a few seconds agoMuseum in Croatia angers Albanians, uses insulting term
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)A museum in Croatia's Zara is being justified after being found using an insulting term for Albanians at an old exhibition that he said the exhibition dates back to the 1970s, when the term did not have the same meaning today. The museum has been put under pressure from the country's Albanian minority, as [...]
The museum has been put under pressure from the country's Albanian minority, after it was discovered using an insulting term for Albanians at an exhibition.
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 Zara.
The linear successors of the Illyrians are today's Albanians, or Shiptar”, it says.
Jakov Vuciq, head of the museum, claims that using the word offensive “Shiptar” for Albanians is because the board 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 in the meantime this became a derogatory term, I don't know; I personally [accademically] don't deal with this”, Vuciq said.
He said the museum would remove the word if it became problematic, as it is “just one word at a mass exhibition”.
The Union of Albanian Communitys of the Republic of Croatia, however, has expressed its dissatisfaction.
This community said to Novosti: “We Albanians are not satisfied with referring to as the Shiptari. There is no positive context behind this word”.
The representative of the Albanian minority in the Croatian Parliament, Ermina Lekaj Prljaskaj, said the term “Shiptar” 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 role 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 Serbia's most frequently in the slanderous campaigns in the picture.
Albanians are one of 22 national minorities known in Croatia, with 17,513 members according to the 2011 census.
