‘Enverists’ and ‘Titoists’ – Communism and Islam in Albania and Kosova, 1941–99: From the Partisan Movement of the Second World War to the Kosova Liberation War

‘Enverists’, or supporters of Albanian communist dictator Enver Hoxha, and ‘Titoists’, referring to sympathizers with the architect of communist Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, are terms used in Albanian discourse over Kosova. But they are generally misconstrued to suggest differing orientations towards the rival regimes, when they more properly refer, as Albanian sources demonstrate, to attitudes about the fate of Kosova itself. ‘Enverists’ in Kosova very rarely supported Hoxha and ‘Titoists’ were not necessarily loyalists of Yugoslavia. Rather, the terms signify a distinction between those who saw the Albanian national question as one involving all Albanians, in Albania proper, Kosova, and neighbouring territories (‘Enverists’) and those who viewed the problem of Kosova as a separate question (‘Titoists’).