Abstract

This text examines historical narratives and political discourses surrounding anti-Albanian attitudes in Greek and Balkan contexts from the Ottoman period through the 20th century. It analyzes the use of the derogatory term Tourkalvanoi to label Muslim Albanians and explores how religious identity under the Ottoman millet system shaped ethnic categorization. The discussion addresses state policies, expulsions, and nationalist historiography in Greece and the Balkans, highlighting how identity construction framed Albanians as the “Other.” It also introduces genetic studies concerning populations in modern Turkey and Cyprus, arguing that scientific findings challenge nationalist myths about ethnic origins. The text concludes by emphasizing the complexity of religious conversion, coexistence, and identity formation in the region.

Turko-Albanian (Greek: Τουρκαλβανοί, Tourkalvanoi) in a broader sense is an ethnographic, religious, and derogatory term used by Greeks for both Albanian political and military elites and Turkish elites of the Ottoman administration in the Balkans since 1715.

This identification of Muslims with Ottomans and/or Turks occurred due to the Ottoman Empire’s millet administrative system, which classified peoples according to religion.

From the mid-19th century onward, the term “Turk,” and subsequently “Turko-Albanian,” was used as a derogatory designation for Muslim Albanian individuals and communities.

“Albanians have expressed ridicule and social distancing toward the terms ‘Turk’ and ‘Turko-Albanian’… Turko-Albanians and those who share the same religion as the Turks are the most warlike and political among the Muslims and do not agree on everything.”
— Georgios Gazis, Biographia tōn hērōōn Marku Mpotsarē kai Karaïskakē (1828)

The struggle against Albanians was carried out through division, identifying Turkalvanoi in contrast to the Souliotes.
— Christophoros Perraibos, Apomnēmoneumata polemika… (1820–1829)

Consequently, in the early 1880s, the Greek press openly incited anti-Albanian sentiment, linking Albanian irredentists with anti-Greek Turkish propaganda and labeling them as Vlachs and “Turkish agreements.”
— Rodanthi Tzanelli, Nation-building and identity in Europe (2008)

As noted by Umut Özkırımlı and Spyros A. Sofos in Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey (2008), the term Tourkalvanoi was used to designate Muslim Turkish and Albanian elites and military units representing Ottoman dominance in the Balkans.

20th Century Anti-Albanian Policies

In the 20th century, anti-Albanian policies targeting Muslims and Catholics (excluding Slavicized or Hellenized Orthodox Albanians) developed further into a bureaucratic category particularly vulnerable to state-led expulsion campaigns during the 1920s, 1935–38, 1953–67, and again in the 1990s.

Regions of Kosovo, Novi Pazar, Montenegro, and Macedonia labeled as inhabited by “Muslim Albanians” often faced organized expulsions. To justify such measures to foreign observers or delegations from the League of Nations, Serbian/Yugoslav authorities frequently mobilized historians, demographers, and anthropologists.

According to Isa Blumi in Ottoman Refugees, 1878–1939 (2013), racial sciences and ethnographic methods were used to categorize populations and legitimize expulsions.

Identity Construction and the “Other”

Iraklis Millas (2006) explains that the “eternal” existence of the Other is reinforced through naming. Greeks often labeled various groups—Seljuks, Ottomans, and even Albanians—as “Turks” (Tourkalvanoi).

Greek nationalist histories preferred the more familiar but derogatory term “Turkalvanoi” instead of “Muslim Albanians.”

Who Are the Turks? What Does DNA Show?

According to an article in Greek Herald, genetic evidence challenges national myths.

DNA testing suggests that many Turkish citizens primarily descend from indigenous Mediterranean populations, including Italian and Balkan groups.

The common haplogroup J2 (24%) found in Turkey is typical for Italians and Greeks, not Central Asians.

Modern Turks are not predominantly of Central Asian “Turkic” origin, according to genetic findings.

Cyprus Case Study

A comprehensive study by Harvard Medical School showed that Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots share a common pre-Ottoman ancestry. Forced conversions and centuries of coexistence resulted in genetic similarities. Most Turkish Cypriots share a similar genetic composition with Greek Cypriots.

It is argued that Turkish authorities discourage ancestry DNA testing due to its challenge to official narratives, and new laws criminalize questioning “Turkishness.” Genetics suggests many modern Turks have Mediterranean and European roots, and that modern Turkish identity, as currently promoted, is largely political.

Alvanokratia (Albanian Rule) in the Morea

Recent republications of 19th-century Greek sources discuss Alvanokratia—the period of Albanian military dominance in the Morea (Peloponnese), when Albanian Muslim soldiers were deployed by the Ottoman Porte to suppress the Russo-Greek revolt.

In a letter dated August 31, 1770, the governor of the Morea, Muhsinzade Mehmed Pasha, expressed frustration at his inability to control the Albanians.

After suppressing the revolt, Albanians remained in the peninsula for nearly a decade. Greek historiography describes this period as marked by the marginalization of pre-1770 elites and the rise of powerful Albanian groups characterized—according to those sources—by violence and brutality.

Scholarly Studies on Conversions

• George B. Nikolaou — Islamisations in the Peloponnese (17th century–1821), examining religious conversions during Ottoman rule.
• “Islamisations et Christianisations dans le Péloponnèse (1715–ca.1832)” — doctoral thesis on Islamization and re-Christianization.
• Maria Vasileiou — Conversion in the Late Ottoman Empire (1856–1908).
• Stefanos Katsikas — “Proselytes of a New Nation…” on Muslim conversions to Orthodoxy in modern Greece.

In conclusion, conversions to Islam until 1821 were concentrated in southeastern and northwestern regions of the Peloponnese. During the Greek Revolution, re-Christianizations and forced conversions occurred. In Ottoman Athens, religious affiliation was linked to social and legal structures, and although conflicts were often framed as Muslim-Christian divisions, the historical reality was far more complex, involving coexistence and interaction.

Main Source:
The Ottoman Empire, the Balkans, the Greek Lands: Toward a Social and Economic History (2007), in honor of John C. Alexander.

Images referenced:
Muslim Albanians playing checkers; Albanians in Egypt; Maniots; Traditional family; Ottoman Athens (1687–1778).