Shqiptarët e Serbisë janë një komunitet vendas përqendruar në një rajon të vogël: Lugina e Preshevës në jugun e largët, i shtypur pranë kufijve me Kosovën dhe Maqedoninë e Veriut. Në dy nga tre komunat e saj, shqiptarët janë shumicë. Është një komunitet me rrënjë të thella, një histori të vështirë të kohëve të fundit dhe një luftë të gjatë për të drejtat dhe përfaqësimin. Ky udhëzues i mbulon të gjitha këto.
Është pjesë e jonë Shqiptarët në mbarë botën seri.
Fakte të shpejta: Shqiptarët në Serbi
- Popullsia: 61,687 Albanians at the 2022 census, about 94 percent of them in the three Presevo Valley municipalities. Most Albanians boycotted the 2011 census, which recorded only 5,809.
- Ku jetojnë: The three southern municipalities of Presevo (93.7% Albanian at the 2022 census), Bujanovac (62.0%), and Medvedja (14.2%).
- Statusi: Një komunitet vendas, indigjen në kufirin me Kosovën, i njohur si pakicë kombëtare.
- Historia e fundit: Një kryengritje e armatosur nga viti 1999 deri në vitin 2001 përfundoi me një marrëveshje paqeje të ndërmjetësuar ndërkombëtarisht.
- Pamja më e gjerë: Pjesë e një brezi të vazhdueshëm të populluar nga shqiptarë që lidh Kosovën, Maqedoninë e Veriut dhe Serbinë jugore.
Në këtë faqe
- Sa shqiptarë jetojnë në Serbi?
- Një komunitet vendas në kufi
- Kryengritja e viteve 2000 deri në 2001
- Ku jetojnë shqiptarët
- Të Drejtat dhe Ankesat
- Pyetje të shpeshta
Sa shqiptarë jetojnë në Serbi?
Serbia’s 2022 census counted 61,687 Albanians, 57,710 of them in Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. They made up 93.7 percent of Presevo dhe 62.0 percent of Bujanovac, with a smaller community in Medvedja (14.2 percent). The count was contested for a decade: most Albanians boycotted the 2011 census in protest over minority rights, and it recorded only 5,809. The 2002 census, the previous one taken with Albanian participation, had recorded 61,647, almost the same as in 2022.
Një komunitet vendas në kufi
Shqiptarët e Luginës së Preshevës nuk janë emigrantë. Ata kanë jetuar në këtë cep të Ballkanit jugor për shekuj me radhë dhe rajoni i tyre ndodhet përballë... Kosovë dhe Maqedonia e Veriut, duke formuar skajin lindor të një brezi të vazhdueshëm të populluar nga shqiptarë. Kur u hartuan kufijtë modernë pas Luftërave Ballkanike të viteve 1912-1913, lugina u vendos brenda Serbisë, ndërsa tokat fqinje shqiptare shkuan diku tjetër, dhe kjo ndarje e ka përcaktuar komunitetin që atëherë. Shumë këtu ndiejnë një lidhje të ngushtë me Kosovën, pak përtej kodrave.
Kryengritja e viteve 2000 deri në 2001
Lugina ka njohur konflikt. Pas kësaj Lufta e Kosovës, një grup i armatosur etnik shqiptar, Ushtria Çlirimtare e Preshevës, Medvegjës dhe Bujanocit (në shqip, UCPMB), nisi një kryengritje nga viti 1999 deri në vitin 2001 me qëllim bashkimin e tre komunave me Kosovën. Luftimet u zhvilluan në një zonë tampon të demilitarizuar përgjatë kufirit. Ato u ndalën në vitin 2001 nga një zgjidhje e ndërmjetësuar ndërkombëtarisht, Marrëveshja e Konçulit, e cila ofroi amnisti për luftëtarët dhe premtoi integrimin e shqiptarëve në institucionet dhe policinë lokale.
Ku jetojnë shqiptarët
Komuniteti është i përqendruar pothuajse tërësisht në tre komunat jugore të Preshevë, Bujanoc, dhe Medvegjë. Presheva është kryesisht me popullsi shqiptare, Bujanoci është një qytet i përzier, por me shumicë shqiptare, dhe Medvegja është me shumicë serbe me një pakicë shqiptare. Harta tregon rajonin.
Në jugun e largët të Serbisë, Lugina e Preshevës is home to an Albanian majority. The municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac, and Medvedja were home to 57,710 Albanians at the 2022 census, a native community on the border with Kosovo. Hover or tap a municipality.
Municipalities shaded by Albanian share (2022 census; most Albanians boycotted the 2011 census). Source: Statistical Office of Serbia.
