The Macedonians in Albania (; ) are an officially recognized ethnic minority. According to the data from the census held in 2023, there are 2,281 ethnic Macedonians in Albania.The party of Macedonians in Albania does not recognize the census in which 8 citizens declared themselves Bulgarians. Слободен печат, 28.06.2024.Три пъти повече българи от македонци в Албания. BGNES, 28.06.2024. According to the 2011 census, 5,512 ethnic Macedonians lived in Albania. In the 1989 census, 4,697 people had declared themselves Macedonian.Artan Hoxha and Alma Gurraj, "Local Self-Government and Decentralization: Case of Albania. History, Reforms and Challenges". In: Local Self Government and Decentralization in South - East Europe. Proceedings of the workshop held in Zagreb, Croatia. 6 April 2001. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Zagreb Office, Zagreb 2001, pp 194–224
The condition of the Macedonian population living in the Prespa area is described in positive terms, and particular praise is given since all the villages of the area are allowed schooling in their mother tongue.Minority Rights in Albania, page 3 - Albanian Helsinki Committee, September 1999 Macedonian organizations allege that the government undercounts their number and that they are politically under-represented, arguing there are no Macedonians in the Albanian parliament, until Vasil Sterjovski was elected in 2019 representing the Macedonian Party. Past Helsinki reports stated, "Albania recognizes [...] a Macedonian minority, but only in the Southern regions. Those who identify as Macedonians [...] outside these minority regions are denied the minority rights granted in the south, including minority classes at state schools."
In some circumstances, ethnic identity can be fluid among Albania's Slavophonic population, who may identify as Macedonian or Bulgarian, depending on the circumstances.Valeri Grigorov, Albania: Landmarks of Transition. Sofia: International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations (2003). p. 18. Albanian Slavs are targeted by "Bulgarian cross-border nationalism" and, as an EU member, Bulgaria offers more benefits to this minority than North Macedonia does.
History In the middle of the 19th century, the national affiliation of the Orthodox Slavs of Macedonia became the locus of a contest between Greeks and Bulgarians, who intensified their national educational activity in the region, along with Serbia. According to Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 Edition, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Slavs constituted the majority of the population in Macedonia. Per Britannica itself, the bulk of the Slavs was regarded by almost all independent authorities as "Bulgarians". The partition of the Ottoman lands of the region of Macedonia between Balkan nation-states after the conclusion of the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) and World War I (1914–1918) left the area divided. The areas of Gollobordë and Mala Prespa were included in Albania. In 1923, during the Albanian border disputes, Bulgarian General Markov asked the Italian delegation in Durrës for informations about "Bulgarian" villages in Albania. General Enrico Tellini reported that the villages Markov had described as "Bulgarian" were in fact called "Macedonian" by the villagers themselves and that the Slavic-speaking inhabitants of the Korçë region identified as Macedonians, and when he suggested the term "Bulgarian", the villagers kept insisting on "Macedonians". He noted that, despite their proximity to Bulgarians, it was difficult to classify them as "true Bulgarians". He also noted that many of these villages were under strong Greek influence. The Albanians referred to Slavic Macedonians in Albania as Bulgarians (estimated as 27,000 by the Macedonian National Committee in Sofia in the 1930s). The new Albanian state did not attempt to assimilate this minority. On January 9, 1932, the Bulgarian and Albanian delegations signed in Sofia a protocol regarding the recognition of the ethnic Bulgarian minority in Albania.Milo, Paskal. “Albania and the Balkan Entente.” Balkan Studies 39, no. 1 (1998): 91–122. p. 110. Yugoslavia was suspicious of the recognition of a Bulgarian minority in Macedonia and was concerned this would hinder its policy of forced Serbianisation in Serbian Macedonia. It had already blocked the ratification of such protocol with Greece.. Due to pressure from Yugoslavia, this protocol was also never ratified.Боби Бобев: Албания не признаваше нашето малцинство заради натиск от Белград. 16 Октомври 2017 г. Kanal3.bg. However, in 1942 the Albanian-Italian census in today's western parts of North Macedonia, then part of the Albanian Kingdom, and today most eastern parts of Albania, was conducted for the ethnic composition of its Slavic population, that 31% from registered were Bulgarians and 8% were recorded as Serbs.Антон Панчев, Етнически състав на населението в Западна Македония през Втората световна война по албански официални статистики. сп. Македонски преглед, Македонски научен институт. (Anton Panchev, The Ethnical Structure of the Population in Western Macedonia in the Second World War According to Official Albanian Statistics) Language: Bulgarian; Issue: 4/2018, pp. 139-148.
