Spread of Albanian culture, people and language
Albanisation
,
Albanianisation
(
UK
),
Albanization
, or
Albanianization
(
US
) is the spread of
Albanian culture
,
people
, and
language
, either by integration or
assimilation
. Diverse peoples were affected by Albanisation including peoples with different
ethnic origins
, such as
Turks
,
Serbs
,
Croats
,
Circassians
,
Bosniaks
,
Greeks
,
Aromanians
,
Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians
,
Romani
,
Gorani
, and
Macedonians
from all the regions of the Balkans.
Greater Albania (1940?1944)
[
edit
]
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.
[1]
In Albania
[
edit
]
The Albanian civil service’s policy tends to Albanianize personal names to persons who belong to ethnic or cultural minorities without even asking them.
[2]
Greeks
[
edit
]
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).
[3]
...
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.
[4]
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."
[3]
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.
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
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.
[9]
Aromanians
[
edit
]
The Aromanians were first recognized at the
London Conference of 1912?1913
as a minority group until the communist era (1967). From 1967 until 1992, they were known as simple
Albanians
, and from 1992 until 2017, they were known as a cultural and linguistic minority. Since 2017, the Aromanians are an officially recognized
ethnic minority
in Albania.
The recognition of the Aromanians as an Albanian minority has provoked negative reactions from
Greece
, claiming that Albania, along with
Romania
, are "colluded in an
anti-Greek
action". Supposedly, Albania would do this with the intention of weakening the
Greek minority
in
Northern Epirus
, while Romania would do this with the intention of "
Romanianizing
" the "Latin-speaking Greeks" of Albania with the supposed goal of gaining more population.
[14]
Serbs and Montenegrins
[
edit
]
In 1921, Albanian government declared that the Greeks were to be registered as a minority, the Orthodox Serbs however were to register themselves as Albanians (thus becoming nationals of Albania) in a two-year period. In the Albanian census the Greeks numbered 15,000 while Serbs and Bulgarians numbered 200 families. During the time of 1921-1928 the Serb community in Albania was strengthened through efforts of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
, which opened several Serbian private schools in 1923-1924 of which the school of Vrake had 72 pupils in 1930, three schools in Shkodra. An ethnic Serb football team existed in Shkodra that competed in the Albanian league. Two youth organizations (
Guslar
and
Obilich
) existed in Shkodra.
[15]
The formation of
Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania
weakened the Serbs and Greeks in the country. The active 14 churches and Monastery were slowly closed by the Albanian government.
[16]
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".
[17]
Enver Hoxha decided to destroy the Serbian cemeteries and 2 of the Serb temples.
[18]
In 1966, the state abolished religion, and in 1968 the state forced parents to name their children with contemporary and revolutionary (Illyrian) names.
The surnames were forcibly changed by the Albanian government, from Slavic into Albanian ones, as part of Albanianization.
After the
1981 student protest in Kosovo
, Albanian Serbs complained on harassment and pressure to leave the country.
[21]
Proposed Albanianisation
[
edit
]
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.
[22]
Reversed Albanianisation
[
edit
]
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.
[23]
In Kosovo
[
edit
]
The concept is most commonly applied to
Kosovo
.
[24]
[25]
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.
[26]
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.
[27]
Arnauta?i theory
[
edit
]
The term
Arnauta?i
(from
Arnauti
, a historical Turkish term for Albanians) was coined by 19th century Serbian historians and by that term they meant "
Albanized Serbs
" (
Serbs
who had converted to
Islam
and went through a process of Albanisation).
[28]
[29]
Also, British historian
Harold Temperley
also considered "Arnauts" as "Albanised Serbs".
[31]
[32]
The term used by Serbian nationalist historiography attributed most to some Albanians from Kosovo but also to Northern Albanians (Ghegs) and was used by some Serbian nationalists to explain the large numbers of Albanians in Kosovo in that migrations of Albanians from Northern Albania was the migration of Serbs to another place and not of a different people.
