Parts of Macedonia in Albania
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CONFERENCE OF COUNCIL OF EUROPE IN TIRANA
Ethnic Macedonians From Albania Demand Their Basic Rights Education in mother tongue, representation in the state administration, the right to use place-names in Macedonian, free information, are only some of the demands of the minorities that make up about 40 percent of the population.
Ethnic minorities in Albania, at the conference organized by the Council of Europe, demanded from the state to secure the universal right to education in mother tongue, to free information in mother tongue, and representation in state administration. On Friday, at the conference in Tirana, ethnic Macedonians, Greeks, Serbs, Montenegrins, Vlachs and other members of ethnic minorities one more time demanded to be allowed to freely declare their ethnic and religious affiliation in the next population census. They also demanded to be given the right to use their personal names [Albania bans use of "non-Albanian" personal names and surnames] and place-names.
Seminar for the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of Minority Rights in Albania was held on Thursday and Friday in Tirana. The seminar was organized by the Secretariat of the Convention within the Council of Europe. That was the opportunity of the representatives of ethnic minorities to raise their voices and demand their rights, although the authorities attempted to shut them up. After ten years of democracy, for the first time the status and treatment of ethnic minorities were discussed in a public forum. Although ethnic minorities make up almost 40 percent of overall population, they do not have even the most basic rights.
Representatives of the Albanian authorities tried persistently during the seminar to control or, better said, cut off discussions with representatives of ethnic Macedonians, Greeks, Serbs, Montenegrins, Vlachs, Roma, and Egyptians, but without success. The view that the government should deal with these demands instead of waiting for possible creation of problems by ethnic minorities was also expressed during the gathering.
Leaders of the associations of ethnic Macedonians "Mir" and "Prespa", Kimet Fetahu and Edmond Temelko, the association of Greeks "Omonija", Vangel Dule, the association of Serbs-Montenegrins "Morava-Moraca", Milan Vaso, as well as other ethnic minorities, demanded to be given universal rights to education in mother tongue, free information in mother tongue, representation in state administration, to be allowed to freely express their ethnic and religious affiliation in the next population census, to be allowed to once again use their own personal names and place names in their mother tongues. Fetahu and Temelko directly demanded from the government representatives, but unfortunately did not receive a reply, the return of the only radio program in Macedonian language that until March 2001 was broadcast by Radio Korca, extension of education in mother tongue where it already exists and introduction of education in Macedonian in Gora and Golo Brdo. The two latter regions with the significant majority population of Muslim ethnic Macedonians are not recognized as regions with ethnic minority population by the Albanian authorities.
Rubin Zemon, an expert for ethnic minority issues and rights, representative of the Egyptians from Macedonia, delivered a lecture on the topic "Rights of ethnic minorities in the Balkans, especially in Albania". The participants mentioned some positive developments during the last few years; permission to publicly use their mother tongue in mutual communication, nurturing of folklore and tradition and the construction of the new school in the village of Dolna Gorica.
by Vera TODOROVA,
Dnevnik, Skopje, Macedonia, October 22, 2001
Folk festival "Prespa 2001" in Albania
Macedonian Tradition and Roots Celebrated in Pustec
"We have very few opportunities to use Macedonian language in public and the only ten-minutes-long program produced and broadcast by a local radio station was abolished," complain the residents of Mala Prespa, fearing that they will forget their mother tongue.
"Welcome Macedonians! It is so nice to sing and dance in Macedonian," say our ethnic Macedonians from Mala Prespa where the song "My land Macedonia" could be heard in the lakeside village of Pustec during the second folk festival "Prespa 2001".
More than 500 ethnic Macedonians form the region Mala Prespa in Albania gathered on Tuesday in the village and with Macedonian songs and dances marked the beginning of the only officially permitted cultural event that connects them with their roots.
The festival continued for another day in the village of Dolna Gorica, with participation of ethnic Macedonian cultural associations from Albania and two from Macedonia.
Elderly, women in Prespa folk costumes, children, middle-aged and young men greeted us in Pustec with broad smiles.
