Albanians in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Albanians first settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of Ottoman rule, with the main causes being economic, political and social. Most of them came from northern Albania. In Bosnia and Herzegovina they lived as shepherds, farmers, craftsmen, border guards, and soon assimilated with the locals. Many young Albanians married Bosnian women and thus joined the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The men did not return to their homeland and built a new life in Bosnia. This is also confirmed by the record of the Mount Koritnik's name of the Tragedy. The people of the Kukes region followed the Gurbits up to Koritnik and separated from their grieving relatives there, then continued on to Prizren.[3]

With the arrival of the Austro-Hungarians the number of Albanians decreased, due to further exile in Europe, whose doors became more open. Thus, in the 1910 census, only 273 Albanian-speaking Bosnian and Herzegovina residents were registered.[4]

But during the time of the first and especially the second Yugoslavia, again a large number of Albanians, due to the difficult living conditions in the countries in which they lived (Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia), settled in Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly in the cities: Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica, Banja Luka, Doboj, Brcko, Bijelina, Mostar and Trebinje. By 1930 the number of Albanians in Bosnia and Herzegovina had almost quadrupled, and according to the 1991 census, there were about 5,000 Albanians in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[5] The then Albanian exiles in Bosnia and Herzegovina were mainly engaged in bakery, confectionery, jewelry and other crafts.[6]

Most Albanians traditionally lived in Sarajevo. In 1970–1981, in Sarajevo, there was a primary school in Albanian, the "Bane Šurbat" school in Grbavica. During the Siege of Sarajevo, a high number of Albanians fled from Sarajevo, largely because of Ratko Mladić's threats, with messages often aired on television that no Albanian would leave Sarajevo alive. [7]