Bulgarians in Albania

"Assimilation has led to the creation of a Bulgarian minority in Albania," reported the media in North Macedonia, highlighting the surprising results of Albania's recent population census. These reports also pointed out that the number of Macedonians in Albania has halved.

The adoption of a law on the protection of national minorities in Albania is the first step. The adoption of a number of secondary legislation, which will regulate the implementation of the law and how the rights of the Bulgarian minority will be put into practice, are still to be adopted.

Bulgaria is pushing for official recognition of a Bulgarian minority in Kosovo, not only as a follow-on to the recent recognition of a Bulgarian minority in Albania, but as part of "regular state policy", the head of the State Agency for Bulgarians, Petar Haralampiev, told BIRN on Friday.

The Bulgarian minority was officially recognized by Albania, local media reported.

This was after the amendments to the Minority Protection Bill, approved by consensus in the country's parliamentary legal committee.

MEPs from different countries and political parties are preparing a letter to the parliament of Albania, urging the country to recognize the Bulgarian national minority, reported bTV. 

Following her visit to Serbia, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva continues today her Balkan tour with talks in Albania.

Recognition of the Bulgarian minority in Albania. This will be one of the main goals of the Foreign Minister.

Trebisht in northeastern Albania looks like a ghost village, emptied of its residents by a rush to get Bulgarian passports that open the door to the European Union, AFP reported.
Arman Kadriu has an Albanian name, but the 12-year-old boy says he considers himself Bulgarian.

A National Forum of Balkan States' Bulgarians under the slogan Mission-Heritage is being held in Sofia, reported the Bulgarian National Radio.

Bulgarian MEPs are pushing for the rights of Bulgarians allegedly living in eastern Albania to get onto the European agenda.

The issue of the community - whose existence Albania disputes - has been included in the European Parliament draft resolution on Albania, scheduled for debate on February 14, on the demand of Bulgarian MEPs.

The government in Sofia has decided to increase 2.5 times the annual quota for university students from the Bulgarian diaspora living mostly in European countries.