Sandžak, a history of national pain

In this Prishtina Talks presentation, Ismet Azizi — a student of the history of the Sandžak, trained in geography — takes up the painful and little-known history of the Sandžak, a territory of particular importance to Albanian history that today lies divided between Serbia and Montenegro. The lecture is at once personal testimony, historical documentation, and a call for Albanian historiography to return in earnest to a forgotten part of the national inheritance.

Azizi begins with his own memories — how he first came to the question of the Sandžak through the geography department, where the pashaliks of the Sandžak were treated only in relation to Albanians — and how he had the chance to travel there and come to know its people. He examines how the communist education system in Kosovo forbade the opening of Albanian schools in Novi Pazar and the other towns of the Sandžak, and how the imposed Serbianisation created a cultural and identitary split among Albanians in their own historical lands.

In the central part, Azizi offers a deep geographical and historical reading: the Sandžak is a historical part of Dardania, and its best-known city — Novi Pazar, Yeni Pazar in Turkish, “the new bazaar” — was founded to replace the old bazaar. He examines the religious and ethnic structure of the population — Muslim and Catholic Albanians, Bosniaks, Serbs — and how the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and what followed divided the Sandžak in a way that broke the historical Albanian ties. He looks at the role of the Kelmendi and the other Albanian tribes of the region, and at the historical claims of Serbia and Montenegro.

The lecture closes with the situation today: why the Sandžak remains “an internal matter of Serbia” internationally, how demographic and cultural pressure works on the Muslim population there, and why Albanian historiography has a moral obligation to return to this territory — not to spoil relations with neighbouring states, but to protect a historical and cultural inheritance that belongs to the Albanian people.

Some of the points covered: 📌 The Sandžak as a historical part of Dardania 📌 The origin of Novi Pazar (Yeni Pazar) as “the new bazaar” 📌 Albanian schools forbidden under the communist system 📌 The ethnic and religious division: Albanians, Bosniaks, Serbs 📌 The Congress of Berlin in 1878, and what it meant for the Sandžak 📌 The role of the Kelmendi and the other Albanian tribes 📌 The historical claims of Serbia and Montenegro 📌 What Albanian historiography owes this territory

📍 Prishtina Talks