Study from the 50's: Every Albanian family in Skopje has a migration background
The Macedonian newspaper Nova Makedonija with an article about the research of Dr. Jovan Trifunoski, who conducted research in Skopje and the surrounding area in the early 1950s (described in the text as Skopsko Pole = Skopje Valley). He came to the conclusion that there is not a single Albanian family in the valley that does not have a migration background. In short, the Albanians once immigrated to Macedonia.
Trifunovski researched further and came to the conclusion that most Albanians even know where they came from, who their ancestors are who immigrated to Macedonia and even the migration routes, i.e. possible intermediate stops of the family before they finally reached Macedonia, could be reproduced by themselves.
Today the Albanian doctrine and propaganda tries to give the Albanians an "autochthonous" status. With abbreviation theories that fabricate a direct descent from Illyrians and Dardans without solid academic foundations in order to assert claims in Macedonia, and especially Kosovo.
Trifunovski's research shows, at least as far as Macedonia is concerned, that the vast majority of Albanians are not autochthonous but immigrants.
Below is the translation of the article that was published on August 28, 2020.
Note: Text passages that speak of "today, now, ..." refer to the research years 1951-1953!
Exclusive research results on the origin of the Albanian population in Skopje and the surrounding area
In a comprehensive two-year archive and field research in the settlements of Skopsko-Pole (Skopje Valley), which Dr. Jovan Trifunoski realized between 1951 and 1953, "not a single family whose families were not immigrants was found among all the families examined whose mother tongue is Albanian". He went on to say that "the majority of the Albanian population surveyed knows what ancestry they come from and where they or their ancestors immigrated from".
In addition, writes Dr. Trifunoski in his study on the Albanian population in Skopsko Pole, published in 1954 in the annual reports of the Philosophical Faculty in Skopje, everyone remembers the time of their immigration, the distance traveled from home and the reasons for migration.
"Real Albanians" and "Albanized Roma"
The Albanian population of Skopsko Pole are divided into real Albanians and Albanized Roma. There are 183 houses of the first and 106 of the other. According to the places of immigration, the Albanian-speaking population in the Skopsko Pole belongs to two main streams of immigration: Northern Albanian and Kosovar.
The first current produced 53 families, with 172 ethnic Albanian households. The second stream resulted in 61 families, with 92 households, and the population of this stream consists of Albanized Roma.
The remaining smaller streams with an insignificant number of settlers come from other parts, from Metohija to Drenica and from Gorna Morava. The entire population now lives in 21 settlements in Skopsko Pole, and the majority are only found in Šiševo, where there are 38 houses, in Dolno Nerezi - 63 houses and in Idrizovo - 27 houses. Half of the total population lives in Trubarevo, where they live in 25 houses, and less than half of the population lives in Singjelič, Aračinovo, where there are only 20 Albanian houses, in Ognjanci with 27 houses, in Katlanovo with 13 houses, etc.
One hundred and thirty years ago the first villages where Albanians came to Skopje were Gorno Orizari, Bardovci, Vuči Dol, Orman, Šiševo, Sarajsko Orizare, Butel and others. Unable to cope with the new environment, which was surrounded by swamps, they began to retreat to mountain settlements. Descendants of Albanians who came to Vuči Dol and Orman, for example, now live in the mountain villages of Pustenik and Gajre, and those from Bardovci moved to the villages of Gorno and Dolno Blace on the ridge of Skopska Crna Gora and to the village of Biljaca near Preševo.
The Albanians who originally came to Butel withdrew to Tanuševci after a while, and those from Kisela Voda went to the village of Čiflik on mount Vodno. The Albanians from Orizare near Saraj are now in the village of Čajlane on Mount Osoj, and those who now live in the village of Ljuboten in Skopska Crna Gora know that they used to live for a short time somewhere in the Skopje Valley. Of the Albanians who settled in Skopsko Pole in the mid-19th century, only two families have survived, they have 38 houses and now live in the village of Šiševo, which lies on the border between Skopsko Pole and the ridge of Mount Vodno.
The new great wave of Albanian immigrants
At the beginning of the 20th century, a new and largest wave of immigration of the Albanian population to Skopsko Pole from the surrounding, mostly mountainous villages began, which served as a migration phase, but could not provide the necessary means of subsistence for the population, which began to multiply rapidly and after was looking for new living space. During this time, i.e. from the beginning of the 20th century until today, for about 50 years (until 1953), about 120 Albanian families, who now have 251 households, settled in thirty Skopje settlements and filled most of the villages in the valley.
And now, at the time when we were doing this research, the Albanian population is rapidly descending from the surrounding mountain areas, but also from the Kosovo Valley to the Skopsko Pole. Otherwise, the Albanians from the surrounding areas in the villages in the Skopje Valley initially only came down when they were adapting their cattle for the winter. Later they began to do seasonal agricultural work, especially as mowers in Blatija or as servants and assistants of some wealthy non-Albanian families, first with the Turkish Čiflik-Saibi (= landowners), later with the Macedonian landlords.
