Turk Character in the Legendary Albanian Songs Named the Songs of the Frontier Warriors

For a long period of time, the Balkan Peninsula had marked the border between the Ottoman and the Austro-Hungarian empires. The existence of the border at this point meant that in the Balkans there was a part of the population that was under Austro-Hungary and was part of it, but there was also a part of the population that was under the Ottoman Empire and that was part of it. As a result, not only do we find the Turk individual as a character being mentioned in most of the cultures co-existing in the Balkan Peninsula at the time but within a very limited environment we find the latter being presented somewhere as a positive character and somewhere as a negative character. The Songs of the Frontier Warriors is a tremendous literary compilation of Albanian epic songs in which is presented the conflict between the Albanians and the Slavic invaders coming from the north of the country. These songs depict the conflicts that had been brought into the forefront of the relations between the two nations at the border, the wars between them, the impris-onment of one another, property appropriations and kidnapping of girls, etc. In a great number of such songs, one comes across the Turk as a character. We have analyzed the Turk as a character as mentioned in twenty-five of such songs and in all of them the Turk is presented as a positive character, who helps locals, defends their lands from foreign invaders, protects the locals as well as their families and properties, etc. While researching the characteristics of this character in such songs, we have come to underline the fact that there are certain aspects and descriptions of his that are clear and some of which are less clear and ambiguous: the Turk on one hand, is clearly depicted as far as his appearance and personality traits are concerned; however, what is deemed as ambiguous in its description is whether by the name Turk such songs had referred to the ethnic Turk or the notion of it belongs to a much broader understanding of what a ‘Turk’ is in that it includes all of the population living in the Ottoman Empire. When it comes to its de-mographics, the Ottoman Empire was a very complex and diverse community reflected by its great number of nations belonging to different religious denominations and speaking different languages living within its borders. This complex demographical diversity only adds to the ambiguity of the name ‘Turk’ as in such songs the latter has not only been used to refer to the Albanian Muslim population, or to the Muslim popula-tion in particular but even the people living within the Ottoman Empire’s borders in general. The change highlighted in terms of the status of the character labeled as a ‘Turk’ in different settings and contexts in Albanian epic songs known as the ‘The Songs of the Frontier Warriors’ goes to show that the ‘Turk’ as a character in Albanian folklore is a complex one in that one sees it play a variety of functions making it a very flexible and fluid character in legendary Albanian songs