Mustafa Nano: Shaqiri Jack eagle was insulting to Serbs

The Festival of Eagles, which fined two Albanian players, Nano says it was an expression of harsh and raw nationalism.

The fact that this show was an expression of a harsh, raw nationalism, which in Switzerland, especially Switzerland, does not seem very meaningful. In my view, the Swiss, but also the Europeans in general, make mistakes that allow, in some cases, encourage immigrants and the children of immigrants to carry and manifest prejudice, fanaticism, hatred, and conflicts involving their countries and cultures of origin”, he writes among others.

Read his complete scripture:

Dear Zoran,

This time, even if I wanted to, I couldn't stop discussing football. There are some things that are done together. The most recent in time is the Serbia-Swissing match in the Russian World, which, for no sport reasons, became one of the world's most important news stories last week. We, Albanians and Serbs, seem to be unable to do without media reflections. But I'll go back to this argument. The first was the death of Fadil Vokrrit, Albanian football player, to whom you spoke in your last letter. “He was the only Albanian beloved by Serbs”, someone in Pristina wrote these days. As a rule, if Serbs want one thing, that's why Albanians hate it, and vice versa. But in this case, we have a beautiful exception. The fact that good words were spoken in Serbia for Vokrin, however he was head of a Kosovo state institution (Soccer Font), caught many Albanians by surprise.

In addition to these two events, there is the world football championship, which is the biggest party on earth. In Albania, the life of these days dances at the pace of the event. All important televisions, national and local, have built TV shows dedicated to this event. Here are the titles of some of these programs: Magic 21, Top Arena, Gol 21, Russian roulette, Russia 2018, Fair Play, etc. And to think we Albanians are not part of this party. We've never participated in a World Championship. What a great event that would be for us if one day this were possible! You can't understand this because you're used to participating in the World.

But let's go back to the Serbia-Swiss game, which you, as you said in the last letter, were prepared for a new “bapties of the Hichare”. The “Swiss representative will firmly defeat”, Vucic told your national players, while conveying them to Russia, and that was the first signal of politicisation of an event that was simply sport. For President Vucic, the entire World was reduced to confrontation with Swiss Albanians. Other fights, anyways, she and Co's Neymar were going to a second plan. If Neymar had said that, he would surely have been hurt in that regard. And maybe he'd cry. Because he, as seen, sheds tears for nothing.

But it is clear that, even if Vucic was not remembered to politicise that match, someone else in Tirana or Pristina would be remembered. Because even for us it was quite the idea that Switzerland of Albanians would play with Serbia to make us feel like part of the football party. And we've been looking forward to that fight. You can't imagine the explosion of enthusiasm after Gran's Jaka goal, and especially after the patriotic show he donated. Then came the time for Gerdan Shaqiri, that the beautiful goal he scored pleased him in the same way, making with his two - head eagle. This gesture, which has become a national symbol of ours now, is completely innocent of this story. There's no chauvinist cargo in it. And it's a new gesture -- not even fifteen years old -- that has climbed a lot among Albanians. But under that circumstances, it was an inappropriate, excessive gesture. To put it into football, it was an off-side gesture.

To be honest, I had some feelings in this situation. The non- sport performance given by Shaqiri's Jaka seemed offensive to the Swiss rather than to Serbs. The first thing I told some friends I was watching the match was: “If I was Swiss, I would try some kind of discomfort from the fact that a player of my country's representative team celebrates symbolicly of another nation”. Roger Köppel, an MP in the Swiss parliament, put it out differently: “When I saw Shaqiri's Jaka, who, although wearing a spectacle of Swiss colors, was making the two-headed Albanian eagle, I felt evil; it seemed like I was having sex with my wife, and this one, while I was on the verge of orgasm, makes it between theities and the offensive: Oh, oh, oh, Jean-Luc! Imagine how I can feel in this situation while I'm sure my name isn't Jean-Luk”. I learned from a scripture by one of our colleagues, Enver Robelli, who writes from Switzerland or Germany. Except Robel referred to Köppel in a critical way.

