Albania (
AlbanianAlbanian is a unique Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by native enclaves...
:
Shqipëri/Shqipëria,
Gheg AlbanianGheg is one of the two major dialects of the Albanian language. The other is Tosk, which is the main basis for the standard form of Albanian...
:
Shqipnia or
Shqypnia), officially the
Republic of Albania (Albanian:
Republika e Shqipërisë, ), is a Mediterranean country in
South Eastern EuropeThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. It is bordered by
MontenegroMontenegro , is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south...
to the north,
KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
to the northeast,
MacedoniaMacedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country in the central Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
to the east and
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
to the south-east. It has a coast on the
Adriatic SeaThe Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic Sea is a part of the Mediterranean Sea...
to the west, and on the
Ionian SeaThe Ionian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, and by southwestern Albania, including Saranda and Himara, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante,...
to the southwest. It is less than from
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, across the
Strait of OtrantoThe Strait of Otranto connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea. Its width is 45-55 nautical mile . The strait is named after the Italian city of Otranto.- History :...
which links the
Adriatic SeaThe Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic Sea is a part of the Mediterranean Sea...
to the
Ionian SeaThe Ionian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, and by southwestern Albania, including Saranda and Himara, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante,...
.
Albania is a member of the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
,
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
, the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
,
Council of EuropeThe Council of Europe is the oldest international organisation working towards European integration, having been founded in 1949. It has a particular emphasis on legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, World Trade Organisation,
Organisation of the Islamic ConferenceThe Organisation of the Islamic Conference is an international organisation with a permanent delegation to the United Nations. It groups 57 member states, from the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, Caucasus, Balkans, Southeast Asia and South Asia...
and one of the founding members of the
Union for the MediterraneanThe Union for the Mediterranean , officially known by the full name of Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean and previously known as the "Mediterranean Union" , is a community initiated on 13 July 2008 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy...
. Albania has been a
potential candidate for accession to the European UnionThe process of the Accession of Albania to the European Union started in January 2003 when Albania was the first of "Potential Candidate countries" to start the negotiations of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement . The SAA was signed on 12 June 2006, and ratification completed with Greece's...
since January 2003, and it formally applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009.
Albania is a parliamentary democracy and a
transition economyA transition economy or transitional economy is an economy which is changing from a centrally planned economy to a free market. Transition economies undergo economic liberalization , macroeconomic stabilization where immediate high inflation is brought under control, and restructuring and...
. The Albanian capital,
TiranaTirana is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania. It was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha and became Albania's capital city in 1920. The Municipality of Tirana lies on the river Ishëm, about inland and is located at in Tirana District, Tirana County...
, is home to approximately 895,000 of the country's 3.6 million people, and it is also the financial capital of the country. Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of
energyIn physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of work that can be performed by a force, an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law...
and transportation infrastructure.
Etymology
Albania is the
Medieval LatinMedieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
name of the country which is called
Shqipëri by its inhabitants.In
Medieval GreekMedieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek is a cover term for all forms of the Greek language that were spoken and written during the time of the Byzantine Empire...
, the country's name is
Albania besides variants
Albaētia,
Arbanētia.
The ultimate origin of the root
Alb- has been traced to an Illyrian (
alb "white"). In the
2nd century BCThe 2nd century BC started the first day of 200 BC and ended the last day of 101 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, although depending on the region being studied, other terms may be more proper .-Overview:Fresh from its victories in the Second Punic War, the...
,
PolybiusPolybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his book called The Histories covering in detail the period of 220–146 BC...
's
History of the World mentions a tribe named
Arbon in present-day central Albania. The people who lived there were called
Albanoí and
Arbanitai.
Another suggestion is derivation from the Illyrian tribe of the Albani
recordRecord or The Record may mean:An item or collection of data:* Data storage device that contains data ** Gramophone record , mechanical storage medium...
ed by
PtolemyClaudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Greek ancestry. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under the Roman Empire, and is believed to have been born in the town of...
, the
geographerA geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical environment and human habitat.Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
and
astronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars, and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
from
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
who drafted a map at 150 AD of remarkable significance for the history of
IllyriaIllyria was in Classical antiquity a region in the western part of today's Balkan Peninsula, inhabited by the Illyrians, a heterogeneous coalition of tribes, about whom very little is known, though a number of them are assumed to have been united by a common Illyrian language.Illyria and the...
. This map shows the city of
AlbanopolisAlbanopolis was a city in ancient Roman Macedon specifically in Epirus Nova, the city of the Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe. The editors of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World tentatively locate Albanopolis at the modern-day village of Zgërdhesh, near Kruja, Albania...
(located Northeast of Durrës) which was later called Albanon and Arbanon though it is not certain this is the same city.
In his
History written in 1079-1080,
ByzantineThe word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of The Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
historian
Michael AttaliatesMichael Attaleiates or Attaliates was a Byzantine statesman and historian, probably a native of Attalia in Pamphylia, whence he seems to have come to Constantinople between 1030 and 1040...
was the first to refer to
Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
in 1043 and to the
Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium. During the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, the Albanians called their country
Arbër or
Arbën and referred to themselves as Arbëresh or
Arbnesh. As early as the 16th century, a new name for their home evolved among Albanian people:
Shqipëria, popularly interpreted as "Land of the Eagles" or "Land of the Mountain Eagle" hence the two-headed bird on the national flag, though most likely the origin lies in
SkanderbegGjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg , or Iskander Beg, was a prominent historical figure in the history of Albania and of the Albanian people...
's use of the
ByzantineThe word Byzantine may refer to:Topics directly related to the Byzantine Empire* A citizen of The Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
double-headed eagle on his seals.
Prehistory
The area of today's Albania has been populated since prehistoric times. In antiquity, much of it was settled by the ancient
IllyriansThe Illyrians were a group of tribes who inhabited the Western Balkans during classical antiquity. The territory the tribes covered came to be known as Illyria to Greek and Roman authors, corresponding roughly to the area between Adriatic sea in west, Drava river in North, Morava river in east...
, possible ancestors of
AlbaniansAlbanians are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
.
The rediscovered Greek city of Bothrota (modern Butrint) is probably more significant today than it was when
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
used it as a provisions depot for his troops during his campaigns in the
1st century BCThe 1st century BC, also known as the last century BC or 1st century BCE started on the first day of 100 BC and ended on the last day of 1 BC.It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period...
. At that time, it was considered to be an unimportant outpost, overshadowed by the Greek colonies,
ApolloniaA city of the ancient world , known as Apollonia , was located on the right bank of the Aous; its ruins are situated in the Fier region, near the village of Pojan...
and
DurrësDurrës is the second-largest city of Albania. It is the most ancient and one of the most economically important cities of Albania. It is located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian...
.
Formal investigation and recording of Albania's archaeological monuments began with
Francois PouquevilleFrançois Charles Hugues Laurent Pouqueville was a French diplomat, writer, explorer, physician and historian, member of the...
, who was
Napoleon'sNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
consul-general to Ali Pasha's
courtA court is a body, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes and dispense civil, criminal, or administrative justice in accordance with rules of law....
, and Martin Leake, who was the British agent there. A French mission, led by Len Rey, worked throughout Albania from 1924 to 1938 and published its results in
Cahiers d'Archéologie, d'art et d'Histoire en Albanie et dans les Balkans (Notes of
ArchaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
, Art, and History in Albania and in the Balkans).
Archaeologists today are finding remains from all periods, from the
Stone AgeThe Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which humans widely used stone for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different sorts of stone. For example, flint and chert were shaped for use as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone were used for ground...
to the early
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
era.
Antiquity
The territory of Albania in antiquity was mainly inhabited by
Illyrian tribes, who, like other ancient people, were subdivided into tribes and clans. The region was also inhabited by
BrygesBryges or Briges is the historical name given to a people of the ancient Balkans. They are generally considered to have been related to the Phrygians, who during classical antiquity lived in western Anatolia. Both names, Bryges and Phrygians, are assumed to be variants of the same root. Based on...
