Nikola Tesla, nasljeđe albanskog naroda
Po imenu Nikola Tesla nije bio Srbin. Njegova obitelj bila je iz Sandžaka u kojem i danas žive Albanci. Sandžak je u to vrijeme bio dio Bosne, koja je i sama bila dio Osmanskog carstva. Otac mu je bio nepismen i jednog dana je postao kršćanski pravoslavni svećenik po imenu Milutin. Majka mu se zvala Đuka, albansko ime
By name, Nikola Tesla was not a Serbian. His family was from Sanxhak inhabited by Albanians even today. That time Sanxhak was a region of Bosnia, which itself was part of the Ottoman Empire. His father was illiterate and one day became a Christian orthodox priest named Milutin. His mother’s name was Gjuka, an Albanian name
Nikola Tesla dressed in Albanian traditional clothing, 1880
Why did Nikola Tesla wear Albanian traditional clothes but identify as Serbian?
Due to the Serbian expulsion against Albanians especially in the mid-19th century, his family relocated to the village of Smiljan in western Croatia of today. That time Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Men in North Albanian folk costume |
Nikola Tesla was born there on July 10, 1856. The Albanian tongue was not publicly in use and the Albanian schools were prohibited in the 19th century. Therefore, Nikola Tesla showed to know the Serbian and German languages taught in public schools. His family had preserved the Albanian folk costume as a dear and sincere legacy of their origin.
A picture that shows Orthodox Christian Albanians, 1907, from Galica. The postcard is sent from Thessaloniki. |
The costume that Nikola Tesla dressed is typical of Northern Albania or Dardania. He dressed that costume before he left for Prague in 1880, then to Budapest and Paris, and arriving in New York in 1884.
Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943, in New York, USA.
Izvor: ocnal.com
As a Croat I would love to say that Tesla was 100% Croat, but respect for Tesla’s worldwide heritage demands us to be honest and realistic. In short, researches showed that Tesla was Vlah / Morlac, of Romanian orthodox origin. To understand this we have to take a broader picture. Vlah /Morlack ethnicity were Romanians who fleed from Ottoman Empire military actions to the west and stopped in Croatia, then occupied by Austro-Hungarian Empire, because Ottomans never conquered Croatia. It happened that then ancient Serbia was trying to build Greater Serbia and broaden its territories to the west, including Bosnia and part of Croatia as a ‘Serbian natural soil’. So Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) went on a mission to Croatia to convert orthodox Vlah’s and Morlac there to become Serbians because of the similar religion. They needed an excuse for expanding their territories and more orthodox people they convert to Serbs more excuses they had to expand Greater Serbia to the west and claim territory. Btw. the same expansion to Bosnia and Croatia has been tried again during the ex-Yugoslavia war in the nineties, using the same reasoning. After a bit of clarification and In conclusion, we all have to be thankful to Tesla and not use his achievements for a private or nationalistic political agenda. Thanks.