if you have followed Balkan twitter, especially the Albanian part of it.

The claim goes that Belgrade has been declared the first “Judenfrei” (Jew-free) city in Europe, with the entirety of Serbia quickly following suit, usually using these cheap forms of images:


This thread right here, made by one of the main Albanian twitter propagandist accounts sums up their claims completely, which are correct on the surface alone, with it being supposed to make you think that the Serbs themselves have engaged in genocide (with glee/enthusiasm, to add on), henceforth making them Nazis and an inherently genocidal people since older times.

Let’s go piece by piece, shall we?

Now, what Admirim won’t tell you is a lot of things, context is bad for him, as it would make his argument null, henceforth he avoided it completely.

We shall start with the elephant in the room, the Staro Sajmište Concentration camp and the mobile gas vans, known as dušegupkas here. He did not tell you one crucial thing: The Concentration Camp was not only not held by Serbs, but it was also not on the territory of the collaborationist Nedić gov’t set up by the Germans after the invasion. It was on the territory of the then Independent State of Croatia, near Zemun.

https://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/semlin/en/holocaust-in-serbia.php
https://www.academia.edu/68609441/Occupational_Police_Formations_in_Serbia_during_1941_Structural_Organization_Police_Practice_and_Problems
In these two links, you could see that the camp was held primarily by the Ordnungspolizei, composed out of Germans from the mainland or the local Volksdeutscher (and there were plenty, as it was near Zemun or Semlin in German, which had a high German population back then).

The ones controlling the camp were Nazi Germany from December 8th 1941 to May 1944, and then by the Independent State of Croatia in between May 1944 and July 1944, when it closed.

Around 6.380 Jews and around 10.000 non-Jews (primarily Serbs and Roma) perished in the camp.

The Grand Anti-Masonic exhibition that he had mentioned was financed by Germany. It was also one of the rare buildings that had heating, henceforth people went there because of that as well.

The Appeal to the Serb Nation had many ZBOR politicians that listed themselves as prominent and as intellectuals, with most of the ones on the list being spared from execution by resistance forces because for many, it was obvious that they were forced to sign that. As they said, the main police chief would usually have a “talk” with them before signing it.

The other part that Admirim likes to ignore is the fact that Serbia was more directly occupied, had a German garrison as well and was partitioned.

Feel free to overlay the maps (created by Dušan Dačić), and you’ll find out that you haven’t had an insane number of Jews in the zone that was under the Nedić administration to begin with, with the vast vast majority of it being located in Belgrade, which the Nazis have mostly taken to the Sajmište camp.

Even the % is wrong, it isn’t 94%, it’s 84%, which is lower than the FNRY average, on par with Montenegro, which had almost no Jews. Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia have seen bigger drops in the Jewish population.

The idea of the Judenfrei myth came in the 1990s, primarily made by the Croats during wartime. The reasoning for that is for them to use it as a form of tactic whenever the Croats were called “the Ustaše” or Neo-Nazis during the Yugoslav Wars, especially units such as HOS. In other words, they are using a quasi-historical claim made by the Croats which was meant to be a form of whataboutism during the war.

You have probably seen this claim if you have been on Balkan twitter for a while by now, but you probably won’t be surprised that this story, even if it is made in such a way to spread quickly (and it even has the face of Dobrica Ćosić on it, wow), is false.
This claim came from the book “Deobe”, which wasn’t a psychological analysis of the Serbian people, nor a comment. Said quote hadn’t even mentioned Serbs at all.

This is the original passage of the quote:

I have decided to translate it as well:
“Slavery is : the truth(s) is (are) lethal. That is why lies are yelled and whispered. To everyone and everything, the occupier is lying, the traitors are lying, so are the freedom fighters lying. We lie to deceive ourselves, to comfort others, lie out of empathy/compassion, we lie so we are not afraid, to encourage, to hide our own misery and the misery of others. We lie due to love and the feeling of being human, we lie for fairness/honesty. We lie for the sake of freedom. Lying is a form of intelligence and a certificate of our intelligence. We lie creatively, thoughtfully, inventively. For this lie under occupation, even an ordinary idiot has more imagination than many romantic writers. Lying is a necessity : biological, psychological, national and political. Belgrade is an apocalypse of lies these days. My honesty is a revolt against slavery. Still the most human form of protest. My life is so uncertain that there is no reason for me to torture myself with some diary and writing. But I no longer have anyone to talk to about everything. The occupation had taken away my friend. The occupation had even proclaimed friendship among people as a purely peacetime/peaceful term, destroying it as it is and I find out with sorrow that friendship is also an attribute of freedom.”

The comment is clearly dedicated to the second world war, and how times change radically and how everything falls into a big pot of lies. Not some sort of revelation that Serbs are a lying people. But hey, this isn’t interesting, so why bother, I guess?

“Serbia’s borders (even without Kosovo) are still illegitimate!”
Another common talking point, especially ever since Kurti had became the prime minister of *Kosovo for a second time. This one, besides the border part, will also encompass the claim that Serbia is committing ethnic cleansing, if not genocide against the Albanians in the Preševo Valley (as a move to delegitimize Serbia’s ownership of the Preševo Valley). For that their proof is a report of the Helsinki Committee in Serbia. Wow, you got Sonja Biserko to sh*t in Serbia, such a difficult achievement!

I bring forth two tweets from our favorite propagandist, Admirim.

You may have seen this circulating. The idea goes that Serbia’s borders should actually be the ones of the Smederevo Sandžak, declaring it as the actual Serbia – even though it was a boundary set up by the Ottoman Empire, with the Serbian state existing before the Ottoman entry into the Balkans, with it having forms of statehood since the 8th century under the Vlastimirović dynasty which has been formed (and granted its lands) during the reign of Emperor Heraclius (so in between the years of 610 and 641). Attempts to somehow show Serbia as a smaller land and a form of artificial or semi-artificial product of the Ottomans (that coincides with some of their ideas that Serbs are Turkish rape babies) are more common than you may think, and usually with little to no actual historical evidence of that.

According to the map used by propagandists such as Admirim, places such as Kruševac (one of Serbia’s medieval capitals), Paraćin, Loznica, Negotin etc. do not belong to Serbia. This goes hand in hand with the afformentioned “genocide trilogy”, just a 19th century version, where they claim that Serbia had genocided/assimilated the Albanian population in Southern Central Serbia and Sandžak, and that it’s actually all Albanian.

