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The Albanians are the people of the western Balkan peninsula, numbering today some six million:

• 3,300,000 in Albania
• 1,350,000 in Serbia and Montenegro (last census of 1981), out of which 40,000 in Montenegro, the remaining in Serbia (mostly Kosovo) (including refugees abroad following the conflict of 1998-1999)
• 440,000 in the Republic of Macedonia (1994 census)
• 100,000 Albanians live in southern Italy, mostly in the Calabria region, the majority having arrived since 1991
  • 150,000 in Greece (most of whom consider themselves as ethnic Greeks)

Some believe the Albanians to be descendants of the Illyrians while others give them slightly humbler origins which date back to 1043 when they were first mentionned in the Balkans. 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 practised. Among the poorest of the Continent'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.

Albanian Nationalism

BBoth Kosovo (a Serbian province though governed since June 1999 by a NATO-led international force) and western Macedonia have in recent years seen armed extremist movements (Kosovo Liberation Army, UCPMB, Macedonian NLA) which claimed human rights and independence for Albanians as their main concern (despite being accused of human rights violations themselves) in Kosovo and in Macedonia.

The fate of Kosovo remains uncertain owing to the reluctance of the Albanians to contemplate a restoration of effective 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 Macedonia seems to have been resolved by giving the Albanians living there greater government representation and the right to use the Albanian language in education and government.

See Also

• Demographics of Albania
• History of Albania
• History of the Republic of Macedonia
• Kosovo war
• List of Albanians

External Links

• Home of Albanians Online