March 14, 2025- In the premises of Mother Teresa University campus in Skopje, today, Academician Oliver Jens Schmitt, held an open lecture on the topic: Why do we study Albanian history? The lecture was attended by students, academic and administrative staff and numerous guests. The event was moderated by Vice-Rector for Education at MTU, Lecturer Fati Iseni, Ph.D.

In his welcoming speech, Lecturer Fati Iseni, Ph. D., on behalf of MTU staff expressed his gratitude for the presence and valuable contribution of Academician Oliver Jens Schmitt, appreciating the importance of the discussion on Albanian history and its role in understanding identity and social development.

Academician Oliver Jens Schmitt is currently a professor at the University of Vienna and a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He emphasized in his lecture that most historians in the world still focus primarily on their own societies, while those who study other cultures often focus on larger states and societies.

The lecture of Academician Oliver Jens Schmitt was structured in seven main points, where Academician Schmitt highlighted the importance of studying Albanian history as the history of Albanian speakers. He emphasized that, despite external influences from empires and neighbors, Albanian has preserved its essential lexical structure. “Although over thousands of years of cultural contact with the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, migratory groups and its neighbors, the Albanian language has acquired foreign elements, it has remained intact in its essential structure – despite the fact that there was no Albanian state before 1912,” said Academician Schmitt.

Moreover, he emphasized that Albanians are the only Muslim-majority people where the concept of the nation also included Christians who spoke the same language as equal members of the nation. He added that “This feature is mostly evident in Western Albania, where religious diversity was greater compared to the almost homogeneous Muslim regions of the east”.

This academic activity served as an important moment for all participants, especially for MTU students, providing a broad perspective on the importance of history and its role in promoting scientific values ​​and international cooperation.