This isn’t just about Serbia to be completely honest, this type of rhetoric is also sometimes used against Greeks and Macedonians. This meme is a scarily accurate depiction of the propaganda machine’s thought process while making its claims, especially this one:

“Kosovo Albanians were always oppressed, even during Tito!”

This is another common claim, even though during the Tito era, they did call him “Shoku Tito” (comrade Tito) without a problem. Another thing to note is that Kosovo, along with Vojvodina, had veto powers in Serbia, meaning that they had the right to veto anything Central Serbia wanted if they wanted to, while being able to pass any bill if they wanted to (good examples of such are Article 250 and 268 of the 1974 Constitution of the SFRY, on top of multiple others).

Another good example of the rights held by Albanians is in the 1963 constitution:
Article 112, section 2: “Autonomous rights and obligations and and basic principles on the organization of autonomous provinces are determined by the constitution of the republic. (in which they received plenty of rights)
Article 165, section 2: “The members of the committees of the assemblies of the republics or autonomous provinces are made up of a Council of peoples, which are given rights and obligations to protect the equality of the peoples of Yugoslavia and the constitution of the republics with this constitution.”

Another indicator of this oh so great oppression is that the population of Albanians INCREASED, while the number of Serbs and Montenegrins DECREASED. In the 1970s, around 57.000 Serbs and Montenegrins left Kosovo, with the 80s being marked as a period where Serbs in Kosovo have noted that they were being intimidated and oppressed by the local Albanian gov’ts.

As for 2011, most put the numbers at around 100.000, half of the 1991 number.
From 1948 to 2011, the number of Albanians had increased by 1.118.625, while the number of Serbs (and Montenegrins) fell from their peak in 1961 (which was at around 264.000) to at most 110.000.

During the Titoist era, primarily during the 50s and 60s, Tito and the SKJ (The Union of Communists of Yugoslavia) had allowed the Albanian communists to start a campaign of Albanisation against the Goranis, removing the -ić parts of their surnames, to make them less Slavic, and start a gradual process to turn them into Albanians, which had luckily failed, due to Gorani resilience, even after said assimilationist attempts.

When you put 2 and 2 together, you’ll get 4, correct? In this case, seeing the population rise and political power they had, you can’t really say they were oppressed, no?

“Miki Mausiqiiii *insert Marshi i UÇK nightcore*”

Ok, before you start worrying, no, they aren’t claiming that Mickey Mouse is an Albanian…yet.
As you may have guessed, this part concerns the identity theft that multiple Albanian historians are pushing through and slowly making it a “core” of Albanian history.

Some of the people that they are claiming to be Albanians are people such as Nikola Tesla (Tesliqi, to them), Alexander the Great (and they also tend to claim his father, Phillip II of Macedon), the Nemanjić dynasty, Karađorđević dynasty, Socrates etc. Some go as far as to claim that Cleopatra was part-Albanian, so the crazier ones, I won’t even cover much, they are a meme at this point, but I will cover Tesla, Alexander and the Karađorđević dynasty, because those are the only ones where I can make an actual reply to, rather than pulling out the “works cited: crack pipe” meme.

As for Tesla, their main “proof” that he is an Albanian (which is a theory spreading on social media and slowly across Albanian society) is this image which could be of him (not fully sure of that either):

Drumroll please…

Tah-dah! A guy who sorta looks like Tesla (high chance it was Anđelo Krstić) wearing a national outfit that is also worn by Vlachs, Aromanians etc. This has to be proof that he is Albanian! All his claims of being a Serb mean nothing, he was definitely Albanian, they have me convinced!

“There is something within me that might be an illusion as it is often the case with young delighted people, but if I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity. If those hopes would become fulfilled, the most exciting thought would be that it is a deed of a Serb.”
– Nikola Tesla, but who gives a single turd, he is definitely Albanian!

Now that we have come to the conclusion that Tesla is indeed an Albanian, let’s move on to the next person: Alexander the Great!
So their primary claims go like this: He was Macedonian, they were actually Illyrians, as well as Olympias being a Molossian Epiran, so to them they are also Illyrians, henceforth Albanians (another theory they have) blah blah blah, therefore he is an Albanian. That’s it. That is the thought process they had to come up with that conclusion.

Now, Epirans, in particular Molossians, were ancient GREEK tribes by most historians, not Illyrians, so that part is quite of a stretch. Same goes for Macedons, but here is a question:

If Philip II, the Macedon part was an Illyrian (an Albanian), why did he spend a decent lot of his reign fighting Illyrian raiders, wouldn’t they support a grand Illyrian king? Why did he fight them so ferociously? So even if Albanians are Illyrians, that’d kill their theory completely. In other words, none of Alexander’s parents were Illyrians or Albanians.

As for the Karađorđević dynasty, their main claim to that is once again an image of Prince Paul Karađorđević wearing Albanian clothes (which were/are also worn by multiple Serbs in parts of Macedonia, parts of Kosovo, Vranje etc.). They tend to even go as far as to claim that the Karađorđević family (coming from Petar Petrović Karađorđe, the former of the dynasty) came from the northern Albanian Kelmendi tribe.

The picture in question:

But, hey! Look at this! Petar II wearing Slovene national clothing! This means that they are Slovenes!

Or could it maybe, just MAYBE, be that members of the royal family tend to dress in national clothing of their people in certain regions to show that they are their rulers as well, not just of a certain region or people? I don’t know, just a thought…

But hey, if you are asking me, you can freely claim this guy as yours:

“Ancient Greeks were Albanians/tied to Albanians”

This is where the “Socrates is an Albanian” theory comes from! As of now, the theory is a WIP, not fully adopted yet, but as of now, I can freely say this:

“Albanians are the reason why Greeks are a state!”

Aaaand once again: Apart from the Souliotes and some Albanians that were part of it.
This one is more popular due to some foundations, but beyond those, there is no actual proof of that. At best, the role was minor:

“Ancient Illyrians”

This one is the foggiest, I’ll have to admit, it’s primarily on presumptions from both sides. They primarily use the fact that they do have a Paleo-Balkanic root, henceforth them being Illyrian. They also tend to show some old artworks in stone where some people wore clothes similar to the ones of modern Albanians.

