Albanization

After the defeat of the Serbs on the Kosovo Field in 1389 from the troops of the Ottoman Empire, Serbia lost part of its lands, and subsequently lost its independence. The result was an increase in migration processes in the territory inhabited by Serbs , including in Kosovo and Metohija. Serbs moved either to the northern regions beyond the Danube and Sava , or to safer mountainous regions. The lands on the plains, empty after the outflow of the Serbs, were occupied by representatives of other peoples. Thus, in the valleys of Kosovo, Albanians began to settle, partly Turks and Vlachs . The beginning of the mass influx of Albanians into the region was the turn of the XVII-XVIII centuries. The process of Albanianization of the Serbian population began in the 18th century - in many respects it was facilitated by the long period of residence of Albanians and Serbs in close proximity, in which both peoples became culturally close, and the ethnic and interfaith borders between them began to blur ^[1] . The process of Albanianization of the Slavs in Kosovo and Metohija is closely connected with the process of Islamization . The Slavs who converted to Islam assimilated faster by the Albanians. In turn, small-sized groups of Muslim Slavs were subjected to albanization more intensively, while assimilation processes were practically not observed in large groups. So, up to the present, they have not accepted the Albanian ethnic identity and have preserved the South Slavonic dialects of relatively large groups of Gorans and partly mediocre (Zhuplyans) in South Metohija ^{[2] [3]} . Not only Serbs were subjected to Albanization - Turks, Gypsies , Circassians also passed into the Albanian ethnic group dominating in number ^[4] .

At the state level, the process of albanization in Kosovo began during World War II , when the Kosovo and Metohija region became part of Greater Albania under Italian occupation, and continued after the war as part of the autonomous region of Kosovo , in which Albanians made up the majority of the population. First of all, he touched on Muslims of non-Albanian origin. For example, several attempts have been made to introduce training in the Albanian language for all non-Albanian Muslim groups. The first time it was organized in the region in 1946, but subsequently it was replaced by training in Serbian . Further attempts to introduce training in Albanian were noted in the 1980s and after 1999. The authorities of the province of Kosovo and Metohija have repeatedly tried to attribute the Slavic Muslims to Albanian nationality and to replace their names with the Albanian onomastic model ^[5] .

The process of albanization in Kosovo covered entire regions, for example, the entire Slavic-Muslim population of the Opole region south of Prizren was albanized ^[6] . Muslim Montenegrins , who moved to Kosovo mainly after the Second World War, partially joined the Albanian ethnic group ^[7] . An example of an incomplete process of Albanization is the ethnic group of the Rafchans - Muslims of the village of Orahovac (southern Metohija , Podrima region), whose linguistic affiliation is Slavic, and their ethnic identity is Albanian ^[8] .

On the territory of Albania, the Greek ethnic minority (in the region of Northern Epirus ) was subjected to albanization.

The processes of albanization partly affect the non-Albanian population in the western regions of Northern Macedonia, especially the Torbesh (Muslim Macedonians) . In particular, this is due to the fact that, for historical reasons, confessional opposition is more important here than ethnic ^[9] .

1. Mladenovich R. In Search of Ethnic Definition - Slavic Muslim Groups in the South-West of Kosovo and Metohija // Edited by Robert D. Greenberg and Motoki Nomachi. Slavia Islamica. Language, Religion and Identity (Slavic Eurasian Studies No.25). - Sapporo: Slavic Research Center. Hokkaido University, 2012 .-- pp . 115-147 . (Retrieved April 11, 2014)