Albanian Nationalist Demands Montenegro Territory

Danaj on Sunday published an open letter to Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic which said that Albanians would regain their rightful territory in Montenegro "peacefully".

The leader of an opposition party called the List for a Natural Albania and a former adviser to several Albanian prime ministers, Danaj is demanding the establishment of a state that he calls ‘Natural Albania'.

It would cover all territories in which Albanians live, including Kosovo and parts of Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece.

In his letter, Danaj said he was simply being polite by informing Montenegrin leaders of the need to give up the territory.

"Why did I send this invitation to them? Because they are our neighbours, and Albanians first call their neighbours. They are neighbours in countries that unjustly own Natural Albania's territory," Montenegrin media quoted the letter as saying.

Last July, Danaj launched an initiative to collect a million signatures from Albanian expatriates living in Europe to convince Western governments of the need to unite all Albanians in one state.

According to his plan, ‘Natural Albania' should include all areas inhabited by Albanian-speaking people, both where they currently form the ethnic majority and areas where they were in the majority in the past but were expelled over the past century. 

His platform envisages that the southernmost Montenegrin town, Ulcinj, on the Albanian border, should be declared a ‘free town' and shared between Tirana and Podgorica.