The issue with their argument is the lack of evidence for most of it, including for me to fully debunk it. The art one is very vague, as visual arts (primarily in the form of painting) back then weren’t as developed or detailed as later on, with the details being quite vague in many fields. Not to note that said clothes can also be then used as proof that those are in fact Aromanians, who are confirmed to be native to the region, so you would ironically have an even bigger basis if we are looking at art and clothes. Linguistically, it’s harder to tell than one thinks, albeit, Aromanians do have some words in common with Greek and Illyrian words, not just Romance. In other words, very murky and a dead end. Another thing to make it difficult is that Albanians do have at least some Paleo-Balkanic origins, but the surviving pre-Christian Albanian culture shows that Albanian mythology and folklore are not of Paleo-Balkanic origin and that almost all of their elements are pagan. There isn’t an insane load of evidence from what I can find to prove or fully disprove their theory. In other words:

SOME but isn’t still deserving of the ‘“crack pipe” works cited’ meme yet.

“There is an anti-Albanian conspiracy, everyone likes/appeases Serbia/Vučić!”
Well if that was the case, Albanians would have been in a completely different position, in a way tougher one. You wouldn’t be in the spot to make demands, feel privileged and oppressed at the same time, your theories wouldn’t be so tolerated etc. Simply put: No, there is no anti-Albanian conspiracy, especially in the EU and its “appeasement” of Serbia (because appeasement is when you aren’t allowed to ethnically cleanse people). You are acting as if Vučić is some geopolitical mastermind. He isn’t.

Your average false flags and projections

Usually, during turbulent times, the gov’t of *Kosovo tends to warn of a potential Serbian false flag to justify an invasion, but then they themselves share videos of very suspicious origin, with the alleged Serbs yelling phrases such as “Kosovo je Srbija, Krim je Rusija” (Kosovo is Serbia, Crimea is Russia), in an attempt to get over any westerner watching it. If you aren’t a Serb, then there is a higher chance that you’d take these at face-value, but there are some holes. I’ll take out my favorite one, posted by our favorite twitter user, Admirim.


It was also posted by Istraga.ba

Now, here are some problems with that, and I’ll recap it:

First, before talking about the registration plate (but we will mention it for a second in this argument), let us talk about the accent of these masked men with guns :

We can hear that in multiple moments, they sound odd, and not that much akin to your Kosovo Serb (at least to most Kosovo Serbs), especially when talking about the people of Kosovska Mitrovica.

The dialect the Serbs from the city speak is the one that is predominant in the regions of Zeta and Southern Sandžak, so, they do have way more similarities (especially in the intonation of the vowels) with, lets say, a person from Cetinje, Kolašin or Novi Pazar.

They intone the ‘I’ in a raised tone, but it’s more raised, and shorter than the man who had said it. Then the word „vratili“, it sounds as if the l had been purposefully hardened to not make the „lj“ sound. As for „Kosovo“, it sounded as if he wanted to say „Kosov“, but then added in the ‘o’ letter. So it doesn’t sound like your average Serb from Kosovska Mitrovica. Then what does it sound like? Well, you could theoretically say that it could be from the Prizren-Southern Timok dialect, but we’ll get to why that is not really a strong argument a bit later. It sounds primarily as if an Albanian generally knows how to speak Serbian. Now, lets talk about the other dialect claim and the registration plate : If the gotcha moment is „oh, what if it is someone from Štrpce or Gračanica“, well, here is a logical question to that : Why wouldn’t they show a Serb Priština registration plate or the one for Štrpce, instead of a registration plate for Kosovska Mitrovica? The two towns I noted have a Serb majority, so they’d be safe there as well. It would be a stronger argument if they did that than this, which is another tell-tale sign that something smells fishy here.

Not to note that in the setting, they could have easily filmed it anywhere, so that makes the argument even less convincing.
Now, let’s talk about the registration plate:

Here is your average Serb KM registration plate (censored ofc), it has more than two numbers On the video, we can see only two numbers, instead of 3, and no two letters, so it seems that the plate may have been made sloppily, to make it look legit.
We can also see that there had been no censor bar, and if it was censored, why? We would then be able to identify the car user. All registration plates are registered, so they could be found if asked for, if not just searched.

Some have even said that the physical structure of them is different to the one of the average Kosovo Serb (bottoms at a lower height for e.g.), but I am not completely sure about that, but I’ll leave it here. Take this part specifically with a grain of salt, though.

It is interesting that he said “don’t film me” after he said “Kosovo is Serbia, Crimea is Russia” (probably to get western viewers on the Albanian side with the Crimea part, as I mentioned that already). So if he said that, how did that get out? That part is also quite suspicious, as they wouldn’t do that if one requested to not even film him, let alone upload him to specific media groups who have published it (and besides people like Admirim and Istraga.ba posting it, it’s very hard, if not impossible to find the original source, increasing the likeliness that it was produced by the Albanians as a false flag PR attempt).

For the Serbs reading this, I found this meme, created by Jovana Ćirković, credits to her:

Tied to the genocide trilogy part, specifically the 1912/1913 massacres. Now, I am not here to deny that the massacres didn’t happen, I am not an Albanian propagandist to be doing that, but we can see the holes in their claims, as well as the appropriation of multiple non-Albanian images to fit their agenda.

First, let’s check one of the covers that they are using (for Leo Freundlich’s book), which I find quite interesting and you may see quite commonly, as this is a more recent cover:

The interesting part is the picture, which is meant to show Albanians running away from the Ser-oh wait, it’s a photo of the Serbian army retreating in October 1915, just inverted:

Let’s talk a little bit about the author, as this is important as a decent lot of the claims they have are based on this book.

Leo Freundlich, above other things, was an Austrian politician, during the time-period when relations between Austria-Hungary and Serbia were far from good, due to the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austrian intentions to make sure Serbia gets as less land as possible, had made sure that Montenegro gains as less land in Skadar (Shkoder), as it gaining the area would have significantly increased it’s agricultural capabilities and would have raised its budget by 20%, they even attempted to bully them into handing over Lovćen during the same time frame. Austria had the idea of spreading its empire into the Balkans, as the colonies of the empire. Austria wasn’t able to colonize much in Africa, they couldn’t expand eastward, westward or northward, so their only path was towards the Balkans. Leo, like almost every other Austrian politician, supported this policy, as at that time, who wouldn’t support the national interest?

