From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Albanisation (or Albanization,
Albanianisation, Albanianization) is a term used
to describe a linguistic or cultural assimilation to the Albanian
language and Albanian
culture.
Kosovo
The term is used in reference to Kosovo[1]. During censuses in the former
Yugoslavia, many Roma would be registered as
Albanian, identifying with Albanian culture as
opposed to the Christian Serbian
culture[2]. It is
also talked about in reference to the Torbashis, a Muslim Slavic minority in the Republic of Macedonia, and the Gorani people in southern Kosovo with often
albanised surnames[3].
When discussing Kosovo,
Albanisation is often used to describe the demographic shift,
whereby Albanians as a percentage of the population increase whilst
Serbs and other minority groups
decrease. Generally not considered to be a deliberate policy, this
phenomenon has resulted due to a diversity of factors. Commencing
from the time of Turkish conquest of the Balkans, the Slavic
Christian element suffered greatly in Kosovo because the region was
often a battleground between Serbia (and its European supporters)
and Turkey. Either during battle or the harsh Turkish reprisals for
insurgency, many Slavs were killed. Many more migrated north to
safer lands. In turn, more and more Albanians settled Kosovo as
many had converted to Islam and gained important positions within
the Turkish regimen. Of the remaining Slavic Christian populace,
many converted to Islam to escape discriminatory taxes and social
practices. Islamification opened the door to Albanisation, since
90% of Kosovar Albanians are Muslim.
Even with the defeat of Turkey and the re-acquisition of Kosovo
by Serbia in the early 20th century, Albanians remained the
dominant demographic. This was maintained until the present time
due to socio-political factors. Being a region where Turkish rule
was most firmly established, it was the most backward region of the
newly created Yugoslavia. Thus many Serbs chose to leave the area
to more socio-economically developed regions. Coupled with this was
the very high birth rate of Albanians, who often had up to ten
children per family.
Republic
of Macedonia
The chairman of a Muslim organisation for Muslim
Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia, Riza
Memedovski, accused the majority Albanian political party, the Party for Democratic
Prosperity, of trying to conduct through assimilation, an "...
Albanisation of western Macedonia."[4]
Albania
The Greeks of Southern Albania (also known with the term Northern
Epirus, especially among the Greeks) were under a policy of
Albanisation during the dictatorship of King Zogu and the communist
regime.[1][2][3][4][5] The Bulgarians in Albania, especially
in the eastern parts were also gradually albanised.
Notes
References
- ^
Badlands-Borderland: A History of Southern Albania/Northern
Epirus,ISBN 0715632019,2003,T.J. Winnifrith,Page 138:"... the
Orthodox Albanian-speakers who had not been expelled. 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. ..."
- ^
http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"the
area studied was confined to the southern border fringes, and there
is good reason to believe that this estimate was very low"."Under
this definition, 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 8000
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 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."
- ^
http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,onset
in 1967 of the campaign by Albania’s communist party,the Albanian
Party of Labour (PLA), to eradicate organised religion, a prime
target of which was the Orthodox Church.Many churches were damaged
or destroyed during this period, and many Greek-language books were
banned because of their religious themes or orientation. Yet, as
with other communist states, particularly in the Balkans, where
measures putatively geared towards the consolidation of political
control intersected with the pursuit of national integration, it is
often impossible to distinguish sharply between ideological and
ethno-cultural bases of repression. This is all the more true in
the case of Albania’s anti-religion campaign because it was merely
one element in the broader “Ideological and Cultural Revolution”
begun by Hoxha in 1966 but whose main features he outlined at the
PLA’s Fourth Congress in 1961.
- ^
http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"
under communism, pupils were taught only Albanian history and
culture, even in Greek-language classes at the primary level."
,
- ^
http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"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. "
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