The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia expressed its “serious concern” over the results of the population census carried out in Albania and which were announced yesterday, while at the same time “reacting strongly to the use of the term North Macedonians, to characterize the Macedonian minority living in Albania”.
According to the census results announced yesterday in Tirana by the Albanian Statistical Service, The country’s population is 2.4 million people, a decrease of 410 thousand compared to the previous census carried out in the country in 2011.
The number of “North Macedonians” in Albania is 2,281, compared to 5,512 in the 2011 census, while for the first time 7,957 people are now registered as “Bulgarians”, although in the previous 11 censuses in Albania not a single person declared himself Bulgarian.
Albanian authorities only recognized a “Bulgarian minority” in Albania in 2017. Official Sofia claims that in previous censuses in Albania, the Bulgarian population living in the country was prevented from being counted as such.
“Technical irregularities both before and during the population census in Albania, which were constantly pointed out by Macedonian organizations in Albania, resulted in the announcement of preliminary data that, unfortunately, do not adequately reflect the real number of ethnic Macedonians in the country,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia notes in today’s announcement and informs that it is recalling the ambassador of North Macedonia in Tirana for consultations in Skopje.
Furthermore, during yesterday’s announcement of the census results in Albania, the representative of the North Macedonian embassy left the presentation as a sign of protest, because he spoke of “North Macedonians” and not “Macedonians”. The representatives of the latter in Albania announced that they do not recognize the results of this census in Albania, which took place in September and October 2023, and request a new one. The same representatives accuse Bulgaria of a “policy of assimilation of Macedonians living in Albania”, issuing Bulgarian passports and exerting pressure for them to be registered as “Bulgarians”, while noting that the Albanian authorities did nothing to prevent such actions .
Bulgaria categorically rejects these accusations, which are nevertheless embraced by official Skopje.
A few hours after the reaction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Timco Muchunski, said that following his intervention to his Albanian counterpart, Igli Hassani, the Albanian Statistical Service “corrected” the term “North Macedonians” by the term “Macedonians”.
AMP Source