THE SAR MOUNTAIN NASHINCI

Abstract

The islamized population of Serbian origin living in three Sar mountain valleys, those of Gora, Sredačka Župa and Prizrenski Podgor, are subjected to, so as say, forcible Albanization even at the present time. In two villages in Prizrenski Podgor and in one village in Sredačka Župa Albanian schoois wereopened in 1971, although the villagers speak Serbo-Croatian as their mother tongue. This retrograde ethnic process, the aim of which is to rescind the present Yugoslav ethnic identity and to replece in with the new, Albanian one, has, it seems started to evolve right after the Second World War, initiated by the political and administrative forces. All these facts are revealed by numerous documents. The ihabitants in one of these regions, those in Gora, have efficiently resisted the process of Albanization, while in the other two regions it is still in full sway, and supported by the authorities, so that the inhabitants are abie to offer only a passive resistance.