"After thirty years, last year we restarted the festival. It is not very luxurious or solemn, but it is very important to us. This is not only a festival. Today we celebrate our tradition, origin, our Macedonian roots. Only during these days are we allowed to say in public how we really feel," Adrijan Nesko, vice-president of "Prespa" one of four organizations for the protection of rights of ethnic Macedonians in Albania, told us.
According to the estimates of ethnic Macedonian organizations, there are about 350,000 ethnic Macedonians in Albania, while 120,000 have been registered. During the most recent census, held in April 2001, citizens could not express their ethnic affiliation and everyone was registered as an Albanian.
There are ten villages in Mala Prespa, with about 4,700 Eastern Orthodox ethnic Macedonians - Pustec, the largest one in the region, Sulin, Leska, Zrnovsko, Cerje, Gorna and Dolna Gorica, Tuminec, Globocani, and Vrbnik, which is actually in Greece. The region has very little fertile land. Villages mostly work as fishermen and farmers, growing wheat, maize and some beans. Some of them have sheep and goats. They haven't had a water filtration pump for already four years, so that they have to drink water directly from the lake.
The life in Pustec is hard, typical for a lakeside village. However, while we were there, not a single villager complained.
"When I was younger, I worked in the field, in the cooperative. I am already old, aged 75, and I cannot work as before. Now, I just do house work. I get a pension, $10 a month. Those who work for the state earn more, upto $50 a month. We get money, but children have to go to work in Macedonia, they support us. Life is good, we somehow make end meet," a granny from Pustec told us.
Out of about 1,100 inhabitants of Pustec only five percent are employed by the municipality, in the education or health services. They earn about $75 a month. Others are seasonal workers in Macedonia and Greece.
There are two health centers in Mala Prespa. In Pustec there is an ethnic Albanian doctor, and in Gorna Gorica there is an ethnic Macedonian doctor. Health centers are more-or-less equipped, but emergency health care is a problem, because it is hard to find a vehicle to take the sick to the closest town, Korca, some 25 kilometers away.
"We have electricity between noon and 5pm. After dark we have to go to bed and wait for the next dawn," say the villagers.
The village has one school, which is at the same time both a primary school and a high school. There are 25 employees, all of them ethnic Macedonians. Children study in Macedonian for the first four years, and after that in Albanian, apart from one subject in Macedonian.
"Last year we finally won the right to teach children three subjects in high school in Macedonian - history, grammar and literature. We have very little equipment. Several of the villagers who now live in Germany bought us desks and chairs, and promised to buy equipment for the other villages in the region as well. God willing," says Donka Simoni, a teacher in Pustec.
At the festival, Ganka Samoilova-Cvetanovska, Minister for Culture, delivered assistance for the schools, books, audio cassettes, a TV set and a video player.
Children in Mala Prespa do not have schoolbooks for the subjects they study in their mother tongue. Books in Macedonian are not printed in Albania. The Macedonian Ministry of Culture has provided schoolbooks for free last year, but cannot "continue to do that". "This is not the way to resolve the problem, this is the obligation of Albania," the villagers say.
"We have very few opportunities to use our mother tongue. There was a ten-minutes-long radio program in Macedonian broadcast and produced by a local radio station, but it was taken off the air when the crisis in Macedonia started. We are afraid that we might forget our mother tongue. We are trying to set up a local radio station that would broadcast in Macedonian. The difficult part is getting a broadcasting permit. If we obtain a permit, it will be easy to obtain financing, we don't need much money," says Nesko.
Risto Nikovski, Macedonian ambassador in Albania, has experienced the troubles besetting ethnic Macedonians in Albania. We visits the villagers daily, and they see him as their salvation.
"He is a local, a resident of Mala Prespa. Since he has been here, we have had democracy. Earlier it was really hard," say the locals.
Vanja Lazarovska and Petranka Kostadinova, famous ethnic Macedonian folk singers, participated in this year's festival in Mala Prespa. In the center of the village Macedonian songs echoed and Macedonian dances were performed.
by Vesna IVANOVSKA
Dnevnik, Skopje, Macedonia, October 22, 2001
Trebishte, Golo brdo
Mala Prespa
Macedonians dancing in Mala Prespa
Pustec
Parts of Macedonia presently in Yugoslavia
There are also small parts of Macedonia presently in Yugoslavia known as Gora and Prohor Pchinski.
Prohor Pchinjski