The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia expressed its “serious concern” about the results of the population census carried out in Albania and which were announced yesterday, while it “strongly reacts to the use of the term North Macedonians, to characterize the Macedonian minority living in Albania”. .

According to the results of the census announced yesterday in Tirana by the Statistical Service of Albania, the population of the country amounts to 2.4 million people, reduced by 410,000 compared to the previous census held in the country in 2011.

The number of “North Macedonians” in Albania stands at 2,281, compared to 5,512 in the 2011 census, while for the first time 7,957 people are now recorded as “Bulgarian”, although in the previous 11 censuses in Albania not a single person declared themselves Bulgarian.

The Albanian authorities only recognized a “Bulgarian minority” in Albania in 2017. The official Sofia claims that in the previous censuses in Albania, the Bulgarian population living in the country was prevented from being counted as such.

“Technical irregularities, both before and during the population census in Albania, which were constantly pointed out by Macedonian organizations in Albania, resulted in the announcement of preliminary data which, unfortunately, do not adequately reflect the actual number of ethnic Macedonians in the country” notes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia in today’s announcement and informs that it is recalling the ambassador of North Macedonia in Tirana for consultations in Skopje.

Also, during yesterday’s announcement of the results of the census in Albania, the representative of the embassy of North Macedonia left the presentation as a sign of protest, because it spoke of “North Macedonians” and not “Macedonians”. Representatives of the latter in Albania announced that they do not recognize the results of this census in Albania, which took place in September and October 2023, and are requesting a new one. The same representatives accuse Bulgaria of a “policy of assimilation of the “Macedonians” living in Albania”, by issuing Bulgarian passports and exerting pressure for them to be registered as “Bulgarians”, while they note that the Albanian authorities did nothing to prevent such actions.

Bulgaria categorically rejects these accusations, which, however, are embraced by the official Skopje.

A few hours after the reaction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country, Timco Muchunski, said that after his intervention to his Albanian counterpart, Igli Hasani, the Statistical Service of Albania “corrected” the term “North Macedonians” with the term “Macedonians”.