FLASH
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The clashes between Albania and North Macedonia for the 2023 Population Census are also echoing in Greece.
Protothema writes that the Foreign Ministry of North Macedonia expressed its serious concern over the results of the population census conducted in Albania and announced on Friday.
At the same time, Skopje strongly reacts to the use of the term North Macedonian to describe the Macedonian minority living in Albania.
According to the results of the census announced yesterday in Tirana by INSTAT, the population of the country reaches 2.4 million inhabitants, reduced by 410 thousand compared to the previous census carried out in the country in 2011.
The number of North Macedonians in Albania reaches 2,281, compared to 5,512 in the 2011 census, while for the first time 7,957 people are now registered as "Bulgarians", although in the 11 previous censuses in Albania no person has been declared Bulgarian.
In other words, North Macedonians are only 0.1% of the population of Albania.
Albanian authorities recognized a Bulgarian minority in Albania only in 2017. Official Sofia claims that in 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 have been repeatedly pointed out by Macedonian organizations in Albania, have resulted in the publication of preliminary data which, unfortunately, do not adequately reflect the number of ethnic Macedonians in the country" announces the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia in today's announcement and informs that it is recalling the ambassador of North Macedonia to Tirana for consultations in Skopje.
Moreover, 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 they were talking about "Northern Macedonians" and not "Macedonians".
The representatives of the latter in Albania announced that they do not know the results of this census in Albania, held in September and October 2023, and are looking for a new one. The same representatives accuse Bulgaria of a policy of assimilation of "Macedonians" living in Albania, issuing Bulgarian passports and pressuring them to register as "Bulgarians", while stressing that the Albanian authorities have done nothing to prevent such a thing. such.
Bulgaria categorically rejects these accusations, which, however, have been embraced by 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, stated that after his intervention to his Albanian counterpart, Igli Hasani, the Statistical Service of Albania corrected the term "Macedonians north" with the term "Macedonian".
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