Albanisation

In the newly attached territories to Albania of Kosovo and western Yugoslav Macedonia by the Axis powers, non-Albanians (Serbs and Macedonians) had to attend Albanian schools that taught a curriculum containing nationalism alongside fascism and were made to adopt Albanian forms for their names and surnames.{{cite book|last=Rossos|first=Andrew|title=Macedonia and the Macedonians: A history|year=2013|location=Stanford|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NeGoAAAAQBAJ&q=Albanian+form&pg=PT179|isbn=9780817948832|pages=185–186}}

{{See also|Albanization of names}}

The Albanian civil service tends to use albanianized versions of personal names of persons belonging to ethnic or cultural minorities without their consent.{{cite journal |last1=Giakoumis |first1=Konstantinos |title=The policy of non-discrimination and the protection of minority cultural heritage in Albania |journal=International Journal of Cultural Policy |date=6 June 2020 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=502 |doi=10.1080/10286632.2019.1567722 |s2cid=150417947 |access-date=5 August 2022| url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10286632.2019.1567722?journalCode=gcul20|url-access=subscription }}

In 1975, the Albanian communist regime had issued a decree requiring everyone to assume non-religious names approved by the government.Sabrina P. Ramet, Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics, and Social Change in East-Central Europe and Russia (Duke University Press, 1998) p. 218

During the rule of King Zogu and the communist regime, the government encouraged Albanisation of the Greeks of Southern Albania (the territory was also called "Northern Epirus", especially among the Greeks).[https://books.google.com/books?id=dkRoAAAAMAAJ G97 T.J. Winnifrith (2003), Badlands-Borderland: A History of Southern Albania/Northern Epirus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403113627/http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97 |date=2015-04-03 }}, {{ISBN|0-7156-3201-9}}, p. 138. Quote: "Under King Zog, the Greek villages suffered considerable repression, including the forcible closure of Greek-language schools in 1933-1934 and the ordering of Greek Orthodox monasteries to accept mentally sick individuals as inmates." and "On the other hand under Hoxha there were draconian measures to keep Greek-speakers loyal to Albania. Albanian rather than Greek history was taught in schools."

{{Blockquote

|text=...{{nbsp}}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-language cultural or educational provisions. In addition, many Greeks were forceably 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.{{Cite book |last=Pettifer |first=James |title=The Politics of National Minority Participation in Post-communist Europe: State-building, Democracy and Ethnic Mobilization |date=2000 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781315699257 |editor-last=Stein |editor-first=Jonathan |pages=167–188 |language=en |chapter=The Greek Minority in Albania: Ethnic Politics in a Pre-National State |doi=10.4324/9781315699257-6 |author-link=James Pettifer |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315699257-6/}}}}

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. 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."

Also, the ethnic Greek minority complained about the government's unwillingness to recognize ethnic Greek towns outside communist-era "minority zones," to utilize Greek in official documents and on public signs in ethnic Greek areas, or to include more ethnic Greeks in public administration.[https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eur/119064.htm United States Department of State] ALBANIA 2008 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT][https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eur/136016.htm United States Department of State] ALBANIA 2009 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT][https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/eur/154409.htm ALBANIA 2010 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT][https://al.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/140/2016/10/2011-Human-Rights-Report.pdf ALBANIA 2011 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT][https://al.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/140/2016/10/2012-Human-Rights-Report-Albania.pdf ALBANIA 2012 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT][https://al.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/140/2016/10/2013-Human-Rights-Report-Albania.pdf ALBANIA 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT][https://al.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/140/2016/10/2014-Human-Rights-Report-Albania.pdf ALBANIA 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT][https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/253027.pdf ALBANIA 2015 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT][https://web.archive.org/web/20170307090122/https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/265600.pdf ALBANIA 2016 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT]

The 2012 USA annual report mention that the emergence of strident nationalist groups like the Red and Black Alliance (RBA) increased ethnic tensions with the Greek minority groups.

