How Albanians were removed from Skopje

19/07/2013 00:00

The catastrophic earthquake that hit Skopje in 1963 was more than a
natural disaster for the Albanians. 50 years after this tragedy,
documents come out and show that the state authorities of that time,
besides trying to recover the city, created a project for moving ethnic
Albanians from Skopje, so that they could change the ethnic and
religious structure of the population.

Historian Skender Hasani from the Macedonian archive secured documents whish speak for the eviction of 20.000 Albanians from Skopje to Kosovo and Turkey, right after the earthquake hit this city.

“Skopje was dominated by Albanians, but after the implementation of these project, 20.000 of them were moved to Kosovo. Hundreds of families emigrated to Turkey in 1963, and 20.000 Slavs were brought from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Aegean Macedonia. We see this as a key element for changing the population structure and the Slavic domination in this city”, Hasani declared.

These documents are being published for the first time on Top Channel and expose another plan that built state institutions on 30 mosques that were demolished.

“This document says that this moment should be used to remove these objects and so that they can never be built again. Some of those objects do not exist anymore and have been replaced by Macedonian ethnic objects”, Hasani says.

These data, together with thousands of other historic documents, will be published in a special book for the Skopje earthquake, which destroyed 80% of the city in 26 July 1963, with more than 1000 casualties.

Top Channel