He later joined the service of Ahmet Zogu, subsequently King Zog of Albania, as honorary consul of the Kingdom of Albania in Vienna. In this capacity, in the 1930s, he was involved in promoting Albania’s trade relations with the German Reich. In other words, an Austrian politician turned Albanian gov’t worker.

(The only truly chad thing about him is that he despised the “Heil Hitler” salute, as he was Jewish, to which he responded with “Heil Zogu”, which left the Germans confused, making them think that was a normal Albanian greeting).

In the same book, Freundlich called for the Great Powers help in order to protect the „defenseless population against an army with a state“, so in other words, intervention, including a justification for Austria-Hungary to potentially intervene.

He used half-truths and the fact that he was a rare westerner traveling through the land during the time frame gave him insane powers to make claims up or to increase their severity (based on the massacres that did happen), which was also verified by a CEIP report, where there have also been Austrians and Germans in that committee report (and they were the ones that covered the Serbian crimes the most, as the others, such as the French and Russians, pursued their own interest as well and searched for the crimes of others).

The Albanians also tend to quote Freundlich in another way:

For a smart man, that is enough…

It is important to note this theory, as here he claimed that Albanian Catholics were converted into Orthodox Christianity by force, which is then used to solidify the theory that Serb heritage monuments (including monasteries) are actually Albanian, but stolen. This theory leads us to…

“Serbs have stolen our monuments. They are all Albanian!”

It’s quite a common theory, but they usually tend to bring up nothing, so I am going to have a problem debunking their arguments, as they have none. You can freely find the frescos in said monasteries that tend to have their bestowers:

“The Albanian language was never allowed during Serbia/Yugoslavia”

Another easily debunkable claim, they were de-facto speaking it in institutions during the Monarchy, and during the SFRY, the rights to use a minority language was guaranteed (just like how during the Kingdom you were able to speak it as well, just like German, Hungarian, Slovak, Rusyn etc.)

The Vidovdan Constitution of 1921 did, as all other constitutions proclaim the main language as the official one, in Article 3, but in Article 16, based on education, minorities were given the right to study in their own mother tongue. In article 69, ethnic minority representation was guaranteed in parliament. In article 72, the member of parliament was obliged to be able to “read and write in the people’s language” (which would imply the main language and his own, if he is a minority, so he would be able to communicate in the parliament).

This constitution was backed by most parties, including the Yugoslav Muslim Organization and Džemijet/Cemiyet/Xhemijet/İslam Muhafaza-i Hukuk Cemiyeti, with the latter representing primarily the Slavic Muslims in Sandžak, the ethnic Turks, as well as the Albanians. You can obviously see that on this 1923 electoral map, which shows where did Džemijet get its votes:

In other words, the minority rights in that constitution were fine. But, let’s go with other constitutions as well:

The 1931 constitution guaranteed similar freedoms, including the rights of equal protection, petition, and trial, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association, bans exile and unreasonable search and seizure, and provides for free, compulsory primary education to every citizen under Chapter 2. Chapter 9 even allowed Muslims to resolve civil matters among each other with sharia judges.

Now that we got the Kingdom out of the way, let us move on to the FPRY/SFRY:
1946 Constitution:

Article 13: “Ethnic minorities in the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia enjoy the right to and protection of its cultural development and free use of their own language.”

Article 120: “A procession in court is done in the language of the republics, autonomous regions and autonomous oblasts, depending on where the court is located. The citizens who don’t understand the language in which the procession is taking place can use their own language. Those citizens are given the right to find out about the entire material of the proceedings and follow the processions via a translator.”

The 1953 constitution amendments didn’t change it much:
Article 1 – “The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is a socialist democratic federal state made up of sovereign and equal peoples.” – as a form of emphasis
Those amendments primarily concerned about economics and self-management

The 1963 constitution:

Article 33: “The citizens are equal in rights and obligations, no matter their difference in nationality, race, religion, gender, language, education or social position.”
Article 41, section 1: “The citizen is guaranteed the right to express his belonging and culture, as well as the usage of his language”. In section 3, the promotion of ethnic inequality was banned
Article 42, section 1: “The languages and their letters of Yugoslavia are equal”
Article 42, section 2: “The people of Yugoslavia have, coinciding with the laws of an SR, to have the right to an education in his own language in another SR.” (with the exception of the YPA, primarily for officers, which was taught in Serbo-Croatian, the official language, said in section 3 of Article 42)
Article 43, section 1: “For the sake of achieving the freedom of citizens in their expression of their nationality and culture, it is guaranteed for every nationality – ethnic minority the right to freely use its language, develop its own culture and in order to achieve that to form its own organizations and enjoy their constitutionally-guaranteed rights.”
Article 43, section 2: “In the schools of people who belong to a certain nationality, the curriculum is taught in the language of said nationalities.”
Article 43, section 3: “The constitution of the SR is also guaranteeing other rights of certain nationalities in the areas in which they live.”
Article 131, section 2: “The authorities in the Federation in its proceedings abide by the equality of the languages of the people of Yugoslavia.”
Article 157, section 1: “Not knowing the language in which the procession is being lead must not be an obstacle for the defense and achieving rights and the justified interest of the citizens and organizations.”
Article 157, section 2: “Everyone is guaranteed the right that during a procession in court or other state authorities and organizations, which, in the exercise of public authority, decide on the rights and obligations of citizens, uses his own language and that in that process he familiarizes himself with the facts in his own language.”

