Bulgarians in Albania

Balshi inscription.

The extent of the uprising of Peter Delyan (Peter II of Bulgaria) may have included much if not most of modern Albania; one of its centres was Drach (Durrës)

The first reference to a Slavic presence in Albania dates to 548, when the Slavs reached Epidamnos (Durrës), capturing fortresses in the city's vicinity. Slavic settlement near Epirus in southern Albania is mentioned in a note in a 10th-century manuscript of Strabo's Geographica, and near Durrës in a Middle Bulgarian translation of the Manasses Chronicle.[5]

Archaeologists have suggested the existence of a Bulgar archaeological culture in what is now modern North Macedonia and eastern Albania,[6] citing fortresses, burials, various products of metallurgy and pottery that could be of Bulgar origin.[7]

According to toponymic evidence, Slavic settlement was concentrated in the region between the Vjosë and Devoll Rivers. Slavic placenames in this region suggest an eastern South Slavic (i.e. Bulgarian, as opposed to Serbo-Croatian) dialect.[8] Bulgarian Slavs remained a significant group in central and southern Albania through the 15th century.[9] In the 850s and 860s, Boris I's First Bulgarian Empire included the Slavic-inhabited areas of what is today western North Macedonia and southern Albania, which constituted the Kutmichevitsa administrative province. Kutmichevista included the cities of Ohrid, Glavinitsa (Ballsh), Belgrad (Berat) and Devoll (at the village of Zvezdë). The Bulgarian enlighteners Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Preslav are known to have worked in Kutmichevitsa, where according to the 11th-century account of Theophylact of Bulgaria, Clement had 3,500 students. Clement's and Naum's activity, as well as the consolidation of Bulgarian religious and state authority, helped establish the Bulgarian identity of this Slavic population.[10]

From 989-995 to 1005, Albania was ruled by Samuel of Bulgaria. Under Samuel's rule, the region was governed by Ivan Vladimir, his vassal and the husband of his daughter Kosara.[11] In 1005, the area was reconquered by the Byzantine Empire. While the area was under Byzantine rule, a Bulgarian leader named Tihomir headed an uprising against the Byzantines near Drach; he was first supported but then killed by another insurgent, Peter Delyan, who proceeded to head the uprising and briefly ruled much of Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia and western Bulgaria.[12] In 1078, Nikephoros Vassilaki raised an army from the area surrounding Drach, consisting of "Franks (who came from Italy), Bulgarians, Romans (i.e. Byzantine Greeks) and Arvanites (i.e. Albanians)"[13]

The area fell under Bulgarian rule again between 1231 and 1240, under Ivan Asen II, who "routed the Greek army ... and conquered the entire Greek, Albanian and Serbian land from Odrin [Edirne] to Drach."[14] John Kukuzelis, a famous medieval composer of Bulgarian descent, was born in the city in the late 13th century.[15]

Ethnographic map of Bulgarians in 1912 on the eve of the Balkan Wars. The map was made by a team of Bulgarian professors in geography, ethnography and history at the University of Sofia under the leadership of Prof. A. Ishirkov[16]

Francois Pouqueville, in his 1820 book Travels in Epirus, Albania, Macedonia, and Thessaly described Bulgarian villages in the Devol region.[17]

In the 1920s, Albanians referred to orthodox Slavs in Albania as Bulgarians.[18] In 1932, Bulgaria and Albania signed a protocol regarding the recognition of the ethnic Bulgarian minority in Albania.[19] However it was not ratified by the Albanian side due to a pressure from Yugoslavia.[20] The recognition would involve Albania deeper in the conflict between Sofia and Belgrade on the Macedonian Slavs. In Albanian Macedonia, were strong bulgarophile sentiments and the pro-Bulgarian, paramilitary Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization had its bases, from where it launched attacks into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[21] Belgrade was suspicious of the recognition of a Bulgarian minority there and was annoyed this would hinder its policy of forced “Serbianisation” in Serbian Macedonia. It had already blocked the ratification of similar protocol with Greece.[22] The protocol caused a severe reaction in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As result Albanian side was convinced that opposing to Belgrade over this problem was not in its interest. Albanian-Bulgarian relations deteriorated completely during 1933 because in March 150 Bulgarian families were deported from the villages of Gorna and Dolna Gorica. The Bulgarian chargé d'affaires in Tirana informed his government that the plan of the Albanian government was to see all Bulgarians out of the country.[23] The Albanian-Italian census in today western parts of North Macedonia, then part of Albanian Kingdom, and today most eastern parts of Albania, conducted in October 1942, a total of 234,783 people living on this territory. According to the reported results for the ethnic composition of this population, the most recorded were Albanians - 61% of the total, 31% from registered were Bulgarians and 8% were recorded as Serbs.[24]