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Albania

THE ILLYRIANSThe origins of the Albanian people are not de侓nitely known, but data drawn from history and from archaeological andanthropological studies have led some researchers to consider the Albanians to be the direct descendants of the ancientIllyrians. The linguistic evidence in that regard is most unclear; the Albanian language is certainly a distinct branch of the Indo-

European family, but, largely because of a dearth of information on the language of the ancient Illyrians, it is diŉcult toconvincingly demonstrate a connection between the two languages. (Some scholars, moreover, dispute such theses, arguing thatIllyrians were not autochthonous to Albania and that Albanian derives from a dialect of the now-extinct Thracian language, but

again the data are sparse and thus the arguments are diŉcult to judge.)

Illyrian culture is believed to have evolved from the Stone Age and to have manifested itself in the territory of Albania toward thebeginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BCE). The Illyrians were not a uniform body of people but a conglomeration of manytribes that inhabited the western part of the Balkans, from what is now Slovenia in the northwest to (and including) the region of

Epirus, which extends about halfway down the mainland of modern Greece. In general, Illyrians in the highlands of Albania were

more isolated than those in the lowlands, and their culture evolved more slowly—a distinction that persisted throughoutAlbania’s history.

Authors of antiquity relate that the Illyrians were a sociable and hospitable people, renowned for their daring and bravery at war.

Illyrian women were fairly equal in status to the men, even to the point of becoming heads of tribal federations. In matters of religion, Illyrians were pagans who believed in an afterlife and buried their dead along with arms and various articles intendedfor personal use.

The land of Illyria was rich in minerals—iron, copper, gold, silver—and Illyrians became skillful in the mining and processing of

metals. They were highly skilled boatbuilders and sailors as well; indeed, their light swift galleys known as liburnae were of suchsuperior design that the Romans incorporated them into their own 耀eet as a type of warship called the liburnian.

THE GREEKS

From the 8th to the 6th century BCE, the Greeks founded a string of colonies on Illyrian soil, two of the most prominent of whichwere Epidamnus (modern Durrës) and Apollonia (near modern Vlorë). The presence of Greek colonies on their soil brought theIllyrians into contact with a more advanced civilization, which helped them to develop their own culture while they in turnin耀uenced the economic and political life of the colonies. In the 3rd century BCE the colonies began to decline and eventually

perished.

Roughly parallel with the rise of Greek colonies, Illyrian tribes began to evolve politically from relatively small and simple entitiesinto larger and more complex ones. At 侓rst they formed temporary alliances with one another for defensive or o㘵ensivepurposes, then federations and, still later, kingdoms. The most important of these kingdoms, which 耀ourished from the 5th to

the 2nd century BCE, were those of the Enkalayes, the Taulantes, the Epirotes, and the Ardianes.

After warring for the better part of the 4th century BCE against the expansionist Macedonian state of Philip II and Alexander theGreat, the Illyrians faced a greater threat from the growing power of the Romans. Seeing Illyrian territory as a bridgehead for

conquests east of the Adriatic, Rome in 229 BCE attacked and defeated the Illyrians, led by Queen Teuta, and by 168 BCE hadestablished e㘵ective control over Illyria.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

The Romans ruled Illyria—which now became the province of Illyricum—for about six centuries. Under Roman rule Illyriansociety underwent great change, especially in its outward, material aspect. Art and culture 耀ourished, particularly in Apollonia,

whose school of philosophy became celebrated in antiquity. To a great extent, though, the Illyrians resisted assimilation intoRoman culture. Illyrian culture survived, along with the Illyrian tongue, though many Latin words entered the language and laterbecame a part of the Albanian language.

Christianity manifested itself in Illyria during Roman rule, about the middle of the 1st century CE. At 侓rst the new religion had to

compete with Middle Eastern religions—among them that of Mithra, Persian god of light—which had entered the land in thewake of Illyria’s growing interaction with eastern regions of the empire. For a long time it also had to compete with godsworshipped by Illyrian pagans. The steady growth of the Christian community in Dyrrhachium (the Roman name for Epidamnus)

led to the creation there of a bishopric in 58 CE. Later, episcopal seats were established in Apollonia, Buthrotum (modern Butrint),and Scodra (modern Shkodër).

