State symbols and réloya with them

Publicist Milazim Krasniqi, professor at the Journalism Cathedral at the University of Pristina, speaking of Radio Free Europe, stresses that in terms of Kosovo's state symbols, there is still a confusion, as is the ideological position among Kosovo Albanians.

According to him, citizens still remain divided into two currents -- one that tilts into iredentism with the illusion of joining Albania and the other, the current of Kosovo independence. The first round, according to Professor Krasniqi, is more aggressive in its rhetoric and actions, and in a way has frightened the next mainstream.

Under normal conditions, symbols are called symbols, but they should be myths. So the myth the state mobilizes with, the citizens of a country. That didn't happen to us. I think the main blame is ideological confusion, the calculations that political elites do, and why not public education. For all these years, public education does not have a clear platform on how state values should be affirmed and how citizens' identification should be made with this state”.

Sociologist Shemsi Krasniqi, professor at the University of Pristina, tells Radio Free Europe that Kosovo's state symbols, which have been disclosed with the country's 2008 declaration of independence, have not been met with any particular emotion by Kosovo Albanians. This is because they have long expected to be fully identified with national symbols, according to him.

The state's “Symbols have kind of come as a little bit of a surprise, because the citizens of the state have expected, independence has been expected, but such symbols as they are, have not expected them. They haven't even had a chance to think they'd be assisting and they'd experience it, we'd say, conditionily, like a friend, the moment they saw them. But, I think that now, to a large extent, Kosovo citizens have agreed with the reality, which they present the symbols, because they realize that these are state symbols. While national symbols remain further, as symbols with which they are identified in the national sense”.

But have Kosovo Albanians really defined the emotional views directly regarding state and national symbols, as well as the right sharing of these emotions?

Professor Milazim Krasniqi expresses the opinion that creating the illusion that Kosovo's independence is only a phase towards the national union with Albania, versus all geopolitical parameters, as well as the very criteria for creating the state of Kosovo, which enable it to do so, conceal the trick of access to these symbols.

This trick, with which we've lived long, is made as thinking and way of life and people, more or less, living in schizophrenic manner. This has led not only to the symbols but also to emotional and civic commitment for the state of Kosovo. Such a high degree of corruption, prostitution, and social deviate forms of life would not be possible if there was a higher degree of citizenship of citizens. On the other hand, if there were citizens' homelands towards this country, it would hold the political elites so that they were not as abusive as they are now”.

On the other hand, sociologist Shemsi Krasniqi believes that because of the longest tradition of national identity symbols, the emotional attachment of Kosovo Albanians to them is more rooted than with state symbols and identity.

“Graduically they'll be familiar with and identify more with them, but for now it's the way it is. Good examples are needed, especially for leaders and heads of state so that the State can reflect and carry out the function for which it exists. Of course, a strengthening of the state also means strengthening the symbol, as well as strengthening the feeling in relation to the character”, sociologist Krasniqi said.

The issue of Kosovo's state symbols has been a topic of debate and controversy in opinion since prior to the country's 2008 declaration of independence, but also after that. Such controversy and controversy continue today, even among politicians representing state institutions at the central level and at the local level.