On the other hand, in 1934 the Comintern gave its support to the idea that the Macedonian Slavs constituted a separate nationality.Duncan Perry, "The Republic of Macedonia: finding its way" in Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrot (eds.), Politics, power and the struggle for Democracy in South-Eastern Europe, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 228–229. Prior to the Second World War, this view on the Macedonian issue had no practical importance. During the war, these ideas were supported by the pro-Yugoslav Macedonian communist partisans. After the Red Army entered the Balkans, new communist regimes came into power in the area. In this way, their policy on the Macedonian Question was to support the development of a distinct ethnic Macedonian identity. As a result, the Slavic minority in Albania was recognized in 1945 as Macedonian.Vladimir Ortakovski (2021) Minorities in the Balkans, Brill, , p. 321. The former Prime Minister Aleksander Meksi openly admitted the presence of ethnic Bulgarians near the Lake Prespa in 1993.Mangalakova, Tanya; 2004; Ethnic Bulgarians in Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo. International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations, Bulgaria, p. 11. After the fall of communism, in 1998, many Macedonians from Mala Prespa and Golo Brdo illegally crossed to the Republic of Macedonia. The then foreign minister of Albania Paskal Milo, has stated on the Slav minority issue: "After World War II, we know this minority as Macedonian. I’d rather not elaborate on why we chose this way, but the Communist regime made this decision and it’s difficult for us now to change that.""The Balkans" magazine, 18 ed., 2001, p.5-7. At the request of Bulgarian MEPs, the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs brought up the issue of people with Bulgarian ethnicity that are located in the Prespa, Gollobordë and Gora regions.Report from 3.2.2017; PE 594.191v02-00; A8-0023/2017 on the 2016 Commission Report on Albania (2016/2312(INI)) Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rapporteur: Knut Fleckenstein. See: item 24. Following pressure from Bulgarian MEPs and petition from the local Bulgarian community, in 2017 the Albanian parliament recognized a Bulgarian minority in Albania. Its presence is supported by field researchers from Bulgaria, but is disputed by ethnic Macedonian activists there.Valeri Grigorov, Albania: Landmarks of Transition. Sofia: International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations (2003) - In contrast to the allegations from Bulgarian side, Islam Rama, an ethnic Macedonian teacher in the Golo Brdo region stated “To tell a long story short, in this area there is not a single Bulgarian. People are using this cause just for personal gain.” - https://balkaninsight.com/2017/02/09/bulgarians-ethnics-claims-in-albania-end-up-in-eu-02-08-2017/ According to Edmond Temelko, former mayor of the Pustec Municipality, "[...] Bulgaria uses heavy economic situation of Macedonians in Albania to offer them Bulgarian citizenship, passports and employment opportunity". According to the data from the census held in 2023, the number of Bulgarians was three times more than that of Macedonians, and that caused protests from the Macedonian side.
Population External estimates on the population of Macedonians in Albania include 10,000, whereas Macedonian sources have claimed 120,000 to 350,000 Macedonians in Albania.2003 OSCE - Macedonian Minority in Albania Jakim Sinadinovski, Macedonian Muslims, Then and Now
Year Macedonian population % change 1950 – 1955 +47.0% 1960 +26.8% 1979 −3.3% 1989 +14.7% 2011 +17.4% 2023 -58.4% In 2000, Albania conducted a census which did not record ethnic affiliation and as such during that time resulted in various estimates for the Slavic population of Albania that could not be checked and rectified. The then Macedonian immigration minister Martin Trenevski claimed in 2000 that the Macedonian minority in Albania numbered 300,000. After conducting personal visits to areas of Macedonian settlement in Albania, diplomat Geert Ahrens considered these numbers "grossly exaggerated", as did other Macedonian interlocutors.
In March 2009, the Commission for Minority Issues of the Foreign Ministry of Albania announced the results of its study about the national minorities in the country. According to the study, there are 4,148 Macedonians (0.14% of the total population) living in the country. The ethnic Macedonian organisations of Albania announced they will complain at Albanian institutions and international organisations.
Ethnic Macedonian and Greek organizations, such as the Macedonian Party and Omonooa, believed the Albanian government had stated that it would jail anyone who did not participate in the census of 2011 or refused to declare their ethnicity.
The complication of counting the Macedonian minority in Albania in the 2000s was due to most Macedonian speakers being from a Muslim background with tendencies of not identifying as Macedonians, as even in Macedonia, Muslim Macedonian speakers were not in instances counted as Macedonians but as Torbeši or Gorani. "Moreover, religion can have an influence on attitudes toward identity. Thus for example Macedonian-speaking Christians in Vrbnik (Vërnik) refer to Orthodox Albanian-speakers as nash 'ours' but do not consider Macedonian-speaking Muslims as nash, nor do those Muslims tend to identify as ethnic Macedonians (Christina Kramer, personal communication). The Gorans, who are also Muslim, have a separate identity. The Goran dialects used to be classed with Serbian, but have more recently been assigned to Macedonian, and Gorans themselves recognize that their dialects are closer to Macedonian than to Serbian." As such Ahrens stated that the overall estimate of the Slavic population of Albania ranged between 10,000 and 20,000 people. "There are no reliable figures for the number of Slavs in Albania. The Albanian census of 2000 did not include ethnic affiliation; thus, grossly diverging estimates cannot be checked and rectified. In 2000, the Macedonian minister for emigration, Martin Trenevski, told me that there were 300,000 Macedonians in Albania. This figure is from all appearances from personal visits to the areas of Slavic settlement in Albania, grossly exaggerated, as even other Macedonian interlocutors would admit. The issue is further complicated by the Muslim background of most of the Macedonian speakers in Albania. In Macedonia, such Macedonian-speaking Slavic Muslims would he counted as "Torbeši" or "Gorani," and not as "Macedonians." Altogether, the number of Slavs in Albania is probably between 10,000 and 20,000." The 2023 census recorded 2,281 Macedonians.
Geographic distribution