Albanians in Serbia

In late antiquity, the contact zone between Late Proto-Albanian and Balkan Latin was located in eastern and southeastern Serbia.[3][4] This area included Nish, a city in southeastern Serbia. The toponym Niš in Slavic evolved from a toponym attested in Ancient Greek as ΝΑΙΣΣΟΣ (Naissos), which achieved its present form via phonetic changes in Proto-Albanian and thereafter entered Slavic.[5] This indicates that Proto-Albanians lived in the region in pre-Slavic times. When this settlement happened is a matter of debate, as Proto-Albanians might have moved relatively late in antiquity in the area which might have been an eastern expansion of Proto-Albanian settlement as no other toponyms known in antiquity in the immediate area presuppose an Albanian development.[6][7] The development of Nish < Naiss- may also represent a regional development in late antiquity Balkans which while related may not be identical with Albanian.[8] The potential spread of the Albanian language in the pre-Slavic era was possibly up to Drobeta-Turnu Severin on the banks of the Danube. Proto-Albanian speakers in the wider region shifted to Balkan Latin and contributed to the emergence of Proto-Romanian populations.[5] The Torlak Slavic dialects are influenced by the features which emerged in the Albanian and Balkan Romance spoken in southeastern Serbia.[9]

Toponyms such as Arbanaška and Đjake shows an Albanian presence in the Toplica and Southern Morava regions (located north-east of contemporary Kosovo) since the Late Middle Ages.[10][11] Albanians in the Niš region had been living there for at least 500 years prior to their expulsion, meaning that Albanians would have been present in Niš since the 1300s at the very least.[11] By 1477, part of the Albanian Mataruge tribe lived in the kaza of Prijepolje, where they formed their own distinct community (nahiye) with 10 villages (katund).[12] In Ottoman records on the regions of Toplica, Kruševac and Leskovac (today located in southern Serbia) that date between 1444 and 1446, a village by the name of Tanuš (derived from the Albanian anthroponym Tanush) appears. In the region of Toplica specifically, several settlements of Albanian toponomy were recorded during the first half of the 15th century, such as Gonzi, Castrat, Spanzi, Zur, Katun and Kriva Feja. All of these settlements are indeed older than and predate the time of their recording during the first half of the 15th century.[13]

Balkan Map of 1878, Albanians pictured in green.

In the first decades of the Principality of Serbia, which included modern-day central and eastern Serbia, the population was about 85% Serb and 15% non-Serb. Of those, most were Vlachs, and there were some Muslim Albanians, which were the overwhelming majority of the Muslims that lived in Smederevo, Kladovo and Ćuprija. The new state aimed to homogenize of its population. As a result, from 1830 to the wars of the 1870s, it has been estimated that up to 150,000 Albanians that lived in the territories of the Principality of Serbia had been expelled.[22] In the correspondence of Miloš Obrenović there many indications as to how this process was carried out. Obrenović asked his official Milosav Zdravković to buy the houses of Albanians at a higher price than the market one and ordered the expulsion of Mulims - most of whom were Albanians - from western Serbia. The residences of these population were burnt and they were moved to Ottoman lands.[23]

Albanians in the territories which were included in the Kingdom of Serbia after 1912 were concentrated in three regions: Kosovo, Sanjak of Novi Pazar and the Sanjak of Niš. Albanians were the majority of the population of Toplica (including Kuršumlija and Prokuplje), a significant part of the population of Leskovac and Vranje, and a part of the Muslim community in Niš. A small Albanian community lived in Tran. In the cities, a part of the Muslim population which were identified as Turks were in fact Albanians who had adopted an Ottoman urban culture. A part of the areas where Albanians lived, was administered under the Pashalik of Vranje. In 1843–1844, the pashalik was engulfed by the uprising of Dervish Cara against Huseyin Pasha of Vranje. After the Tanzimat reforms, the local authorities exploited the situation in order to impose heavier taxation and abuse their authority even more against the majority of the population, which were peasant farmers. One particular event which aggravated even more the relations between the locals and Huseyin Pasha is the ban on opening Albanian language schools in the district of Vranje even though the Tanzimat constitution allowed the opening of schools in the mother tongue of every ethnic community in the Ottoman Empire. In April 1844, rebels from the Preševo valley, Gjilan, Leskovac, Tetovo, Gostivar, Kumanovo defeated Huseyin pasha and took Vranje. The Ottoman army sent more than 10,000 troops with artillery support to suppress the rebellion. Local Albanians were led by Sulejman Tola of Veliki Trnovac/Tërrnoc, Selman Rogaçica, Ymer Aga of Presheva and Dervish Cara. The decisive battle which the Ottomans won and ended the rebellion took place on the Somolica hill between Preševo and Bujanovac.[24]

