Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric announced on Wednesday that Serbia and Albania have reached an agreement in principle to open consular offices in Shkodra and Bujanovac. Speaking to Radio Belgrade, Djuric expressed his satisfaction with his recent talks with Albania’s new Foreign Minister Ferit Hoxha. “I am pleased to have had such good talks with Albania’s new Foreign Minister Ferit Hoxha, with whom we reached an agreement in principle to open consular offices in Shkodra and Bujanovac,” Djuric told the broadcaster.
Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa form a region in southern Serbia known in Albanian as the Preševo Valley. This area is home to the largest community of ethnic Albanians remaining in Serbia outside of Kosovo. According to the official 2022 census in Serbia, 57,710 Albanians live permanently in the Preševo Valley, constituting approximately 71% of the total population of the region., but unofficially the number is many times higher, as many Albanians have their addresses deactivated.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) officially documents at least 5,500 to 6,000 confirmed cases of Albanian address inactivation, while political leaders and local organizations report even higher figures due to cases that have not yet been officially declared. Meanwhile, in Albania, according to the 2023 census, Serbs and Montenegrins or Serbo-Montenegrins are a recognized ethnic minority in Albania. According to the data, 584 people declared themselves as Serbs and 511 as Montenegrins, a figure much smaller than the number of ethnic Albanians of the Presevo Valley who have not had an Albanian consulate to date.