The 1974 constitution:
Article 154, section 1: “The citizens are equal in rights and obligations, no matter their difference in nationality, race, religion, gender, language, education or social position.”
Article 154, section 2: “All citizens are equal in front of the law.”
Article 170, section 1: “The citizen is guaranteed the right to express his belonging to a people, that is a nationality, the freedom to express his national culture and the freedom to use his language and writing system”. In section 3, the promotion of ethnic inequality was banned
Article 171, section 1: “The members of a certain nationality have, in compliance with the constitution and law, the freedom to use his language and writing system in achieving his rights and obligations, as well as in the process in state authorities and organizations that exercise public authority.”
Article 171, section 2: “The people who belong to a certain nationality in Yugoslavia in all republics and autonomous province, have the right to an education in their own language in compliance with the law.”
Article 214, section 1: “Not knowing the language in which the procession is being lead must not be an obstacle for the defense and achieving rights and the justified interest of the citizens and organizations.”
Article 214, section 2: “Everyone is guaranteed the right that during a procession in court or other state authorities and organizations, which, in the exercise of public authority, decide on the rights and obligations of citizens, uses his own language and that in that process he familiarizes himself with the facts in his own language.”
Article 243, section 1: “In the armed forces of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia guarantees, in compliance with the constitution of the SFRY, the equality of languages and writing systems of the peoples of Yugoslavia.”
Article 243, section 2: “In commanding and military training in the Yugoslav People’s Army can, in compliance with federal law, use one of the languages of the people of Yugoslavia, and in it’s regions – the languages of the nationalities.”
Article 246, section 1: “The languages and writing of the peoples of Yugoslavia are equal on the territory of Yugoslavia. In the SFRY, the official languages are the languages of the peoples, and the languages of the nationalities – in compliance with this constitution and federal law.”
Article 246, section 2: “By law and the statute of the socio-political community and self-managing acts of the organizations of labor and other self-managing organizations and communities are guaranteed the achievement of the equality of languages and writing systems of the people and nationalities in official use in the areas in which the certain nationalities live and confirm the way and terms of the implementation of these equalities.”
Article 247: “For the sake of achieving the freedom of citizens in their expression of their nationality and culture, it is guaranteed for every nationality – ethnic minority the right to freely use its language, develop its own culture and in order to achieve that to form its own organizations and enjoy their constitutionally-guaranteed rights.”
Article 269, section 1: “Federal laws and other cannons and general actions are to be brought in and published in the official gazette of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia as authentic texts in the languages of the peoples of Yugoslavia, confirmed by the constitutions of the SRs.”
Article 269, section 2: “Federal laws and other cannons and general actions are to be brought in and published in the official gazette of the SFRY as authentic texts in the languages of the ALBANIAN and Hungarian nationalities as well.”
Article 271, section 4: “In international trade, the equality of languages in Yugoslavia are upheld.”
Article 271, section 5: “When international agreements are confirmed in the languages of the signatory nations, the languages of the peoples of Yugoslavia are to be used equally.”

The 1992 constitution (extra problems came here due to no autonomous provinces and the Albanians boycotting the census, effectively stripping themselves of their rights even further):
Article 11: “The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia recognizes and guarantees the rights to national minorities to keep, develop and express their ethnic, cultural, linguistic and other differences, as well as the use of national symbols, in compliance with international law.”
Article 15: “In the areas of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, minority languages are used as official languages where said national minorities live, in compliance with the law.”
Article 45, section 1: “The freedom of expressing a national belonging or culture, as well as the use of its language and writing system is guaranteed.”
Article 46, section 1: “The members of national minorities have the right to an education in their own language, in compliance with the law.”
Article 46, section 2: “The members of national minorities have the right to a public announcement in their own language.”
Article 49: “Everyone is given the right that in a process in front of a judge or other state authority or organization, in the exercise of public authority, decides on the rights and obligations of citizens, uses his own language and that in that process he familiarizes himself with the facts in his own language.”

and so on, and so forth…
In other words, every Yugoslav constitution disagrees with you. There are also decrees in Albanian (during the SFRY) to add on. We have come to the conclusion that they were really oppressed, just look at the small number of articles and sections guaranteeing minorities their freedoms!

North Macedonia was also granting said freedoms since its own independence in 1991, and Albanian became a co-official/semi-official language in 2019.

Just as proof of this #sotrue oppression, here is the website of the municipality of Preševo.

Mirësevini! Në qytetin tonë të bukur

Добродошли! У нашем прекрасном граду


It is at a first glance equal, as it should be, BUT, there is something interesting. The Albanian website is insanely more detailed than the Serbian one, even though both are official languages (due to Preševo being in the Republic of Serbia), so if you are a Serb in Preševo or working in a Serb ministry and need to check the site of Preševo, you’d have to depend on the Albanian site way more.
When you check the local gov’t page in Albanian, it’s there, but when you click on the Serb option, it sends you to the home page in Serbian. When you click on it directly (administrata (for Albanian)), you have no problem, but with the Serb part (управа), you get a white screen. It’s not there. Something as important as that is only available in one language, and that is tolerated. But muh oppression.

If you do not believe me, I sent those links, so feel free to test it yourselves, it didn’t work for me.

“Serbs are Turks (or Russians), so are Greeks to an extent!”

I’ll reply to this as well, but this is good to note that it is mostly crack pipe logic.

Their primary argument is the rule of the first wedding night and the rapes.
It is quite important to note that this was primarily during the Dahije times, with smaller frequencies beforehand, and most of it were done by the Janissaries. Now, most don’t remember, but Janissaries were “recruited” via “devşirme/دوشیرمه”, or “the blood tax”, when Turks would take away boys from Christian families (primarily from the Balkans), convert them into Islam and make them Turks. In other words, if those rapes did happen, it was rarely, if never done by actual Turks, but in most cases, it was done by other Serbs, Bulgarians, Greeks etc.. The Dahije were lead by 4 individuals, all Janissaries, Kučuk-Alija, Mehmed-Aga Fočić, Mula Jusuf and Aganlija. They were all Islamized Serbs. Kučuk-Alija was born as Alija Đevrlić in Rudnik, in Rudnik, Serbia. For Fočić, he was from Herzegovina most likely, Mula Jusuf from Novi Pazar, with only Aganlija being not fully known, but all of them were known for being Serb-speakers, rather than learning the language as a second one. In other words, it was Serb-on-Serb rape (but with different religions).
Their main enabler and supporter, Osman Pazvanoglu, had a heritage from Bosnia.

As for the DNA tests themselves, we actually did have an initiative which lasted around ten years, called “Poreklo”, and around 8.000 people were tested as of January 2023, with the following results coming out (it was also researched via the male line, due to the potential mutations in the Y chromosome, and it’s noticeable when did that error happen) :
Around 40-50 % have a mostly Slavic heritage, with the most common haplogroup being the I2 haplogroup. R1a is at around 15-16 % of said Slavs.
35 % are tied to pre-Slavic peoples (the “Dinaric race”). Most of them have the E haplogroup, with the specific branch of V13, which is at 17-18%, with some areas in Montenegro and Kosovo as high as 25%. You could see that we indeed aren’t a pure ethnicity, none of us are in reality, but we do have two majority groups, Slavic and pre-Slavs (the “autochtones”). Not shocking, but here are some more shocking parts:
A generally high lot of people have seen a lot of…Germanic ancestry, with the I1 haplogroup (tied to the Germanic/Gothic peoples) being at around 9-10%, which isn’t in the end so insanely surprising once you find out that Gepids were in the area and many Goths fled into the Balkans (primarily the Serb areas) during Atilla’s attacks, as well as the fact that there were Norman raids (who have also taken over Sicily) and after that Saxon miners in the medieval era. The area of Prijepolje had the highest count of around 20%. There were also some smaller traces of Celtic genes as well. The Turks have made basically no real influence on Serb DNA.

