FLASH
Shkruar nga Ilir Yzeiri
We, Albanians, suffer from inferiority complexes and in politics with our neighbors we have a major impasse.
The departure from this life of His Grace, Janullatos is a complex event and a loss for the Orthodox believers whom he led as a good shepherd in these difficult years. As always happens in the history of Albania, great figures enter its scene with one profile and leave with another. We are perhaps among the rare countries in Europe that do not have historical figures to declare as immaculate. For Skanderbeg, the Hero and the Greatest Man of the state for whom Europe bows with respect, we, the Albanians, are not of one mind.
Albanian Muslim fanatics do not see it as such. There are many reasons why we, today, do not have a pedestal where we can place the heroes or those who built the image of Albania and bow down to them, but the main one is that we have never told our history as it happened. So, while we, Albanians, do not agree on Skanderbeg the Great, the Hero and the Most Outstanding Man of Medieval Europe, there is no reason not to discuss other figures who occupy a special place in the lives of Albanians in Albania.
The passing of His Grace, Mr. Janullatos, is an event that should make us reflect calmly and without any passion. I do not want to deal with the way he came to the head of the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, how the elections were held and the role of Ramiz Ali and Sali Berisha in this affair. The fact is that His Grace, Mr. Janullatos, held his position with correctness and helped in the establishment of the Albanian Orthodox Church without creating any visible conflict. With his high theological personality and deep culture, he knew how to maintain an accomplished profile, so much so that, these days, rightly, someone wrote that he came as a Greek and is leaving this world as an Albanian. But the other side is equally distinct.
The history of the Albanian Autocephalous Church, which began in the early years of the 20th century, is marked by the martyrs of the Albanian language and by a savage aggression of the Greek Church on priests who dared to celebrate mass in Albanian. It is enough to remember Pope Christo Negovani. The great work of Fan Noli is the clearest evidence of the danger that threatened Albania from the Greek Church and from Greek ultranationalists. Ideas such as Northern Epirus are still alive today and, unfortunately, His Grace, Mr. Janullatos did not manage to reconcile the Albanian Autocephalous Church with the Greek one. The Greek Church has never managed and does not even think of apologizing today for the crimes it committed against the Albanian martyrs for the incitement it has made to wild Greek chauvinism and nationalism, which still feeds hostile feelings towards those Albanians who reject Northern Epirus.
Unfortunately, even in the case of the conflict between the Albanian government and the Greek government over Beleri, the Apostolic Authority of Janullatos in Tirana made a statement in defense of the minority and Northern Epirus, thus siding with the Greek extremists and considering the Albanian Autocephalous Church as part of the Greek Church or as assimilated by it. His Grace, Mr. Janullatos, however, tried not to reveal this deep contradiction and to present himself before the Albanians as an authority without history.
The erasure of collective memory and the non-mention of Noli and his contribution, the fact that in Elbasan there is also a Church that does not recognize that authority means that the work of His Grace, Mr. Janullatos, is not yet completed, that the Albanian Orthodox Church, now, after his departure from this world, is faced with great challenges. We, Albanians, suffer from inferiority complexes and in politics with our neighbors we have a great impasse. Only in our country does it happen that when the Turkish president comes to visit and when he enters the Brigades Palace where the bust of our National Hero is located, we cover it so as not to remind the Turks that we are his descendants, as Berisha did during Erdogan's first visit to Tirana.
Only in Albania does it happen that at the head of the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church an authority is elected who comes from that Church and from that institution that has its hands stained with Albanian blood and that even today promotes the nationalist theory of Northern Epirus all day long. It was lucky for the Albanians that a personality and a great man like Mr. Janullatos was placed at the head of this Church. Therefore, today, we all pray for him and also make a devotion for him. But this does not mean that we should erase our history because everyone considers us short-sighted and without dignity.
Lini një Përgjigje