The sanjak of Niš became the subject of territorial dispute in Serbian-Ottoman War (1876–1878). In the war Albanians from Kuršumlja, Prokuplje and Leskovac formed units which operated independently from the Ottoman army for the self-defense of villages against the Serbian troops. Albanian units joined the Ottoman frontline defense from Kosovo and Macedonia.[25] The war caused the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians. More than 35,000 displaced Albanian civilians died just in the winter of 1876–1877.[26]

In the first stages (1876–1877) of the war the Ottoman army won and enacted harsh repressive measures in Serbia.[27] The entry of Russia (Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)) in the war changed the situation and the Ottomans shifted their forces towards the eastern front. The Ottoman defeat in the Siege of Plevna (December 1877) secured Russian victory in the war and the Ottoman army retreated on all fronts. Ottoman forces surrendered Niš on 10 January 1878 and Serbian forces continued their southwest advance entering the valleys of Kosanica, Pusta Reka and Jablanica. Serbian forces in the Morava Valley continued to head for Vranje, with the intention of then turning west and entering Kosovo proper. The Serbian advance in the southwest was slow, due to the hilly terrain and much resistance by local Albanians who were defending their villages and also sheltering in the nearby Radan and Majdan mountain ranges. Serbian forces took these villages one by one and most remained vacant. Albanian refugees continued to retreat toward Kosovo and their march was halted at the Goljak Mountains when an armistice was declared.[28] The Serbian army operating in the Morava Valley continued south toward two canyons: Grdelica (between Vranje and Leskovac) and Veternica (southwest of Grdelica). After Grdelica was taken, Serbian forces took Vranje. Local Albanians had left with their belongings prior to Serbian forces reaching the town, and other countryside Albanians experienced tensions with Serbian neighbours who fought against and eventually evicted them from the area. Albanian refugees defended the Veternica canyon, before retreating toward the Goljak mountains. Albanians who lived nearby in the Masurica region did not resist Serbian forces and General Jovan Belimarković refused to carry out orders from Belgrade to deport them, but they were deported with other Albanians after Belimarković moved out of Masurica.[28]

As a result of the territorial expansion of the Principality of Serbia in 1877–78, massive and violent expulsion of Albanians occurred from the newly occupied regions in the sanjak of Niš. In the new areas (present-day Jablanica, Toplica and parts of Nišava District) an estimated 50,000–60,000 Albanians were expelled and settled mainly in Kosovo.[29][30] Between the Ottoman-Serbian armistice and the final act of the Congress of Berlin, some Albanian groups had returned to their homes. After the treaty of Berlin was signed, they were expelled to Turkey. In total, around 600 Albanian villages in the were ethnically cleansed.[31] Albanians who settled in Kosovo and other regions became known as muhaxhirs (refugees). The events of 1877-78 marked the beginning of the modern Serbian-Albanian conflict.[32]

The expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Albanians from southern Serbia was the result of a policy of ethnic homogenization of the Serbian state and reflected Serbia's strategic goal of expanding southwards to Macedonia and Old Serbia. In Serbian geopolitical strategy, Albanians were seen as an "undesirable and unreliable population" which had to be replaced with a "reliable" population.[33] Orthodox Serbs, Herzegovinians and Montenegrins were invited to settle in the depopulated areas. A part of the Serb settlers came from nearby eastern Kosovo and had been driven out in interethnic violence by the muhaxhirs who had settled just across the new border. The large depopulation and economic devaluation of the new territories couldn't be balanced by any means so the Serbian government attempted to attract some of the Albanians who had been expelled to settle again in Serbia. Milan Obrenović, future King of Serbia since 1882, struck a deal directly with Shahid Pasha, a local Albanian military officer from Jablanica. Shahid Pasha was commander of the Ottoman barracks of Sofia in the 1877–78 war. Under the agreement, some Muslim Albanians returned to Gornja Jablanica (Medveđa).[34]

Whole Albanian villages had been transformed into columns of flames – in the distance, nearby, and even right along the railway line. This was my first, real, authentic view of war, of the merciless mutual slaughter of human beings.
— Leon Trotsky, Behind the Curtains of the Balkan Wars[35], The Balkan Wars (1912)

During the Balkan wars, the Kosovo Vilayet and Sandžak became part of Serbia. Tens of thousands of Albanian civilians were massacred and expelled from the newly conquered territories. In Novi Pazar, General Petar Živković targeted the Albanians of the region. Many journalists who including Leon Trotsky, Leo Freundlich observed and recorded the events. Danish journalist Fritz Magnussen recorded the slaughter of 5,000 Albanians near Pristina.[36]

