Reka (region)

Reka ( mk, Река) is a geographical region in Macedonia, which encompasses a quadrangle with Albania in the west, the town of Debar and the Mavrovo mountain, and Kičevo in North Macedonia in the east. The region is home to a demographically mixed population of Mijaks (ethnic Macedonians), Albanians, and Torbeši (ethnic Macedonian Muslims). There are Orthodox Christian Albanians especially in the sub-region of Upper Reka. The sub-regions (ethnographic/geographic regions) of Reka are ''Mala'' (Small), ''Dolna'' () and ''Golema'' (Large) or ''Gorna'' (Upper). In the west of Reka is the region of Lumë, which extends in both Kosovo and Albania.Fejzulla Gjabri (Department of Culture of Albania), Information about the Heroic Epos in the Province of Luma The name Reka is Slavic in origin meaning "river".

Historian Dimitar Bechev regards the Christian populace of Upper Reka as Slavicised Orthodox Albanians,. "Several villages in the Upper Reka subregion were, in the past, populated by Othodox Albanian speakers who have been largely assimilated by the Slavic Macedonians." whereas historian Noel Malcolm considers that there are still non-Slavicized Orthodox Albanians.. "The people of Debar and its surrounding villages (which include, almost uniquely among the northern Albanian population, a cluster of adherents to the Orthodox Church) were famously independent-minded, and this was often the last area to be subdued when Albanian rebellions were crushed by Ottoman armies."; p.198. "Of course it must be must be true that the ancestors of the Muslims were originally Christians, whether Orthodox or Catholic. Some may have been Albanian-speaking members of the Orthodox Church: a group of villages in the Reka district north of Debar consists of Orthodox Albanians to this day." Albanian philologist Edibe Selimi-Osmani who did fieldwork in Upper Reka during the 1990s and 2000s regarded the population also as being originally of Albanian origin.. "Upper Reka is composed mainly of the Orthodox population, though there not a small Muslim population. But we should know that according to some sources the past, the population of Upper Reka up in 60's of the XIX century, all spoke Albanian, and was Albanian."

Other historians reject this theory and propose a Slavic or Slavic-Vlach origin of the local population of Upper Reka which was affected by Albanisation. Due to some patronymic names of families, Serbian philologist Dušan Nedeljković contended a Vlach origin for some Upper Reka families, along with Slavic origins for others, that were later Albanianized.. "Постоеле и неколку семејства чии презимиња завршувале на “мон” односно “мун” (печамон-ци и чикрамон-ци во Бродец, Димоном-ци во Реч) појава која Душан Недељковиќ ја врзува за подалечно аромунско влашко потекло. [There were several families whose surnames ended the "mon" or "mun" (Pečamon-ci and Čikramon-ci in Brodec, in Dimonom-ci in Reč) which whose occurrence Dušan Nedeljković binds to distant Aromanian Vlach origins.]" Macedonian anthropologist Mirjana Mirčevska who did field work in Upper Reka during the 2000s, stated that both the Muslim and Orthodox population was mainly of Slavic origin, with possible Albanian elements in their ethnogenesis.

References

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Geography of Macedonia (region)
Debar Municipality
Kičevo Municipality
Albanian ethnographic regions