Albanians of Ukraine. Who are they? · Ukraїner

The Albanian community has been living on the territory of Ukraine since the late 18th – early 19th centuries. The Orthodox Albanians had first migrated to Bulgaria, then together with the Gagauzes and Bulgarians, trying to escape the oppression of the Ottoman Empire which prevailed in the Balkans, came to the land of modern Bessarabia and the Black Sea, where they settled: partly in Odesa, mostly in rural areas. Half a century later, some of the Balkan colonists migrated to the Azov Sea, where they also established several villages where their descendants live till today.