As part of assimilation politics during the rule of communist regime in Albania, Serb-Montenegrins were not allowed to have Serbian names, especially family names ending with the characteristic suffix "ich".{{cite report |date=2014 |title=Special Report - On minority rights in Albania|url=http://www.avokatipopullit.gov.al/sites/default/files/field/image/ON%20MINORITY%20RIGHTS%20-%20%20ENGLISH.pdf |publisher=Republic of Albania Ombudsman |page=13 |access-date=December 29, 2017 |quote=The Serbian-Montenegrin minority, during the past century, has been the subject of injustices by the state structures of that time, while institutional repressive measures led to discrimination and attempts to assimilate this minority. This repressive policy of assimilation begins with the regime of King Zog, who banished schools in Serbian language and continued with the communist regime, when the Serbiain-Montenegrin nationality was forbidden, along with the names and in particular the family names ending with the characteristic suffix "ich", as well as the right of education and the right of information in their mother tongue, the right to maintain contacts with the mother country, the right of religion etc. |archive-date=July 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160705125352/http://www.avokatipopullit.gov.al/sites/default/files/field/image/ON%20MINORITY%20RIGHTS%20-%20%20ENGLISH.pdf |url-status=dead }}

After the 1981 student protest in Kosovo, Albanian Serbs complained on harassment and pressure to leave the country.{{cite book|author=Michael Anthony Sells|title=The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FAdxZ6F2uEAC&pg=PA55|date=27 September 1996|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-92209-9|pages=55–}}

Former Albanian President Bamir Topi and prime minister Sali Berisha made suggestions in 2009 to create a government commission to replace Slavic based toponyms in the county with Albanian language form toponyms.{{cite web|title=Lexical cleansing: Slavic toponyms in Albania (or out of?)|url=http://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Albania/Lexical-cleansing-Slavic-toponyms-in-Albania-or-out-of-47472|publisher=Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso|access-date=16 December 2013|author=Marjola Rukaj|year=2009|quote=Lexical cleansing}}

The Albanian parliament in April 2013 decided to reverse an order from 1973 that changed the Slavic toponyms of several villages in the Pustec Municipality (formerly Liqenas) with Albanian forms that resulted in local Pustec authorities voting to restore pre-1973 toponyms.{{cite journal|title=Language, education and conflicts in the Balkans: policies, resolutions, prospects|journal=Italian Journal of Sociology of Education|year=2013|url=http://www.ijse.eu/index.php/ijse/article/viewFile/214/200|access-date=16 December 2013|author=Emanuela C. Del Re|page=196|quote=The process of Albanization has stopped, and in April 2013 the Macedonians in Albania had the opportunity to applaud the decision by Tirana to reverse a 1973 order by which several Macedonian municipalities had their names changed into Albanian names, following a decision taken by the local authorities in Pustec (located at the border with F.Y.R. Macedonia), who voted to replace the names of the following municipalities into their pre-1973 Macedonian names (MINA, 2013).}}

{{see also|Albanisation of names}}

The concept is most commonly applied to Kosovo.[http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/BC_Office_Pubs/kosovo.pdf B. Allen, "Why Kosovo? The Anatomy of a Needless War"], in Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 1999

Ruža Petrović, Marina Blagoǰević, & Miloš Macura, [http://balkania.tripod.com/resources/history/migrations/ The migration of Serbs and Montenegrins from Kosovo and Metohija: results of the survey conducted in 1985-1986], Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1992, accessed 4 Sep 2010 During censuses in the former Yugoslavia, many Bosniaks, Romani and Turks were registered as Albanian, as they identified with Muslim Albanian culture as opposed to the Christian Serbian culture.[http://club.fom.ru/books/sigona.pdf N. Sigona, "How Can a ‘Nomad’ be a ‘Refugee’? Kosovo Roma and Labelling Policy in Italy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719202156/http://club.fom.ru/books/sigona.pdf |date=2011-07-19 }}, in Sociology, Vol. 37, 2003, pp. 69–79 Albanisation has also occurred with Torbesh people, a Muslim Slavic minority in North Macedonia, and the Goran people in southern Kosovo, who often have Albanised surnames.[http://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/97-99/lederer.pdf G. Lederer, "Contemporary Islam in East Europe"], in Central Asian Survey, NATO International Academy, 2000

