Albanians

This article is about the Albanians as an ethnic group. For information about the residents or nationals of Albania, see demographics of Albania.

Albanians

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Regions with significant populations
Albania:    3,385,000 [1] Serbia and Montenegro:    2,210,000 [2] Republic of Macedonia:    509,000 (2002 census) Greece:    650,000 Italy:    233,000 Sweden:    40,000 Denmark:    8,000 USA:    114,000 (2000 census) France:    20,000 Slovenia:    6,000 Croatia:    4,500 Romania:    500 Belgium:    25,000 Great Britain:    30,000 Switzerland:    200,000 Germany:    400,000 Norway:    7.000 Australia:    12.000 Bosnia and Herzegovina:    7,000
Languages
Albanian
Religion
Predominantly Muslim with significant Albanian Orthodox and Roman Catholic minorities
Related ethnic groups
Other Indo-Europeans

The Albanians are an ethnic group generally associated with Albania, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia and the Albanian language. Most Albanians nowadays live in the Republic of Albania, Kosovo (Serbia-Montenegro), the Republic of Macedonia and Greece, although there are Albanian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries.

Population

Due to the high rate of migration of various ethnic groups throughout the Balkans in the last two decades, exact figures are difficult to obtain. A tenuous breakdown of Albanians by location is as follows:

• 3,385,000 in Albania according to CIA World Factbook
• 2,210,000 in Serbia and Montenegro which can be broken up as follows:
  • 2,112,000 in Kosovo (the OSCE estimates)
  • 67,000 in Central Serbia (2002 census)
  • 31,000 in Montenegro (according to the 2003 census; an estimated 50,000 by Albanian accounts).
• 509,000 in the Republic of Macedonia (from the 2002 census).
• more than 233,000 Albanians in Italy, the majority having arrived since 1991. See also Arbëreshë.
• In Greece, there were more waves of immigration from Albania, from the 11th century to the 1990s. As such, they are divided into different groups:
  • Cham Albanians: an unknown number reside in the Greek region of Epirus (Çamëria in Albanian) - there were thought to be around 19,000 before the end of World War II. The Muslim Cham Albanians left Greece for Albania and Turkey in 1945; the exact reasons for their departure vary depending on source. According to Greek sources, it was to avoid the impending military court sentences, a consequence of their collaboration with the Italian/German occupying forces. Albanian sources claim they were forcefully expelled by the EDES troops of the Greek resistance for having collaborated with the Italian/German occupying forces.
  • The Arvanites are the descendants of ethnic Albanian immigrants from 11th century to the 15th century. They have been largely assimilated into the dominant Greek society and generally do not self-identify as Albanians.
  • Albanian nationals who arrived during the 1990s, mainly as illegal immigrants; there are as many as 700.000 [of which up to 200.000 are documented as ethnic Greeks] according to the only official state report on immigration data: Statistical Data on Immigrants in Greece.
• In Turkey: demographers estimate up to 5 million of Albanian descent [3]. However, many Albanians, who immigrated from their homelands to Turkey, have been assimilated and do not espouse ethnic Albanian affiliation. Turkey does not compile official census figures for Albanians.
• In Australia: by birthplace of individual, the total number of persons born in Albania is 1,451. By ancestry, the count of responses with Albanian ancestry is 10,459 according to 2001 Census of Population by Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) regarding Albanians living in Australia.
• Albanians living permanently in Scandinavia:
  • in Sweden: 40,000 Albanians.
  • in Denmark: 8,000 Albanians.
  • in Norway: 7,000 Albanians.
• In Egypt: 18,000 Albanians, mostly Tosk speakers. Many are descendants of the soldiers of Mehmet Ali. A large part of the former nobility of Egypt was Albanian in origin.
• In the United States: 114,000 Albanians, according to the latest 2000 US Census. This figure includes Albanians from Albania only.

