Albanians in Serbia

Of the 107 municipalities in the country, 2 have an ethnic Albanian majority.

Emblem Amblem Stemë	Municipality Opština Komunë	Area km² (sq mi)	Settlements Naselja Vendbanime	Population (2002)		Mayor Gradonačelnik Kryetar/e
				Total	%
	Preševo Preshevë	264 km2 (102 sq mi)	35	34,904	89.1%	Shqiprim Arifi (APN)
	Bujanovac Bujanoc	461 km2 (178 sq mi)	59	43,302	54.69%	Shaip Kamberi (PVD)
—	2	725 km2 (280 sq mi)	94	78,206	—	—

After the Serbian-Turkish War and the territorial expansion of the Principality of Serbia in 1878, massive and violent expulsion of Albanians from the newly occupied regions (mainly from the district of Toplica, formerly partly inhabited by Albanians) and the burning of villages and Albanian quarters. The Principality of Serbia occupied the region of Niš, Leskovac and Prokuplje in which lived a large Albanian population, which was not limited to the Preševo valley, but also further north to Niš resident. Driven by Nationalism, Albanophobia and Islamophobia after the Ottoman occupation, however, the Albanians were displaced from this area to Kosovo or those areas where they still live today.

Hostilities broke out on 15 December 1877, after a Russian request for Serbia to enter the conflict. The Serbian military crossed the border in two directions. The first objective was to capture Niš and the second to break the Niš-Sofia lines of communication for Ottoman forces. After besieging Niš, Serbian forces headed south-west into the Toplica valley to prevent a counterattack by Ottoman forces. Prokuplje was taken on the third day of the war and local Albanians fled their homes toward the Pasjača mountain range, leaving cattle and other property behind. Some Albanians returned and submitted to Serbian authorities, while others fled to Kuršumlija. Advancing Serbian forces heading to Kuršumlija also came across resisting Albanian refugees spread out in the surrounding mountain ranges and refusing to surrender. Many personal belongings such as wagons were strewn and left behind in the woods.Kuršumlija was taken soon after Prokuplje, while Albanian refugees had reached the southern slopes of the Kopaonik mountain range. Ottoman forces attempted to counterattack through the Toplica valley and relieve the siege at Niš, which turned the area into a battlefield and stranded Albanian refugees in nearby mountains. With Niš eventually taken, the refugees of the Toplica valley were unable to return to their villages. Other Serbian forces then headed south into the Morava Valley and toward Leskovac. The majority of urban Albanians fled, taking most of their belongings before the Serbian army arrived. The Serbian army also took Pirot and the Albanians fled to Kosovo, Macedonia and some went toward Thrace.

Balkan Map of 1878, Albanians pictured in green.

Ottoman forces surrendered Niš on 10 January 1878 and most Albanians departed for Pristina, Prizren, Skopje and Thessaloniki. The Albanian neighbourhood in Niš was burned. 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. 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 these Albanians by offering his resignation. Ottoman sources state that Serbian forces during the war destroyed mosques in Vranje, Leskovac and Prokuplje.

During the Balkan wars Kosovo, Sandzak and Macedonia became part of Kingdom of Serbia. In this territories lived a large Albanian population. The forced displacement of Albanians from Kosovo, Metohija, Sandzak and Macedonia started in the First Balkan war in October 1912.

According to Serbian diplomacy documents, 281,747 Albanians were expelled until August 1914, not counting children until the age of six. Albanian families are from newly occupied areas deported through Greece to Turkey. For populations with Albanian Muslims from the Balkan states, the space was called Anadoll, for the Albanians of Halep and Baghdad, in Syria and Iraq. In the properties of expelled Albanians, the Serbian government has placed over 20,000 Serb families, while the Montenegrin government has planned to put 5,000 families in Metohija.

Albanians refugees on their way to Turkey.

