Albanians of the Sirinic district
Authors: Radovanovic Svetlana 
Published: April 2020

The Sirinic district is located in one of the four mountain valleys (Sirinic,
Sredska, Opolje and Gora) in the Sara mountain region. Its geographic
boundaries almost match the administrative borders of the commune of Strpce.
It is first mentioned in Serb manuscripts of the first half of the XIV
century. The census taken in 1455 by the Turks shows a relatively high
density of Serb population. The Albanians immigrated to the Sirinic district
from northern Albania after the second mass migration of Serb population in
1737. They came from north and east, from southern parts of Kosovo,
Kacanicka gorge and the Valley of Skoplje. A larger-scale settlement of
Albanians into the Sara mountain region was prevented by massive
Islamization of native Serb population in the districts of Gora, Opolje and
Sredska. Thus, a multi-ethnic buffer zone was formed during Turkish reign
which has been basically preserved until today. For this particular reason
the region has attracted interest of many domestic and foreign researchers
ever since early XIX century. Elaboration of two multi-disciplinary
scientific research projects by the Institute of Geography "Jovan Cvijic" of
the Serb Academy of Science and Arts in the period from 1989 to 1994 was
based on the same considerations. One of the projects is fully concerned
with the Sirinic district and the author of this paper was asked to study
migrations and the origins of Albanian population as well as to organize and
conduct a population census in the commune of Strpce. Immigration of
Albanians to the Sirinic district took place in several phases which
ultimately led to the formation of five mixed Serb-Albanian settlements
located between a group of four homogenous Albanian and seven such Serb
settlements. Thus, a relatively stable ethnic and geographic structure was
formed as early as in the XIX century. Its territorial and demographic
proportions did not substantially change regardless of all tumultuous
historical and political events that had since taken place. A more detailed
analysis shows that the share of Albanians in total population of the
district rose from about 29% in 1931 to only 33% in 1989 in spite of the
natural increase in population in excess of 30 per thousand ever since the
early 1980s. However, demographic growth of Albanian population remained
much below the level of the biological reproduction rate due to intensive
emigration i.e., a negative migratory balance ranging from 21.8 per thousand
in 1961 to 26.5 per thousand in 1989. The causes for emigration were
economic and, for decades, bound toward Kosovo, Western Macedonia and the
Valley of Skoplje. Emigration to Turkey began in late XIX century, resumed
during the Balkan Wars and was recorded again in the early 1980s (encouraged
by the Balkan Treaty signed by the FPRY, Greece and Turkey) but did not much
affect total demographic movement of Albanians in the Sirinic district.
Economic emigration of population to Switzerland and Germany has been
growing from the 1960s onward. This paper also reviews parallel existence
and functioning of two crucially different homeostatic demographic systems -
the Albanian and the Serb - in the same compact geographic environment. The
paper also points to the preserved awareness of a fixed (tribal) affiliation
and finally displays a detailed review of migratory dynamics and origins of
Albanian population, number of houses (families) and the number of members
of each clan in 1989.