Ulcinj Municipality

Ulcinj exists because Plav refused to surrender. When the Congress of Berlin awarded Plav and Gusinje to Montenegro in 1878, Albanian resistance fought off Montenegrin forces at the Battle of Novšiće, preventing territorial transfer. The Great Powers, unwilling to enforce their own treaty with military intervention, reversed the decision in 1880 and offered Ulcinj—then Ottoman Dulcigno—to Montenegro as compensation. The southernmost municipality of Montenegro thus entered the state as a substitute prize, its 70% Albanian majority reflecting Ottoman settlement patterns rather than Montenegrin ethnic composition. One hundred forty-five years later, that demographic fact shapes every conflict over who controls the beaches.

The municipality borders Albania to the east and the Adriatic Sea to the south and west, making Ulcinj both gateway and edge zone. The Albanian majority maintains cultural and linguistic ties across the border that Montenegrin state institutions view with suspicion. In 2025, proposed 99-year leases of Velika Plaža (Long Beach) to UAE-based Emaar Properties triggered protests under the slogan 'Ulqin is not for sale.' Local Albanian leaders framed the beach concessions as systematic discrimination, bypassing community input to transfer coastal resources to foreign developers. The municipality's mayor appealed directly to Albanian President Bajram Begaj over land disputes, crossing national lines of authority in ways that Podgorica interprets as disloyalty but that reflect Ulcinj's demographic reality—when 70% of residents identify as Albanian, appeals to Tirana carry more local legitimacy than directives from Podgorica.

The beach economy drives Ulcinj's survival. Tourism generates revenue, but ownership determines who captures it. If Montenegrin or UAE developers control long-term beach leases, profits flow to Podgorica and Abu Dhabi while Ulcinj provides service-sector employment at low wages. If local Albanian families retain beach access and small hotel operations, more value stays in the municipality but at smaller scale. The 2025 lease controversy reveals the core tension: Montenegro's government views beaches as national assets to monetize for maximum revenue, while Ulcinj's Albanian majority views the same beaches as community resources that should benefit residents first. These are incompatible positions dressed as administrative disputes.

By 2026, Ulcinj will either negotiate enough local ownership stake in beach development to prevent mass mobilization, or watch protests escalate as UAE-funded resorts fence off coastline that three generations of Albanian families considered common access. The municipality Montenegro acquired in 1880 to compensate for territorial losses elsewhere has never fully integrated into Montenegrin national identity. Demographics create destiny: 70% Albanian in a country that is 5% Albanian overall means Ulcinj functions as a Montenegrin-administered Albanian enclave rather than a Montenegrin town that happens to have Albanian residents. The percentage makes all the difference.