Basic Western misconceptions on the Kosovo issue and their corrections
11. Albanians are autochthonous Balkan population descending from the ancient Balkan Illyrian tribes
Wrong. They appear in the mid-11th century in the Balkan history and their origin appears uncertain (most probably they came to the Balkans from the Caucasus Albania via Sicily, according to one Byzantine sources, in 1043: Ataliota M. Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantine. Bonn: Weber, 1853). As for the claims of Illyrian heritage (which is more a political wishful thinking than a very historical fact), distinguished English linguist Potter wrote: “Some would associate it with extinct Illyrian, but with so doing they proceed from little known to the unknown”.
