A little more than a month after Bulgaria recognised Kosovo in a joint act with Croatia and Hungary, European Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova became the first Bulgarian minister to make an official visit to the newly proclaimed republic.

Along with meetings with high-ranking Kosovar and Western officials, Grancharova’s programme included talks with representatives of the Gorani community in Kosovo, including Mursel Halili, chairperson of the Gora Civil Initiatiative party.

The Gorani are a Slavic ethnic group adhering to Islam. In all Slav languages the word “gora” means “mountain”, hence the English equivalent of “Gorani” would be “mountain people”. Since Bulgarian scientists have published research showing linguistic and ethnic similarities between the Gorani and the Bulgarians over the years, debate has centred around their possible Bulgarian origin and whether they should be recognised as a Bulgarian minority.

The Sofia Echo talked to Anton Panchev, a Balkan studies graduate doing a thesis in political science at Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, who has lived for about a year in Kosovo, studied at the university in Pristina and paid several visits to observe the Gorani territories.

The Gorani are a very interesting community in Kosovo and Albania, split in two by the border established after the Balkan wars, he explained. In Kosovo there are 19 Gorani villages located in the south along the border with Macedonia and Albania in the areas of Prizren Gora and Zupa. In Albania there are nine Gorani villages, located around the town of Kukes in the area of Kukes Gora.

“There are many problems establishing the exact number of the Gorani in Kosovo because the war in 1999 drove many away. The economic situation also led to considerable emigration,” Panchev said. According to the 1991 census, 17 000 people in Kosovo declared themselves Gorani. It’s supposed that by 1999 this number increased to about 20 000. During the Serbian governance, all other minorities in Kosovo were well treated by the Serbians to create a bulwark against the Albanian majority. After the bombings and the June-July 1999 Albanian repressions, when Albanians enacted their revenge, however, many Gorani also left Kosovo along with fleeing Serbians and Roma. The dire economic situation of the underdeveloped mountain region the Gorani inhabit – lacking good transport infrastructure, communications and work opportunities – forced an ongoing migration of Gorani from Kosovo to Serbia and Western Europe. Now there are many different estimates about the number of Gorani in Kosovo – 10 000, 7000, but maybe 4000 to 5000 people would be the most accurate figure, Panchev said.

“Whether the Gorani are Bulgarians or not is a very complicated issue,” he said. Undoubtedly their language is Bulgarian. This has been proven by a number of Bulgarian, Serbian and Albanian linguists, all of whom confirm that the Gorani language (the so-called nashinski, which translated means “ours”) is a western Bulgarian dialect. The ethnography of the Gorani is also Bulgarian, they are tourlatsi or shopi, belodreshkovtsi (western Bulgarian ethnographic groups). The songs of the Gorani are definitely Bulgarian. They belong to the Bulgarian folklore not just from a linguistic point of view, but as a structure as well. The Gorani have preserved their connection with Bulgarian traditions and customs and their culture is definitely Bulgarian.

There are several hypotheses on the origin of the Gorani. One of them is that they are Slavs who were Bulgarised and acquired Bulgarian self-consciousness during the ninth to the 10th century when their territories became part of the Bulgarian state. Another is that they are not the indigenous population, but migrated west from today’s Bulgarian territories during the Middle Ages. According to other theories, they are the indigenous population of Romance origin, most probably Wallachian.

“There is much speculation,” Panchev said. Undoubtedly, the Gorani are Bulgarian by their origin and Muslims, Islamicised in the 18th century. The current situation, however, is very different. Bulgaria has never demonstrated much interest in them, in fact virtually none, and the years of foreign rule (in Kosovo – Serbian, in Albania – Albanian), as well as the fact that they inhabit an isolated enclave, surrounded by Albanians on all sides, have all exerted a great impact on their identity. Some Gorani consider themselves Serbs, some consider themselves Macedonians, or Bosnians, or Bulgarians, or, finally, simply Gorani. There is various propaganda aimed at influencing the Kosovo Gorani. Currently, that stemming from Macedonia and Bosnia is the most intense, while in Albania there are strong processes of Albanisation and assimilation of the Gorani. Therefore, at this stage we cannot say the Gorani in Kosovo are a Bulgarian minority. Most of them are really confused about their identity. They do not have a clearly manifested ethnic self-consciousness as a compact group.”

The pro-Bulgarian organisations of the Gorani think Bulgaria should support them, Panchev said. They insist that authorities in Pristina recognise the Bulgarian minority, that Bulgaria facilitate their acquisition of Bulgarian citizenship and that a Bulgarian cultural institute be opened there, that scholarships be awarded to Gorani students and that Gorani be given “green cards” to Bulgaria.

“The economic situation of the Gorani is very bad and they are looking for support from outside. They really need help and if some country – Bulgaria, Macedonia, even Bosnia – gets more seriously engaged in supporting the Gorani cause, it will achieve great success. The Gorani are just a small community, trying to survive in the Albanian sea,” Panchev said.