In the same research, the families tied to the Karađorđević dynasty (so to Karađorđe as well) were tested, and they had the I2 haplogroup, the most common Slavic Serb haplogroup, beating the theory that he was an Albanian.

Istraživali su DNK Srba 10 godina: Evo kome pripadaju Karađorđevići, a kome Nikola Tesla

Deset godina su istraživali poreklo Srba – ovo su saznanja o našem DNK koja menjaju pogled na istoriju

https://nova.rs/magazin/lifestyle/objavljena-srpska-dnk-mapa-ovo-je-istina-o-nasem-turskom-i-vikinskom-poreklu-a-jedan-podatak-ce-razbesneti-nacionaliste/ (interestingly, no thing that actually made me mad, clickbait much?)
https://www.rts.rs/page/magazine/sr/story/511/zanimljivosti/4555437/genetika-srba-dnk-kelti-sloveni.html
https://nationalgeographic.rs/istorija-i-kultura/zanimljivosti/a39462/Genetsko-poreklo-Srba-i-naroda-na-Balkanu.html
https://sputnikportal.rs/20220515/veliko-istrazivanje-o-genima-srba-iz-mraka-izranjaju-iscezla-plemena–resena-tajna-srpske-kosarke-1137338319.html

https://www.poreklo.rs/ are the ones who have been doing this research for well over a decade.

And again, let’s say that Serbs are Turks, even with the proof that they aren’t, what is the point?

As for the Greeks:
https://www.science.org/content/article/greeks-really-do-have-near-mythical-origins-ancient-dna-reveals
Greek friends, feel free to use it.

“Serbs are calling for genocide, check the “nema predaje” banner!!!”

This is another dishonest argument, referencing to this:

The message is: “Kosovo is Serbia”, which they are attempting to twist into making it about genociding the Albanian population. In other words, dishonesty, but when they support the idea of an “Ethnic Albania” (a term for Greater Albania), that is fine. That’s basically it about this claim, not much more to cover on it, other than the fact that it’s nothing but a cheap smear attempt.

“Serbs (and others around Albanians) have an aggressive war cult. We don’t. We are peaceful”

Nothing says “peaceful” more than constantly showing the UÇK emblem and constantly talking about stolen land that needs to be returned, as well as plenty of ethnically-motivated attacks sprinkled in.

“Republika Srpska is not the same as Kosova”

I actually fully agree with them there…because Alija Izetbegović (the then president of Bosnia and Herzegovina) signed and recognized the existence of Republika Srpska as an entity in the Dayton Accords. The Kumanovo Agreement did not make Kosovo a state. Simple as, so I agree there. In other words, Republika Srpska is indeed a completely legal entity by international law.

The Dayton Accords:
Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Article I, section 3: “Composition. Bosnia and Herzegovina shall consist of
the two Entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
the Republika Srpska (hereinafter „the Entities“)”

“Kosovo is a sui generis case”

In most cases, even mentioned by westerners, they throw around the term “sui generis” without actually explaining it, with at best saying “oh UNMIK”, even though that could then apply to Srpska seeking independence because there were (and still are via EUFOR) peacekeepers, so in other words, it is just a term to make them sound smarter or more well-argumented.

“UN 1244 means nothing, we determined our own independence”
This primarily attacks annex 2, point 8 of the United Nations Resolution 1244:
“8. A political process towards the establishment of an interim political framework agreement providing for substantial self-government for Kosovo, taking full account of the Rambouillet accords and the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other countries of the region, and the demilitarization of UÇK. Negotiations between the parties for a settlement should not delay or disrupt the establishment of democratic self-governing institutions.”

The current president of *Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, had suggested that the question had been solved on February 17th 2008, when they had unilaterally declared their independence.

Issue is, using this and the sui generis case (which usually go hand in hand) makes no sense, as you are then providing the same recipe to other separatists, completely destroying resolutions that were agreed upon. Simply put: you need an agreement in which this declaration has been accepted, henceforth the Kosovar effort to get nations to recognize them and for Serbia to accept it, and they know this, but they pretend to not care about it.

They may attempt to say that because their method of their declaration (not doing it via institutions but via “elected individuals” who then adopted it via parliament) is not against that, and indeed, it was rated as legal. Why is that the case? If the institutions did it directly, it would have been illegal, but with this way, it isn’t illegal, but also way less legitimate, considering that a group of individuals does have a right to declare anything as something, but it doesn’t make it the case. In other words: If they did it the actual way, it would have been illegal, as it wouldn’t comply with the United Nations Resolution 1244, but if they do it indirectly, it would not be legitimate. Now, of course, legitimacy among some nations is not needed, as all fight for their interest, but it is very good to point that out, especially when they talk about legitimacy.

If they talk about Kosovo’s autonomy in the SFRY, this directly contradicts their oppression claim already, and to add on, SRs were allowed to declare their independence, not autonomous provinces, henceforth there were protests in 1981 to make Kosovo a 7th republic (in order for them to secede).

Also, if UN 1244 is indeed not needed anymore, that means that the KFOR mandate then also isn’t necessary anymore, as the situation has been settled, correct? Oh wait, you want SELECTIVE implementations of the resolution, I see. You can’t have it both ways, miqtë e mi.

“The Serbs can’t face the past, we are clean, we also admit to any of our rare wrongdoings!”


Oh wait, what is this? Could this be Admirim denying an ICTY ruling? I thought that the Serbs were evil for doing so. Also, why are you writing that in Albanian, you don’t want to be seen by non-Albanians as a hypocrite? You can write in Albanian, but you can’t hide it. There are people who know Albanian or who can use google translate. Keep in mind, Salih Mustafa was sentenced for crimes against OTHER Albanians. Also, Admirim trying to not call Serbia “genocidal” or “a genocidal state” (impossible).