With the return of the Serbian army in 1918, the forcible resettlement of Albanians, without the right to return, continued until the World War II. In the period of the Yugoslav Kingdom, the "flying units" of the army, police and Chetniks tortured and killed the Albanian population. From 1918 to 1938, the Yugoslav army burned and destroyed 320 Albanian villages. Only in the period 1918-1920, 12,346 persons were killed, 22,150 persons were imprisoned, 50,515 homes were stolen and 6,125 houses were burned. According to the data from the Institute of History in Pristina, in the period 1919-1940, 255,878 Albanian Muslims from the Yugoslav Kingdom in Turkey were generally expelled, of which:

Albanians: 215,412 Turks: 27,884 Bosniaks: 2,582

In addition to the migration to Turkey, there has been a greater relocation in Albania. According to some data, only 40,000 persons were displaced from Yugoslav areas in Albania in 1921. Apart from Turkey and Albania, Albanians have also fled to Europe and North America, and thus have created very big Albanian diaspora in those countries.

The first state contacts between Yugoslav Kingdom and the Turkish Movement of Albanians were developed in 1926, new platforms of the Yugoslav ministry of argoculture were established, the purpose of which being the escapement of Albanians could only be achieved as a long-term process, since even Yugoslav Kingdom did not there are sufficient funds nor international circumstances allow allowing it to be decided for a short term. After the deployment of the dictatorship, the Yugoslav Kingdom intensified the ethnic cleansing of Albanians, where the leading role was the Serbian Cultural Club, supported by the state administration

The Yugoslav Government in 1935 held meetings with five representatives from five ministries and the General Staff drafted the project "On expulsion of the non-Slav element from southern Serbia." Among its conclusions was the urgent flow of a bilateral convention with Turkey and Albania. The agreement provided for the release of all tax and military duties to all those who voluntarily renounced Yugoslavia's statehood and transport free of charge to those who gave their real estate to the state. General Staff Suggestions have been accepted as measures for "successfully and expeditiously expelling the non-Slav populations" in Turkey and Albania. Measures have also meant the expulsion of propaganda against displacement that was led by Tirana, often calling Albanian recruits from the spaces border services in military exercises, ban on admission to the state service "persons who are considering migration", transfer of non-Slav officials to other parts of the country, "nationalization of geographic objects and personal surnames" etc.

Turkey in early 1936 expressed readiness to reach a formal agreement with Yugoslavia for the transfer of 200,000 resemblers to the Turkish mentality, those in Turkey "would be assimilated easily." [8]

Criticizing long-term policy of expulsion of Albanians, Serbian academician and politician Vaso Čubrilović suggested ways to choose the "Albanian problem" with ethnic cleansing of Kosovo by Albanians. Čubrilović in 1937 made the Albanians Expulsion Project for Stojadinović's Government, to be followed by state governments.

"The Araraths is impossible to suppress only with gradual colonization ... The only way and means is the brutal violence of an organized state government ... where we have always been on them." The Belgrade government has organized paramilitary formations of the Chetniks led by Kosta Pećanac, Milic Krstic, Jovan Babunski, Vasilije Trbić and others, who have organized condemned expeditions by committing violence, terror and organized robbery. October 7, 1938: The Army Ministry of the Yugoslav Kingdom has ordered to continue with the deportation action of the Albanians, while Army Command III suggested measures that they should pursue "deliberately, systematically but energetically" and as long as possible short the compact masses of Albanians must be broken. The army in this regard shows an important role that should be guided by the Church's popular advocacy and private initiative.

During the very difficult times for Albanians under Serbian monarchy administration, the Yugoslav Communist Party has acted in Kosovo, thanking for the autonomy and the peoples' fraternal equality, it was against the expulsion of Albanians in Turkey, the confiscation of their property and the terror against them.

State expulsion activities culminated with the signing of the Yugoslav-Turkish convention. From 9 to 11 July 1938 in Istanbul held a series of meetings in the preparation of the Yugoslav-Turkish agreement on expulsion of Albanians.

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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]

— 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.[6] In recent times, prominent politician Vuk Jeremić in his comments on Twitter about the rights and wrongs of the Kosovo dispute compared Albanians to the “evil Orcs” of the movie The Hobbit.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

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.[10] On 26 November 2017, the President of Albania Ilir Meta made a historical visit to Medveđa, municipality with Albanian ethnic minority.[11] On 26 November 2019, an earthquake struck Albania. Albanians of the Preševo valley donated aid and sent it through several convoys to earthquake victims.[12]

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

According to the 2011 census, 71.1% of all Albanians are Muslim, followed by Catholics (16.8%) and Orthodox Christians (2.6%). The remainder did not declare their religion or belong to smaller religious groups (9.5%).[13]