Turco-Albanian (, Tourk-alvanoi) is an ethnographic and religious term used by Greeks for Muslim Albanians.Millas, Iraklis (2006). "Tourkokratia: History and the image of Turks in Greek literature." South European Society & Politics. 11. (1): 50. “The ‘timeless’ existence of the Other (and the interrelation of the Self with this Other) is secured by the name used to define him or her. Greeks often name as ‘Turks’ various states and groups—such as the Seljuks, the Ottomans, even the Albanians (Turkalvanoi)”. In a broader sense, the term included both Muslim Albanian and Turkish political and military elites of the Ottoman administration in the Balkans. The term is derived from an identification of Muslims with Ottomans and/or Turks because of the Ottoman Empire's administrative millet system of classifying peoples according to religion in which the Muslim millet played the leading role.Nitsiakos, Vassilis (2010). On the border: Transborder mobility, ethnic groups and boundaries along the Albanian-Greek frontier. LIT Verlag. p. 200. "Who and what was this man, beyond the myth of the “Turkish Albanian satrap” cultivated in Greece? I think of how astonished my students always look when I tell them that Ali Pasha was not Turkish but Albanian. I explain that this unclear, ideologically and sentimentally charged term, “Turkish-Albanian”, only refers to Muslim Albanians, through a general identification of Turks with Muslims, which is related to the millet system of administration used by the Ottomans to classify populations." From the mid 19th century, the term Turk and from the late 19th century onwards, the derivative term Turco-Albanian has been used as a pejorative term, phrase and/or expression for Muslim Albanian individuals and communities. The term has also been noted to be unclear and ideologically and sentimentally charged.
Albanians have expressed derision and disassociation toward the terms Turk and its derivative form Turco-Albanian regarding the usage of those terms in reference to them.League of Nations (October 1921). "Albania". League of Nations –Official Journal.8: 893. "The memorandum of the Albanian government… The memorandum complains that the Pan-Epirotic Union misnames the Moslem Albanians as “Turco-Albanians”".Hart, Laurie Kain (1999). "Culture, Civilization, and Demarcation at the Northwest Borders of Greece". American Ethnologist. 26. (1): 207. "In 1919, then, the Albanians attacked the Greek concept of national consciousness and civilization as a thinly disguised transformation of the utopia of the Greek Patriarch (which, to stress the "Oriental" connotations, they often called Ottoman or Byzantine): a utopia of many nations under one religion (subordinate to the Greek element). In reaction, the Albanian utopia crystallized as the logical opposite to that of the Greeks.
Emphasizing blood and kinship through the medium of language, it constituted itself as profoundly indifferent to religious divisions-and on these grounds both Western and modern. Greek spokesman Cassavetes conflated Moslem Albanian and Turk, comparing the Greeks in southern Albania to Armenians (1921:473) at the mercy of the "Moslem element" (1921:471). Albanian official Vrioni responded that, quite to the contrary, Albanians have nothing in common with Turks. There is certainly no such creature as a Turko-Albanian, he argued: "The Turk belongs to the Turanian race, whereas the Albanian belongs to an Arian race" (1921:478)."
Etymology and usage of the term The term Turco-Albanian is a compound made up of the words Turk and Albanian. The word Albanian is a term that has been used as an ethnonym.Lloshi. Albanian. 1999. p. 277. "The Albanians of today call themselves shqiptarë, their country Shqipëri, and their language shqipe. These terms came into use between the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. Foreigners call them albanesi (Italian), Albaner (German), Albanians (English), Alvanos (Greek), and Arbanasi (old Serbian), the country Albania, Albanie, Albanien, Alvania, and Albanija, and the language Albanese, Albanisch, Albanian, Alvaniki, and Arbanashki respectively. All these words are derived from the name Albanoi of an Illyrian tribe and their center Albanopolis, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, in the 2nd century AD. Alban could be a plural of alb- arb-, denoting the inhabitants of the plains (ÇABEJ 1976). The name passed over the boundaries of the Illyrian tribe in central Albania, and was generalised for all the Albanians. They called themselves arbënesh, arbëresh, the country Arbëni, Arbëri, and the language arbëneshe, arbëreshe. In the foreign languages, the Middle Ages denominations of these names survived, but for the Albanians they were substituted by shqiptarë, Shqipëri and shqipe. The primary root is the adverb shqip, meaning “clearly, intelligibly”. There is a very close semantic parallel to this in the German noun Deutsche, “the Germans” and “the German language” (Lloshi 1984) Shqip spread out from the north to the south, and Shqipni/Shqipëri is probably a collective noun, following the common pattern of Arbëni, Arbëri. The change happened after the Ottoman conquest because of the conflict in the whole line of the political, social, economic, religious, and cultural spheres with a totally alien world of the Oriental type. A new and more generalised ethnic and linguistic consciousness of all these people responded to this.” 'Albanian' (Arnavud) was one of the few ethnic markers normally used, besides the regular religious labels, for the identification of people in official record of the Ottoman state. p. 88 On the other hand, the word Turk was viewed by non-Muslim Balkan peoples as being synonymous with Muslim, despite the fact that Muslim Albanians did not speak Turkish or were not ethnic Turks.Karpat, Kemal H. (2001). The politicization of Islam: reconstructing identity, state, faith, and community in the late Ottoman state. Oxford University Press. p. 342. “After 1856, and especially after 1878, the terms Turk and Muslim became practically synonymous in the Balkans. An Albanian who did not know one word of Turkish thus was given the ethnic name of Turk and accepted it, no matter how much he might have preferred to distance himself from the ethnic Turks.”Mentzel, Peter (2000). "Introduction: Identity, confessionalism, and nationalism." Nationalities Papers. 28. (1): 8. "The attitude of non Muslim Balkan peoples was similar. In most of the Balkans, Muslims were “Turks” regardless of their ethno-linguistic background. This attitude changed significantly, but not completely, over time."