[29]
While the theory that acquired its maximal form by nationalist Serb writers
Spiridon Gop?evi?
and Milo? Milojevi? became popular among some Serb historians, Western based historians dismiss it on grounds that had the population been Serbian in Northern Albania, when and how did the process of Albanianisation occur in the first place.
[29]
Orahovac
[
edit
]
At the end of the 19th century, writer
Branislav Nu?i?
claimed that the
Serb
poturice
(converts to Islam) of
Orahovac
began speaking Albanian and marrying Albanian women.
Similar claims were put forward by
Jovan Had?i Vasiljevi?
(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.
Most of the Albanian
starosedeoci
(old urban families) were
Slavophone
; they did not speak Albanian at home, but a Slavic dialect which they called
na? govor
'
our language
'
.
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 Shkoder 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.
[34]
In the 1921 census, the majority of the Muslim Albanians in Orahovac were registered under the category "Serbs and Croats", based on linguistic criteria.
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
Arnauta?i
, Islamicised and half-way Albanianised Slavs."
Janjevo
[
edit
]
In 1922, Henry Baerlein noted that the Austrians had for thirty years tried to Albanianize the
Janjevo
population (see also
Janjevci
).
Ashkali and Romani
[
edit
]
The
Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians
, who share culture, traditions and the Albanian language, are of Romani origin.
[36]
The "Ashkali" have been classed as a "new ethnic identity in the Balkans", formed in the 1990s.
[37]
It was earlier applied to stationary Roma who settled in Albanian areas during
Ottoman Empire
times. The Ashkalija speak Albanian as their first language. Ashkalija often worked as blacksmiths, or manual laborers on Ottoman estates. Ashkalija are found mainly in eastern and central Kosovo. The Ashkali people claim that they have originated in Persia, now Iran, in 4th century BC (
Ashkal
,
Gilan
,
Iran
); however, there are no indicators for this hypothesis and it not scientifically proven. There are other theories of the Ashkali coming from Turkey in a village called A?kale (Erzurum district of Turkey), or possibly have come from ages ago in the city of
Ashkalon
(Israel). Still, some believe they are travelers from Northern India (Romani) who have used the Albanian language as their mother-tongue.
A 14th-century reference to a placename (Аг?повы кл?ти,
Agupovy kl?ti
) in the
Rila Charter
of
Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
is thought to be related to the Balkan Egyptians according to some authors, such as
Konstantin Josef Jire?ek
.
[38]
[39]
In 1990, an "Egyptian association" was formed in
Ohrid
, Macedonia. During the Kosovo War, Albanized Roma were displaced as refugees in Albania and the Republic of Macedonia.
Albanized
Roma formed the ethnic group
Ashkali
after the end of the war in 1999, to show their pro-Albanian stance and distinguish themselves from the Roma.
Placenames
[
edit
]
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.
[40]
[41]
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.
[41]
Alleged Albanianisation
[
edit
]
In 1987 Yugoslav communist officials changed the starting grade from the fourth to the first for Kosovo Serb and Albanian students being taught each others languages with aims of bringing both ethnicities closer.
[42]
Kosovo Serb opposed the measure to the learn Albanian language claiming that it was another way of asserting Albanian dominance and viewed it as more Albanisation of the region.
[42]
Yugoslav authorities rejected the claim stating that if Albanians also refused to learn Serbian on grounds that it was
Serbianisation
it would be unacceptable.
[42]
In North Macedonia
[
edit
]
Alleged Albanianisation
[
edit
]
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
(Torbe?) to declare themselves as Albanians during the census.
[43]
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.
Macedonian communist authorities concerned with growing Albanian nationalism contended that Turks and Macedonian speaking Muslims (Torbe?) 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.
[46]
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."
[47]
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.
[48]
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.
[49]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Rossos, Andrew (2013).
Macedonia and the Macedonians: A history
. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press. pp. 185?186.
