Albanians in Montenegro demand official status for Albanian language

[Crvena zvezda]

Request for making Albanian official language in Montenegro

Podgorica /31/05/ 14:45

The political representatives of the Albanian minority in Montenegro requested today to introduce the Albanian as an official language in this country.

"In the municipalities where the majority or a significant part of the population is comprised of members of the Albanian minority, the Albanian language should be used as a parallel official language to the one which is used throughout Montenegro", said Mehmed Bardi, the leader of the Democratic Alliance of Albanians (DSA) in Montenegro.

He requested a definition that Albanians are the largest minority in Montenegro, which have been living there for centuries, to be included in the Constitution.

DSA also proposed to define Montenegro in the first Paragraph of the Constitution as an independent state of all its citizens, autochthonous nations and autochthonous national minorities of Albanians and members of other peoples who live in Montenegro or are born there and live in other countries.

According to DSA's leader, a territorial division to regions and municipalities should be carried out in Montenegro.

Bardi also pointed out that the appearance of the Montenegro's state insignia should be designed so that they wouldn't irritate the non-Montenegrin population.

[Heretik]

Soon they will want it to be an official language in Croatia.

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by Katera

Soon they will want it to be an official language in Croatia.

Why not make it a pan-European langauge? Then we here could talk on Albanian instead using this bloody english

[svin]

From what I've seen on different internet forums like youtube, Albanians are proud that they are spreading like plague in various corners of Europe, ex-Yugoslavia included.

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by svin

From what I've seen on different internet forums like youtube, Albanians are proud that they are spreading like plague in various corners of Europe, ex-Yugoslavia included.

I think everyone would be more or less proud seeing his nation in such... circumstances , but this whole spreading thing is bizarre and sick. Like some kind of Hitler-nazi fetish (alos not rare among Albanians).

[Heretik]

Originally Posted by Hohenheim

Why not make it a pan-European langauge? Then we here could talk on Albanian instead using this bloody english

Shqiptar.
Well, the albanians in croatia who are living here for generations are OK but these new ones really suck. Criminals!

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Hohenheim

I think everyone would be more or less proud seeing his nation in such... circumstances

How could anyone be proud of it?

[Sergius]

Most people like influence and attention. I guess bad publicity is better than none.

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

How could anyone be proud of it?

See Ljubomirs post. Not me, but almost everyone would be proud.

[dime]

how many albanians are there in Crna Gora

[Zrinski]

Originally Posted by dime

how many albanians are there in Crna Gora

About 32,000.

[Crvena zvezda]

Originally Posted by Zrinski

About 32,000.

I'd say there's about 32,000 like you said. There's a further 15,000 holding Montenegrin citizenship working in Serbia (as well as a large number abroad). There's also probably around 10,000 Albanians from Kosovo illegally in Montenegro.

[Crvena zvezda]

Their request is nothing but in a long line of Albanian demands unacceptable to the majority of Montenegrins.

Montenegro Rebuffs Albanian Demands

15 06 2007 Ethnic Albanian parties could push Montenegro's draft constitution to a national referendum.

By Samir Adrovic in Podgorica
As they press their grievances over the new country's constitution, Montenegro's ethnic Albanians are showing they could become a permanent source of friction in this tiny Adriatic republic.

Ethnic Albanians represent about 7 percent of Montenegro's 620,000 population. The three Albanian political parties in the parliament are threatening they will not back adoption of the new constitution by the parliament unless the ruling coalition led by the Prime Minister Zeljko Sturanovic revises the draft to expand minority rights.

The proposed constitution must be approved by the parliament with a two-thirds majority or Montenegro will face a constitutional referendum later this year.

Ethnic Albanian deputies proposed a number of amendments, demanding regional devolution and use of Albanian as the official language in the areas where they are a majority. Montenegrin Albanians also want a bicameral parliament, full guarantees of minority rights in accordance with international standards, and the detailed stipulation of these guarantees in all laws. But, the government has said it finds such demands unacceptable.

However, the draft constitution defines minority rights in a single article that stipulates that the state will respect and implement all international documents regulating the issue.

It appears that such a draft will be a major source of friction between ethnic Albanians and minority parties representing Montenegrins.

Ethnic Albanians' demands were dismissed as unrealistic by the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, or DPS, loyal to former President Milo Djukanovic and the Social Democrats, or SDP, led by Ranko Krivokapic.