History

Antiquity

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By the time the empire began to decline, the Illyrians, pro侓ting from a long tradition of martial habits and skills, had acquiredgreat in耀uence in the Roman military hierarchy. Indeed, several of them went on from there to become emperors. From the mid-3rd to the mid-4th century CE, the reins of the empire were almost continuously in the hands of emperors of Illyrian origin: Gaius

Decius, Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian, and Constantine the Great.

FROM ILLYRIA TO ALBANIA

When the Roman Empire divided into East and West in 395, the territories of modern Albania became part of the ByzantineEmpire. As in the Roman Empire, some Illyrians rose to positions of eminence in the new empire. Three of the emperors whoshaped the early history of Byzantium (reigning from 491 to 565) were of Illyrian origin: Anastasius I, Justin I, and—the most

celebrated of Byzantine emperors—Justinian I.

In the 侓rst decades under Byzantine rule (until 461), Illyria su㘵ered the devastation of raids by Visigoths, Huns, and Ostrogoths.Not long after these barbarian invaders swept through the Balkans, the Slavs appeared. Between the 6th and 8th centuries they

settled in Illyrian territories and proceeded to assimilate Illyrian tribes in much of what is now Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia andHerzegovina, and Serbia. The tribes of southern Illyria, however—including modern Albania—averted assimilation and preservedtheir native tongue.

In the course of several centuries, under the impact of Roman, Byzantine, and Slavic cultures, the tribes of southern Illyria

underwent a transformation, and a transition occurred from the old Illyrian population to a new Albanian one. As a

consequence, from the 8th to the 11th century, the name Illyria gradually gave way to the name, 侓rst mentioned in the 2ndcentury CE by the geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria, of the Albanoi tribe, which inhabited what is now central Albania. From a

single tribe the name spread to include the rest of the country as Arbëri and, 侓nally, Albania. The genesis of Albanian nationalityapparently occurred at this time as the Albanian people became aware that they shared a common territory, name, language,and cultural heritage. (The Albanians’ own name for their land, Shqipëria, is believed to have supplanted the name Albania

during the 16th and 17th centuries. While Shqipëria is popularly believed to be connected to the word for “eagle,” shqipe, it isbetter taken to be derived from the language name shqip, which itself is most likely related to an adverb meaning “[speaking]clearly,” making shqip “[the] clearly [spoken language].”)

Long before that event, Christianity had become the established religion in Albania, supplanting pagan polytheism and eclipsing

for the most part the humanistic world outlook and institutions inherited from the Greek and Roman civilizations. But, thoughthe country was in the fold of Byzantium, Albanian Christians remained under the jurisdiction of the Roman pope until 732. Inthat year the iconoclast Byzantine emperor Leo III, angered by Albanian archbishops because they had supported Rome in the

Iconoclastic Controversy, detached the Albanian church from the Roman pope and placed it under the patriarch of

Constantinople. When the Christian church split in 1054 between the East and Rome, southern Albania retained its tie toConstantinople while northern Albania reverted to the jurisdiction of Rome. This split in the Albanian church marked the 侓rst

signi侓cant religious fragmentation of the country.

MEDIEVAL CULTURE

In the latter part of the Middle Ages, Albanian urban society reached a high point of development. Foreign commerce 耀ourishedto such an extent that leading Albanian merchants had their own agencies in Venice, Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik, Croatia), and

Thessalonica (now Thessaloníki, Greece). The prosperity of the cities stimulated the development of education and the arts.Albanian, however, was not the language used in schools, churches, and oŉcial government transactions. Instead, Greek andLatin, which had the powerful support of the state and the church, were the oŉcial languages of culture and literature.

The new administrative system of the themes, or military provinces created by the Byzantine Empire, contributed to the eventual

rise of feudalism in Albania, as peasant soldiers who served military lords became serfs on their landed estates. Among theleading families of the Albanian feudal nobility were the Thopias, Balshas, Shpatas, Muzakas, Aranitis, Dukagjins, and Kastriotis.The 侓rst three of these rose to become rulers of principalities that were practically independent of Byzantium.

