ANA's dates of origin are unclear but most observers agree that it was founded between 1999 and 2001.[10][11] The organization is associated withFBKSh (National Front for Reunification of Albanians), its political wing.[12] ANA released a communiqué in February 2000, claiming responsibility for a January 13, 2000,attack in Aračinovo that resulted in the deaths of four Macedonian police officers.[13] In August 2001, during the2001 insurgency in Macedonia, it claimed responsibility for killing 10 Macedonian soldiers near Karpalak.[14] ANA condemned the Ohrid agreement and vowed to continue fighting.[15] It declared that it would fight for the creation ofGreater Albania.[16]
ANA claimed responsibility for theambush near Treboš on November 11, 2001,[17] which resulted in the deaths of three policemen and the wounding of three policemen.[18] After the Macedonian parliament adopted the Ohrid agreement's amendments on November 16, ANA announced the beginning of a "war for the liberation of all Albanian territories in former Yugoslavia."[19] However, it admitted to having only a few dozen members.[15] On April 26, 2002, ANA members attacked formerNational Liberation Army (NLA) members in the village ofMala Rečica nearTetovo.[20][21] The shootout lasted around two and a half hours.[22] According to some news sources, two people were killed and five were injured.[23][24][25] In March 17, 2002, ANA declared the villages ofLisec andGolema Rečica in the Tetovo region, and the neighboring region of Rasadište "liberated territories."[26] After former NLA leaderAli Ahmeti entered mainstream politics in 2002, ANA accused him of betraying Albanian national interests.[14] BothInstitute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) andNATO spokesmanMark Laity said the group has no public support.[27][28]
In February 2003, it claimed responsibility for blowing up a courthouse in Struga.[15] The ANA appeared in Kosovo in 2003, where on March 7, two members trying to detonate a bomb were shot and killed by Serbian police.[29] TheUnited Nations Mission in Kosovo added ANA to the UN's official list of terrorist organizations on April 17 after it claimed responsibility for blowing up a railway bridge in a Serb-inhabited part ofnorthern Kosovo.[30] In September 7, 2003, members of ANA clashed with Macedonian security forces on the border with Kosovo, which resulted in the death of two ethnic Albanian gunmen and one civilian.[15] In 2004 and 2005 a group of 80 militants[31] led by a commander of ANAAgim Krasniqi,[32]controlled the village of Kondovo twice.[33] Through the media, Krasniqi threatened to shellSkopje and his men kidnapped and beat four police officers.[34] After this the ANA withdrew intoKosovo.[35][36]
In 2007, a video was aired byKosovar television stations depicting a band of medium-armed, masked individuals intercepting cars.[37] In October 2007 the unit declared it would seize the Serb exclave of North Kosovo by force if the Kosovo Protection Force did not occupy it by November 1, 2007. The ANA has claimed that it is patrolling North Kosovo to prevent incursions by theTsar Lazar Guard.[38][39]
On November 13, 2007, a video was aired to the public,[40][41] an exclusive interview with a leader of the ANA, nicknamed "Commander Preka", patrolling in the covert areas of North Kosovo, recruiting 20 new men.[42][43] The leader stated that ANA stands at 12,000 men altogether and has called the Kosovar population for a boycott ofupcoming parliamentary elections.[40][41]
"The talks will fail, there will be no success. From the year 2000 they [the government] have all lied to us, they say this meeting then the next meeting. We do not believe in them. We do not believe in our leaders, they all lie to us. Therefore we call upon all members, civilian and military, that belong to ANA, to boycott the upcoming elections."
