Upper Reka

[4] Upper Reka is an isolated and underdeveloped region with limited communication links, whereby access and travel becomes difficult during the snowy winter months.

[7] In the 14th century Upper Reka was part of the Lordship of Prilep, of the Mrnjavčević family, until 1395, when its territory was subjugated to Bayezid I of the Ottoman Empire under which it remained until the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913.

[10] Upper Reka settlements within Mavrovo and Rostuša Municipality include Tanuše (Tanushaj), Nivište (Nivisht), Ribnica (Rimnicë), Žužnje (Zhuzhnjë), Nistrovo (Nistrovë), Ničpur (Niçpur), Volkovija (Vallkavi), Kičinica (Kiçinicë), Krakornica (Krakarnicë), Beličica (Beliçicë), Vrben (Vërben), Bogdevo (Bogdë), Sence (Sencë), Vrbjani (Vërbjan), Bibaj and Grekaj.

[14][15][16][17] Also due to uprisings in the Upper Reka region, former settlements such as: Trnica (Tërnicë), Reč (Reç), Dubovo (Dëbovë), Štirovica (Shtirovicë), Strezimir (Shtrezmir) and Zavojsko (Zavojskë) were burned down by Serbian and Bulgarian forces between 1912–1916.

[5] Due to snow fall, Upper Reka becomes an isolated region as communication for most of the year with neighbouring areas is severely limited and even impassable such as that with Albania through the Korab Mountains.

By outsiders they are referred to as Shkreti,[26] from the Albanian word and expression shkretë/i shkret meaning the poor ones, due to their isolated mountainous homeland and difficult living circumstances.

[4] In Upper Reka, households are called shpi (Standard Albanian: shtëpi) or literally house and traditionally consisted of patriarchal extended families.

[31] Due to difficult living circumstances and at times sociopolitical disturbances, especially in the 19th century, Upper Reka has historically been a region with much outward temporary and permanent migration.

[32] Often they would find employment as pastry makers or as halva, salep and boza merchants and salesmen in the then Ottoman capital Istanbul or regional cities like Skopje and Edirne.

[33] In Romania and Bulgaria, some Upper Reka people were also employed in the housing construction industry as stonemasons or builders and likewise when the need arose in cities such as Shkodër or their local area too.

[7][36] In villages within the vicinity of Skopje city: Crn Vrv, Krušopek, Sveta Petka and Patiška Reka, while near Veles at: Gorno Jabolčište, Sogle, Klukovec and Buzalkovo.

[40] The villages were inhabited by large populations of people whom in recent decades, have migrated to Skopje, Veles, Tetovo and Gostivar or the majority to Italy and Germany.

[41] While Orthodox Christians migrated from the 1950s onwards to the then Yugoslav capital Belgrade, other cities like Skopje and to nearby Gostivar town where they form the main population of Durtlok neighbourhood.

[44] In the 2000s, among the Orthodox population residing in Upper Reka, in terms of daily speech were mainly fluent in Albanian between themselves and even the young, while having knowledge of Macedonian.

[56] While anthropologist Mirjana Mirčevska who did field work in Upper Reka during the 2000s, stated that both the Muslim and Orthodox population was mainly of Macedonian Slavic origin, with possible Albanian elements in their ethnogenesis.

[57] Mirčevska recorded local Upper Reka traditions in Bogdevo, Krakornica and Ničpur that attribute the founding of those villages to three brothers: Boge, Krako and Niko who originated from the Kolašin region located in contemporary Montenegro.

[58] Galaba Palikruševa, examining medieval Ottoman tax registers or defters of the region in the 1970s regarding personal names, stated that there was a prominent non-Slavic element in Upper Reka of Albanian and/or Vlach origin.

[59] As such, Palikruševa contended that certain scholarship which stated that the contemporary Upper Reka population was Slavs who adopted the Albanian language to preserve their Christian faith is an untenable position.

[62] In the early 2010s, scholar Andrea Pieroni and a team of researchers from various national backgrounds did fieldwork and a comparative study of past and present Upper Reka botanical terminology.

In their findings they concluded that the Upper Reka population was one that “had been heavily influenced by the Slavic culture - and not vice versa, as Spiridon Gopčević stated.”[63] The research team attributed that acculturation process to the imposition of the border in 1912 limiting contact with Albania and extensive interactions with surrounding multiethnic regions where trade was undertaken.

On the other hand, Murati notes that the vast majority of the recorded non-Slavic anthroponyms (e.g., Gjin, Gjergj, Gjon, Tanush, Progon, Meksha, Bardh, Kola) were Albanian in character.

[67] Intensive conversion to Islam occurred in Upper Reka from the late 18th to early 19th centuries, stemming in part from the closure of the Peć Patriarchate and demise of its parishes.

[69] Due to Upper Reka's isolation and difficult living conditions, some inhabitants turned to banditry during the 18th and 19th century while others migrated to cities and regions for work.

[33][7] In the late Ottoman period the wider Reka area formed a nahiye or district with its centre in Žirovnica village that had administrative officials and a small army garrison.

[53][54] Ethnographer Vasil Kanchov in his demographic study of Ottoman Macedonia (1900) wrote the Kaza of Reka had a total of 23 Albanian villages with a majority Orthodox population in the region.

[68] He described the villages of Beličica, Brodec, Duf, Gorno Jelovce, Kičinica and Vrben, as "pure Serbian", continuing Serb naming practises and Orthodoxy dating back to the Ottoman period.

[68] The report described the opening of Serb schools and the hope children would learn Serbian "for the first time" and teach the "forgotten" language to their parents.

[77] Communist partisan resistance emerged from villages like Beličica that fought against Albanian fascist Balli Kombëtar forces which supported Upper Reka's inclusion into Albania.

The region remained isolated and undeveloped which resulted in migrations to distant urban centres like Belgrade, Skopje and Gostivar, and to Western countries.

[83] Orthodox Upper Rekans acknowledge Albanian was a spoken language, but according to them they did so in past times as a way to protect their community from the actions of armed bands in the region.