The Russian Chechens of Albania

Politiko 2024-08-12 10:11:00

Nga Genc Chicken

In the midst of Facebook chatter about when the first Olympic medal was won by an Albanian athlete, public attention was not focused on the important fact that for the first time almost half of Albania's Olympic team are not Albanians. The three Russians of Chechen origin, who represented Albania at the Paris Olympics this summer, received Albanian passports a short time ago and have been federated with us according to the rules. This enables them to officially qualify for the Olympic team.

But is that enough? From all the information about them, it follows that the connection of the three Russian Chechens to Albania is entirely opportunistic: participation under the red and black flag has given them the institutional opportunity to compete and develop their sports talent; and luckily get Olympic medals too. But applauding these three athletes with all my heart for their achievements and wishing them success in their further sports careers, I can't help but notice that they would have competed with Turkey or Portugal or any other country that would have them provided a more convenient arrangement. Even as it seems most likely, their future will not be connected with Albania, life in this country or Albanian culture, as is required by obtaining a passport. Neither the waving of the national flag nor the demonstration of the double-headed eagle on the podium of the Olympic medalists changes this. Not even the online outburst of shallow patriotism and folkloric pride raises the bar on this point.

In contrast to Albania's team, Kosovo's consists only of Kosovar athletes or, in one case, of Kosovar origin.

Also in contrast to the Albanian team, the teams of countries such as France and the Netherlands really had participants and medalists from minorities originating from the former colonies, but they are already for several generations integrated and generally assimilated citizens of these countries.

The commercialization of sport, which is often the antithesis of the Olympic ideal, has led to the fact that in many football and basketball clubs in Europe and Albania, the market for quality athletes operates to the detriment of regional representation. This phenomenon needs to be examined with its negative and positive sides.

But when it comes to the national representative team of Albania, it would be legitimate to claim that the athletes had a spiritual attachment to Gjergj Kastriot and Ismail Vlora, had possibly read a verse from Naimi and Fishta and above all would have a good command of the Albanian language .

Unfortunately, the Rama Government thinks otherwise and acts as well; as evidenced by the law passed last year which reduced the possession of the Albanian language as a condition for foreigners seeking Albanian citizenship. Fortunately, one of the dangerous excesses of the Rama Government in this regard, the mass sale of Albanian passports (known as "golden passports") announced in 2019, has been blocked by the EU.

Prime Minister Rama insists that the massive investment in sports during the last ten years has resulted in Olympic success and is blind to the ironic fact that the "Albanian" medalists in Paris have nothing to do with this. The earliest medal of Ymer Pampur, a tyrannical dibrane orgy, was awarded long ago. But with his illusionism a la Houdini, it wouldn't be surprising if he took credit for the 1972 medals as well.

PS The International Olympic Committee banned the participation of Russian athletes in the Paris Olympics because of the aggression against Ukraine. The granting of Albanian passports to sportsmen from Russia can also be seen as a helpful artifice to bypass the sanctions. This deserves a separate review.