Note about the mythomania

I have probably missed some, as there are so many of them. I may even have to update this list from time to time, whether on a new conclusion or a new theory popping out.

Deboonking complete

Those are some of the main claims they make, especially on social media, with all of them being generally debunked. Now, let’s go towards the distribution of their propaganda

Distribution of propaganda

Now it is time to talk about the distribution of this propaganda and the methods they are generally using in information warfare.
Most of it is of course via social media and internet portals.

Their method of propaganda distribution (primarily among the top guys) actually has a lot of inspiration taken from the “yellow press” in their industrial style of activism, and it is primarily in a couple of steps:

1. Usually quite a bombastic start to the tweet, such as: “BREAKING!” “DISGUSTING!” “VILE!” “HISTORIC!” “UNFORGIVABLE!” etc., very akin to the yellow press. This is done to drag in a viewer due to natural interest.

2. Make sure you post it quite quickly, before anything is checked, processed, debunked etc. Post it immediately, with no hesitation, have a prepared claim or just make it up on the spot to make your enemy look bad.

3. Claim that all denial is malicious, and that your statement is an absolute truth that needs no proof. You saying that is enough. You denying it means that you are paid by (fill in the blank with an organization) and that you probably support (fill in the blank with a crime). Use some foundations if possible, to make it seem more credible, or manufacture evidence (if you are a gov’t).

4. Use followers, trolls, bots to like and rt, this goes insanely well with more followers.

5. Use said botting to attempt to create a picture of wider support, then attempt to use that for real action

6. Proceed to @ political officials, a company or anyone important or that could relate to the event a bit to attempt to exert pressure. Even if that part doesn’t work in most cases, in some it does, and that is a full success. Launching and spreading a false story (on an industrial scale) is already good enough, but achieving that is an even higher success.
Rince and repeat.

This is the general method of industrial activism. For some reason, interestingly, the number of likes and views are usually quite higher when other nations congratulate Kosovo on something, and when you check it, those are coming from Albanian accounts. One could say that their twitter members are far more active on twitter and way more focused on supporting their message or This is the general method of industrial activism. For some reason, interestingly, the number of likes and views are usually quite higher when other nations congratulate Kosovo on something, and when you check it, those are coming from Albanian accounts. One could say that their twitter members are far more active on twitter and way more focused on supporting their message or their bot system being more automatic or focused on the main topics, but we can’t surely tell as of this particular moment.

Now what we can tell 100% is the usage of bots, primarily since the case of Daniel Smith, with multiple others being quite suspicious, ranging from lower ranking accounts all the way to the top, such as the likes of Admirim, as you can not find any actual info on him. Beware of false political experts. A good way of noticing one is no other sources bar his twitter, no former pieces made by him etc. False experts come from thin air, henceforth it’s hard, if not impossible for them to be able to fabricate their past and sell it effectively. When these “analysts” want to show their face, it’s usually AI generated, so there can be multiple errors, especially in the glasses part, as the AI tends to fail there quite hard.
Another interesting revelation is that they are also spreading propaganda in other forms, which had been recently uncovered in Australia, even falsely claiming to be anti-Islamic, right wing Aussies. Yes, I am not making that up. Check it out here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-15/trolls-from-kosovo-are-manipulating-australian-facebook-pages/10892680

Another way they are doing it is via the media. It’s usually smaller-scale media, with them either being foreign or at the very least, SOUND foreign, to sound impartial to potentially foreign viewers, because as we said, the home front is not the only part of the propaganda machine.

The Geopost presents itself as an impartial website, albeit with clear pro-Kurti messages.

This is primarily a way to attempt to make their views more credible, as by getting smaller level media in the west or western-sounding companies to spread their narrative, it would be harder for someone in the west to dismiss it as obvious propaganda. There is some level of refinement to that.

Just like how there is an account called “Serbia watch”, and interestingly, if it was an organization, you’d expect that the pinned tweet would have one of their members voicing it over, but no (which raises the chance that it’s a singular person, or a very small group of individuals), it’s a robot, with some interesting, definitely unbiased wordings:

“Belgrade” instead of Serbia (usually used by Albanians that don’t recognize Serbia as a state)
“Republic of Kosovo”, while others are normally named (such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro etc.) (this phrase is used by Albanians to “solidify” the claim that they are independent).

Those two hints should already indicate that we are talking about a potential Albanian account

Most of these “experts”, “watches”, news sites tend to repeat the same mantra, retweet the same accounts, follow and retweet each other en masse, making it a complete form of circle-jerk, if we can call it that way, which should hint either that they all share a same viewpoint (which isn’t an indicator of completely free thought) or that they are receiving direct commands from higher up positions. That way, you already realize that we are facing something more reminiscent of a troll army and a troll factory.
It isn’t impossible for them to also make accounts that pose as liberal Serbs, in an attempt to change discourse in Serbia and to make the general view of the population more muddy.

This means that they will usually attempt to take images from websites that not all have, henceforth, making it slightly harder to access (as then you’d have to make accounts in sites such as VKontakte)

Now, interestingly, when one of their accounts gets exposed or gets deleted, they fall into a fit of rage, usually attacking the one that had exposed them in a slew of ad hominem attacks. Biljana had accused the twitter user who pointed out the inconsistencies of him wanting to rape her, while Serbia Watch had went on the complete offensive when Daniel Smith was destroyed, attempting to smear Mirko Radoš, the person who had managed to fully expose Daniel Smith as a bot. Their attempt to cope with it also includes some poor jokes as well.


https://twitter.com/SerbiaWatch/status/1623657199108075527 (as if there is only one Mirko Radoš)
It is interesting here that Serbia Watch and Agim Musliu (who leads the center OCTOPUS) like and retweet each other and say the same things, which could be a decent indicator of what it could mean. Does it mean that they are Musliu, that Musliu is their boss (maybe even Serbia Watch being his son, we don’t know), that OCTOPUS and Serbia Watch are actually one, we don’t fully know as of now, but there is quite a link between the two which we should keep an eye on.

If you do manage to find multiple inconsistencies in their accounts, they’ll smear you as hard as possible for that. Stay strong, they won’t be able to do much to you, bar throwing a sack of lies against you.

It is also interesting to see multiple seemingly Serbian accounts constantly retweeting or translating the tweets of people such as Admirim, Kurti, Osmani or others put out, something that we should keep an eye on as well.

