Albanisation
Encyclopedia
Albanisation is a term used to describe a linguistic or cultural assimilation
to the Albanian language
and Albanian culture.
.
During census
es in the former Yugoslavia
, many Roma were registered as Albanian, as they identified with Muslim Albanian culture as opposed to the Christian Serbian
culture. The term is also applied to the Torbashis, a Muslim
Slavic
minority in the Republic of Macedonia
, and the Gorani people in southern Kosovo, who often have Albanised surnames.
who had converted to Islam
and went through a process of Albanisation
.
In the 19th century, writer Branislav Nušić
recorded that the Serb poturice (converts to Islam) of Orahovac
began speaking Albanian and marrying Albanian women. Hadzi-Vasiljevic visited Orahovac in World War I, he could not distinguish Orthodox from Islamicized and Albanized Serbs. They spoke Serbian, wore the same costumes but claimed Serbian
, Albanian
or Turk
ethnicity. The Albanian starosedeoci (native) were Slavophone; spoke Serbian. In the 1921 census the majority of Muslim Albanians were Serbian speaking (naš govor, Our language).
-
- Marshall Tito further de-Serbianized the Kosovo region when the Yugoslav League of Communists invited 300,000 Albanians from Albania to settle in Kosovo and forbid the Serbs that fled during the World War II to return to their homes in Kosovo.
recorded that the Serb poturice (converts to Islam) of Orahovac
began talking Albanian and marrying Albanian women.
When Dr Jovan Hadži Vasiljević (l. 1866-1948) visited Orahovac in World War I
, he could not distinguish Orthodox from Islamicized and Albanized Serbs. They spoke Serbian
, wore the same costumes, but claimed Serbian
, Albanian
or Turk
ethnicity. The Albanian starosedeoci (old urban families) were Slavophone
; they did not speak Albanian but a Slavic dialect (naš govor, Our language) at home.
In the 1921 census the majority of Muslim Albanians of Orahovac were registered under the category "Serbs and Croats".
Mark Krasniqi
, the Kosovo Albanian ethnographer, recalled in 1957: "During my own research, some of them told me that their tongue is similar to Macedonian
rather than Serbian (it is clear that they want to dissociate themselves from everything Serbian). It is likely they are the last remnants of what is now known in Serbian sources as 'Arnautaši', Islamicised and half-way Albanianised Slavs."
in the Republic of Macedonia
, accused the majority Albanian political party, the Party for Democratic Prosperity
, of trying to assimilate people and create an "... Albanisation of western Macedonia."
", especially among the Greeks).
In 1967 the Albanian Party of Labour
began the campaign of eradicating organised religion. Their forces damaged or destroyed many churches and mosques during this period; they banned many Greek-language books because of their religious themes or orientation. Yet, it is often impossible to distinguish between the government's ideological and ethno-cultural motivations for repression. Nonetheless, relationships between Albanian ethnics and Greek ethnics remained very good. The last defense minister of the communist regime was Simon Stefani
, part of the Greek minority. Albania’s anti-religion campaign was merely one element in Hoxha's broader “Ideological and Cultural Revolution” begun in 1966. He had outlined its main features at the PLA’s Fourth Congress in 1961. "Under communism, pupils were taught only Albanian history and culture, even in Greek-language classes at the primary level." The Bulgarians in Albania
were also gradually Albanised.
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
to the Albanian language
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
and Albanian culture.
In Kosovo
The term is used in reference to KosovoKosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
.
During census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
es in the former Yugoslavia
Former Yugoslavia
The former Yugoslavia is a term used to describe the present day states which succeeded the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
, many Roma were registered as Albanian, as they identified with Muslim Albanian culture as opposed to the Christian Serbian
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
culture. The term is also applied to the Torbashis, a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
minority in the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, and the Gorani people in southern Kosovo, who often have Albanised surnames.
Serbs
The term Arnauti or Arnautaši was coined by ethnographers for "Albanized Serbs"; SerbsSerbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
who had converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and went through a process of Albanisation
Albanisation
Albanisation is a term used to describe a linguistic or cultural assimilation to the Albanian language and Albanian culture.- In Kosovo :The term is used in reference to Kosovo....
.
In the 19th century, writer Branislav Nušić
Branislav Nušic
Branislav Nušić was a Serbian novelist of Aromanian descent, playwright, satirist, essayist and founder of modern rhetoric in Serbia. He also worked as a journalist and a civil servant.- Biography :...
recorded that the Serb poturice (converts to Islam) of Orahovac
Orahovac
Orahovac is a town and municipality in western Kosovo, in the District of Đakovica.-Name:Its Serbian name stems from the Serbian word orah , meaning "walnut"....
began speaking Albanian and marrying Albanian women. Hadzi-Vasiljevic visited Orahovac in World War I, he could not distinguish Orthodox from Islamicized and Albanized Serbs. They spoke Serbian, wore the same costumes but claimed Serbian
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
or Turk
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
ethnicity. The Albanian starosedeoci (native) were Slavophone; spoke Serbian. In the 1921 census the majority of Muslim Albanians were Serbian speaking (naš govor, Our language).