— "Commander Preka"
In 2008, a leader of ANA said that they are "not fighting for pan-Albanian unification, but to protect the territorial integrity of Kosovo if it is threatened."[16][44] In 2016 Albanian militiamen presenting themselves as the "21st Brigade" published a video showing their weapons and threatening to move through northern Albania and the Preševo Valley. They also mentioned that they had the support of the population and that they had hundreds of men.[45]
The organization consists of residents of North Macedonia and South Serbia, mostly members of the formerLiberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac, as well as former members of theKosovo Liberation Army.[30] Its exact size is unclear. IWPR estimated the number of ANA members at around 200 in 2005.[27] PerSoutheast European Times in 2007, the organization had roughly 12,000 members.[11] ANA bought weapons from criminal groups in neighboring countries, smuggling them into North Macedonia with horses.[46] Per professor of international relations Maria Koinova, there are allegations that diaspora radicals have funded ANA.[47] In 2002, according to theMacedonian Ministry of Interior, the organization was involved in drug smuggling and used the money to fund its activities in the country.[48]
In 2004,Avdil Jakupi surrendered to authorities inKosovo.[49] TheUnited Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo transferred him to the Republic on Macedonia on April 29.[50] He was sentenced to fourteen years in prison for kidnapping and robbery.[51][52][53][54] The Albanian political leader Gafur Adili was banned from living in Switzerland in September 2003.[55] He was placed under house arrest in Tirana in the next year.[47] A group led by Lirim Jakupi was originally part of ANA until his imprisonment in Kosovo for attempted murder.[32] In early September 2010, Jakupi,[56] was arrested in Pristina, Kosovo by the Kosovo Police, along with anAK-47,hand grenades, andpistols.[57][58][59][60] He was released in 2017.[61]
^ab"Macedonia - defense: Buckovski: "Let tragedy be the beginning of the end of the war"".Relief.web. August 10, 2001. RetrievedJune 26, 2022."ANA" CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR KILLING OF TEN MACEDONIAN SOLDIERS Skopje, August 10 - A new armed group of ethnic Albanians on Thursday claimed responsibility for the killing of ten Macedonian army reservists in a highway ambush a day earlier. The "Albanian National Army" (AKSH) e-mailed a statement to several media in the region, on Albanian-language, saying a combined unit of its fighters and of the so-called National Liberation Army (NLA) carried the attack out "in revenge" for the killing of five NLA members by Macedonian security forces.
^abcdRobert Bideleux; Ian Jeffries (2007).The Balkans: A Post-Communist History. Routledge. pp. 440, 448,451–452.ISBN9781134583287.
^abVera Stojarová (2013).The Far Right in the Balkans. Manchester University Press. pp. 140, 147.ISBN9780719089732.
^"Rebels kill three policemen in Macedonia".The Guardian. Archived fromthe original on October 18, 2015. RetrievedJuly 3, 2022.In a statement yesterday, a dissident ethnic Albanian group calling itself the Albanian National Army claimed responsibility for the killings, saying: "The Skopje government is restarting its terror and sees war as the only response to Albanian demands."
^Wim van Meurs, ed. (2013).Prospects and Risks Beyond EU Enlargement: Southeastern Europe: Weak States and Strong International Support. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 123.ISBN9783663111832.
^abS. Cross; S. Kentera; R. Vukadinovic; R. Nation, eds. (2013).Shaping South East Europe's Security Community for the Twenty-First Century: Trust, Partnership, Integration. Springer. pp. 98, 101.ISBN9781137010209.
^abDanilo Mandić (2020).Gangsters and Other Statesmen: Mafias, Separatists, and Torn States in a Globalized World. Princeton University Press. p. 155.ISBN9780691187877.
^Jana Arsovska (2015).Decoding Albanian Organized Crime: Culture, Politics, and Globalization. University of California Press. p. 55.ISBN9780520958715.
^"Красниќи ќе се врати во Кондово".Time.mk. RetrievedOctober 17, 2022.Агим Красниќи и Лирим Какупи - Нацист не се во Кондово, ниту пак во Македонија. Тие пристигнаа во Косово. Беше прифатено нивното барање да не се гонат, во замена за нивно заминување од селото Agim Krasniqi and Lirim Kakupi - Nazis are not in Kondovo, nor in Macedonia. They arrived in Kosovo. Their request not to be prosecuted was accepted, in exchange for their departure from the village
^Eran Zohar (2023).Understanding Non-State Actors: How Rebels Acquire Their Weapons. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 249.ISBN9783111065557.
^abMaria Koinova (2013).Ethnonationalist Conflict in Postcommunist States: Varieties of Governance in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Kosovo. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 198, 199.ISBN9780812245226.
^Lyubov Grigorova; Ted Robert Gurr (2013).Crime-terror Alliances and the State: Ethnonationalist and Islamist Challenges to Regional Security. Routledge. p. 30.ISBN9780415506489.
National Liberation Army
Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac
Macedonia
Serbia
KFOR
UNMIK