Those who descended from the ridge of Skopska Crna Gora as cattle breeders now live in the villages of Butel, Idrizovo, Ržaničino, Ognjance, Singjelič, Aračinovo, etc. The others who came as farm laborers and who immigrated to Macedonia mainly after World War I were mainly Albanian Roma, not ethnic Albanians. Such Albanized Roma came from the villages of Kosovo, Metohija and Upper Morava and settled in Trubarevo, Katlanovo, Indžikovo, Petrovec and several other villages in the Skopje Valley.
In 1946 the agrarian reform gave such Albanian families land for cultivation, writes Dr. Jovan Trifunoski in his study of the Albanian population in the Skopsko-Pole 1951-1953.
According to Dr.Tifunovski most of the Albanian population came over the routes that lead through Metohija, the Kosovar Pole, through the Kačanica Gorge, but also on the routes that lead from Gjilan to the ridge of Skopska Crna Gora, to the Skopsko Pole:
"When the Kosovo Valley and Gorna Morava were filled with Albanian settlements, the Albanian element flowed in the direction of Skopsko Pole. The Odžilari, Muris and Tendžer families, for example, first came to the village after emigrating from Northern Albania via Kosovo Pole and Gorna Morava Brest in Skopska Crna Gora and descended from there to Singjelič after the Second World War.
The Tairi family from Northern Albania came to the Kosovo Pole and soon after moved from there to Stulb in Jablanica, then returned to Gorno Kusče near Gjilan and in 1927 reached the village of Aračinovo near Skopje.
The Demiri family, who now live in Jurumleri, also come from northern Albania. According to the oldest family members, this Albanian family first settled in the village of Malo Polce near Stimlje in Kosovo, from where they reached Jurumleri in Skopje in 1920.
The Neziri clan is now settled in Idrizovo, but previously settled first from northern Albania in the village of Prela in Kosovo and came to Idrizovo in 1920. The Albanians of the Šabani family, who now live in Naovo, followed a similar path.
They came from northern Albania to the Kosovo village of Belogradče and moved from there to the present village in 1950. The Albanians of the Škeka family, who now live in Ržaničino, belong, as they themselves say, to a large brotherhood from northern Albania. Later the brotherhood partially dissolved, so that separate branches came to Derven via Kosovo Pole and Skopje, i.e. Matka, Glumovo and Ljubin. The Ržaničino Albanians from the Škeka family are part of these branches, which later spread over a larger area.
The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslims settled in several villages in the Skopje Valley in Singjelič, Idrizovo, Aračinovo, Butel and Belimbegovo (today's Ilinden) and slowly merged with the Albanians.
The Albanian settlers, who spread in most of the valley villages and in all parts of the region, brought with them the Muslim beliefs, customs, psychological qualities, "racial type", language, cultural standard and their life. Many villages from Skopje that were built during the Turkish rule i.e. until the beginning of the 20th century, according to the population, were Christian and Slavic, today, i.e. after the liberation of Macedonia in World War II, became partly or more than half Albanian-Muslim.
Due to mass immigration, the parts of the Skopje Valley where brand new Muslim settlements are being built are not uncommon, and mosques and Muslim cemeteries are being built in them, Albanian schools are being built, and so on.
Among all the ethnic groups that exist in Skopje today i.e. Macedonians, Serbs, Turks, Roma, the immigration of Albanians is the most massive, almost daily, continuous and lively. In addition, the Albanian population has the greatest increase, so that their number will soon be even higher", Prof. Dr. Jovan Trifunoski concludes his research on the immigration of Albanians to the Skopje Valley 1951-1953.
Who was Dr. Jovan Trifunoski?
Prof. Dr. Jovan F. Trifunoski, son of the Macedonian Komita Filip Trifunov Lulkov, was born one hundred and six years ago in the village of Vrutok in Gostivar and died eighteen years ago in Belgrade. He graduated from the anthropogeographic group at the Philosophical Faculty in Skopje in 1939 and began his field research as an assistant at the same faculty in the autumn of 1940.
From May 1941 to August 1946 he was an assistant at the Philosophical Faculty in Belgrade and then returned to Skopje. After defending his doctorate in 1950, he went through all phases of his teaching career. Trifunoski is the author of numerous works in the field of geography and anthropology, including books on Kačanička Klisura, Gorna Pčinja, six books on the Skopje Valley, one book on the Kičevo Valley, the Kriva Palanka area, Gorna Pčinja, Vranjska Kotlina and Skopska Crna Gora, the Kumanovo area, Strumica area, Ovče Pole, the Babuna and Topolka areas, Pirin Macedonia and others.
Considering that he has always considered research as the basis of his professional work, all of his books are rich in data on the origins of the population, the history of the places and the economic conditions that are of great importance for the geography and history of Macedonia. His records of the places and origins of the population in the settlements in which today exclusively or mainly Albanians live are particularly important.
Who are the Maljoci?
According to Dr. Jovan Trifunoski, the albanized Roma in the villages of the Skopsko Pole are known by the common name Maljoci: “The elders of this population claim they came from the Kosovo Pole, Metohija, Gorna Morava and Drenica. It is not known where they lived before, but it appears that some of their families stayed in northern Albania and then came to the Kosovar Pole from there. The people of Maljoci have dark skin. The Maljoci mockingly call their compatriots, the real Roma, and try to make the difference between them as big as possible. The cemetery is separate and there are no marriages between them. "Trifunovski wrote.
SOURCE: Nova Makedonija (Macedonian)
