Croatians again insult Albanians: This time in the museum

Croatia's Novosti newspaper announced the use of the word Thursday at a panel of a bilingual exhibition in Croatian and English at the Archaeological Museum in Zadar.

“The linear successors of the Illyrians are today's Albanians or “scopes”, the English translation says.

Jakov Vucic, head of the museum, claims that use of insulting word “Syptar” for Albanians is because the sign dates to an exhibition on Illyrian history compiled in the 1970s.

“Autori was the late Sime Batovic, who did it in the early 1970s. As long as I know, we've never received any complaints about this”, he said, claiming that the word probably didn't have the same negative meaning then.

If it already became a derogatory term, I don't know; I personally do not [accademically] deal with this topic”, Vucic said.

He said the museum would remove the word if it became a problem, as it is “just one word at a mass exhibition”.

The Albanian community in the Republic of Croatia, however, has expressed its dissatisfaction.

She told Novosti: “We Albanians are not satisfied with referring to him as the Secretary. There is no positive context behind this word”.

The representative of the Albanian minority in the Croatian parliament, Ermina Lekaj Prljaskaj, said the term “Syptar” was used in a negative context throughout the 20th century and that the situation was not different now.

The “is not understood to use such a term in an academic institution, which aims to serve as a model to others in terms of its work and credibility”, she told BIRN.

Lekaj Prljaskaj called on the museum to explain the specific context in which the derogatory term is used.

The term is used in several former Yugoslav countries for Albanians, especially in Serbia.

Albanians are one of 22 national minorities known in Croatia, with 17,513 members according to the 2011 census.