ISBN
9780817948832
.
- ^
Giakoumis, Konstantinos (6 June 2020).
"The policy of non-discrimination and the protection of minority cultural heritage in Albania"
.
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.
26
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doi
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.
S2CID
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. Retrieved
5 August
2022
.
- ^
a
b
G97 T.J. Winnifrith (2003),
Badlands-Borderland: A History of Southern Albania/Northern Epirus
Archived
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,
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."
- ^
Pettifer, James
(2000).
"The Greek Minority in Albania: Ethnic Politics in a Pre-National State"
. In Stein, Jonathan (ed.).
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.
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ISBN
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.
- ^
United States Department of State
ALBANIA 2008 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT]
- ^
United States Department of State
ALBANIA 2009 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT]
- ^
ALBANIA 2010 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
- ^
ALBANIA 2011 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
- ^
a
b
ALBANIA 2012 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
- ^
ALBANIA 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
- ^
ALBANIA 2014 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
- ^
ALBANIA 2015 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
- ^
ALBANIA 2016 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
- ^
Antonopoulos, Paul (7 May 2020).
"Albania and Romania collude to weaken Greeks in Northern Epirus"
.
Greek City Times
.
- ^
Gre?i? & Lopu?ina 1994
, p. 70: "Da bi postala ?lanica Dru?tva naroda, Albanija je 1921. godine posebnom Deklaracijom preuzela obavezu da ?e postovati prava pripadnika nacionalnih manjina. U njoj je priznato pravo Grcima i Muslimanima da regulisu svoj manjinski status, dok je pravoslavcima ponuđeno da u roku od dve godine preuzmu albansko dr?avljanstvo. Albanska vlada je, međutim, obmanula Dru?tvo naroda, jer je njegovom sekretarijatu poslala podatke da u ovoj zemlji ?ivi "... ne vi?e od 15.000 Grka i na severu, ne vi?e od 200 bugarskih i srpskih porodica..." (CANU, 1990). Luka Malikovi? ipak smatra da je u periodu od 1921. do 1928. godine, srpska autonomija u Albaniji cvetala. Jugoslovenska vlada je obnovila rad privatnih srpskih skola 1923/24. godine. Tada je u Vraki u osmoljetki bilo 50 đaka, a 1930. godine 72. Skadar je imao tri osnovne ?kole i zabaviste sa 37 dece. Osmoljetka "Sveti Sava" imala je sedamdeset ucenika. Tu skolu je zavr?io i najpoznatiji srpski pesnik u Albaniji Milo? đorđ Nikoli?, koji je imao nadimak Miđoni. Ist ovremeno, Radni?ka skola okupljala je u Skadru samo zensku omladinu. Osnovne ?kole su pokrenute, pa ukinute i u selima Kamenica i Derignjat. U to vreme, pored crkve i ?kole, postojala su i dva srpska omladinska dru?tva "Gu?lar" i "Obili?", kao i srpski fudbalski tim koji se takmicio u albanskoj ligi."
- ^
Gre?i? & Lopu?ina 1994
, p. 71: "Dinastija Zogu je prvo 1930. godine, stvaranjem autokefalne pravoslavne crkve, koju je vodio Stilijan Mavromati, pocepala srpsku pravoslavnu crkvu koja je do tada u Albaniji imala cetrnaest aktivnih hramova i jedan manastir. Time je i srpski narod u Albaniji onemoguch en da odrzava direktne veze sa svojom crkvom-maticom i sa svojom Otadzbinom."
- ^
Special Report - On minority rights in Albania
(PDF)
(Report). Republic of Albania Ombudsman. 2014. p. 13. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on July 5, 2016
. Retrieved
December 29,
2017
.
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.
- ^
"Srbi u Albaniji jedna od najugro?enih manjina u svetu"
(in Serbian). Arhiva.srbija.gov.rs. 1998-09-17
. Retrieved
2013-02-11
.