Culture

Contribution to humanity

Albanians have played a prominent role in the development of the arts and sciences as well as in religion and sport. Prominent individuals have included the defender of Europe during the mid-15th century Skenderbeg, the writer Ismail Kadare, the painter Ibrahim Kodra, the composer Simon Gjoni, the Nobel Prize winner Ferid Murad, the Olympic athlete Klodiana Shala, the Roman Catholic missionary Mother Teresa and Pope Clement XI.Other well known individuals include the prime minister of the Ottoman Empire Ferhat Pasha and Mehemet Ali the viceroy of Egypt. John Belushi and his brother Jim Belushi were of Albanian parents who immigrated in the USA after WWII. The American actress Eliza Dushku is also born of Albanian father and Danish mother.

Language

Most Albanians speak the Albanian language, a member of the Indo-European language family. There are several variants of Albanian. The two main Albanian variants are Tosk and Gheg. Some members of the Albanian diaspora do not speak the language (mostly in the US, Canada and UK) but are still considered Albanian by ethnic origin or descent. Non-Albanians who studied the Albanian language include prominent individuals such as Franz Bopp, Norbert Jokl and Robert Elsie.

Religion

Since Ottoman rule, the majority of Albanians have been Muslim. Most of these are Sunni Muslims though a minority (20% of total Muslims) are Bektashi. Significant numbers of Albanians are Albanian Orthodox or Roman Catholic, and some have no formal religious affiliation. This rich blend of religions has rarely caused religious strife and fanaticism; today people of different religions are freely intermarrying. For most of its history, Albania has had a noticeable Jewish community. Most of this community was saved by the Albanian people during the Nazi occupation [4]. According to Yad Vashem's database, 67 Jews lost their lives in Albania. It is worth noting that Yad Vashem has collected data for only half of all Jewish deaths. Consequently, the death toll is closer to 134. The German test for Jewish identification was circumcision (ie. if men were circumcised, then they were Jews). However, Muslims were also circumcised and due to the large population of Muslims in Albania this test was not valid. Furthermore, Germans remained for only 14 months in Albania, mostly from 1944 to 1945. By that time, news on the Holocaust began spreading, causing more Jews to flee. The majority of Albanian Jews have left to settle in Israel, but a small number still remain.[5].

Symbolism

Albanian flag

The flag of Albania depicts a double-headed eagle on a red backgound, which was raised by the Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg in his Albanian rebellion against the Ottoman Turks. The Albanians are called Shqiptarët (originally Shqyptarët) in the Albanian language, which freely translates as "The Sons of Eagles".

History

The Albanians are descendents of ancient Balkan people, but the exact identification is still under debate, see Origin of Albanians. Most historians and linguists support either an Illyrian or Daco-Thracian origin. They were first mentioned in the Balkans in 1043 AD. Islam replaced Christianity as the majority religion during the period of Ottoman Turkish rule from the 15th century until 1912, though Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism are also practiced. Among the poorest of Europe's nationalities, in the latter half of the 20th century Albanians experienced the highest rate of natural population growth of any of Europe's major indigenous ethnic groups, increasing their numbers from 1.5 million around 1900 and fewer than 2.5 million in 1950.

Ethnic Albanians

Albanian is also a term often given to what would otherwise be called an ethnic Albanian. This is usually someone who is considered by himself or others to be Albanian or of Albanian descent. Several distinguishing characteristics might be:

• Cultural connection with Albanian culture
• Speaking the Albanian language
• Having ancestors who lived in Albania or an area out of which the current Albanian state was formed (i.e. the occupied lands that were part of the Ottoman Empire)

There are ethnic Albanian minorities in several European countries, as well as in the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia and Ukraine.

Albanian Nationalism

Both Kosovo (a Serbian province though governed since June 1999 by UNMIK, backed by KFOR, a NATO-led international force) and western Macedonia have in recent years seen armed movements (Kosovo Liberation Army, UCPMB, Macedonian NLA) aiming either for independence, greater autonomy, or increased human and political rights.

The fate of Kosovo remains uncertain owing to the reluctance of the Albanian majority to contemplate a restoration of Serbian sovereignty and of the United Nations and NATO to separate the territory definitively from Serbia in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 from 1999.

The situation in Macedonia seems to have been resolved by giving the Albanian minority greater government representation and the right to use the Albanian language in education and government.

See also

• Demographics of Albania
• History of Albania
• History of the Republic of Macedonia
• Kosovo war
• List of Albanians
• List of Albanian-Americans

External links

• Home of Albanians Online