Apart from being associated with Muslim Albanians, in some specific works the term Turco-Albanian was used to mention the Labs (),Hamish, Alexander Forbes (2007). Meaning and identity in a Greek landscape: an archaeological ethnography. Cambridge University Press. , p. 223: ""Turks or Ljapidhes, the latter term explained as 'Turko-Albanians'" a socio-cultural and dialectal Albanian subdivision,Lloshi, Xhevat (1999). “Albanian”. In Hinrichs, Uwe, & Uwe Büttner (eds). Handbuch der Südosteuropa-Linguistik. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 285. some of whom had converted to Islam during the Ottoman Empire era.
In a broader sense the term Turkalvanoi "Turco-Albanians" was used to denote Ottoman military units and elites of both Turkish and Albanian ethnicity that represented the Ottoman administration of the Balkans.Umut Özkırımlı & Spyros A. Sofos (2008). Tormented by history: nationalism in Greece and Turkey.Columbia University Press. , p. 50: "...the so-called Tourkalvanoi, a composite term literally translated as 'Turkalbanians' and used to denote the Turkish and Albanian Muslim elites and military units that represented Ottoman domination in the Balkans) Within the Ottoman Empire, Muslim Albanians were closely part of the administrative structures of the state and considered one of its important peoples.
In modern Greek historiography, reference to Muslim Albanian communities as Turco-Albanian is made for those that settled the Peloponnese in order to spread Islam from c. 1715 until after 1770, as part of official Ottoman policy.Nikolaou, 1997, p. 313: "Il est à signaler que dans ces contrées s'étaient installés, probablement vers 1715 et après 1770, des Albanais musulmans (Turcalbanais), qui furent l'un des facteurs de diffusion de l'islam." It is also used by the same historiography for Muslim Albanians who were employed in 1770 by the Ottoman Sultan to suppress the Russian-promoted Orlov revolt during the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774),Nikolaou, 1997, p. 455: "L'insurrection de 1770, très mal préparée, a échoué. Cet échec, mais avant tout l'invasion des mercenaires turcalbanais, utilisés par le sultan pour étouffer la révolte, furent lourds de conséquences pour le pays, notamment au niveau économique et démographique. Les effets des destructions causées durant les années critiques de 1770 à 1779 furent bien visibles jusqu'au début du XIX e siècle. [The uprising of 1770, was very ill-prepared and failed. This failure, but above all the invasion of turco-Albanian mercenaries used by the sultan to quell the revolt, were serious consequences for the country, especially in economic and population level. The effects of the destruction caused during the critical years of 1770–1779 were visible until the early nineteenth century.]" and who also destroyed many cities and towns in Epirus during 1769–70. It has been noted that during and in the aftermath of the suppressed 1770 Orlov revolt "when the Greeks got the upper hand they settled old scores; when the Turks and Albanians reasserted themselves they were merciless: recapturing Patras, they left scarcely anyone alive." The city of Mystras was left in ruins and the metropolitan bishop Ananias was executed despite having saved the life of several Turks during the uprising. A great number of local Greeks were killed by the Albanian groups, while several children were sold to slavery. Their activity during and after the suppression of the revolt included massacres, looting and destruction in the regions of Epirus, Western Macedonia, Central Greece, Thessaly, Peloponnese suffered most destruction and massacre due to the activity of 15,000 Albanian mercenaries,Nikolaou, 1997, p. 184: Les mercenaires albanais, que la Porte avait utilisés pour la répression de l'insurrection, furent un véritable fléau pour la population grecque. L'Epire, la Macédoine occidentale, la Grèce continentale et surtout la Thessalie, qu'ils traversaient sans cesse en descendant vers le sud ou en revenant chez eux, ont enduré bien des maux : massacres, pillages, destructions, faim. Peut-être que la conséquence la plus douloureuse de cette période fut l'islamisation d'un nombre important d'Epirotes, de Macédoniens et de Thessaliens. Mais le