THE DECLINE OF BYZANTIUM

Beginning in the 9th century, partly because of the weakness of the Byzantine Empire, Albania came under the domination, inwhole or in part, of a succession of foreign powers: Bulgarians, Norman Crusaders, the Angevins of southern Italy, Serbs, andVenetians. The 侓nal occupation of the country in 1347 by the Serbs, led by Stefan Dušan, caused massive migrations of Albanians

abroad, especially to Greece and the Aegean islands. By the mid-14th century, Byzantine rule had come to an end in Albania,after nearly 1,000 years.

A few decades later the country was confronted with a new threat, that of the Turks, who at this juncture were expanding theirpower in the Balkans. The Ottoman Turks invaded Albania in 1388 and completed the occupation of the country about four

decades later (1430). But after 1443 an Albanian of military genius—Gjergj Kastrioti (1405–68), known as Skanderbeg—rallied theAlbanian princes and succeeded in driving the occupiers out. For the next 25 years, operating out of his stronghold in themountain town of Krujë, Skanderbeg frustrated every attempt by the Turks to regain Albania, which they envisioned as a

springboard for the invasion of Italy and western Europe. His unequal 侓ght against the mightiest power of the time won the

The Byzantine Empire

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esteem of Europe as well as some support in the form of money and military aid from Naples, the papacy, Venice, and Ragusa.After he died, Albanian resistance gradually collapsed, enabling the Turks to reoccupy the country by 1506.

Skanderbeg’s long struggle to keep Albania free became highly signi侓cant to the Albanian people, as it strengthened their

solidarity, made them more conscious of their national identity, and served later as a great source of inspiration in their strugglefor national unity, freedom, and independence.

THE NATURE OF TURKISH RULE

The Turks established their dominion over Albania just as the Renaissance began to unfold in Europe. Cut o㘵 from contact and

exchanges with western Europe, Albania had no chance to participate in or bene侓t from the humanistic achievements of thatera. Conquest also caused great su㘵ering and vast destruction of the country’s economy, commerce, art, and culture. Moreover,to escape persecution by their conquerors, about one-fourth of the country’s population 耀ed abroad to southern Italy, Sicily, and

the Dalmatian coast.

Although the Turks ruled Albania for more than four centuries, they were unable to extend their authority throughout thecountry. In the highland regions, Turkish authorities exercised only a formal sovereignty, as the highlanders refused to pay taxes,serve in the army, or surrender their arms—although they did pay an annual tribute to Constantinople.

Time and again Albanians rose in rebellion against Ottoman occupation. In order to check the ravages of Albanian resistance—

which was partly motivated by religious feelings, namely defense of the Christian faith—as well as to bring Albania spirituallycloser to the empire, the Ottomans initiated a systematic drive toward the end of the 16th century to Islamize the population.That drive continued through the following century, by the end of which two-thirds of the people had converted to Islam. A

major reason Albanians became Muslims was to escape Turkish violence and exploitation, an instance of which was a crushingtax that Christians would have to pay if they refused to convert.

Islamization aggravated the religious fragmentation of Albanian society, which had 侓rst appeared in the Middle Ages and whichwas later used by Constantinople and Albania’s neighbours in attempts to divide and denationalize the Albanian people. Hence,

leaders of the Albanian national movement in the 19th century used the rallying cry “The religion of Albanians is Albanianism” inorder to overcome religious divisions and foster national unity.

The basis of Ottoman rule in Albania was a feudal military system of landed estates, called timar s, which were awarded tomilitary lords for loyalty and service to the empire. As Ottoman power began to decline in the 18th century, the central authority

of the empire in Albania gave way to the local authority of autonomy-minded lords. The most successful of those lords werethree generations of pashas of the Bushati family, who dominated most of northern Albania from 1757 to 1831, and Ali PaşaTepelenë of Janina (now Ioánnina, Greece), a brigand-turned-despot who ruled over southern Albania and northern Greece from

1788 to 1822. Those pashas created separate states within the Ottoman state until they were overthrown by the sultan.

