Kosovo Albanians

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Distribution of Kosovar Albanians in Kosovo (2011 census)

The Kosovar Albanians ( Albanian  Kosovarë / -t or Shqiptarë / -te Kosovës ) are a regional group of the Albanian ethnic group in Kosovo . Her mother tongue is Albanian . They make up around 93 percent of the country's population. Kosovar Albanian emigrants live in large numbers in Western Europe (especially Switzerland and Germany ) and in the United States .

dialect

In Kosovo, a variant of the Gegic dialect is spoken that differs significantly from the standard Albanian written language.

religion

In a 2011 survey, 95.61 percent of the Kosovar population described themselves as Muslim. The majority of Albanian Muslims are Sunnis , a significant minority of followers of the Sufi orders of the Rifāʿīya and Bektashi . Around 3% of Kosovar Albanians are Catholics .

Kosovar Albanians and Albanians from Albania

Albanian rebels in Kosovo in 1912 at the time of Albania's independence

In addition to many similarities such as the common written language, the use of the flag of Albania in unofficial use and the support of the Albanian national football team, there are also clear differences between Kosovar Albanians and Albanians from Albania , who among other things a. due to the state separation since 1912 and the complete closure of the border after 1948. On the one hand, the Albanians in the mother country were cut off from intellectual and scientific development outside the country due to the isolation in communist times, while the Kosovar Albanians of the older generation, due to decades of labor emigration to Western Europe, are much more cosmopolitan.

On the other hand, the Kosovar Albanians had no contact with the predominantly Tuscan elites of southern Albania, so that their cultural achievements were hardly received in Kosovo. In addition, patriarchal and religious traditions continued to play a major role in Kosovo after World War II, while the communists forced Albania to modernize in this regard. After all, the younger generation of Albanians who remained in Kosovo has major educational deficits due to the Milošević regime and the subsequent chaos under the UN protectorate. Today a part of the Kosovar Albanian population is not able to write the standard Albanian language correctly. There is even a movement that wants to make the Gish dialect spoken in Kosovo a written language.

Until the flight and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Kosovars during the Kosovo war (1999), only a few Albanians from Kosovo had ever visited the so-called mother country. The encounter between the thousands of refugees and the Albanians across the border was a culture shock. One was amazed at the apparent poverty and also at the chaotic conditions in state and society. Then there were the linguistic differences. The Albanian intellectual Fatos Lubonja outlined the differences as follows:

“· The Kosovar Albanians valued Albania when they saw their mother, from whom they were forcibly separated - the Albanians began to hate it because it was surrounded by barbed wire and looked more like a concentration camp;
· The Kosovars had the opportunity to travel abroad and this helped them to fulfill the dream of the promised soil - the Albanians, isolated, pressed to get to know the world;
· The Kosovars saw Enver Hoxha as the symbol of Albania. Many of them then became Marxist-Leninists - the Albanians hated him because he was the symbol of evil;
· The Kosovars, tired of the Serbs, burned with longing for the Albanians - the Albanians said that they experienced the worst when they were left alone in the hands of Albanians;
· The Kosovars longed when they heard folk songs - the Albanians got on their nerves because they didn't hear any other music on the Albanian radio and television ... "

- Fatos Lubonja : Koha Jonë , June 4, 1995

Gradually, in the years when the borders were open again after the war and the new "Rruga e Kombit", the "Road of the Nation" highway between the countries , had simplified passenger traffic, the Albanians from the region came closer to each other Kosovo and those from Albania. You get married again across the border, and many Kosovars spend their holidays on Albanian beaches . The linguistic differences have also decreased due to direct contacts, but above all due to the media. There are also more and more common economic activities. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Albania's declaration of independence in 2012, the first joint primer for Albanians and Kosovar Albanians was published in Kosovar Prizren , for which two Albanians and two Kosovar Albanians are the main authors. The newly created cultural and communication space is called the Albanosphere .

See also

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Kosovar Albanians  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Census in Kosovo 2011 (excluding Northern Kosovo )
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Koeth, Saskia Drude: Kosovo-Albanian word for word . In: gibberish . tape 221 . Reise Know-How Verlag Peter Rump, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-89416-579-6 , p. 9, 12 .
  3. ↑ Andrej Ivanji: Kosovo - Land of Lost Illusions. In: mdr.de. May 26, 2017. Retrieved October 11, 2017 .
  4. ^ Dan Alexe: The influence of Sufi Islam in the Balkans . In: euobserver.com . December 1, 2010 ( euobserver.com [accessed October 11, 2017]).
  5. ↑ Christians and Muslims in Kosovo - an example of lived tolerance between the religions. In: Church in Need. April 16, 2013, accessed October 11, 2017 .
  6. ^ Kosovo. In: Religion Wiki. Fandom, accessed October 11, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b Translated from Albanian and quoted in Peter Schubert : Albanian search for identity in the field of tension between national statehood and European integration . Study as part of a research project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. In: Association for International Politics and International Law e. V. Berlin, short: VIP (Hrsg.): Publications by members of the VIP . Berlin March 2003, Section II.6. 'The unsolved Albanian question' and fn. 53 ( text online [accessed on November 18, 2015]).
  8. ^ Robert Pichler : Albanians and Serbs in the 20th Century . In: Bernhard Chiari , Agilolf Keßelring on behalf of the Military History Research Office (ed.): Guide to history. Kosovo . 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-75665-7 , pp. 64 .
  9. ↑ "Am public enemy number one". Interview with Migjen Kelmendi. In: The Standard . September 27, 2004, accessed November 18, 2015 .
  10. ^ Yugoslavia - Kosovo - Action: Dr. Flora Brovina, pediatrician ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 21, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.amnesty.de
  11. ↑ Andreas Ernst: How young Albanians in Macedonia see themselves and their future: The spirit of the Ohrid Agreement is stuck in the bottle. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. October 16, 2009, accessed on November 18, 2015 : "'Albanosphere' is a fact"
  12. ^ Andreas Ernst: New Albanian Self-Confidence: The Optimistic Nation. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. November 28, 2012, accessed on November 18, 2015 : “An overall Albanian media landscape has also formed, which not only reflects the local societies, but the whole“ Albanosphere ”. Political movements and parties maintain cross-border contact, and joint appearances by top politicians are part of everyday life. [...] Unlike Bosnia-Herzegovina or Macedonia, whose future existence depends on integration into the EU, the unification of Albanians with or without the EU is possible. "
  13. ↑ Promovohet abetarja e përbashkët. Albinfo.ch, May 17, 2012, accessed on May 23, 2012 (Albanian).