, a
PhrygiaIn antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the...
n people and the Chaones, an
ancient GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
people.
Roughly parallel with the rise of Greek colonies, Illyrian tribes began to evolve politically from relatively small and simple entities into larger and more complex ones. At first they formed temporary alliances with one another for defensive or offensive purposes, a few times kingdoms under powerful warlords like
BardyllisBardyllis of the Illyrians was an Illyrian king who ruled from 385 to 358 BC and founded the Bardyllis Dynasty. He was by profession a collier. Coal was sought for its carbon-based energy...
.
Illyrian tribes that resided in the region of modern Albania were the Taulantii the Parthini, the Abri, the Caviii, the Enchelei, and several others.
A Illyrian King
BardyllisBardyllis of the Illyrians was an Illyrian king who ruled from 385 to 358 BC and founded the Bardyllis Dynasty. He was by profession a collier. Coal was sought for its carbon-based energy...
in
4th century BCThe 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 300 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period.-Overview:This century marked the height of Classical Greek civilization in all of its aspects...
, after uniting some Illyrian tribes engaged in conflict with
MacedoniaMacedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but the region is nowadays held to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Serbia...
, but he was defeated. Bardyllis was succeeded by
GrabosGrabos was an Illyrian that became the most powerful Illyrian king after the death of Bardyllis in 358 BC.-Sources:*Harding, Philip. From the End of the Peloponnesian War to the Battle of Ipsus, 1985. ISBN 0521299497...
then
Bardyllis IIBardyllis II was an Illyrian king, the brother of Bircenna, the son of Bardyllis, and father to Cleitus the Illyrian.- See also :* Illyrian warfare* List of rulers of Illyria...
and
Cleitus the IllyrianCleitus the Illyrian was the grandson of Bardyllis. The ancient historian Arrian states that the chieftain Cleitus sacrificed three boys, three girls and three rams just before his battle with Alexander the Great.Cleitus and his Dardanians had occupied a Macedonian border fortress , Pelium just...
that was defeated by
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
. Later on in 229 BC Queen Teuta of the Ardiaei clashed with Romans initiating this way the
Illyrian WarsIn the Illyrian Wars of 229 BC, 219 BC and 168 BC Rome overran the Illyrian settlements and suppressed the piracy that had made the Adriatic unsafe for Italian commerce. There were three campaigns, the first against Teuta the second against Demetrius of Pharos and the third against Gentius...
which brought the whole of Illyria to an end in 168 B.C. when King
GentiusGentius of the Ardiaei was an Illyrian king. He was the son of the Illyrian king Pleuratus II, of the tribe of the Labeates. His kingdom had his capital at Scodra....
was defeated by a Roman army.
The lands comprising modern-day Albania were occupied by the Romans in
168 BC-Greece:* The king of Illyria, Gentius, is defeated at Scodra by a Roman force under Lucius Anicius Gallus and then brought to Rome as a captive to be interned in Iguvium...
and incorporated into the empire as part of the province of
IllyricumThe Roman province of Illyricum or Illyris Romana or Illyris Barbara or Illyria Barbara replaced most of the region of Illyria. It stretched from the Drilon river in modern north Albania to Istria in the west and to the Sava river in the north...
above the river Drin and Roman
MacedoniaThe Roman province of Macedonia was officially established in 146 BC, after the Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus defeated Andriscus of Macedon, the last Ancient King of Macedon in 148 BC, and after the four client republics established by Rome in the region were dissolved...
(specifically as Epirus Nova) below it. The western part of
Via EgnatiaThe Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed the Roman provinces of Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thrace, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey.Starting at Dyrrachium on the...
, was inside modern Albania.
IllyricumThe Roman province of Illyricum or Illyris Romana or Illyris Barbara or Illyria Barbara replaced most of the region of Illyria. It stretched from the Drilon river in modern north Albania to Istria in the west and to the Sava river in the north...
was later divided into the provinces of
DalmatiaDalmatia was an ancient Roman province. Its name is probably derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae which lived in the area of the eastern Adriatic coast in Classical antiquity.-History:...
and
PannoniaPannonia is an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
.
When the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
divided into east and west in 395, the territories of modern Albania became part of the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
. Starting in the first decades under Byzantine rule (until 461),the region suffered the devastation of raids by Visigoths,
HunsThe Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe c.AD 370 and built up an enormous empire in Europe. They were possibly the descendants of the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before and may be the first...
, and Ostrogoths. Not long after these barbarian invaders swept through the Balkans, the Slavs appeared.
The territory of what is now Albania would remain under Byzantine and Bulgarian Kingdom rule until the fourteenth century AD, when the Ottoman Turks began to make incursions into the Empire. The Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453 and by 1460 most former Byzantine territories were in the hands of the Turks.
Medieval era
The new administrative system of the themes, or military provinces created by the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
, contributed to the eventual rise of feudalism in Albania, as peasant soldiers who served military lords became serfs on their landed estates. Among the leading families of the Albanian feudal nobility were the Thopia, Shpata, Muzaka,
DukagjiniDukagjini is a region in Northern Albania and western Kosovo, which contains the Prokletije, an extension of the Dinaric Alps range. The highest point is Maja Jezerce .It is inhabited by nine fraternal tribes;* Shala* Shoshi* Nikaj...
, and
KastriotiThe Kastriotis were a noble Albanian family in the middle Ages. The Kastrioti dynasty originally hailed from the Mati region, situated in North Albania...
. The first three of these rose to become rulers of principalities that were practically independent of
ByzantiumByzantium was an ancient Greek city, which was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas . The name "Byzantium" is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
.
Ottoman era
In the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, the name
Arberia (see
Origin and history of the name Albania) began to be increasingly applied to the region now comprising the nation of Albania.
Beginning with late 14th century the Ottoman Turks expanded their empire from
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
to the Balkans. By the 15th century, the Turks had brought under subjection nearly all of the Balkan Peninsula except for a small coastal strip which is included in present-day Albania. The Albanians' resistance to the Turks in the mid-15th century won them acclaim all over Christian Europe. Albania became a symbol of resistance to the Ottoman Turks but suffered an almost continuous state of warfare.
One of the most successful resistance against the invading Ottomans, was led by
Gjergj Kastrioti SkanderbegGjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg , or Iskander Beg, was a prominent historical figure in the history of Albania and of the Albanian people...
from 1443 to 1468. Under a red flag bearing Skanderbeg's heraldic emblem, an Albanian force of about 30,000 men held off Ottoman campaigns against their lands for twenty-four years.The leadership of Skanderbeg was invincible, and even Mehmet II, the Conqueror, was ambushed by an Albanian guriella party at Kruja in 1466. Skanderbeg then re-embraced Roman
CatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole...
and declared a holy war against the Turks. Thrice the Albanians overcame sieges of Krujë (see
Siege of KrujëThe Siege of Krujë refers to four attempts of the Ottoman Empire to capture Krujë in Albania during the 15th century.*First Siege of Krujë, 1450*Second Siege of Krujë, 1466*Third Siege of Krujë, 1467*Fourth Siege of Krujë, 1478, the only successful siege...
). Skanderbeg was unable to receive any help from the new crusade promised by the popes, he abandoned Christianity and he died in 1468 leaving no worthy successor.
After the death of Skanderbeg, resistance continued until 1478, although with only moderate success. The loyalties and alliances created and nurtured by Skanderbeg faltered and fell apart, and the Ottomans conquered the territory of Albania shortly after the fall of
KrujeKrujë is the capital city of the District of Krujë in Albania. It is located at and has a population of about 20,000.- History:Krujë is best known as the hometown of Albania's national hero, Skanderbeg, from where the Ottomans were successfully resisted for nearly 35 years from 1443 until 1478...