The second feeling concerned the fact that in today's football multiethnicity, more than any other area of human activity, has become a dominant culture. Switzerland, for reasons known, is the best illustration of this culture. And within this country, people like Jaka and Shaqiri would have to protect more than anyone else this culture of multiethnicity. They're the ones that are, you know. Two Albanians realised in this world, thanks to this Swiss open to other cultures. If that were not so, today they would be playing with Pristina's Hayvalia or the Gjakova Brotherhood, and the sign of the two-headed eagle would be at Hashim Thaci's electoral gatherings of Ramush Haradinaj.

The third feeling involved a shadowing effect of this gesture within the Swiss team, which could well have players of Serbian origin. I even, dear Zoran, got Googled right after the match in order to verify the ethnic origin of Swiss players, whose name ended with “ ”. I discovered what I expected/uro: None of the “ic” was of Serbian origin. Vladimir Petkoviqi and Mario Gavranovqi come from Bosnian Croats. Haris Seferovici is with Bosnian origin. And Josip Desher is of Croatian origin. Had one of them been of Serbian origin, Shaqiri's Jack would not have intended to celebrate “anti-Serbian” in a way. But, meanwhile, they have hurt many other Serbs who are citizens of Switzerland, have made them see Switzerland, for at least a bit, as a non-their own country. Again, the Swiss did very well to respond. I even expected them to respond more - and stronger. Because such gestures open up a meaningless game, if not dangerous. Tomorrow it may be that Swiss representative players will be four-five Serbs, and they may think to celebrate after marking the goal at the Albanian or Kosovo gate with three fingers raised in the air, thus honoring the history of Serbian identity. How would the Albanians of Switzerland, or even the Balkans, who were thrilled by the gesture of Jaka and Shaqiri? I'm sure they'd feel bad. But then, they would probably remember the ancient golden rule upon which human coexistence has been established in history (this golden rule is found in almost all of the world's important cultures, and is most attributed to Christianity): Don't do what you want others to do to you. In our oral tradition, that there's a lot in common with yours, this world-wide climate has remained in a canning form, and more synthetic: What did you do to me?

And the fourth feeling, which is most important, has to do with the fact that this show was an expression of a harsh, raw nationalism, which in Switzerland, especially Switzerland, does not seem very meaningful. In my view, the Swiss, but also the Europeans in general, make mistakes that allow, in some cases, encourage immigrants and the sons of immigrants to carry and manifest prejudice, fanaticism, hatred, and conflicts involving their countries and cultures of origin. The most exciting case is that of Germany's Turks, a part of whom have turned the squares of Dusseldorf, Klinni, Berlin, etc., into scenes of Turkish political theatre. This is not good for immigrants themselves, who are thus only physically in Germany. Mindfully remain in Turkey, just as Jaka and Shaqiri, and their parents, who are mentally in Kosovo. Most likely these two, after the match, have paid less attention to the Swiss victory echo and have focused more on the Albanian echo of “the decline they became Serbs“. And they've certainly been happy with Eddie Rama, who only minutes after the match, the most excited than ever, posted his Facebook profile pictures of Jaka and Shaqiri with their two-headed hands, with President Ilir Meta attending the match in the presidency court along with former senior officials, and immediately left a note on the social networks, which, among other things, wrote that “was an extraordinary evening, a convincing victory, and the two eagles who flew into Kalingrad> Stadium, Hashim Thaci, with Thaci, who immediately sent a note to the 24x4th Streeters and Switzerland. The president of Kosovo closed the message with words: “Krenar with you, Kosovo does you”. In a somewhat surreal atmosphere, Jaka and Shaqiri became two national heroes. They have probably never received the praise they received that evening. And the praise was not given because of what they did as athletes. No, they were given what they did as patriots. All forgot that two years ago, when Albania played against Switzerland under the preliminaries for the European Championship, Jaka and Shaqiri became the target of nationalist productions. They were declared traitors to the nation. I am even afraid that the explosion of the native nerve of the latter is related to what I say in my last letter: “Albanian footballists playing for Switzerland's national, such as Gerdan Shaqiri of Grani Jaka, seem to suffer from a renegated complex; and they do so repeatedly public gestures, through which they want to gain patriotic credentials in their parents' country of <x9. MAPO