Albanians - Misplaced Pages

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Revision as of 04:18, 24 January 2007 by 203.49.181.191 (talk) (→Population)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about Albanians as an ethnic group. For demographic information, see Demographics of Albania. Ethnic group

Albanians
*Shqiptarë*
Total population
File:Albanians3.png Skanderbeg · Mehmet Ali · King Zog · Ismail Kadare
approx. 8 million
Regions with significant populations
Template:Flagcountry2	3,385,000
Template:Flagcountry2	2,782,000
Template:Flagcountry2	31,000
Template:Flagicon2 Rep. Macedonia	510,000
Template:Flagcountry2	443,550
Template:Flagcountry2	300,000
Template:Flagcountry2	250,000
Template:Flagcountry2	114,000
Template:Flagcountry2	15,000
Template:Flagcountry2	35,000
Template:Flagcountry2	8,000
Template:Flagcountry2	20,000
Template:Flagcountry2	94,900
Template:Flagcountry2	10,500
Template:Flagcountry2	1,200
Template:Flagcountry2	6,000
Template:Flagcountry2	15,082
Template:Flagcountry2	500
Template:Flagcountry2	7,000
Template:Flagcountry2	5,000
Template:Flagcountry2	12,000
Template:Flagicon2 Bosnia/Herz.	10,000 to 12,000
Template:Flagcountry2	65,000
Languages
Albanian
Religion
Muslim, Albanian Orthodox, Roman Catholic

Albanians
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Geographical distribution Native Albania Kosovo Croatia Greece Italy Montenegro North Macedonia Serbia Diaspora Greece Italy Australia Bulgaria Denmark Egypt Finland Germany Norway Romania South America Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom United States
Albanian culture Architecture Art (Traditional tattooing) Besa Cuisine Customary law Dance Dress Epic poetry (Kângë Kreshnikësh) Folklore Gjakmarrje Gjamë/Vajtim Literature Music Oda Paganism Symbols Traditions Tribes (farefisní)
Albanian language Gheg Arbanasi Upper Reka Istrian Tosk Arbëresh Arvanitika Cham Lab
Religion Christianity Catholicism Italo-Albanian Church Albanian Greek-Catholic Church Orthodoxy Islam Sunnism Bektashism Judaism
History of Albania Origin of the Albanians
v t e

The Albanians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian language. About half of today's Albanians live in the Republic of Albania, with the second largest group living in the UN administered province of Kosovo (an autonomous province of Serbia), central Serbia, Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia. There are also Albanian minorities and immigrant communities in a number of other countries.

==PALBANIANS ARE ANIMALS THEY LIVE IN THEIR SHITHOLES IN ALBANIA THEY ALL STINK AND THEY ARE ALL UGLY ND RETARTED ...THEY THINK THEY CAN TAKE KOSOVO BUT THEY CANT BECOZ THEY UGLY AND THEY STINK AND EVERY1 HATES THEM !!! FUK ALBANIA

Ethnic subgroups

There are two major dialect groups, the Ghegs, to the north of the Shkumbin River, and the Tosks, to the south. Kosovar Albanians are Ghegs. There is a large intermediate area between the two regions, which includes the capital, Tirana.

The Ghegs, who make up two-thirds of Albanians, are less intermarried with non-Albanians than the Tosks, who throughout history were more often subjected to foreign rule and other foreign influences. In the past, the Ghegs were organized in clans and the Tosks in a semifeudal society. Before World War II the Ghegs dominated Albanian politics, but after the war many Tosks came to power because the new Communist government drew most of its support from Tosks.

During Enver Hoxha’s regime in Albania, the cultural and economic differences between the Ghegs and the Tosks were suppressed. The 1997 civil disturbances in Albania largely followed these ethnic lines, with Ghegs supporting Berisha and Tosks opposing him.

Culture

Contribution to humanity

Prominent individuals from Albania have included the defender of Albania 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. Also the American actress Eliza Dushku is born of an Albanian father and a 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 United States, Canada and United Kingdom) 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, and 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 . According to Yad Vashem's database, 67 Jews lost their lives in Albania. 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, from September 1943 to November 1944. 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..

Symbolism

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

History

The Albanians are descendants 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 communities in several European countries, as well as in the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia and Ukraine.

Albanians outside Republic of Albania

Both Kosovo (a Serbian province) and the western regions of the Republic of 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 the Republic of 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.

Notes and references

External links

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