's castle. Albania then became part of the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. Following this, many Albanians fled to neighboring
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, mostly to
CalabriaCalabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the...
and
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
. The majority of the Albanian population converted to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
during this time seeing Muslim practices. During this period there were numerous uprising beginning with the son and nephew of Skanderbeg in 1500 AD, during the Ottoman–Venetian Wars, Ottoman–Habsburg wars, against
TanzimatThe Tanzimat , meaning reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, was a period of reformation that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. The Tanzimat reform era was characterized by various attempts to modernize the Ottoman Empire, to secure its territorial integrity against...
reforms and during National Renaissance of Albania (1831-1912). This period also saw the rising of semi-autonomous Albanian ruled Pashaliks and Albanians were also an important part of the Ottoman army and Ottoman administration like the case of
Köprülü familyThe Köprülü family was an Ottoman noble family originating from Albania. The family provided six Ottoman Grand Viziers, with several others becoming high-ranking officers. Notable modern descendants include Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, a prominent historian of Turkish literature...
. Albania would remain a part of the Ottoman Empire as the provinces of
ShkodraShkodër Province, was a province in the Ottoman EmpireOther names: Scutari/Shkodra/İşkodraIn 1867, Shkodër sanjak merged with Skopje sanjak and became a vilayet. Shkodër vilayet was split into Shkodër, Prizren and Debar sanjaks. In 1877, Prizren passed to Kosovo vilayet and Debar passed to...
,
ManastirManastır was an Ottoman eyalet, created in 1864. This wilayah encompassed territiories in present-day eastern Albania, southwestern Republic of Macedonia and northwestern Greece...
and Yanya until 1912.
20th century
During the fifteenth century Albania enjoyed a brief period of independence under the legendary hero,
SkanderbegGjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg , or Iskander Beg, was a prominent historical figure in the history of Albania and of the Albanian people...
. Aside from this exception, the country did not enjoy independence until the twentieth century. After five hundred years of Ottoman domination, an independent Albania was proclaimed on the 28 November 1912.
1913 to 1928
The initial sparks of the first
Balkan War in 1912The Balkan Wars were two wars in South-eastern Europe in 1912–1913. The First Balkan War broke out on 8 October 1912 when Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia , having large parts of their ethnic populations under Ottoman sovereignty, attacked the Ottoman Empire, terminating its five-century...
were ignited by the Albanian uprising between 1908-10 which were directed at opposing the Young Turk policies of consolidation of the Ottoman Empire. Following the eventual weakening of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans,
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
, and
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
declared war and sought to aggrandize their respective boundaries on the remaining territories of the Empire. Albania was thus invaded by Serbia in the North and Greece in the south, restricting the country to only a patch of land around the southern coastal city of Vlora. In 1912 Albania, still under foreign occupation declared its independence and with the aid of Austria-Hungary, the Great Powers drew its present borders leaving more than half of the Albanian population outside the new country.
The border between Albania and its neighbors was delineated in 1913 following the dissolution of most of the Ottoman Empire's territories in the Balkans. The delineation of the new state's borders left a significant number of Albanian communities outside Albania. This population was largely divided between Montenegro and Serbia (which then included what is now the Republic of Macedonia). A substantial number of Albanians thus found themselves under Serbian rule. On the other hand an uprising in the country's south by local Greeks, led to the formation of an
autonomous regionFor a general view on history, geography, demographics and political issues concerning the region, see Northern Epirus.The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was a short-lived, self-governing entity founded in February 28, 1914, in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, by the Greeks living in...
inside its borders (1914). After a period of political instability caused during the
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, the country adopted a republican form of government in 1920.
1928 to 1946
Starting in 1928, but especially during the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the government of King Zog, almost completely dependent on Mussolini, began to cede Albania's sovereignty to Italy. By 1939 the Italians invaded the country.
Despite some strong resistance, especially at
DurrësDurrës is the second-largest city of Albania. It is the most ancient and one of the most economically important cities of Albania. It is located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian...
, Italy invaded Albania on 7 April 1939 and took control of the country, with Mussolini proclaiming
Italy's figurehead KingVittorio Emanuele III was a member of the House of Savoy and King of Italy . In addition, he claimed the crowns of Ethiopia and Albania and claimed the titles Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania which were recognised by the great powers in 1937 and 1939...
as King of Albania. Albania was one of the first countries occupied by the
Axis PowersThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. As
HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
began his aggressions, the Italian Fascist dictator
Benito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini,
KSMOM GCTE was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism. He became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by...
decided to occupy Albania as a means to compete with Hitler's territorial gains. Mussolini and the Italian Fascists saw Albania as a historical part of the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
and the occupation was intended to fulfil Mussolini's dream of creating an Italian Empire. During Italian occupation, the Albanian population was subject to a policy of forced
ItalianizationItalianisation or Italianization is a term used to describe a process of cultural assimilation in which ethnically non- or partially-Italian people or territory become Italian. The process can be voluntary or forced...
by the Kingdom's Italian governors in which the use of the Albanian language was discouraged in schools while the Italian language was promoted, and colonization of Albania by Italians was encouraged.
Mussolini, in October 1940, used his Albanian base to launch an attack on Greece, which led to the defeat of the Italian forces and a Greek occupation of southern Albania. However, Hitler in his preparations for the
invasion of RussiaOperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
, decided to attack Greece in December 1940 to prevent a British attack on his southern flank and the Greek surrender returned Albania to Italian control.
During
World War II-Beginning of the Communist movement:Faced with an illiterate, agrarian, and mostly Muslim society monitored by Zog's security police, Albania's communist movement attracted few adherents in the interwar period. In fact, the country had no fully fledged communist party before World War II...
, the Party of Labour was created on 8 November 1941. With the intention to organize a
partisan resistanceThe Albanian National Liberation Front were an Albanian resistance organization that fought in World War II. It was created in 16 September 1942, in a conference held in Peza . Apart the communist figures which had the majority in the General Council it also included known nationalist figures like...
they called a general conference in Pezë on 16 September 1942 where the Albanian National Liberation Front was created as a result. The Front included nationalist groups, but it was dominated by communist partisans.
In December 1942 other Albanian nationalist were organized under Visar Kola. Albanians fought against the Italians while during German occupation Balli Kombëtar allied himself with the Germans and clashed with Albanian communists, which continued their fight against Germans and Balli Kombëtar in the same time.
With the Mussolini's government collapsing with the Allied invasion, Germany occupied Albania in September 1943, dropping paratroopers into Tirana before the Albanian guerrillas could take the capital. The German army soon drove the guerrillas into the hills and to the south. Berlin subsequently announced it would recognize the independence of a neutral Albania and organized an Albanian government, police, and military. Many Balli Kombëtar units cooperated with the Germans against the communists, and several Balli Kombëtar leaders held positions in the German-sponsored regime.
The partisans entirely liberated Albania from German occupation on November 28, 1944. The Albanian partisans also liberated Kosovo, part of Montenegro, and southern Bosnia & Herzegovina. By November 1944 they had thrown the Germans out, the only East European nation to do so without the assistance of Soviet troops.
Enver Hoxha' was the Communist leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...
became the leader of the country by virtue of his position as secretary general of the Albanian Communist Party.
Albania was one of the European countries occupied by the Axis powers that ended World War II with a larger Jewish population than before the War. Only one Jewish family was deported and killed during the Nazi occupation of Albania. Some 1,200 Jewish residents and refugees from other Balkan countries were hidden by Albanian families during World War II, according to official records.
Communist state
Albania allied with the USSR, and then broke with the USSR in 1960 over
de-StalinizationDe-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality and Stalinist political system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in 1953...
. A strong political alliance with China followed, leading to several billion dollars in aid, which was curtailed after 1974. China cut off aid in 1978 when Albania attacked its policies after the death of Chinese ruler
Mao ZedongMao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and Communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976...
. Large-scale purges of officials occurred during the 1970s.
Enver Hoxha' was the Communist leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...
, who ruled Albania for four decades with an iron fist, died on 11 April 1985. Eventually the new regime introduced some liberalization, including measures in 1990 providing for freedom to travel abroad. Efforts were begun to improve ties with the outside world. March 1991 elections left the former Communists in power, but a general strike and urban opposition led to the formation of a coalition cabinet including non-Communists.