At the end of the 19th century, writer Branislav Nušić claimed that the Serb poturice (converts to Islam) of Orahovac began speaking Albanian and marrying Albanian women.{{sfn|Duijzings|2000|p=73}} Similar claims were put forward by Jovan Hadži Vasiljević (1866–1948), who claimed that when he visited Orahovac in World War I, he could not distinguish Orthodox from Islamicized and Albanized Serbs; according to him, they spoke Serbian, wore the same costumes, but claimed Serbian, Albanian or Turkish ethnicity.{{sfn|Duijzings|2000|p=73}} Most of the Albanian starosedeoci (old urban families) were Slavophone; they did not speak Albanian at home, but a Slavic dialect which they called {{lang|sla|naš govor}} {{gloss|our language}}.{{sfn|Duijzings|2000|p=73}} An Austrian named Joseph Muller, who visited the area in the 19th century, wrote that the dialect originated from the time of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottomans, when Albanians from Shkodër who had resettled around Valjevo and Kraljevo in central Serbia, left after those events for Orahovac; the corpus of Bulgarian terminology in the dialect was unaccounted for by Muller.{{cite web|last1=Xharra|first1=Besiana|title=Kosovo's Mysterious Dialect Fades Away|url=http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kosovo-s-mysterious-dialect-fades-away|website=www.balkaninsight.com|date=27 November 2010|access-date=21 April 2017}}

In the 1921 census, the majority of the Muslim Albanians in Orahovac were registered under the category "Serbs and Croats", based on linguistic criteria.{{sfn|Duijzings|2000|p=73}}

Duijzings (2000), summarizing his own research, stated: "During my own research, some of them told me that their tongue is similar to Macedonian rather than Serbian. It is likely they are the last remnants of what is now known in Serbian sources as {{lang|sr|Arnautaši}}, Islamicised and half-way Albanianised Slavs."{{sfn|Duijzings|2000|p=73}}

In 1922, Henry Baerlein noted that the Austrians had for thirty years tried to Albanianize the Janjevo population (see also Janjevci).{{sfn|Duijzings|2000|p=43}}

The Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians, who share culture, traditions and the Albanian language, are of Romani origin.{{cite book|author1=Valeriu Nicolae|author2=Hannah Slavik|title=Roma Diplomacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6C7w6q_-VbQC|year=2007|publisher=IDEA|isbn=978-1-932716-33-7}} The "Ashkali" have been classed as a "new ethnic identity in the Balkans", formed in the 1990s.{{cite web|url=http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/pas/pas2001/pas2001-05.pdf|title=New Ethnic Identities in the Balkans: The Case of the Egyptians |website=Facta.junis.ni.ac.rs|access-date=15 October 2017}}

To define Kosovo as an Albanian area, a toponyms commission (1999) led by Kosovan Albanian academics was established to determine new or alternative names for some settlements, streets, squares and organisations with Slavic origins that underwent a process of Albanisation during this period.{{cite journal|last=Rajić|first=Ljubiša|title=Toponyms and the political and ethnic identity in Serbia|url=https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/osla/article/viewFile/319/444|journal=Oslo Studies in Language|volume=4|issue=2|year=2012|pages=213|doi=10.5617/osla.319|doi-access=free}} Those measures have been promoted by sectors of the Kosovan Albanian academic, political, literary and media elite that caused administrative and societal confusion with multiple toponyms being used resulting in sporadic acceptance by wider Kosovan Albanian society.{{cite journal|last=Murati|first=Qemal|title=Probleme të normës në toponimi [Problems of norm in toponymy]|url=https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=149327|journal=Gjurmime Albanologjike|volume=37|year=2007|pages=66–70}}

