Croatia Museum Upsets Albanians by Using Insulting Term

August 31, 201806:55
A museum in Zadar is on the backfoot after it was found using an insulting term for Albanians in an old exhibition – which it said was because the exhibition dated back to the 1970s, when it did not have the same meaning.
Word ‘Siptari’ and ‘Shiptares’ used in a bilingual Croatian-English exhibiton. Photo courtesy of Hrvoje Simicevic

A Croatian museum is in hot water with the country’s Albanian minority after it was discovered using an insulting term for Albanians in an exhibition.

Croatia’s Novosti newspaper reported the use of the word on Thursday on a panel board of a bilingual exhibition in Croatian and English in the Archaeological Museum in Zadar.

“Lineal descendant of the Illyrians are the present-day Albanians or Shiptares,” the English translation says.

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

“The author was the late Sime Batovic, who did it back in the early 1970s. As far as I know, we never received any complaints about it,” he said, claiming that the word probably did not have the same negative meaning back then.

“If it became a derogatory term in the meantime, I don’t know; I personally don’t [academically] deal with that topic,” Vucic said.

He said the museum would remove the word if it became problematic, as it is “only one word in a massive exhibition”.

The Union of Albanian Communities of the Republic Croatia has expressed its dissatisfaction, however.

It told Novosti: “We Albanians are not all comfortable being referred to as ‘Siptari’. Behind that word stands no positive context.”

Representative of the Albanian minority in Croatian parliament, Ermina Lekaj Prljaskaj, said that the term “Siptar” was used in a negative context throughout the 20th century, and that the situation was no different now.

“It is incomprehensible that such a term is used in an academic institution, which is meant to serve as a rolemodel 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 was used.

The term is used in some former Yugoslav countries for Albanians, Serbia especially – most often in smear campaigns in the tabloids.

Albanians themselves refer to themselves as “Shqiptar”, but it is pronounced differently.

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

Read more:

Rabid Anti-Albanian Sentiment Grips Serbian Media