Recent history (1992 to present)
Albania's former Communists were routed in elections March 1992, amid economic collapse and social unrest. Sali Berisha was elected as the first non-Communist president since World War II. The next crisis occurred in 1997, during his presidency, as
riots ravaged the countryThe 1997 unrest in Albania, also known as the Lottery Uprising, was an uprising sparked by Ponzi scheme failures.- Causes :In the mid-1990s, Albania was becoming a liberalized economy after years under a controlled economy; the rudimentary financial system became dominated by Ponzi schemes, and...
. The State Institutions collapsed and an EU military mission lead by
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
was sent to stabilize the country. In summer 1997 Berisha was defeated in elections, winning just 25 seats from 155 available.
He returned in power leading a coalition in the elections of 3 July 2005, ending 8 years of Socialist Party rule. In 2009, Albania, along with
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
, joined
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
.
Government, politics and military
The Albanian republic is a parliamentary democracy established under a constitution renewed in 1998. Elections are now held every four years to a unicameral 140-seat chamber, the People's Assembly. In June 2002, a compromise candidate,
Alfred Moisiuwas the President of the Republic of Albania from July 24, 2002 to July 24, 2007.In 1946 he was sent to the Soviet Union as a student. In 1948 he graduated from the military engineering school in Saint Petersburg...
, former
Army GeneralArmy General is a title used in many countries to denote the rank of General nominally commanding an Army in the field. Army General is normally the highest rank used in peace time....
, was elected to succeed President
Rexhep Meidaniis an Albanian politician. He graduated from the University of Tirana , Faculty of Natural Sciences, Branch Physics, as well as successfully accomplished the postgraduate studies in the University of Caen . With regard to the professional area, Mr...
. Parliamentary elections in July 2005 brought
Sali Berishais the current Prime Minister of Albania. He previously served as the first democratically elected President of Albania, from 1992 to 1997...
, as leader of the Democratic Party, back to power. The Euro-Atlantic integration of Albania has been the ultimate goal of the post-communist governments. Albania's
EUThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
membership bid has been set as a priority by the European Commission.
Albania, along with Croatia, received in 3 April 2008 an invitation to join
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
. Albania and Croatia joined NATO on 2 April 2009 becoming the 27th and 28th members of the alliance.
The workforce of Albania has continued to migrate to Greece, Italy, Germany, other parts of Europe, and North America. However, the migration flux is slowly decreasing, as more and more opportunities are emerging in Albania itself as its economy steadily develops.
Executive branch
The head of state in Albania is the
President of the Republic. The President is elected to a 5-year term by the
Assembly of the Republic of AlbaniaThe Assembly of the Republic of Albania , formerly People's Parliament is the unicameral parliament of Albania....
by secret ballot, requiring a 50%+1 majority of the votes of all deputies. The next election will run in the year 2012. The current President of the Republic is
Bamir TopiProf. Dr. Bamir Myrteza Topi has been the President of Albania since 24 July 2007.-Early life and public activities:Topi, born in Tirana on 24 April 1957, graduated from the Agricultural University of Tirana in veterinary studies with high grades and earned a PhD degree in the same field...
.
The President has the power to guarantee observation of the constitution and all laws, act as commander in chief of the armed forces, exercise the duties of the
Assembly of the Republic of AlbaniaThe Assembly of the Republic of Albania , formerly People's Parliament is the unicameral parliament of Albania....
when the Assembly is not in session, and appoint the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
).
Executive power rests with the Council of Ministers (cabinet). The Chairman of the Council (Prime Minister) is appointed by the President; ministers are nominated by the President on the basis of the Prime Minister's recommendation. The People's Assembly must give final approval of the composition of the Council. The Council is responsible for carrying out both foreign and domestic policies. It directs and controls the activities of the ministries and other state organs.
| President |
Bamir Topi Prof. Dr. Bamir Myrteza Topi has been the President of Albania since 24 July 2007.-Early life and public activities:Topi, born in Tirana on 24 April 1957, graduated from the Agricultural University of Tirana in veterinary studies with high grades and earned a PhD degree in the same field...
|
|
20 July 2007 |
| Prime Minister |
Sali Berishais the current Prime Minister of Albania. He previously served as the first democratically elected President of Albania, from 1992 to 1997...
|
PDThe Democratic Party of Albania is a center-right, Conservative, political party in Albania and the leading party in the governing coalition since the 2005 parliamentary elections...
|
9 September 2009 |
Legislative branch
The
Assembly of the Republic of AlbaniaThe Assembly of the Republic of Albania , formerly People's Parliament is the unicameral parliament of Albania....
(
Kuvendi i Republikës së Shqipërisë) is the lawmaking body in Albania. There are 140 deputies in the Assembly, which are elected though a
party-list proportional representationParty-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections returning multiple candidates...
system. The President of the Assembly (or Speaker) has two deputies and chairs the Assembly. There are 15 permanent commissions, or committees. Parliamentary elections are held at least every 4 years.
The Assembly has the power to decide the direction of domestic and foreign policy; approve or amend the constitution; declare war on another state; ratify or annul international treaties; elect the President of the Republic, the Supreme Court, and the Attorney General and his or her deputies; and control the activity of state radio and television, state news agency, and other official information media.
Armed forces
The
Albanian Armed ForcesThe Albanian Armed Forces is the armed forces of Albania, first formed after independence in 1912. Today it is made up of the General Staff Headquarters, the Albanian Joint Forces Command, the Albanian Support Command and the Albanian Training and Doctrine Command.The Albanian Joint Forces...
(
Forcat e Armatosura të Shqipërisë) first formed after independence in 1912. Albania reduced the number of active troops from a 1988 number of 65,000 to a 2009 number of 14,500 with a small fleet of aircraft and sea vessels. In the 1990s, the country scrapped enormous amount of obsolete hardware, such as tanks and SAM systems of Chinese manufacture.
Today it is made up of the
General StaffA military staff is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units....
Headquarters, the
Albanian Joint Forces CommandThe Albanian Joint Forces Command, consists in the branch of the Albanian military charged with protecting the territorial integrity of Albania. The Command has under the proper structure the Rapid Reaction Brigade, the Commando Regiment, the Albanian Air Force, the Albanian Naval Defense Forces...
, the
Albanian Support CommandThe Albanian Support Command of the Albanian Military provides operational,logistical and support functions for the Albanian Land Forces, the Albanian Air Force and the Albanian Naval Defense Forces.The Logistic Support Command is based in Tirana....
and the
Albanian Training and Doctrine CommandThe Albanian Training and Doctrine Command consists of the Albanian Defence Academy, the Skanderbeg Military University, the NCO "Tomson" Academy, the Basic Training Brigade, a consolidated Troops School, a Defence Analysis Center, and a Training Support Center.TRADOC focuses in:* Individual basic...
. One of the most important conditions to fulfill due to
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
integration, was the increasing of the military budget. Military spending accounted for about 2.7% of GDP in 2008. Since February 2008, Albania participates officially in NATO's Operation Active Endeavor in the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
and received a NATO membership invitation on 3 April 2008. Albania became a full member of NATO on 1 April 2009.
Geography
Albania has a total area of 28,748 square kilometers. Its coastline is 362 kilometers long and extends along the
AdriaticThe Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The Adriatic Sea is a part of the Mediterranean Sea...
and
Ionian SeaThe Ionian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, and by southwestern Albania, including Saranda and Himara, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante,...
s. The lowlands of the west face the Adriatic Sea. The 70% of the country that is mountainous is rugged and often inaccessible from the outside. The highest mountain is
KorabMount Korab is the highest mountain of the Republic of Macedonia and Albania, its peak forming a frontier between the two countries. The Korab mountain is adjacent to the Šar Mountains. There are three other peaks in Albania reaching a height of more than two of them rising to and .The mountain...
situated in the district of Dibra, reaching up to . The country has a
continental climateContinental climate is a climate that is characterized by winter temperatures cold enough to support a fixed period of snow cover each year, and relatively moderate precipitation occurring mostly in summer, although east coast areas may show an even distribution of precipitation.Regions containing...
at its high altitude regions with cold winters and hot summers. Besides the capital city of
TiranaTirana is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania. It was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha and became Albania's capital city in 1920. The Municipality of Tirana lies on the river Ishëm, about inland and is located at in Tirana District, Tirana County...