Senior DPS official Miodrag Vukovic said his party would not accept demands for a bicameral parliament or for separate Albanian regions.

"Regionalism, federalism, or the redrawing of territories with ethnic boundaries would contravene the concept of a civic state and be fatal for such a small community as ours," Vukovic told Balkan Insight.

Three of the six Albanian parties in Montenegro are represented in parliament: The Democratic Alliance, the Democratic Union of Albanians and the Albanian Alternative. None are in the ruling coalition, which is supported by more than half of Albanian voters in Montenegro, according to polls.

Most Montenegrin Albanians live near the eastern border with Albania and Kosovo, in the town of Tuzi and coastal resort of Ulcinj.

Apart from ethnic Albanians, other key minorities in Montenegro are Bosniac Muslims, who account for 15 percent of the population, and Serbs, who make up 32 percent.

Montenegrin minorities were a key factor in the 2006 referendum which paved the way for the country's secession from Serbia. Montenegro's pro-independence camp won a tiny majority over those who favored union with Serbia.

In return for minority votes, the DPS offered guaranteed seats in parliament.

The pledges envisioned that ethnic minorities making up between one and five per cent of the population would receive one parliamentary seat, and
minorities making up more than five per cent of the population would receive two seats.

Parliament passed a law to implement these proposals shortly before the May referendum. But in July 2006, the constitutional court declared the
minority representation plan unconstitutional.

Since then, there has been no sign of the government reviving the proposal, leaving minorities feeling short-changed.

The ethnic Albanians' and other minorities' demands for detailed stipulation of rights in the constitution were also backed by the Venice Commission, an expert legal body of the Council of Europe which helps states draft, revise and interpret their constitutions and other key legislative texts.

After a two-month debate that ended on May 28, the country's 81-seat, unicameral parliament must now decide on a number of amendments.

With their three seats, ethnic Albanians can influence the vote and effectively force a national referendum if the ruling coalition fails to forge an alliance with one of the major, mainly pro-Serbian opposition parties.

Mehmet Bardhi, leader of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Alliance party, says the government has reneged on its other promises, including establishment of a new Albanian-language faculty in the city of Ulcinj and the right to nominate a police chief in Tuzi, who would then be endorsed by the Interior Ministry. Albanians also want Tuzi to be upgraded to a municipality with an ethnic Albanian-dominated local government.

Bardi alone has submitted 35 amendments to the draft constitution, including demands about regional devolution.

"Collective rights are related to specific territories," said Bardhi, who argues for ethnic Albanian-controlled areas.

He said Montenegro's Albanians would seek backing for their minority demands from international bodies and influential pro-Albanian lobbyists from the United States.

The government "can adopt 10 constitutions for all we care," Bardhi said. "The issue of our rights will remain open as long as they keep ignoring us."

Another key ethnic Albanian politician, Fatos Dinosa, of the Democratic Union, says that a bicameral parliament with a "chamber of minorities" is the best solution for Montenegro's political scene and "for settling relations between the government and the minorities."

The other parties rallying Albanians have forwarded a joint proposal to parliament envisaging a special charter and a separate law on minorities to be incorporated into the constitution.

The SDP's Vukovic said relations between Montenegro's diverse ethnic, religious and cultural communities are basically sound and a new constitution would only improve them. The only concession the government was willing to make was over "a separate chapter of the constitution as a mechanism for protecting human and minority rights," he said.

"No party in Montenegro has a mandate to represent any ethnic minority
because not one of them rallies an entire ethnic community," Vukovic said.

But Nazif Cungu, leader of the Ulcinj-based Forca, the biggest of the ethnic
Albanian parties that are not represented in the parliament, warned the
government was in danger of damaging relations with the Albanian community.

"If they .disregard the position of both the Venice Commission and the
minorities who effectively built this country, it will be a major setback to
our relations," Cungu told Balkan Insight.

Aleksandar Zekovic, a human rights expert and activist, said that although he understood the position of Montenegro's Albanians, some of their demands should not be made part of the new constitution.

"Montenegro's political elites have made no effort to improve the actual implementation of the [existing] law on minority rights and freedoms," he said. "After the crucial chapters were scrapped [by the constitutional court], some of the Albanian parties have responded with unrealistic demands, fearing another fraud. What they really want is a safer future for themselves."