Të Drejtat dhe Ankesat
Relations between the community and the Serbian state have long been strained. Albanian leaders point to under-representation in public jobs and institutions, and to a practice by which the authorities struck thousands of Presevo Valley Albanians who work abroad from the residence rolls, which they say further shrinks the community on paper. The 2011 census boycott grew out of these disputes. At the same time, Albanian is used in local administration and schooling in the valley, Albanian parties govern the local municipalities, and the community remains closely tied to the wider Albanian world across the nearby borders. We present these issues as part of a genuinely contested situation, without taking a side.
What the 2022 Census Counted
Serbia’s most recent census, carried out in October 2022, is the first since 2002 to give a usable count of the community. According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 61,687 people declared Albanian ethnicity in 2022, which is 0.93 percent of the country’s population. The 2002 census had recorded 61,647, so the two counts taken with Albanian participation are almost identical.
The 2011 census is the outlier. The Statistical Office’s own footnote explains that in 2011 “the coverage of census units was reduced due to the boycott by the majority of the Albanian ethnic community” in Bujanovac and Preševo. Only 5,809 Albanians were recorded that year, a figure that says more about the boycott than about the population.
The boycott was not repeated in 2022. European Western Balkans, a regional news portal, reported that Albanians took part this time, after staying away in 2011 over grievances that included census forms printed only in Serbian Cyrillic. The same report noted a gap that explains much of the local debate over numbers: preliminary lists registered 60,568 people in Preševo, while 35,097 were counted as inhabitants, because many families also listed relatives who live and work abroad. A census counts usual residents, not everyone with roots in the valley.
Census Figures by Municipality, 2002 and 2022
The table below uses the Statistical Office’s published results for the three municipalities. Shares are calculated from those counts. The 2011 results are left out because of the boycott described above.
| Municipality | Total population, 2002 | Albanians, 2002 | Albanian share, 2002 | Total population, 2022 | Albanians, 2022 | Albanian share, 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preševo | 34,904 | 31,098 | 89.1% | 33,449 | 31,340 | 93.7% |
| Bujanoc | 43,302 | 23,681 | 54.7% | 41,068 | 25,465 | 62.0% |
| Medveđa | 10,760 | 2,816 | 26.2% | 6,360 | 905 | 14.2% |
| Three municipalities together | 88,966 | 57,595 | 64.7% | 80,877 | 57,710 | 71.4% |
| Serbia (without Kosovo) | 7,498,001 | 61,647 | 0.82% | 6,647,003 | 61,687 | 0.93% |
Two things stand out. About 94 percent of all Albanians counted in Serbia in 2022 live in these three municipalities (57,710 of 61,687). And Medveđa has changed the most: its Albanian population fell from 2,816 to 905 in twenty years, while the municipality as a whole lost about four in ten residents. Bujanovac is the most mixed of the three: the 2022 census also recorded 10,467 Serbs and 3,532 Roma there.
How the 2001 Peace Deal Was Structured
The International Crisis Group, which published four reports on the valley between 2001 and 2007, describes the conflict as a seventeen-month, low-grade insurgency in which about 100 people were killed and about 12,500 Albanians fled the area. The fighting took place inside the Ground Safety Zone, a strip within five kilometers of the Kosovo boundary that was demilitarized by Serbian forces after the Lufta e Kosovës of 1999.
The settlement had two halves. On 20 May 2001, in the village of Končulj, UÇPMB commander Shefqet Musliu and Shawn F. Sullivan, the NATO Head of Office in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, signed a demilitarization statement in which the fighters pledged to “demilitarise, demobilise, disarm and disband.” In exchange, the Serbian and Yugoslav governments guaranteed an amnesty, the return of refugees, a multiethnic police force and the integration of Albanians into public institutions. The detailed blueprint was drawn up by Serbia’s deputy prime minister at the time, Nebojša Čović, and is known as the Čović Plan.
The Crisis Group also records the background that Albanian leaders cite: an unofficial referendum in 1992, in which a large majority of the valley’s Albanians voted to join Kosovo, and decades of exclusion from public institutions before the conflict.
The Coordination Body and the Multiethnic Police
Belgrade’s main instrument in the valley is the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa. According to the Crisis Group, it began in 2000 as a joint federal and Serbian body of six generals and four civilians that coordinated the security forces, and after the Končulj Agreement it became responsible for carrying out the Čović Plan, with Čović as its head. Today it describes its work as education, economic investment, support for civil society and public services in the three municipalities.
The OSCE took on the policing part of the deal. Its first multiethnic police course opened in Bujanovac on 22 May 2001, two days after the Končulj signing, with twelve Serb and Albanian trainees on a five-day program. “The joint Serb-Albanian participation in the police training is a clear sign that co-existence of different ethnic communities is possible,” said Ambassador Stefano Sannino, who led the OSCE mission at the time. A 2004 OSCE review of police reform found that greater Albanian representation in the police had improved security, and also noted that a promise to transfer officers who had served in Kosovo out of the area had not yet been kept.
