Arnavut ulusunun insasi: Osmanlılardan İliryalılara

• Main Author: Jazexhiu, Olsi
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Araştırmaları Vakfı 2024
• Subjects: BP190.5 Islamization of Knowledge; DF Greece; DG Italy; DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics; DR Balkan Peninsula; JC49 Islam and Politics
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/114279/7/114279_%20Arnavut%20ulusunun%20insasi.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/114279/; https://www.itavistanbul.org/

The regions where Albanian speakers live nowadays in the Balkans: Macedonia, Greece, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania were integral parts of the Ottoman empire. While Muslim Albanians identified themselves with the Ottomans, many Albanian speakers of Orthodox affiliation, thanks to the Hellenizing policies of the Orthodox Church, the Millet system and Greece very often identified themselves as Greeks or Rums. The co-existence of the Albanians with the Ottomans came to an end during the First Balkan War. The Balkan Orthodox League which defeated the Ottomans in 1912, turned millions of Muslims into second class citizens of the newly formed Christian states of Southeastern Europe. While Albanian Muslims living in Greece and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia) became second class citizens, Christians Albanian speakers were assimilated into Greeks, Macedonians and Serbs. The situation of the Muslims and Christians of Albania differed from those who lived in Yugoslavia and Greece. The state of Albania which emerged after World War I, was compelled to adapt secularist policies towards its Muslim and Christian populations and foster a secular, Albanianist identity in order to turn its Muslim and Christian millets into a nation. The processes of secularization and nationalization which were implemented in Albania throughout the 20th century, forced the Albanians to adapt a number of myths about their identity. These myths aimed to separate the Albanians from their Ottoman past. Albanians were taught in their schools that they are not Muslims and Christians, not Ottomans and Byzantines, but Illyrians. They were isolated from the Islamic world and Turkey, from the Orthodox Patriarchate and Greece. Through their school and state institutions they were indoctrinated with anti-Turkish and anti-Greek hate. The history of the Albanians was written by the Austrians, Italians, Evangelical Christians, and later by communist historians who depicted their Ottoman past as an era of obscurantism and violent Islamization. This book analyzes the transformation of the Albanians from Ottomans into modern Albanians, who in turn were depicted as ancient Illyrians. By analysing memories from Ottoman and post-Ottoman era, diplomatic documents, writings of different visitors, activities of European agencies in the Balkans, and clashes among the Albanian speakers themselves the book elaborates the process of transformation of the Albanians from Ottoman Muslims and Christians, into a secular nation. This book analyzes the phenomena of the Albanian identity. It shows why and how Islam and Orthodox Christianity, Turkey and the Ottomans were removed from the modern identity of the Albanians.