Bulgarians in Albania need support, want urgent meeting with President Rumen Radev

A misunderstanding is arising over the possible separation of two regions in Albania - Golo Brdo and Gora, into separate municipalities. The Bulgarian minority, recognised by the Parliament in Tirana in 2017, is concentrated in these areas. The Bulgarians demanded an urgent meeting with President Rumen Radev.

The Bulgarian community in Albania lives in the regions of Mala Prespa, Golo Brdo and Kukuska Gora. They are several tens of thousands and were officially recognized as a minority by the Albanian Parliament in 2017. According to experts, our compatriots have lived there for centuries.

Now, the Golo Brdo and Gora regions will probably be re-demarcated into separate municipalities, which will allow the compact Bulgarian population there to more easily attract investments, prove their Bulgarian origin and seek Bulgaria's help.

"Our territory - all roads are dirt roads, there is not a single road with asphalt. It is very difficult to enter our territories. We don't have a single MP. And we don't have a single person from our people in the municipalities," Hadzi Pirushi of the Prosperity Society in Golo Brdo, Albania, says.

Apart from the lack of representatives in government, no Albanian official document indicates where our community lives. And it is becoming increasingly difficult for our compatriots to prove their origins on the basis of their birth certificates.

"In the past, Golo Brdo was an independent municipality, that is, in the birth certificate it was written that the person was born there and since it is a compact Bulgarian population, which means, there are no other except Bulgarians there, it was very easy to establish the Bulgarian origin of the candidate in question. Nowadays, when these municipalities have been liquidated, we lose all trace, purely administratively," says Assoc. Prof. Spas Tashev from the Institute for Population and Human Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

"A lot of problems, documents are delayed, 3-4 years. There are people who give up. Why?", asks Hadji Pirushi from Golo Brdo.

A census in Albania is due in October and the parallel movement with the question of the demarcation of municipalities, however, is threatened by the organisations of the Macedonians there, who have their own MP.

Vasil Sterjovski is the man who claims that there are only Macedonians and not Bulgarians in Albania and that Sofia is Bulgarianising Tirana. Sterjovski wants it to be clear that the municipalities of Golo Brdo and Gora have a Macedonian population.

"For us, the pressures of Bulgaria, abusing its membership in the EU, for the negation and assimilation of the Macedonians in Albania with the aim of creating a Bulgarian minority in the places where Macedonians live, are unacceptable. Today, Bulgaria is committing aggression with the aim of assimilating the Macedonians in Albania," Sterjovski said in a post published on his social media account.

Bulgarians in Albania respond to all this with ironic smile.

"Please, don't bother with these people who say this. Our constitution says to tell who you are, and what nation. We have nothing to do with these Macedonians," Hadji Pirushi is adamant.

In Mala Prespa, Golo Brdo and Kukus, however, Macedonian propaganda has been active for years, according to experts. And Bulgaria should do more for its minority there.

"Bulgarians need support - especially for Bulgarian schools. We have several thousand Bulgarians from Albania who have completed their higher education in Bulgaria. These people can be a bridge of cooperation. There are many options, but someone has to coordinate this activity so that Bulgaria can protect its compatriots," says Assoc. Prof. Spas Tashev, Institute for Population and Human Studies – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Speaking to BNT, Bulgarians in Albania asked for an urgent meeting with President Rumen Radev.