A Bilingual University Department in Bujanovac
Higher education has been one of the more concrete results. On 28 October 2011 the University of Novi Sad’s Faculty of Economics in Subotica opened a department in Bujanovac, with 93 students in its first class, about half of them Albanian and half Serb. The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, who helped broker the project, reports that teaching is in both Serbian and shqip, with visiting professors from the State University of Tetovo in Maqedonia e Veriut covering Albanian-language courses.
The department moved into permanent premises on 17 November 2015, when its first twelve students graduated. The building was funded mainly by the European Union, and the National Council of the Albanian National Minority was one of the project’s partners.
Timeline: Albanians in Southern Serbia Since 1992
- 1992: In an unofficial referendum organized by local leaders, a large majority of Albanians in the valley vote to join Kosovo.
- 1999: After the Kosovo War, a five-kilometer Ground Safety Zone is demilitarized along the boundary with Kosovo.
- Early 2000: Fighters begin organizing under the UÇPMB name and attacking police and army units.
- 2000: The Coordination Body is created by the Yugoslav and Serbian governments.
- 20 May 2001: The demilitarization statement is signed in Končulj; Yugoslav army and police units begin a phased return to the zone that month.
- 22 May 2001: The OSCE begins multiethnic police training in Bujanovac.
- 2002: The census records 61,647 Albanians in Serbia.
- January 2007: For the first time since 2000, Albanians from the valley take part in a national election and win a seat in Serbia’s parliament.
- 2011: Most Albanians boycott the census, which records 5,809. In October the bilingual Bujanovac department opens.
- 17 November 2015: The Bujanovac department’s permanent building is inaugurated.
- October 2022: Albanians take part in the census, which records 61,687.
Pyetje të shpeshta
Sa shqiptarë jetojnë në Serbi?
The 2022 census counted 61,687, about 94 percent of them in the Presevo Valley. Most Albanians boycotted the 2011 census, so that year’s figure of 5,809 is not comparable. Both the 2002 and 2022 censuses recorded Albanian majorities in Presevo and Bujanovac.
Ku jetojnë shqiptarët në Serbi?
Në jug të largët, në tre komunat e Luginës së Preshevës: Preshevë, Bujanoc dhe Medvegjë, në kufirin me Kosovën dhe Maqedoninë e Veriut.
Çfarë ishte kryengritja e Luginës së Preshevës?
Një kryengritje e armatosur e shqiptarëve etnikë nga viti 1999 deri në vitin 2001, e udhëhequr nga UCPMB-ja, që synonte bashkimin e luginës me Kosovën. Ajo përfundoi me një marrëveshje të ndërmjetësuar ndërkombëtarisht dhe një amnisti në vitin 2001.
A janë shqiptarët vendas në Serbinë jugore?
Po. Ata janë një komunitet indigjen që ka jetuar në Luginën e Preshevës për shekuj me radhë, pjesë e një brezi të vazhdueshëm të populluar nga shqiptarët me Kosovën dhe Maqedoninë e Veriut.
Burimet
- Zyra e Statistikave të Republikës së Serbisë, të dhënat e regjistrimit të popullsisë
- Komiteti i Helsinkit për të Drejtat e Njeriut në Serbi, raport mbi pakicën shqiptare
- Wikipedia: Shqiptarët në Serbi
- Wikipedia: Kryengritja në Luginën e Preshevës
- Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia: 2022 Census, Ethnicity, data by municipalities and cities
- Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia: 2002 Census, National or ethnic affiliation, data by settlement
- International Crisis Group: Serbia, Maintaining Peace in the Presevo Valley (Europe Report 186, 2007)
- OSCE Mission to Serbia: First multi-ethnic police training starts in southern Serbia (22 May 2001)
- OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro: Police Reform in Serbia (2004)
- OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities: Bujanovac’s new multilingual university department
- OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities: Serbian Prime Minister inaugurates OSCE-supported multilingual university department in southern Serbia
- European Western Balkans: Will participation in the census improve the position of the Albanian minority in Serbia?
Lexime të Ngjashme
- Shqiptarët në mbarë botën: Diaspora globale
- Shqiptarët në Maqedoninë e Veriut
- Shqiptarët në Mal të Zi
- A është Kosova shqiptare?
Më shumë komunitete të diasporës shqiptare
Autor: Val Demiri
Valbona është redaktore dhe shkrimtare në ALB Connection, ku ajo mbulon njerëzit, bizneset dhe kulturën që formësojnë diasporën shqiptare. E diplomuar në gazetari në Universitetin e Ajovës, puna e saj përfshin profile të komunitetit, histori suksesi dhe reportazhe mbi jetën shqiptare në të gjithë SHBA-në, Evropën dhe më gjerë. Ajo tërhiqet nga historitë që festojnë arritjet e shqiptarëve dhe e mbajnë komunitetin të lidhur përtej kufijve.