, which has 800,000 inhabitants, the principal cities are
DurrësDurrës is the second-largest city of Albania. It is the most ancient and one of the most economically important cities of Albania. It is located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian...
,
KorçëKorçë is a city in southeastern Albania and the capital of the Korçë District. It has a population of around 57,758 people , making it the seventh largest city in Albania...
,
ElbasanElbasan is a city in central Albania. It is located on the Shkumbin River in the District of Elbasan and the County of Elbasan, at...
, Shkodër,
GjirokastërGjirokastër or Gjirokastra , is a city in southern Albania with a population of around 34,000. Lying in the historical region of Epirus, it is also the capital of both the Gjirokastër District and the larger Gjirokastër County...
,
VlorëVlorë or Vlora is the second largest port city of Albania, after Durrës, with a population of about 94,000 .-Names:...
and
KukësKukës is a town in Albania located at 42.09°N, 20.43°E in the district and county with the same name. It has a population of about 16,000 . The town is set among the mountains of northern Albania. It is famous for its role during the Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s, when it accepted more than...
. In Albanian grammar, a word can have indefinite and definite forms, and this also applies to city names: both
Tiranë and
Tirana,
Shkodër and
Shkodra are used.
The three largest and deepest tectonic lakes of the Balkan Peninsula are partly located in Albania. Lake Shkodër in the country's northwest has a surface which can vary between and 530 km
2, out of which one third belongs to Albania and rest to Montenegro. The Albanian shoreline of the lake is . Ohrid Lake is situated in the country's southeast and is shared between Albania and Republic of Macedonia. It has a maximal depth of 289 meters and a variety of unique flora and fauna can be found there, including “living fossils” and many endemic species. Because of its natural and historical value, Ohrid Lake is under the protection of
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
.
Over a third of the territory of Albania—about 10,000 square kilometers (2.5 million acres)—is forested and the country was very rich in flora. About 3.000 different species of plants grow in Albania, many of which are used for medicinal purposes.
PhytogeographicallyPhytogeography, also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species, or more generally, plants...
, Albania belongs to the
Boreal KingdomThe Boreal Kingdom or Holarctic Kingdom is a floristic kingdom identified by botanist Ronald Good , which includes the temperate-to-arctic portions of North America and Eurasia. Its flora is inherited from the ancient supercontinent of Laurasia...
and is shared between the Adriatic and East Mediterranean provinces of the Mediterranean Region and the Illyrian province of the
Circumboreal RegionThe Circumboreal Region is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in Eurasia and North America, as delineated by such geobotanists as Josias Braun-Blanquet and Armen Takhtajan...
. According to the
World Wide Fund for NatureThe World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in the United States and Canada...
and Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the
European Environment AgencyEuropean Environment Agency , agency of the European Union devoted to establishing a monitoring network for the monitoring of the European environment...
, the territory of Albania can be subdivided into three
ecoregionAn ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area smaller than a "realm" or "ecozone". Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species...
s: the
Illyrian deciduous forestsThe Illyrian deciduous forests form a terrestrial ecoregion of Europe according to both the WWF and Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the European Environment Agency...
,
Pindus Mountains mixed forestsThe Pindus Mountains mixed forests constitute a terrestrial ecoregion of Europe according to both the WWF and Digital Map of European Ecological Regions by the European Environment Agency...
and Dinaric Mountains mixed forests. The forests are home to a wide range of mammals, including wolves,
bearBears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
s, wild boars, and
chamoisThe chamois, Rupicapra rupicapra, is a goat-antelope species native to mountains in Europe, including the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, the European Alps, the Gran Sasso region of the central Italian Apennines, the Tatra Mountains, the Balkans, parts of Turkey, and the Caucasus. The chamois has...
.
LynxA lynx is any of four big-sized wild cats. All are members of the genus Lynx, but there is considerable confusion about the best way to classify felids at present, and some authorities classify them as part of the genus Felis...
,
wildcatWildcat is a small felid native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa.Wildcat may also refer to members of the genus Lynx:...
s,
pine martenThe European Pine Marten , or Pineten, is an animal native to Northern Europe belonging to the mustelid family, which also includes mink, otter, badger, wolverine and weasel. It is about the size of a domestic cat. Its body is up to 53 cm in length , and its bushy tail can be 25 cm...
s and polecats are rare, but survive in some parts of the country.
Climate
With its coastline facing the Adriatic and Ionian seas, its highlands backed upon the elevated Balkan landmass, and the entire country lying at a latitude subject to a variety of weather patterns during the winter and summer seasons, Albania has a high number of climatic regions for so small an area. The coastal lowlands have typically Mediterranean weather; the highlands have a Mediterranean continental climate. In both the lowlands and the interior, the weather varies markedly from north to south.
The lowlands have mild winters, averaging about 7 °C. Summer temperatures average 24 °C. In the southern lowlands, temperatures average about 5 °C higher throughout the year. The difference is greater than 5°C during the summer and somewhat less during the winter.
Inland temperatures are affected more by differences in elevation than by latitude or any other factor. Low winter temperatures in the mountains are caused by the continental air mass that dominates the weather in
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and the Balkans. Northerly and northeasterly winds blow much of the time. Average summer temperatures are lower than in the coastal areas and much lower at higher elevations, but daily fluctuations are greater. Daytime maximum temperatures in the interior basins and
river valleyRiver Valley is the name of an urban planning area within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.The River Valley Planning Area is defined by the region bounded by Orchard Boulevard, Devonshire Road and Eber Road to the north, Oxley Rise and Mohamed Sultan Road to the east, Martin...
s are very high, but the nights are almost always cool.
Average
precipitationIn meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the Earth's surface. The main forms of precipitation include rain, snow, ice pellets, and graupel...
is heavy, a result of the convergence of the prevailing airflow from the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
and the continental air mass. Because they usually meet at the point where the terrain rises, the heaviest rain falls in the central uplands. Vertical currents initiated when the Mediterranean air is uplifted also cause frequent thunderstorms. Many of these storms are accompanied by high local winds and torrential downpours.
When the continental air mass is weak, Mediterranean winds drop their moisture farther inland. When there is a dominant continental air mass, cold air spills onto the lowland areas, which occurs most frequently in the winter. Because the season's lower temperatures damage olive trees and citrus fruits, groves and orchards are restricted to sheltered places with southern and western exposures, even in areas with high average winter temperatures.
Lowland rainfall averages from 1,000 millimeters to more than 1,500 millimeters annually, with the higher levels in the north. Nearly 95% of the rain falls in the winter.
Rainfall in the upland mountain ranges is heavier. Adequate records are not available, and estimates vary widely, but annual averages are probably about 1,800 millimeters and are as high as 2,550 millimeters in some northern areas. The seasonal variation is not quite as great in the coastal area.
The higher inland mountains receive less precipitation than the intermediate uplands. Terrain differences cause wide local variations, but the seasonal distribution is the most consistent of any area.
Economy
Albania remains a poor country by Eastern European standards. Its GDP per capita (expressed in PPS—
Purchasing Power StandardsThe purchasing power parity theory uses the long-term equilibrium exchange rate of two currencies to equalize their purchasing power...
) stood at 25 percent of the EU average in 2008. Still, Albania has shown potential for economic growth, as more and more businesses relocate there and consumer goods are becoming available from emerging market traders as part of the current massive global cost-cutting exercise. Albania and Cyprus are the only countries in Europe that recorded economic growth in the first quarter of 2009. In its latest report, the
International Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by following the macroeconomic policies of its member countries, in particular those with an impact on exchange rates and the balance of payments...
