Serbianisation or Serbification[1] or Serbisation(Serbian: србизација, посрбљавање, srbizacija, posrbljavanje Bulgarian: сърбизация, посръбчване/sərbizacija, posrəbčvane, Romanian: serbificarea) is the spread of Serbian culture, people, or politics, either by integration or assimilation.
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According to Stephen Schwartz, the term is used to its belief that all South Slavs, comprising Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians, Montenegrins and Macedonians, should consider themselves, in their essential being, as Serbs.[2]
Croats were victims of serbianization through history because of political and religious problems. Croats in modern-day Serbia suffered serbianization for centuries.
Serbianisation has been attributed to Albanians in Kosovo.[3] This process has been strongest in the period from 1912 (the occupation of Kosovo by Serbia), to 1966 when the Serbian nationalist minister of interior of Yugoslavia, Aleksandar Rankovic, was removed from power. This process saw a resumption in the 1990s, when Serbia usurped Kosovo's autonomy and all Albanians were fired from any public institutions, including schools, universities and hospitals.
In the region of Sandzak, which at the time of its annexation by Serbia (1912) was part of Kosovo, the Albanian population switched from speaking Albanian to Serbian between the two world wars.
We find here, as everywhere else, the ordinary measures of "Serbization" — the closing of schools, disarmament, invitations to schoolmasters to become Servian officials, nomination of "Serbomanes," "Grecomanes," and vlachs, as village headmen, orders to the clergy of obedience to the Servian Archbishop, acts of violence against influential individuals, prohibition of transit, multiplication of requisitions, forged signatures to declarations and patriotic telegrams, the organization of special bands, military executions in the villages and so forth.[4]
— Report of the International Commission
Immediately after annexation of Vardar Macedonia to the Kingdom of Serbia, the Macedonian Slavs were faced with the policy of forced serbianisation.[5][6] Those who declare as the Bulgarians were tortured, imprisoned or deported to Bulgaria.[7] Many high clergy of Bulgarian Orthodox Church were expelled: Cosmas of Debar (Bishop), Axentius of Bitola (Archbishop), Neophytus of Skopje, Meletius of Veles, Boris of Ohrid and others.[8] The population of Macedonia was forced to declare as Serbs. Those who refused were beaten and tortured.[9] prominent people and teachers from Skopje who refused to declare as Serbs were deported to Bulgaria.[8] International Commission concluded that the Serbian state started in Macedonia wide sociological experiment of "assimilation through terror."[8]
During the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the government of the Kingdom pursued a linguistic Serbisation policy towards the Bulgarians in Macedonia,[10] then called "Southern Serbia" (unofficially) or "Vardar Banovina" (officially). The dialects spoken in this region were referred to as dialects of Serbo-Croatian.[11] Either way, those southern dialects were suppressed with regards education, military and other national activities, and their usage was punishable.[12] The Serbianisation of the Bulgarian language and population in Republic of Macedonia increased after WWII. Persons declaring their Bulgarian identity were imprisoned or went into exile, and in this way Vardar Macedonia was effectively de-Bulgarised.[13]
The Albanian population of Macedonia was also subjected to policies of Serbianisation, especially from 1912 until the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, when the Slavic Macedonian language became prominent and was imposed upon the Albanian population.
Serbianisation has been attributed to Romanians and Vlachs, since the 19th century.[14]
Islamisation and Turkification occurred under Ottoman rule, starting from the 15th century to the 19th century, meaning that some Christian Serbs were persecuted and forcefully converted to Islam, thus also becoming Turks in the process of changing names and culture. Turks often chose Christian wives, either buying them from their parents or took them by force.[15][16]
Serbs in the Roman Catholic Croatian Military Frontier were out of the jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć and in 1611, after demands from the community, the Pope establishes the Eparchy of Marča (Vratanija) with seat at the Serbian-built Marča Monastery and instates a Byzantine vicar as bishop sub-ordinate to the Roman Catholic bishop of Zagreb, working to bring Serbian Orthodox Christians into communion with Rome which caused struggle of power between the Catholics and the Serbs over the region. In 1695 Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Lika-Krbava and Zrinopolje is established by metropolitan Atanasije Ljubojevic and certified by Emperor Josef I in 1707. In 1735 the Serbian Orthodox protested in the Marča Monastery and becomes part of the Serbian Orthodox Church until 1753 when the Pope restores the Roman Catholic clergy. On June 17, 1777 the Eparchy of Križevci is permanently established by Pope Pius VI with see at Križevci, near Zagreb, thus forming the Croatian Greek Catholic Church which would after the World War I include other people; Rusyns and Ukrainians of Yugoslavia.[17][18]
The Ustasha forcefully converted Serbs. The Serbs were referred to and viewed as "Croats of Eastern faith". The Ustaše aimed at an ethnically "pure" Croatia, and saw the Serbs that lived in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as the their biggest obstacle. Thus, Ustaše ministers Mile Budak, Mirko Puk, and Milovan Žanić declared in May 1941 that the goal of the new Ustaše policy was an ethnically clean Croatia. They also publicly announced the strategy to achieve their goal:
The term Arnauti or Arnautaši was coined by Serbian ethnographers for "Albanized Serbs"; Serbs who were thought to have converted to Islam and went through a process of Albanisation.[19][20] This supposed process is opposed by Albanian scholars and there is no consensus among Western scholars on the issue.
At the end of the 19th century, writer Branislav Nušić recorded that the Serb poturice (converts to Islam) of Orahovac began talking Albanian and marrying Albanian women.[20]
When Dr Jovan Hadži Vasiljević (l. 1866-1948) visited Orahovac in World War I, he could not distinguish Orthodox from Islamicized and Albanized Serbs.[20] They spoke Serbian, wore the same costumes, but claimed Serbian, Albanian or Turk ethnicity.[20] The Albanian starosedeoci (old urban families) were Slavophone; they did not speak Albanian but a Slavic dialect (naš govor, Our language) at home.[20]
In the 1921 census the majority of Muslim Albanians of Orahovac were registered under the category "Serbs and Croats".[20] This is contrary to the belief that Islamisation led to Albanisation. This suggests that claims of Islamisation has led to Albanisation of Serbs are difficult to prove. Also, there has been a continuous and considerable presence of a Slavic Muslim population in Kosovo.
Mark Krasniqi, the Kosovo Albanian ethnographer, recalled in 1957:[20] "During my own research, some of them told me that their tongue is similar to Macedonian rather than Serbian (it is clear that they want to dissociate themselves from everything Serbian[20]). It is likely they are the last remnants of what is now known in Serbian sources as 'Arnautaši', Islamicised and half-way Albanianised Slavs."[20]
The region of present-day Macedonia is sometimes called southern Serbia (part of Old Serbia) by Serbs. Marshall Tito formed SR Macedonia out of the 1929-1941 Vardar Banovina, and encouraged the forming of the Macedonian identity, a Macedonian dialect, and subsequently the separation of Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Macedonia.[21]
De-serbisation occurred in Montenegro when Josip Broz Tito came to power in Yugoslavia. Prior to the 20th century the name Montenegrin was used as a regional/national affiliation.
In the 1921-census results, Serbs composed 92.96%, numbering 231,686 in Montenegro. From 1948 to 1991, the percentage of Serbs never exceeded 10% (ranging from 3-10% every 10 years) as a result of the Montenegrin national awakening. In 2003, Serbs composed 31.99%, numbering 198,414, as to the percentage in 1948 was 1.78%, a third of previously declared Montenegrins now re-declared as Serbs. (see Demographic history of Montenegro)