-
- Marshall Tito further de-Serbianized the Kosovo region when the Yugoslav League of Communists invited 300,000 Albanians from Albania to settle in Kosovo and forbid the Serbs that fled during the World War II to return to their homes in Kosovo.
In Orahovac
At the end of the 19th century, writer Branislav NušićBranislav Nušic
Branislav Nušić was a Serbian novelist of Aromanian descent, playwright, satirist, essayist and founder of modern rhetoric in Serbia. He also worked as a journalist and a civil servant.- Biography :...
recorded that the Serb poturice (converts to Islam) of Orahovac
Orahovac
Orahovac is a town and municipality in western Kosovo, in the District of Đakovica.-Name:Its Serbian name stems from the Serbian word orah , meaning "walnut"....
began talking Albanian and marrying Albanian women.
When Dr Jovan Hadži Vasiljević (l. 1866-1948) visited Orahovac in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he could not distinguish Orthodox from Islamicized and Albanized Serbs. They spoke Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, wore the same costumes, but claimed Serbian
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, Albanian
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
or Turk
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
ethnicity. The Albanian starosedeoci (old urban families) were Slavophone
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
; they did not speak Albanian but a Slavic dialect (naš govor, Our language) at home.
In the 1921 census the majority of Muslim Albanians of Orahovac were registered under the category "Serbs and Croats".
Mark Krasniqi
Mark Krasniqi
Mark Krasniqi was born on October 19, 1920 in Glavičica , near Peć, in the Kongdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . He finished his elementary school in Peć and attended high school in Prizren, finishing it in 1941...
, the Kosovo Albanian ethnographer, recalled in 1957: "During my own research, some of them told me that their tongue is similar to Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
rather than Serbian (it is clear that they want to dissociate themselves from everything Serbian). It is likely they are the last remnants of what is now known in Serbian sources as 'Arnautaši', Islamicised and half-way Albanianised Slavs."
In the Republic of Macedonia
Riza Memedovski, chairman of a Muslim organisation for Macedonian MuslimsMacedonian Muslims
The Macedonian Muslims , also known as Muslim Macedonians, Torbeš, ; , in older sources Pomaks are a minority religious group within the community of ethnic Macedonians who are Muslims...
in the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, accused the majority Albanian political party, the Party for Democratic Prosperity
Party for Democratic Prosperity
The Party for Democratic Prosperity or PDP is an ethnic Albanian political party in the Republic of Macedonia. The party was formed in April 1990 and is currently led by Abdyladi Vejseli....
, of trying to assimilate people and create an "... Albanisation of western Macedonia."
In Albania
During the dictatorship of King Zogu and the communist regime, the government encouraged Albanisation of the Greeks of Southern Albania (the territory was also called "Northern EpirusNorthern Epirus
Northern Epirus is a term used to refer to those parts of the historical region of Epirus, in the western Balkans, that are part of the modern Albania. The term is used mostly by Greeks and is associated with the existence of a substantial ethnic Greek population in the region...
", especially among the Greeks).
"Minority status was limited to those who lived in 99 villages in the southern border areas, thereby excluding important concentrations of Greek settlement in Vlora (perhaps 8,000 people in 1994) and in adjoining areas along the coast, ancestral Greek towns such as Himara, and ethnic Greeks living elsewhere throughout the country. Mixed villages outside this designated zone, even those with a clear majority of ethnic Greeks, were not considered minority areas and therefore were denied any Greek languageGreek languageGreek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
cultural or educational provisions. In addition, many Greeks were forcibly removed from the minority zones to other parts of the country as a product of communist population policy, an important and constant element of which was to preempt ethnic sources of political dissent. Greek place-names were changed to Albanian names, while use of the Greek language, prohibited everywhere outside the minority zones, was prohibited for many official purposes within them as well."
In 1967 the Albanian Party of Labour
Albanian Party of Labour
The Party of Labour of Albania was the sole legal political party in Albania during communist rule...
began the campaign of eradicating organised religion. Their forces damaged or destroyed many churches and mosques during this period; they banned many Greek-language books because of their religious themes or orientation. Yet, it is often impossible to distinguish between the government's ideological and ethno-cultural motivations for repression. Nonetheless, relationships between Albanian ethnics and Greek ethnics remained very good. The last defense minister of the communist regime was Simon Stefani
Simon Stefani
Simon Stefani was an Albanian politician of Greek origin. He served as Chairman of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania from 25 December, 1978 to 22 November, 1982. His son is Andrea Stefani.-Reference:...
, part of the Greek minority. Albania’s anti-religion campaign was merely one element in Hoxha's broader “Ideological and Cultural Revolution” begun in 1966. He had outlined its main features at the PLA’s Fourth Congress in 1961. "Under communism, pupils were taught only Albanian history and culture, even in Greek-language classes at the primary level." The Bulgarians in Albania
Bulgarians in Albania
Ethnic Bulgarians in present-day Albania live mostly in the areas of Mala Prespa and Golo Bardo. In the 1989 census a total of 782 people claimed either Romanian, Bulgarian or Czechoslovakian nationality. The US Department of State background note for Albania, dated 4 January 2011 further reported...
were also gradually Albanised.