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Professor Nikolaos A. Stavrou
his Balkan expert is with Balkan roots. He was born in village of Griazdani, in the part of Epirus that was assigned to Albania. Greek people, like Stavrou family, lived in Epirus for many millenia. During WWII the Greeks were targeted for extermination by Albanian Nazis known as Balli Kombætar, or Ballists. Stavrou family barely survived. The Albanian Nazis, hated Greeks for their devotion to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Most Albanians converted to Islam during centuries long Ottoman rule of the Balkans. In 1952 Dr. Stavrou's family escaped from Albania to Greece and later moved to the United States.
Nikolaos A. Stavrou is currently professor of international affairs at Howard University, Washington, DC. Over decades he wrote many studies concerning his native Balkans. Yugoslav politics was one of professor Stavrou's special interests. His publications include "Edvard Kardelj and the Historical Roots of Non-Alignment." Mr. Kardelj was Tito's right hand man.
Dr. Stavrou is in touch with some very influential people of Washington, DC. One of his recent books "Mediterranean Security at the Crossroads: A Reader," first published in 1997, is co-authored by ex-U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz.
Dr. Stavrou is also an editor of Mediterranean Quarterly a sholarly journal that offers insightful essays from the world's top policy makers, scholars, journalist, and international experts. It is a forum for provocative commentary and a source of deep analysis delivering global issues with a Mediterranean slant.
hen it came to civil wars in Yugoslavia and American increased involvement, professor Stavrou, as a Balkan expert, was eager to offer his views. Despite his influence in the high circles, very few of his articles were published in the Western press outside of the above mentioned Mediterranean Quarterly. We collected some of those rare published Professor Stavrou's articles and presented them here, on this web site:
BOSNIA 101
Professor Stavrou tries to cover for Western media supposed lack of knowledge of the basic facts.
"Under the Albright-Clark-Holbrooke watch thousands of Mujahedeens flocked to the Balkans in support of Alija Izetbegovic's dream of a "fundamentalist Islamic Republic." Bin Laden's Mujahedeens even attempted to create a version of a mini-theocracy in Bosnia" says Professor Stavrou.
The Washington Times publishes article "KFOR: Repeating history" in which professor Stavrou reminds us of KLA's deep roots in Nazism. He says: "Under the fascist-Nazi umbrella, the Albanians gained control of Kosovo, efficiently cleansed it of 300,000 Serbs and kept the Yugoslav resistance busy, thus relieving Nazi troops for duty in Normandy. History repeats itself. Under a different patron, the Kosovars are now cleansing the territory of non-Albanians. [A]ncient Orthodox Churches are destroyed and innocent farmers massacred by [KLA - the] NATO's local allies.
"I saw firsthand the result of NATO´s and American policy´s failures in the Balkans. There is no success of American policy in Kosovo or anywhere else in the Balkans, no matter how loosely one defines success. Yet, our government continues its ostrich-like policies and refuses to come to grips with reality: i.e. that NATO failed in the Balkans and that it would make little sense to repeat last year´s folly in Montenegro". - writes Professor Stavrou for Washington Times in August 2000.
"The architects of the Balkan quagmire, Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke, persist in their efforts to spin a failed Balkan policy... Human or civil rights were hardly, if ever, the core cause of post-Cold War Balkan which is traceable to... the careless conversion of administrative boundaries [of ex-Yugoslavia's Republics] into international borders... It is imperative that the Bush administration take an unambiguous stand in support of existing Balkan borders. Delay on this score would make turmoil beyond the boundaries of former Yugoslavia a mathematical certainty. " - Professor Stavrou for Washington Times, April 16, 2001. In other words -- the insane atomization of ex-Yugoslavia should stop!
On Easter 1944 Nikolaos A. Stavrou, then still a small child, barely survived Albanian Nazi attack on his village.
The truth belongs to us all.
Posted on: December 8, 2003
