Petrit Latifi

In the 19th century, Serbian doctor and founder of the Red Cross and the Prime minister of Serbia Vladan Ðorđević wrote that Albanians have tails.

The Serbian physician and statesman Vladan Ðorđević was born in Belgrade in 1844. After completing his schooling, he studied medicine in Vienna. He then returned to Serbia and served as a doctor in the army. Ðorđević rose to become head of the medical department of the Ministry of the Interior, but his interest in politics grew. He became mayor of Belgrade, minister of education, and ambassador to Athens and Istanbul.

From October 11, 1897, to July 12, 1900, he served as Serbian prime minister. In Serbia, Ðorđević is still considered a pioneer in the field of health policy; in 1876, he was one of the founders of the Serbian Red Cross. He also wrote numerous medical works as well as dramas, short stories, and historical works. His book “The Albanians and the Great Powers” (1913), excerpted from which he reprints his book, is characterized by racist prejudices against the Albanians.

He compares them to prehistoric humans and primates, claiming that as late as the 19th century, there were Albanians with tails sleeping in trees. Based on the allegedly different skull shapes of the inhabitants of northern and southern Albania, he attempted to prove that the Albanians were not a separate people. Furthermore, he claimed to have identified typically Serbian customs in large areas of the young Albanian state, proving that these zones actually belonged to the Serbian state.

This line of argument has a long tradition in Serbia and can still be found today in the historical perspective and rhetoric of right-wing extremists and ultranationalist parties like the Srpska Radikalna Stranka (Serbian Radical Party, SRS) of Vojislav Šešelj.

Reference

https://eeo.uni-klu.ac.at/wwwg.uni-klu.ac.at/eeo/Gopcevic_Albaner.pdf