After the fall of the pashas, in 1831 Turkey oŉcially abolished the timar system. In the wake of its collapse, economic and socialpower passed from the feudal lords to private landowning beys and, in the northern highlands, to tribal chieftains calledbajraktar s, who presided over given territories with rigid patriarchal societies that were often torn by blood feuds. Peasants who

were formerly serfs now worked on the estates of the beys as tenant farmers.

Ottoman rule in Albania remained backward and oppressive to the end. In those circumstances, many Albanians went abroad insearch of careers and advancement within the empire, and an unusually large number of them (in proportion to Albania’spopulation) rose to positions of prominence as government and military leaders. More than two dozen grand viziers (similar to

prime ministers) of Turkey were of Albanian origin.

ALBANIAN NATIONALISM

By the mid-19th century Turkey was in the throes of the “Eastern Question,” as the peoples of the Balkans, including Albanians,sought to realize their national aspirations. To defend and promote their national interests, Albanians met in Prizren, a town in

Kosovo, in 1878 and founded the Albanian League. The league had two main goals, one political and the other cultural. First, itstrove (unsuccessfully) to unify all Albanian territories—at the time divided among the four vilayet s, or provinces, of Kosovo,Shkodër, Monastir, and Janina—into one autonomous state within the framework of the Ottoman Empire. Second, it

spearheaded a movement to develop Albanian language, literature, education, and culture. In 1908, in line with the secondprogram, Albanian leaders met in the town of Monastir (now Bitola, Macedonia) and adopted a national alphabet. Based mostlyon the Latin script, this supplanted several other alphabets, including Arabic and Greek, that were in use until then.

The Albanian League was suppressed by the Turks in 1881, in part because they were alarmed by its strong nationalisticorientation. By then, however, the league had become a powerful symbol of Albania’s national awakening, and its ideas andobjectives fueled the drive that culminated later in national independence.

When the Young Turks, who seized power in Istanbul in 1908, ignored their commitments to Albanians to institute democratic

reforms and to grant autonomy, Albanians embarked on an armed struggle, which at the end of three years (1910–12) forced the

The Ottoman Empire

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Turks to agree, in e㘵ect, to grant their demands. Alarmed at the prospect of Albanian autonomy, Albania’s Balkan neighbours,who had already made plans to partition the region, declared war on Turkey in October 1912, and Greek, Serbian, andMontenegrin armies advanced into Albanian territories. To prevent the annihilation of the country, Albanian national delegates

met at a congress in Vlorë. They were led by Ismail Qemal, an Albanian who had held several high positions in the Ottoman

government. On November 28, 1912, the congress issued the Vlorë proclamation, which declared Albania’s independence.

CREATING THE NEW STATEShortly after the defeat of Turkey by the Balkan allies, a conference of ambassadors of the great powers (Britain, Germany,Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Italy) convened in London in December 1912 to settle the outstanding issues raised by thecon耀ict. With support given to the Albanians by Austria-Hungary and Italy, the conference agreed to create an independent state

of Albania. But, in drawing the borders of the new state, under strong pressure from Albania’s neighbours, the great powerslargely ignored demographic realities and ceded the vast region of Kosovo to Serbia, while in the south Greece was given thegreater part of Çamëria, a part of the old region of Epirus centred on the Thíamis River. Many observers doubted whether the

new state would be viable with about one-half of Albanian lands and population left outside its borders, especially since thoselands were the most productive in food grains and livestock. On the other hand, a small community of about 35,000 ethnicGreeks was included within Albania’s borders. (However, Greece, which counted all Albanians of the Orthodox faith—20 percent

of the population—as Greeks, claimed that the number of ethnic Greeks was considerably larger.) Thereafter, Kosovo and theGreek minority remained troublesome issues in Albanian-Greek and Albanian-Yugoslav relations.

The great powers also appointed a German prince, Wilhelm zu Wied, as ruler of Albania. Wilhelm arrived in Albania in March1914, but his unfamiliarity with Albania and its problems, compounded by complications arising from the outbreak of World War

I, led him to depart from Albania six months later. The war plunged the country into a new crisis, as the armies of Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia invaded and occupied it. Left without any political leadership orauthority, the country was in chaos, and its very fate hung in the balance. At the Paris Peace Conference after the war, the

extinction of Albania was averted largely through the e㘵orts of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who vetoed a plan by Britain,France, and Italy to partition Albania among its neighbours.

