Reply #22: Its quite complicated [View All]

[Vladimir]

firstly, ethnic and racial is not the same, hence when KeithyBoy was talking about distinguishing them from white europeans that is wrong. Albanians and Serbs are both Caucasian to the best of my knowledge. Traditionally ethnicity has been a popular label in South-Eastern Europe, so you will hear people going on about ethnic-Albanians and ethnic-Serbs. The reason for this is two-fold:

1) The amount of intermixing between the various groups has meant that most Serbs, for example, are actually of mixed ethnicity. The term ethnic Serb would then be used to indicate those who regard themselves as Serbs. Also Serbs living in Croatia, for example, who still want to be primarily labelled as Serbs, would be called ethnic-Serbs.

2) Following up on EdGy's point, the Albanians in Albania and Albanians in Kosovo have generally been regarded as separate groups. Hence one talks about ethnic Albanians in Kosovo because they are Albanian by ethnicity but Yugoslav/Kosovar by nationality. As opposed to Albanians from Albania who are just Albanian.

I agree, its fucking confusing.

V