In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Albanians were divided in three banovinas (counties): Vardar Banovina, Zeta Banovina and Morava Banovina since 1929. The Albanians of modern-day southern Serbia were within Vardar Macedonia. In Titoist Yugoslavia, the Preševo valley didn't become part of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo but part of Yugoslav Serbia. This decision was influenced by the location of transport infrastructure near Preševo. In Albanian politics, Preševo continues to be called "eastern Kosovo".[37]

In 1992, the Albanian representatives in the municipalities Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac organized a referendum in which they voted for the joining of these municipalities to the self-declared assembly of the Republic of Kosova.[38] However, no major events happened until the end of the 1990s.

Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, and nearby Kosovo War which lasted until 1999, between 1999 and 2001, an ethnic Albanian paramilitary separatist organization, the UÇPMB, raised an armed insurgency in the Preševo Valley, in the region mostly inhabited by Albanians, with a goal to occupy these three municipalities from Serbia and join them to (future independent) Kosovo.

The Serbian media during Milošević's era was known to espouse Serb nationalism while promoting xenophobia toward the other ethnicities in Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians were commonly characterized in the media as anti-Yugoslav counter-revolutionaries, rapists, and a threat to the Serb nation.[39] During the Kosovo War, Serbian forces continually discriminating Kosovo Albanians:

Throughout Kosovo, the forces of the FRY and Serbia have harassed, humiliated, and degraded Kosovo Albanian civilians through physical and verbal abuse. Policemen, soldiers, and military officers have persistently subjected Kosovo Albanians to insults, racial slurs, degrading acts, beatings, and other forms of physical mistreatment based on their racial, religious, and political identification.[40]

— War Crimes Indictment against Milosevic and others

A survey in Serbia showed that 40% of the Serbian population would not like Albanians to live in Serbia while 70% would not enter into a marriage with an Albanian individual the same exists in Albania towards Serbs.[41]

Unlike in the case of Kosovo, western countries condemned the attacks and described it as the "extremism" and use of "illegal terrorist actions" by the group.[42] Following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević, the new Serbian government suppressed the violence by 2001 and defeated the separatists. NATO troops also helped the Serbian government by ensuring that the rebels do not import the conflicts back into Kosovo, and even supported Serbia's military suppression of Albanians in their country, as an act to restore the relations with Serbia after 1999 bombing. This has left a dark chapter on Albania's relations with NATO, although Albania later joined the organization.

Since then, the Albanian Coalition from Preševo Valley has gained representation in the National Assembly of Serbia where it holds two seats. In 2009, Serbia opened a military base Cepotina 5 kilometers south of Bujanovac, to further stabilize the area.[43]

On 7 March 2017, the President of Albania Bujar Nishani made a historical visit to the municipalities of Preševo and Bujanovac, in which Albanians form the ethnic majority.[44] On 26 November 2017, the President of Albania Ilir Meta made a historical visit to Medveđa, municipality with Albanian ethnic minority.[45] On 26 November 2019, an earthquake struck Albania. Albanians of the Preševo valley donated aid and sent it through several convoys to earthquake victims.[46]

In 2021 the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia released a report which stated that the Serbian administration was undertaking a "passivation of residence of Albanians" resulting in Albanians living in Southern Serbia losing the right to vote, their property, health insurance, pension and employment. According to the committee, this measure amounted to "ethnic cleansing through administrative means".[47]

Cultural center of Preševo "Abdulla Krashnica"

The first Albanian language school in the Preševo valley was opened in Preševo on February 7, 1945. It was opened by Abdulla Krashnica, local anti-fascist partisan. The first secondary school was opened in 1948.[48]

Before the 2001 rebellion, no Albanian-language media were allowed in the Preševo valley. The first Albanian-language channel was allowed after the Končulj Agreement (2001). In 2003, the state TV channel of Preševo began to broadcast in Albanian. Another regional state channel in Bujanovac broadcasts 8 hours (out of a total 16) daily in Albanian. A private TV channel which broadcasts mostly in Albanian was funded in 2006. "Radio Presheva" broadcasts 10 hours in Albanian daily. A similar station exists in Bujanovac. In Medveđa, the local state channel broadcasts 5 minutes in Albanian daily and one weekly 60-minute show in Albanian.[49]

The main religion of Albanians in the Preševo Valley is Islam. Prior to the Ottoman period, the population of the region was mostly Roman Catholic. There are still Catholic churches in the Karadak villages, located in Kosovo today.