Albanians in south Serbia
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 5,809 (2011) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Preševo | 31,098 (2002 census) |
| Bujanovac | 23,681 (2002 census) |
| Medveđa | 2,816 (2002 census) |
| Vojvodina | 2,251 (2011 census) |
| Belgrade | 1,252 (2011 census) |
| Languages | |
| Albanian | |
| Religion | |
|
Sunni Islam (majority) Bektashi (minority) |
|
Albanians in Serbia (Albanian: Shqiptarët në Serbi; Serbian: Албанци у Србији / Albanci u Srbiji) are an officially recognized ethnic minority, composed of, as suggested by the term, ethnic Albanians living in the present-day nation of Serbia.
In the municipalities of Preševo and Bujanovac Albanians form the majority of population (89.1% in Preševo and 54.69% in Bujanovac according to the 2002 census). In the municipality of Medveđa, Albanians are second largest ethnic group (after Serbs), and their participation in this municipality was 32% in 1981 census, 28.67% in 1991 and 26.17% in 2002. The region of Bujanovac and Preševo is widely known as the Preševo Valley (Serbian: Прешевска Долина, Preševska Dolina, Albanian: Lugina e Preshevës).
There is a small community of Albanians in the Pešter region of Sandžak living in villages such as Boroštica, Doliće and Ugao. For the past two generations these villages have become partly bosniakicised, due to intermarriage with the surrounding Bosniak population. As such and also due to the Yugoslav wars and thereafter, they have opted to declare themselves in censuses as "Muslims" and "Bosniaks" instead of as Albanians to avoid problems. Elders in these villages are still fluent in Albanian.
In 1992, the Albanian representatives in the municipalities Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac organized a referendum in which they voted for the joining of these municipalities to the self-declared assembly of the Republic of Kosova. However, no major events happened until the end of the 1990-s.
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, and nearby Kosovo War which lasted until 1999, between 1999 and 2001, an ethnic Albanian paramilitary separatist organization, the UÇPMB, raised an armed insurgency in the Preševo Valley, in the region mostly inhabited by Albanians, with a goal to occupy these three municipalities from Serbia and join them to (future independent) Kosovo.
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