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Abstract

During the last 30 years, the Albanian question in the Balkan region has been established as the major issue in the world politics. Became one of the reasons of the Yugoslavian crisis in 1990s, it has already played a role in Serbia and Macedonia, having transformed these states. The article analyzes the new stage of its development, this time in Montenegro. The author highlights the history of the Albanian national question in the former Yugoslavian republic after the breakup of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as examines the current position of the Albanian ethnic minority. Despite the paucity of the Albanian community in that Balkan country (and even gradually decreasing its size), it has a great, fateful, infl uence on the modern history of Montenegro. Its role became especially remarkable in the period when Montenegro gained full state sovereignty in 2006, and in the next years. The author explores the positions of prominent Albanian politicians, the relationship of the largest national political parties, as well as defi nes the role of the Albanian community in the structure of the Montenegro society. Great attention is paid to the problem of the infl uence of neighboring Albania and Kosovo on the development of inter-ethnic relations and overall on the internal situation in Montenegro. A special section of the article is devoted to the analysis of parliamentary elections in the republic, held on October 16, 2016, in a view of participation of Albanian political forces and voters. Their results largely contributed to the accelerated accession of Montenegro to the North Atlantic Alliance in June 2017. The author suggests that in future Montenegro could expect the same changes of the state structure, which have already taken place in neighboring Macedonia. The latter, because of the 2001 crisis, has actually become a national-territorial federation of two nations, and that was achieved by unconstitutional means. In Montenegro, under the pressure of Albanian politicians, a restructuring of its territorial organization is also on the agenda.

Keywords

Modern History, Montenegro, the Albanians, ethnic minorities, national relations, elections, Milo Djukanovich

Zoya V. Klimenko

Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

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