(IMF) said Albania and Cyprus recorded increases of 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively. However, the country is still of low interest for major foreign investors due to frequent power shortages, occasional lack of water supplies and ubiquitous illegal activities.
Albania and Croatia have discussed the possibility to jointly build a nuclear power plant at Lake
ShkoderShkodër , is a city located on Lake Shkodër in northwestern Albania in the District of Shkodër, of which it is the capital. It is one of the oldest and most historic towns in Albania, as well as an important cultural and economic centre...
, close to the border with Montenegro, a plan that has gathered criticism from the latter due to seismicity in the area. In addition, there is some doubt wether Albania would be able to finance a project of such a scale with a total national budget of less than $ 5 billion. However, in February 2009 Italian company
EnelEnel may refer to:*Enel SpA, an Italian electricity company*Enel , a fictional villain in the One Piece manga and anime series*Enel, meaning third in the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, cf. Awakening of the Elves...
announced plans to build an 800 MW
coalCoal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
-fired power plant in Albania, in order to diversify electricity sources. Nearly 100% of the electricity is generated by ageing hydroelectric power plants, which are becoming more ineffective due to increasing droughts.
The country has some deposits of
petroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
and
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
, but produces only 6,425 barrels of oil per day. Natural gas production, estimated at about 30 million cubic meters, is sufficient to meet consumer demands. Other natural resources include coal,
bauxiteBauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al
3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO
2...
,
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
and
iron oreIron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red. The iron itself is usually found in the form of magnetite , hematite , goethite, limonite or...
.
AgricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
is the most significant sector, employing some 58% of the labor force and generating about 21% of GDP. Albania produces significant amounts of
wheatWheat is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
,
cornCorn is the term for the most common cereal crop of a region. By region, it is* Maize * Wheat * Barley* Oat * Rye- People :...
,
tobaccoTobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or...
,
figsFIGS is an acronym for French, Italian, German, Spanish. These are usually the first four languages chosen to localize products into when a company enters the European market....
(13th largest producer in the world) and olives.
Transport
In the early 1990s, the rock-strewn roadways, unstable rail lines, and obsolete telephone network crisscrossing Albania represented the remnants of the marked improvements that were made after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Enver Hoxha' was the Communist leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...
's xenophobia and lust for control had kept Albania isolated, however, as the communications revolution transformed the wider world into a global village. Even internal travel amounted to something of a luxury for many Albanians during communism's ascendancy.
Highways
Currently the major cities of the country are linked with first class national roads. There is a four lane highway connecting the city of Durrës with Tirana and the city of Durrës with the city of Lushnje. Albania is partaking in the construction of what it sees as three major corridors of transportation. The major priority as of present is the construction of the four lane
Durrës-Pristina highwayThe Albania-Kosovo Highway is a highway that is currently being built between Albania and Kosovo. It is the first highway that connects Albania and Kosovo. Two lanes in both directions result in a total of four lanes throughout the length of the highway. It's often seen that this highway...
which will link
KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
with Albania's Adriatic coast. The portion of the highway which links Albania's north east border with Kosovo was completed in June 2009, as a result, cutting the time it takes to get from Kosovo to Durrës from six hours to two. Indeed the roads in northwestern Albania remain in poor condition as of summer 2009. It takes approximately 1H30 to drive the from the border of Montenegro to Shkodër. It is also worth noting that there are no road signs and no traffic lights within and around this city. The second priority is the construction of European corridor 8 linking Albania with the Republic of Macedonia and Greece. The third priority for the government is the construction of the north-south axis of the country; it is sometimes referred to as the
Adriatic–Ionian motorwayAdriatic–Ionian motorway is a future motorway that will stretch along the entire eastern shore of Adriatic and Ionian seas, spanning the western border of the Balkan peninsula.-Overview:...
as it is part of a larger regional highway connecting Croatia with Greece along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts. By the end of the decade it is expected that the majority of the sections of these three corridors will have been built. When all three corridors are completed Albania will have an estimated 759 kilometers of highway linking it with its neighbors.
Airways
In 1977 Albania's government signed an agreement with Greece, opening the country's first air links with non-communist Europe. As a result,
Olympic AirwaysOlympic Airlines was the flag carrier airline of Greece, based in Athens. It operated services to 37 domestic destinations and to 32 destinations world-wide. Its main base was at Athens International Airport, with hubs at Thessaloniki International Airport, "Macedonia" and Rhodes International...
was the first non-communist airline to fly into Albania. By 1991
TiranaTirana is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania. It was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha and became Albania's capital city in 1920. The Municipality of Tirana lies on the river Ishëm, about inland and is located at in Tirana District, Tirana County...
had air links with many major European cities, including
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
,
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
,
ZürichZürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne...
,
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, and
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
. Tirana was served by a small airport, Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza, located twenty-eight kilometers from the capital at the village of
RinasRinas is a village in the county of Durrës, Albania, about 25 km Northwest of the capital, Tirana. It is the site of Tirana International Airport....
. Albania had no regular domestic air service. A Franco-Albanian joint venture launched Albania's first private airline,
Ada AirAda Air Sh. p.k. was a regional airline based in Tirana, Albania. It operated scheduled services from Albania to Bari, Italy, and overnight freight services for DHL. Its main base was Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza...
, in 1991. The company offered flights in a thirty-six-passenger airplane four days each week between Tirana and
BariBari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, and a charter service for domestic and international destinations.
As of 2007 Albania has one international airport: Tirana International Airport Nënë Tereza. The airport is linked to 29 destinations by 14 airlines. It has seen a dramatic rise in terms of passenger numbers and aircraft movements since the early 1990s. In September 2009 it served 1.8 million passengers and had 44 landings and takeoffs per day.
Railway
The railway system was extensively promoted by the
totalitarianTotalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
regime of
Enver Hoxha' was the Communist leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...
, during which time the use of private transport was effectively prohibited. Since the collapse of the former regime, there has been a considerable increase in car ownership and
busA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. A bus seats a maximum of 8 to 300 passengers...
usage. Whilst some of the country's roads are still in a very poor condition, there have been other developments (such as the construction of a
motorwayThe OECD has defined a motorway as:Motorways are identical to freeways as a road type, and comparable to the United States's Interstate Highways as a classification....
between Tirana and Durrës) which have taken much traffic away from the railways. The railways in Albania are administered by the national railway company
Hekurudha Shqiptare (HSH) (which means
Albanian Railways). It operates a gauge (standard gauge) rail system in Albania. All trains are hauled by
CzechThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
-built
ČKDComplete Knock Down , is a complete kit needed to assemble a motor vehicle. It is a common practice within the automotive industry, as well as bus and rail vehicle manufacturers, to sell 'knocked down kits' to their foreign affiliates in order to avoid high import taxes and/or receive tax...
diesel-electric locomotives.
Durrës–Kukës–Morine Highway (Albania to Kosovo)
There has been much discussion, debate and interest in this small section of Albanian highway, which is intended to create a new, super-fast connection between Durrës on the Adriatic coast to Morine at the border of Kosovo.
The current drive time between Kukës and Durrës is 6–7 hours, but once the new highway is completed the drive time will only be 2 hours. The expected completion is the end of 2009. The whole road will be around , when completed to Pristina.
The objective for constructing the road, according to the transport ministry, is to reduce transport costs and accidents, and improve traffic flow. It is the biggest, most expensive infrastructure project undertaken in Albania.
There has been much controversy and scandal surrounding this project as well, due to the spiralling cost of construction leading to various corruption allegations. Originally the highway was forecast to cost around EUR400 million, and now the cost appears to have breached EUR800 million, although the exact cost for the total highway has yet to be confirmed by the government.
The Morine to Pristina section is expected to start construction Spring 2009.
Currently there is a display in Tirana’s centre on Bvld Dëshmorët e Kombit.