A national congress, held in Lushnje in January 1920, laid the foundations of a new government. In December of that year

Albania, this time with the help of Britain, gained admission to the League of Nations, thereby winning for the 侓rst timeinternational recognition as a sovereign nation and state.

BISHOP NOLI AND KING ZOG

At the start of the 1920s, Albanian society was divided by two apparently irreconcilable forces. One, made up mainly of deeplyconservative landowning beys and tribal bajraktar s who were tied to the Ottoman and feudal past, was led by Ahmed Bey Zogu,

a chieftain from the Mat region of north-central Albania. The other, made up of liberal intellectuals, democratic politicians, andprogressive merchants who looked to the West and wanted to modernize and Westernize Albania, was led by Fan S. Noli, anAmerican-educated bishop of the Orthodox church. In the event, the East-West polarization of Albanian society was of such

magnitude and complexity that neither leader could master and overcome it.

In the unusually open and free political, social, and cultural climate that prevailed in Albania between 1920 and 1924, the liberalforces gathered strength, and by mid-1924 a popular revolt forced Zogu to 耀ee to Yugoslavia. Installed as prime minister of thenew government in June 1924, Noli set out to build a Western-style democracy in Albania, and toward that end he announced a

radical program of land reform and modernization. But his vacillation in carrying out the program, coupled with a depleted statetreasury and a failure to obtain international recognition for his revolutionary, left-of-centre government, quickly alienated mostof Noli’s supporters, and six months later he was overthrown by an armed assault led by Zogu and aided by Yugoslavia.

Zogu began his 14-year reign in Albania—侓rst as president (1925–28), then as King Zog I (1928–39)—in a country rife with politicaland social instability. Greatly in need of foreign aid and credit in order to stabilize the country, Zog signed a number of accordswith Italy. These provided transitory 侓nancial relief to Albania, but they e㘵ected no basic change in its economy, especially under

the conditions of the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s.

The social base of Zog’s power was a coalition of southern beys and northern bajraktar s. With the support of this coalition—plusa vast Ottoman-style bureaucracy, an eŉcient police force, and Italian money—King Zog brought a large measure of stability toAlbania. He extended the authority of the government to the highlands, reduced the brigandage that had formerly plagued the

country, laid the foundations of a modern educational system, and took a few steps to Westernize Albanian social life.

On balance, however, his achievements were outweighed by his failures. Although formally a constitutional monarch, in realityZog was a dictator, and Albania under him experienced the fragile stability of a dictatorship. Zog failed to resolve Albania’sfundamental problem, that of land reform, leaving the peasantry as impoverished as before. In order to stave o㘵 famine, the

government had to import food grains annually, but, even so, thousands of people migrated abroad in search of a better life.Moreover, Zog denied democratic freedoms to Albanians and created conditions that spawned periodic revolts against hisregime, alienated most of the educated class, fomented labour unrest, and led to the formation of the 侓rst communist groups in

the country. Italy, on the other hand, viewed Albania primarily as a bridgehead for military expansion into the Balkans. On April7, 1939, Italy invaded and shortly after occupied the country. King Zog 耀ed to Greece.

Independent Albania

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WORLD WAR II

In October 1940 Italian forces used Albania as a military base to invade Greece, but they were quickly thrown back into Albania.After Nazi Germany defeated Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941, the regions of Kosovo and Çamëria were joined to Albania, thus

creating an ethnically united Albanian state. The new state lasted until November 1944, when the Germans—who had replacedthe Italian occupation forces following Italy’s surrender in 1943—withdrew from Albania. Kosovo was then reincorporated intothe Serbian portion of Yugoslavia, and Çamëria into Greece.

