Country: Albania

Group: Macedonians

Date Finalized: 2/8/2022

Team: Kate Edwards (lead), Anusha Natarajan, Lauren Poklar

Content Warning: None

Approximate Time Period: 1919 – Current

Only around 0.2% of the population in Albania identify as Macedonian, most of them living in border areas (Giakoumis, 2019). In 2001, the Albanian government did not include Macedonians in the census. The Association of Macedonians in Albania conducted a survey of the Macedonian population in 2003, reporting an estimated population of 120,000-350,000 Macedonians living in Albania (Minority Rights Group, 2015).

In the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, at the end of World War 1, Albania took over the Mala Prespa region of Macedonia. Albania’s government only acknowledges the Macedonian minority in the Mala Prespa region (Minority Rights Group, 2015).

 Macedonians are not recognized as a minority in the entire country of Albania. This eliminated essential resources like education in their mother tongue (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Research done by the ECRI (European Commission against Racism and Intolerance), shows that Albanians living outsid minority zones have significant  trouble registering their ethnic belonging on civil registries (Refworld, 2008).

Data Quality: Data quality for this ethnic group was 1.5/3, there were a few reliable sources but we could not find a lot of consistent evidence.

Sources

  1. Giakoumis, K. (2019). The policy of non-discrimination and the Protection of Minority Cultural Heritage in Albania. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 26(4), 490–509. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2019.1567722
  2. Macedonians. Minority Rights Group. (2021, February 5). Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/macedonians/
  3. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2008). World directory of minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Albania : Macedonians. Refworld. Retrieved February 1, 2022, from https://www.refworld.org/docid/49749d65b.html