Demographics
The Albanian population is considered a very young population, with an average age of 28.9 years. After 1990 the Albanian population has
faced new phenomena like migration, which greatly affected the distribution by districts and prefectures. Districts in the North have seen a decreasing population, while
TiranaTirana is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania. It was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha and became Albania's capital city in 1920. The Municipality of Tirana lies on the river Ishëm, about inland and is located at in Tirana District, Tirana County...
and
DurrësDurrës is the second-largest city of Albania. It is the most ancient and one of the most economically important cities of Albania. It is located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian...
districts have increased their population. Albania's population was 3,152,600 on 1 January 2007 and 3,170,048 on 1 January 2008. Alternative sources estimate the population in July 2009 at 3,639,453 with an annual growth rate of 0.546%. Albania is a largely ethnically homogeneous country with only small minorities. The vast majority of the population is ethnically
AlbanianAlbanians are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
(98.6%). Minorities include
GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
1.17% and others 0.23% (
VlachsVlachs or Walachians is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe...
,
MacedoniansThe Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs are a South Slavic people who are primarily associated with the Republic of Macedonia. They speak the Macedonian language, a South Slavic language...
, Roma,
BulgariansThe Bulgarians are a South Slavic people, generally associated with the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language. Emigration has resulted in Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-Ethnogenesis:...
, Balkan Egyptians,
SerbsSerbs are a South Slavic people living in the Central Europe and the Balkans , between the Balkan- and Carpathian mountains in the east and the Adriatic sea in the west. They are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia...
). The size of the Greek minority is contentious, with the Albanian government claiming it is only 60,000, while the Greek government is claiming 300,000. CIA Factbook gives the Greek minority 3% of the total population.
The dominant language is
AlbanianAlbanian is a unique Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by native enclaves...
, with two main dialects, Gheg and
ToskTosk is the southern dialect of the Albanian language. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg is the Shkumbin River. Tosk is the basis of the standard Albanian language.- Tosks :...
. Many Albanians are also fluent in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
,
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
,
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
or
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
.
KuçovëThe District of Kuçovë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Berat County. It has a population of 35,000 , and an area of 112 km². It is in the centre of the country, and its capital is Kuçovë.-Description:...
SkraparThe District of Skrapar is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Berat County. It has a population of 30,000 , and an area of 775 km². It is in the centre of the country, and its capital is Çorovodë....
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DibërThe County of Dibër is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Bulqizë, Dibër, and Mat and its capital is Peshkopi.Dibër is known for its resistance against the Turks. Today’s Dibër is divided by the Albanian-Macedonian border...
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PeshkopiPeshkopi is a city in northeast Albania, in the district and county of Dibër, 187km from Tirana and 20km from the Macedonian border. It is situated at 41°40'N and 20°25'. It sits 2136 feet above sea level. In the 2004 census, there were approximately 14,100 residents...
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BulqizëThe District of Bulqizë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Dibër County. It has a population of 43,000 , and an area of 718 km². It is in the east of the country, and its capital is Bulqizë....
DibërThe District of Dibër is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Dibër County. It has a population of 86,000 , and an area of 761 km². It is in the north-east of the country, and its capital is Peshkopi....
MatThe District of Mat is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Dibër County. It is named after the Mat River, that flows through the district. It has a population of 98,000 , and an area of 1,028 km². Its capital is Burrel...
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DurrësThe County of Durrës is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Durrës and Krujë and its capital is Durrës. The city is half an hour away from Tirana. It is the largest sea port of Albania....
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DurrësDurrës is the second-largest city of Albania. It is the most ancient and one of the most economically important cities of Albania. It is located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian...
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DurrësThe District of Durrës is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Durrës County. It has a population of 182,000 , and an area of 455 km². It is in the west of the country, and its capital is Durrës. The district consists of the following municipalities:*Durrës*Gjepalaj*Ishëm*Katund i...
KrujëThe District of Krujë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Durrës County. It has a population of 64,000 , and an area of 372 km². It is in the centre of the country, and its capital is Krujë. The district consists of the following...
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ElbasanThe County of Elbasan is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Elbasan, Gramsh, Librazhd and Peqin and its capital is Elbasan....
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ElbasanElbasan is a city in central Albania. It is located on the Shkumbin River in the District of Elbasan and the County of Elbasan, at...
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ElbasanThe District of Elbasan is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Elbasan County. It has a population of 224,000 , and an area of 1,290 km². It is in the centre of the country, and its capital is Elbasan...
GramshThe District of Gramsh is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Elbasan County. It has a population of 36,000 , and an area of 695 km². It is in the centre of the country, and its capital is Gramsh. The district consists of the following...
LibrazhdThe District of Librazhd is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Elbasan County. It has a population of 84,000 , and an area of . It is in the east of the country, and its capital and administrative center is Librazhd....
PeqinThe District of Peqin is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Elbasan County. It has a population of 33,000 , and an area of 191 km². It is in the centre of the country, and its capital is Peqin....
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FierThe County of Fier is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Fier, Lushnjë and Mallakastër and its capital is Fier. County of Fier has a population of about 480,000 ....
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FierFieri is a city in southwest Albania, in the district and county of the same name. It is located at , and has a population of 82,297 . Fier is from the ruins of the ancient Corinthian city of Apollonia.-History :...
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FierThe District of Fier is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Fier County. It has a population of 480,000 , and an area of 850 km². It is in the south-west of the country, and its capital is Fier...
LushnjëThe District of Lushnjë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Fier County. It has a population of 143,000 , and an area of 712 km². It is in the west of the country and 80 km south of Tirana. Its capital is Lushnjë...
MallakastërThe District of Mallakastër is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Fier County. It has a population of 40,000 , and an area of 325 km². It is in the south of the country, and its capital is Ballsh. The district consists of the following...
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GjirokastërThe County of Gjirokastër is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Gjirokastër, Përmet, and Tepelenë and its capital is Gjirokastër. Its population includes a substantial Greek minority . To the southeast, Gjirokastër shares a border with Greece...
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GjirokastërGjirokastër or Gjirokastra , is a city in southern Albania with a population of around 34,000. Lying in the historical region of Epirus, it is also the capital of both the Gjirokastër District and the larger Gjirokastër County...
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GjirokastërThe District of Gjirokastër is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania. It has a population of 156,000 containing a large Greek minority , and an area of 1,137 km². It is in the south of the country, and its capital is Gjirokastër...
PërmetThe District of Përmet is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Gjirokastër County. Its population of 26,000 includes Aromanian minorities. The post-Communist era has seen a revival of the Albanian Orthodox church and Muslim sects. Protestant and other western Christian groups have...
TepelenëThe District of Tepelenë The District of Tepelenë The District of Tepelenë (Albanian: Rrethi i Tepelenës, is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Gjirokastër County. It has a population of 32,000 (2004 estimate), and an area of 817 km². It is in the south of the country, and its...
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KorçëThe County of Korçë is one of the 12 counties of Albania, located in the eastern part of the country. It consists of the districts Devoll, Kolonjë, Korçë and Pogradec and its capital is Korçë....
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KorçëKorçë is a city in southeastern Albania and the capital of the Korçë District. It has a population of around 57,758 people , making it the seventh largest city in Albania...
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DevollThe District of Devoll is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Korçë County and derives its name from the Devoll river flowing through the valley. It has a population of 35,000 , and an area of 429 km². It is in the southeastern corner of the country, and its capital is Bilisht...
KolonjëThe District of Kolonjë , is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Korçë County. It has a population of 17,000 . The district has an area of 805 km². It is in the south-east of the country, and its capital is Ersekë. Other towns in this district include Leskovik to the south...
KorçëThe District of Korçë , is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania. According to the latest census of 1989, 215,221 people lived in the Korce District...
PogradecThe District of Pogradec is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Korçë County. It has a population of 71,000 , and an area of 725 km². It is in the east of the country, and its capital is Pogradec...
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KukësThe County of Kukës is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Has, Kukës and Tropojë and its capital is Kukës....