- ^
Michael Anthony Sells (27 September 1996).
The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia
. University of California Press. pp. 55?.
ISBN
978-0-520-92209-9
.
- ^
Marjola Rukaj (2009).
"Lexical cleansing: Slavic toponyms in Albania (or out of?)"
.
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso
. Retrieved
16 December
2013
.
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- ^
Emanuela C. Del Re (2013).
"Language, education and conflicts in the Balkans: policies, resolutions, prospects"
.
Italian Journal of Sociology of Education
: 196
. Retrieved
16 December
2013
.
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).
- ^
B. Allen, "Why Kosovo? The Anatomy of a Needless War"
, in
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
, 1999
- ^
Ru?a Petrovi?,
Marina Blago?evi?
, & Milo? Macura,
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
- ^
N. Sigona, "How Can a ‘Nomad’ be a ‘Refugee’? Kosovo Roma and Labelling Policy in Italy"
Archived
2011-07-19 at the
Wayback Machine
, in
Sociology
, Vol. 37, 2003, pp. 69?79
- ^
G. Lederer, "Contemporary Islam in East Europe"
, in
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, NATO International Academy, 2000
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Dietmar Muller,
Staatsburger aus Widerruf: Juden und Muslime als Alteritatspartner im rumanischen und serbischen Nationscode: ethnonationale Staatsburgerschaftskonzepte 1878-1941
,
p. 183-208
.
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,
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a
b
c
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Is it true that Albanians in Kosova, are not Albanians but descendants from Albanianized Serbs?
. The Case for Kosova: Passage to Independence. Anthem Press. p. 20.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
-{Harold W.V. Temperly}-, ?-{History of Serbia}-“, Лондон 1917, pp. 309.
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Dietmar Muller,
Staatsburger aus Widerruf: Juden und Muslime als Alteritatspartner im rumanischen und serbischen Nationscode: ethnonationale Staatsburgerschaftskonzepte 1878?1941
,
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.
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,
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Xharra, Besiana (27 November 2010).
"Kosovo's Mysterious Dialect Fades Away"
.
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Valeriu Nicolae; Hannah Slavik (2007).
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. IDEA.
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.
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(PDF)
.
Facta.junis.ni.ac.rs
. Retrieved
15 October
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Даскалова, Ангелина; Мария Райкова (2005).
Грамоти на българските царе
(in Bulgarian). София: Академично издателство "Марин Дринов". p. 57.
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Trubeta, Sevasti (March 2005).
"Balkan Egyptians and Gypsy/Roma Discourse"
(PDF)
.
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Raji?, Ljubi?a (2012).
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.
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.
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"Probleme te normes ne toponimi [Problems of norm in toponymy]"
.
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.
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. London: Routledge. pp. 70?71.
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.
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Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006).
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. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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Poulton, Hugh (1995).
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. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 138?139, 128.
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"Greek Helsinki Monitor (2001),
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(available online here"
. Archived from
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Ragaru 2008
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- ^
Ragaru, Nadege (2008).
"The Political Uses and Social Lives of "National Heroes": Controversies over Skanderbeg's Statue in Skopje"
.
Sudosteuropa
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56
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. Retrieved
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.
Sources
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Gli?i?, Venceslav (1991).
Albanizacija Kosova i Metohije 1941-1945
.
- Pavlovi?, Blagoje K. (1996).
Albanizacija Kosova i Metohije
. Evropsko slovo.
- Radovanovi?, Milovan (1998).
Desrbizacija i albanizacija kosovsko-metohijske stare Srbije
.
- Trifunoski, Jovan (1989).
"
"ARNAUTA?I" - POSEBNA GRUPA ?ARPLANINSKOG STANOVNI?TVA"
(PDF)
.
Etnolo?ke Sveske
.
10
: 59?64.
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Assimilation by religions
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Assimilation by writings
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Opposite trends
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Related concepts
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