Cotric: Serbs in Albania face extinction 



BELGRADE – Serbs in Albania are one of Europe’s most endangered minority communities as they have no recognised status of a national minority or the right to receive institutional education and information in their native tongue, and face assimilation and complete extinction as a result, Serbian Renewal Movement MP Aleksandar Cotric warned on Sunday.

Cotric, who is also a member of the Serbian parliamentary committee on the diaspora and Serbs in the region, said that, despite being an autochthonous nation that has lived there for centuries, Albania’s 30,000 ethnic Serbs have no right to minority representation in parliament, or an educational institution or a media outlet in their native tongue. “Serbs, as well as other minorities (Greeks, Macedonians, Vlahs), cannot declare their ethnic and religious affiliation in censuses and, due to administrative complications and high costs of the procedure – which exceed EUR 1000 – they are practically unable to reclaim their original names, Albanised by force during Enver Hoxha’s rule,” Cotric noted.

In bilateral meetings with the Tirana authorities, as well as before international organisations – the United Nations, the OSCE and the European Union – the Serbian government must, as soon as possible, raise the issue of protecting the rights of Serbs in Albania, Cotric also said. Before international and European organisations, the government must point to a gross violation of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, ratified by the Albanian parliament a decade ago, the press office of the Serbian Renewal Movement quoted Cotric as saying.