In 1987 Yugoslav communist officials changed the starting grade from the fourth to the first for Kosovo Serb and Albanian students being taught each other's languages with aims of bringing both ethnicities closer. Kosovo Serbs opposed the measure to learn the Albanian language, claiming that it was another way of asserting Albanian dominance and viewed it as more Albanisation of the region. Yugoslav educational authorities rejected the claim, stating that if Albanians also refused to learn Serbo-Croatian on the grounds that it was Serbianisation, it would be unacceptable.{{cite book|last=Kostovicova|first=Denisa|title=Kosovo: The politics of identity and space|year=2005|location=London |publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L562PiBM6GEC&q=Serbianization&pg=PA151|isbn=9780415348065|pages=70–71}}

In 1982 Macedonian communist officials accused Albanian nationalists (including some Muslim Albanian clergy) that they placed pressure on Macedonian Romani, Turks and Macedonian speaking Muslims (Torbeš) to declare themselves as Albanians during the census.{{cite book|last=Ramet|first=Sabrina P.|title=The three Yugoslavias: State-building and legitimation, 1918–2005|year=2006|location=Bloomington|publisher=Indiana University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTw3lEqi2-oC&q=Serbian+historiography+tito&pg=PA322|isbn=978-0-253-34656-8}}{{sfn|Babuna|2004|p=307}} The Islamic Community of Yugoslavia dominated by Slavic Muslims opposed during the 1980s Albanian candidates ascending to the leadership position of Reis ul-ulema due to claims that Albanian Muslim clergy were attempting to Albanianize the Muslim Slavs of Macedonia.{{sfn|Babuna|2004|p=303}} Macedonian communist authorities concerned with growing Albanian nationalism contended that Turks and Macedonian speaking Muslims (Torbeš) were being Albanianised through Albanian political and cultural pressures and initiated a campaign against Albanian nationalism called differentiation involving birth control, control over Muslim institutions and Albanian education, dismissal of public servants and so on.{{cite book|last=Poulton|first=Hugh|title=Who are the Macedonians?|year=1995|location=Bloomington|publisher=Indiana University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppbuavUZKEwC&q=Albanian+nationalism|isbn=9781850652380|pages=138–139, 128}}

Riza Memedovski, chairman of a Muslim organisation for Macedonian Muslims in North Macedonia, accused the majority Albanian political party, the Party for Democratic Prosperity in 1990 of trying to assimilate people, especially Macedonian Muslims and Turks and create an "... Albanisation of western Macedonia."{{Cite web |url=http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/cedime-se-macedonia-albanians.doc |title=Greek Helsinki Monitor (2001), Minorities in Southeastern Europe - Albanians of Macedonia (available online here |access-date=2006-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001232431/http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/cedime-se-macedonia-albanians.doc |archive-date=2006-10-01 |url-status=dead }}

From a Macedonian perspective, the Old Bazaar of Skopje following the 1960s and over a span of twenty to thirty years underwent a demographic change of Albanisation that was reflected in the usage of the Latin alphabet and Albanian writing in shops of the area.{{harvnb|Ragaru|2008|p=554.}} In the 2000s, the construction of a Skanderbeg statue at the entrance of the Old Bazaar has signified for some people in Macedonia that the area is undergoing a slow Albanisation.{{cite journal|last=Ragaru|first=Nadege|title=The Political Uses and Social Lives of "National Heroes": Controversies over Skanderbeg's Statue in Skopje|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00682663/document|journal=Südosteuropa|volume=56|issue=4|year=2008|pages=536|access-date=2019-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222210307/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00682663/document|archive-date=2019-02-22|url-status=dead}}

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{{Cultural assimilation}}

Category:Cultural assimilation

Category:Social history of Albania