Meanwhile, the various communist groups that had germinated in Zog’s Albania merged in November 1941 to form the Albanian

Communist Party and began to 侓ght the occupiers as a uni侓ed resistance force. After a successful struggle against the fascistsand two other resistance groups that contended with them for power—the National Front (Balli Kombëtar) and the pro-ZogLegality Party (Legaliteti)—the communists seized control of the country on November 29, 1944. Enver Hoxha, a college

instructor who had led the resistance struggle of communist forces, became the leader of Albania by virtue of his post assecretary-general of the party. Albania, which before the war had been under the personal dictatorship of King Zog, now fellunder the collective dictatorship of the Albanian Communist Party. In 1946 the country oŉcially became the People’s Republic of

Albania and in 1976 the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania.

THE STALINIST STATE

The new rulers inherited an Albania plagued by a host of ills: pervasive poverty, overwhelming illiteracy, gjakmarrje (“bloodfeuds”), epidemics of disease, and gross subjugation of women. In an attempt to eradicate these ills, the communists drafted a

radical modernization program intended to bring social and economic liberation to Albania, thus completing the politicalliberation won in 1912. The government’s 侓rst major act to “build socialism” was swift, uncompromising agrarian reform, whichbroke up the large landed estates of the southern beys and distributed the parcels to landless and other peasants. This

destroyed the powerful class of the beys. The government also moved to nationalize industry, banks, and all commercial andforeign properties. Shortly after the agrarian reform, the Albanian government started to collectivize agriculture, completing the job in 1967. As a result, peasants lost title to their land. In addition, the Hoxha leadership extended the new socialist order to the

more rugged and isolated northern highlands, in turn bringing down the age-old institution of the blood feud and the patriarchalstructure of the family and clans and thus destroying the semifeudal class of bajraktar s. The traditional role of women—namely,con侓nement to the home and farm—changed radically as they gained legal equality with men and became active participants in

all areas of society.

In order to obtain the economic aid needed for modernization, as well as the political and military support to enhance itssecurity, Albania turned to the communist world: Yugoslavia (1944–48), the Soviet Union (1948–61), and China (1961–78).Economically, Albania bene侓ted greatly from these alliances: with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and credits and with the

assistance of a large number of technicians and specialists sent by its allies, Albania was able to build the foundations of amodern industry and to introduce mechanization into agriculture. As a result, for the 侓rst time in modern history, the Albanianpopulace began to emerge from age-old backwardness and, for a while, enjoyed a higher standard of living.

Politically, Hoxha was disillusioned with his communist allies and patrons and broke with each one, charging that they had

abandoned Marxism-Leninism and the cause of the proletariat for the sake of rapprochement with the capitalist West. Alienatedfrom both East and West, Albania adopted a “go-it-alone” policy and became notorious as an isolated bastion of Stalinism.

Hoxha’s program for modernization aimed at transforming Albania from a backward agrarian country into a modern industrialsociety, and, indeed, within four decades Albania had made respectable—in some cases historic—strides in the development of

industry, agriculture, education, the arts, and culture. A notable achievement was the drainage of coastal swamplands—

previously breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes—and the reclamation of land for agricultural and industrial uses. Alsosymbolic of the change was a historic language reform that fused elements of the Gheg (Geg) and Tosk dialects into a uni侓ed

literary language.

Political oppression, however, o㘵set gains made on the material and cultural planes. Contrary to provisions in the constitution,during Hoxha’s reign Albania was in e㘵ect ruled by the Directorate of State Security, known as the Sigurimi. To eliminate dissent,the government periodically resorted to purges, in which opponents were subjected to public criticism, dismissed from their

jobs, imprisoned in forced-labour camps, or executed. Travel abroad was forbidden to all but those on oŉcial business. In 1967the religious establishment, which party leaders and other atheistic Albanians viewed as a backward medieval institution thathampered national unity and progress, was oŉcially banned, and all Christian and Muslim houses of worship were closed.

COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM

After Hoxha’s death in 1985, his handpicked successor, Ramiz Alia, sought to preserve the communist system while introducinggradual reforms in order to revive the economy, which had been declining steadily since the cessation of aid from former

communist allies. To this end he legalized some investment in Albania by foreign 侓rms and expanded diplomatic relations withthe West. But, with the fall of communism in eastern Europe in 1989, various segments of Albanian society became politicallyactive and began to agitate against the government. The most alienated groups were the intellectuals and the working class—

Socialist Albania

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traditionally the vanguard of a communist movement or organization—as well as Albania’s youth, which had been frustrated byyears of con侓nement and restrictions. In response to these pressures, Alia granted Albanian citizens the right to travel abroad,

curtailed the powers of the Sigurimi, restored religious freedom, and adopted some free-market measures for the economy. InDecember 1990 Alia endorsed the creation of independent political parties, thus signaling an end to the communists’ oŉcial

monopoly of power.

With each concession to the opposition, the state’s absolute control over Albanian society weakened. Continuing economic,

social, and political instability led to the fall of several governments, and in March 1992 a decisive electoral victory was won bythe anticommunist opposition, led by the Democratic Party. Alia resigned as president and was succeeded by Sali Berisha, the侓rst democratic leader of Albania since Bishop Noli.

Albania’s progress toward democratic reform enabled it to gain membership in the Conference on Security and Co-operation inEurope (now the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), formally bringing to an end its isolation. E㘵orts toestablish a free-market economy caused severe dislocations, but they also opened the road for Albania to obtain large amounts

of aid from developed countries. Albania thus began integrating its politics and institutions with the West, which Albanians havehistorically viewed as their cultural and geographic home.

In 1997 the economy collapsed when many Albanians lost their savings in various pyramid investment schemes. United Nationspeacekeeping troops were brought in to quell the resulting civil disorder, and the Albanian Socialist Party won by a landslide in

legislative elections later that year (and maintained power in elections in 2001 at the head of the Alliance for the State coalition).In 1999 some 450,000 ethnic Albanians sought refuge in Albania from the war in the Kosovo region of Serbia. Ethnic turmoil alsostrained Albania’s relations with Macedonia in 2001, when that country’s large Albanian minority staged an armed rebellion.

Tensions had cooled by 2003, and the two countries, along with Croatia, agreed to join together to 侓ght organized crime.

Power shifted back to the Democratic Party following the 2005 legislative elections, and former president Berisha was namedprime minister. He worked to implement economic and social changes in order to gain membership in the European Union (EU)and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including taking measures to lower Albania’s high rates of crime and

deterring corruption and drug traŉcking. In 2008 Albania was formally invited to join NATO, and on April 1, 2009, it became anoŉcial member of the alliance. Berisha remained prime minister following legislative elections that June, when the Democratsdefeated the Socialists by a slim margin. The oŉcial results came almost one month after the polls had closed, because the

Socialists had demanded a recount. Some international observers also stated that electoral irregularities had occurred. TheSocialists responded by boycotting the parliament and organizing street protests against the Berisha government. In January2011 a demonstration outside the prime minister’s oŉce turned violent, and four protesters were shot and killed by guards. The

ongoing tension between the government and the opposition undermined Albania’s attempts to obtain candidate status forsuccession to the EU. While Albania’s political class struggled to restore voter con侓dence and establish transparency in thecountry’s election procedures, a sluggish economy plagued Albania. Trading partners such as Italy and Greece were at the centre

of the euro area’s debt crisis, and exports and foreign remittances su㘵ered accordingly.

The campaign leading up to the June 2013 general election was largely peaceful and orderly, but it was marred by a shooting onelection day that left a Democratic candidate wounded and a Socialist supporter dead. The results of that election signaled adramatic change in the Albanian political order. The Socialists, led by former Tirana mayor Edi Rama, captured a sizable majority

of seats in parliament, and Berisha, who had been the dominant 侓gure in Albanian politics since the fall of communism,conceded defeat. In 2014 Albania was granted candidate status for accession to the EU, but the country’s progress toward fullmembership depended on the enactment of signi侓cant political and economic reforms. The coalition led by Rama’s Socialist

Party triumphed in local elections in June 2015, winning 46 of 61 mayoral races. The event signaled a welcome turning point inthe country’s postcommunist history, as it was largely free of the irregularities and violence that had marked previous elections.

Peter R. Prifti

The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica

"Albania". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 19 Apr. 2016

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Democratic Albania
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