Most of these accounts slip up at least once in a way that could expose them, Daniel Smith has been a decent shower of that, henceforth we should keep an eye on many of these accounts, archive their slip-ups and expose them as much as possible.

They also use false Serbian opposition (with usually minimal support), and brand them to their public as the “actual opposition” (with the opposition to Vučić being smeared), due to their stance on Kosovo, such as the case with Sandulović

Another way of propaganda delivery, that goes hand in hand with their industrial activism, is the usage of simple cards, such as the ones in the Judenfrei myth or the Ćosić quote, as they are very simple to read and spread.

They overall haven’t shown an insane amount of components, their propaganda machine is generally simple to be absolutely fair, and it also somewhat relies on the fact that their accounts are way more dogmatic (a good example is the rapid switch from supporting Palestine to supporting Israel since Israel’s recognition of Kosovo), henceforth they can expect more likes, retweets etc.

As for the analysts themselves, whether they be fake or real (but most likely payed or work for an institution with clear support to one side), this is how they operate in a nutshell:

Fighting fire with fire – fighting back

It’s generally insanely simple to fight them back. Use any links here freely, they are supposed to help you out.

We to an extent need to follow their strategies, as it’s best to fight simplicity with simplicity, and that is by turning our arguments (which primarily debunk their claims) into usually simple images or comments, using historical evidence and sources primarily as our weapon of choice, as that is something that we have at our disposal, we don’t need to manufacture evidence to beat them in many cases, as they are the ones who rely on it in multiple cases.

Another good way to troll the trolls is by provoking them (without breaking ToS) into making silly mistakes, this primarily goes for the bigger guys, but there is a lower chance that you will be able to debate with them (for that, we would need a bigger effort to debunk or expose), you will be mostly fighting with ordinary twitter users (whether it be bots or real individuals) – the pawns on the chessboard, and in this game, they are extremely important, as they are the ones who prop up the claims with likes, they are the ones who retweet, they are the ones who spread it the most.
A lot of them have a similar mindset, and it would be no surprise that many of them, especially influenced by the posts they view or promote, have a general hatred towards Serbs. It is noticeable in multiple people (including Ditka, the main reddit mod in r/kosovo).
They can usually be caught off guard when saying ethnically-based slurs or, let’s say, denying Jasenovac, or mocking Serb civilian victims in wars, for which you can actually report them to twitter. I do not feel insanely bad about this, as Admirim had told people how to report twitter users multiple times, so this is a taste of their very own medicine.

For denying Jasenovac (or a war crime), you go with the following:
Group of people – harassment or threatening with violence – denying a violent event (such as Sandy Hook or the 9/11 attacks) – yes, continue

For glorifying the crimes (or posting Srbe na Vrbe):
Group of people – identity – shows logos, symbols or pictures dedicated to hate/dehumanizes or degrades the person/References a violent event which was directed to people for their identity (depends on it)

This is a good example of a tweet that spreads hate and hasn’t been reported yet, posted by an actual component of the twitter machine (not a bot, but a component):

For people who are using pfps of other people and pretending to be someone else, you can report them for impersonation.

Ordinary twitter users would need to start adopting a similar mentality and that is also to like or prompt up content more “mindlessly”, in order to gain larger traction, repeating the recipe that they are currently using.

As a general way of debating, you can see the debunked arguments on the list easily, and they are posted here to be used. If they mention it, you can make a rebuttal with it, and you have more sources. Considering they use whataboutism a lot, especially when all eyes are on them, feel free to use it as well, they hate it when you mention a bad thing of theirs. They are either going to insult you on an ethnic basis (then you can complain to twitter), they can just “dismiss” you (that means they have given up) or accuse you of whataboutism. Upon them doing that, you can accuse them of “double whataboutism”, to which they will have to enter an argument, in which they usually have less facts (as they have either no sources, or their source being people such as Admirim saying it on twitter), so you have an advantage.

The bigger accounts on our side should also occasionally (not always, we shouldn’t completely stoop down to their level) use some levels of clickbait (rather than smearing our political rivals at home), while using more simplistic terms way more, to make it more easy to understand for multiple individuals. We have a chance to confine their effort to the home front, and if all is done well, their machinery could be set back considerably.
Another method we could use is their form of “condemnation” or “apologies” for their side, as they tend to make sure that they do not mention the victims as Serbs (ofc that is if they apologize, and don’t attempt to go “historian” mode or attempt to use whataboutism (which they claim that they are combatting and not using), nor the motive of the incident (but use the phrases, such as used by, for e.g., the mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karić, “our guests” or phrases such as “our citizens”, “Orthodox Christians (as most Serbs are Orthodox Christians)” etc.). That way, one sounds as if he is following the protocol and that he is actually condemning it. If the Albanians start saying how that is attempting to relativize it or to hide the victims, then point their bullsh*t out.

To confront their lobbying, that is harder, as that would mean a higher rate of collective behavior, way higher than just liking or retweeting a post.


In both of these, you see the same thing. They actually gather (including ordinary real estate companies such as Traffingo) and spend their money on buying billboards or on general lobbying. For this, we need our own companies to act the same way, for Serb Americans to use their income, for the general diaspora to throw in their weight, as well as for us to form our own NGOs who would work on lobbying, primarily in the west, hopefully influencing some US congressmen/women or senators, that way posing a threat to the current Albanian lobby that is influencing US politics in the Balkans (it influences it quite more than you can guess, as money/lobbying is one of, if not the only ways of spreading your message in Washington D.C.) . Without coordination from someone from the higher up, it is harder, but it sure is achievable.

Extra sources one should use
Feel free to use these, they provide some great arguments!
http://www.david-morrison.org.uk/kosovo/kosovo-lhto.pdf (Use this one when Račak is mentioned or the so-called innocence of the KLA)
http://www.davidchandler.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Hague-Report.pdf
http://www.david-morrison.org.uk/kosovo/le-monde-on-racak-19990121.htm

General credits to https://twitter.com/Duyo96 (@Duyo96) for the maps which he had created (the ones regarding ww2, the ethnic motivated incidents in Kosovo (frankly all the ones with Dušan Dačić on them).

ИЗВОР:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sE85Cf7VXsSMJ6HAi9yl59LhucV0Vs1QxySaUH7U6x8/edit#

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