Albanian Slavics

 

Athanasios ;

IS that the reason why Albanian Muslims cry for " Genocide of Chameria " , a product of nationalism ?

 

I know that the nationalism has converted into an extremist point . I love my Albanian brothers , but what they said are said , their thoughts about Turks are so straightforward . It requires a little courage to discuss the Albanian - Turkish period with an Albanian .

They could kill you just because of your courageous attempt 

The mainstream scholars accept that Illyrians and Dacians retreated into the mountains upon the Slavic incursions to reemerge in the 11th century as Vlachs and Albanians. Personally I have no reason (other my own slightly nationalistic ones) to deny this version of history.

However, in recent years Yugoslav archaeology has confirmed that there isn't a uniform "Illyrian" identity but a number of different cultures loosely united under the authority of the Illyrian kings. The tribe Dalmatae for example, though classed as Illyrian based on linguistic evidence, defected very shortly from the main Illyrian kingdom as soon as the latter run into trouble and King Gentis or Gentius could not enforce his authority. The great debate of today is about whether the proven cultural variation in today's Bosnia, Serbia, Dalmatian Coast, Croatia, and Albania should also be classified as to correspond to ethnic variation as well. The biggest stumbling block is the complete lack of any sources that testify to the ancient Illyrian language. Without this conclusive linguistic evidence most of our discussions will remain SPECULATIVE.

So, Arber Z you are speculating about the identity of modern Albanians. Unless you have conclusive evidence to the opposite besides geographic identification (the fact that modern Albanians live today in part of what used to be Illyria). This in itself is not sufficient to prove the "Illyrianism" of Albanians but, of course, doen't counter it either. So at the moment we're kind of stuck in the middle.