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KukësKukës is a town in Albania located at 42.09°N, 20.43°E in the district and county with the same name. It has a population of about 16,000 . The town is set among the mountains of northern Albania. It is famous for its role during the Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s, when it accepted more than...
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HasThe District of Has is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania and one of the smallest. It has a population of 22,500 , and an area of . It is in the north-east of the country, part of Kukës County, and its capital is Krumë...
KukësThe District of Kukës is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Kukës County. It has a population of 64,000 , and an area of 956 km². It is in the north-east of the country, and its capital is Kukës...
TropojëThe District of Tropojë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Kukës County. It has a population of 28,000 , and an area of 1,043 km². It is in the north of the country, and its capital is Bajram Curri. The district consists of the following municipalities:*Bajram...
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LezhëThe County of Lezhë is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Kurbin, Lezhë and Mirditë and its capital is Lezhë.Lezhë has a small western shoreline on the Adriatic Sea. On land, it borders the following counties:...
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LezhëLezhë is a city in northwest Albania, in the district and county with the same name. It is located at 41.79°N 19.65°E and has a population of about 17,000 .-History:Lezhë was also known as Alessio...
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KurbinThe District of Kurbin is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Lezhë County. It has a population of 54,000 , and an area of 235 km². It is in the west of the country, and its capital is Laç. The district consists of the following municipalities:*Fushë-Kuqe*Laç*Mamurras*Milot...
LezhëThe District of Lezhë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Lezhë County. It has a population of 68,000 , and an area of 479 km². It is in the north-west of the country, and its capital is Lezhë. Other places in this district include Shëngjin.Lezha is located in north Albania and...
MirditëThe District of Mirditë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Lezhë County. It has a population of 37,000 , and an area of 867 km². It is in the north of the country, and its capital is Rrëshen. The district consists of the following...
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ShkodërShkodër County is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Malësi e Madhe, Pukë and Shkodër. The capital of the county of Shkodër is the city of Shkodër....
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Malësi e MadheThe Malësi e Madhe District is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Shkodër County. It has a population of 37,000 , and an area of 897 km². It is in the north of the country, and its capital is Koplik. The district consists of the following...
PukëThe District of Pukë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Shkodër County. It has a population of 34,000 , and an area of 1,034 km²....
ShkodërThe District of Shkodër is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Shkodër County. It has a population of 185,000 , and an area of 1,631 km². It is in the north of the country, and its capital is Shkodër...
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TiranaTirana is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Albania. It was founded in 1614 by Sulejman Pasha and became Albania's capital city in 1920. The Municipality of Tirana lies on the river Ishëm, about inland and is located at in Tirana District, Tirana County...
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KavajëThe District of Kavajë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Tirana County. It has a population of 105,000 , and an area of 393 km². It is in the west of the country, and its capital is Kavajë. The district consists of the following...
Tirana
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VlorëThe County of Vlorë is one of the 12 counties of Albania. It consists of the districts Delvinë, Sarandë and Vlorë and its capital is Vlorë....
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VlorëVlorë or Vlora is the second largest port city of Albania, after Durrës, with a population of about 94,000 .-Names:...
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DelvinëThe District of Delvinë or District of Delvina is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Vlorë County. Its population of 11,000 includes a substantial Greek community . The district has area of 367 km². It is in the south of the country, and its capital is Delvinë...
SarandëThe District of Sarandë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, found in southern Albania, in the County of Vlorë.The area of the district is 730 square kilometers. According to the 2004 census, the population of the district is 40,200. According to the census of January 1993, it was...
VlorëThe District of Vlorë is one of the thirty-six districts of Albania, part of Vlorë County. Its population of 147,000 . The district has a land area of 1,609 km². It is in the south-west of the country, and its capital is Vlorë. Its population includes a Greek minority...
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Sport
Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Albania, both at a participatory and spectator level. The sport is governed by the
Football Association of AlbaniaThe Football Association of Albania is the governing body of football in Albania. It organizes the football's the league Albanian Superliga, Albania national football team, and Albania national under-21 football team and is based in Tirana....
(
AlbanianAlbanian is a unique Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by native enclaves...
:
Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit, F.SH.F.).
- Albania national football team
The Albania national football team is the national football team of Albania and is controlled by the Football Association of Albania. Although not considered as one of the strongest footballing sides in Europe, Albanians are passionate about their football and the national team has occasionally...
- Albania national basketball team
The Albania national basketball team is the basketball side that represents Albania in international competitions.-Current squad of Albanian National Team 2009:-History:...
- Albania national futsal team
The Albanian national futsal team represents Albania in international futsal competitions and is controlled by the Albanian Football Federation. The team debuted in the 2005 UEFA Futsal Championship. They won the first match 8–6 against England, and they drew to Cyprus, but failed to qualify...
- Albania national under-21 football team
The Albania national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Albania and is controlled by the Football Association of Albania...
Entertainment
Radio Televizioni Shqiptar, (RTSH), is Albania's leading television network. RTSH runs a national
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
station
TVSH, (standing for
Televizioni Shqiptar), and two national radio stations, using the name
Radio Tirana. An international service broadcasts radio programmes in Albanian and seven other languages via medium wave (AM) and short wave (SW). The international service has used the theme from the song "Keputa një gjethe dafine" as its signature tune. Since 1999, RTSH has been a member of the
European Broadcasting UnionThe European Broadcasting Union is a confederation of 75 broadcasting organisations from 56 countries, and 43 associate broadcasters from a further 25. It is unrelated to the European Union. Members are radio and television companies, most of which are government-owned public service broadcasters...
. Since 1993, RTSH has also run an international television service via
satelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
, aimed at
Albanian languageAlbanian is a unique Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by native enclaves...
communities in
KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
,
MacedoniaMacedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country in the central Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
,
MontenegroMontenegro , is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the south...
and
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
, plus the Albanian
diasporaA diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
in the rest of
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
According the National Council of Radio and Television Albania has an estimated 257 media outlets, including 66 radio stations and 65 television stations, with 3 national and 62 local stations.
Health
Health care has been in a steep decline after the collapse of socialism in the country, but a process of modernization takes place since the year 2000. As of the early 2000s, there were 51 hospitals in the country, including a military hospital and specialist facilities. Albania has successfully annihilated diseases such as
malariaMalaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by a eukaryotic protist of the genus Plasmodium. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year, there are approximately 350–500 million cases of malaria, killing between one and...
.
Life expectancy is estimated at 77.43 years, ranking 51st worldwide, and outperforming a number of European Union countries, such as
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
and the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
.
The medical school, Faculty of Medicine at Tirana University, is in Tirana. There are also nursing schools in many other cities.
The diseases of the circulation system occupy the first place and deaths due to neoplasm diseases occupy the second place based on death’s form in the structure of general mortality.
Cuisine
The cuisine of Albania- as with most Mediterranean and
BalkanThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
nations, is strongly influenced by its long history. At different times, the territory of Albania has been occupied by
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
and the Ottoman Turks, and each group has left its mark on Albanian cuisine. The main meal of the
AlbaniansAlbanians are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
is lunch, and it is usually accompanied by a
saladSalad is any of a wide variety of dishes including: green salads; vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They include a mixture of cold or hot foods, often including raw vegetables and/or fruits.Green salads...
of fresh vegetables, such as
tomatoThe tomato is a herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family that is typically cultivated for the purpose of harvesting its fruit for human consumption...
es,
cucumberThe cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, and in the same genus as the muskmelon.- Botany :...
s, green
peppersBell pepper is a cultivar group of the species Capsicum annuum. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, green and orange. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent pepper varieties as "sweet peppers". Peppers are native to Mexico, Central America...
, and
oliveThe Olive is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea...
s with
olive oilOlive oil is a fruit oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The wild olive tree originated in Asia Minor and spread from there as far as southern Africa, Australia, Japan and China. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and...
,
vinegarVinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid. It also may come in a diluted form. The acetic acid concentration typically ranges from 4 to 8 percent by volume for table vinegar and higher concentrations for pickling...
and
saltA salt, in chemistry, is an ionic compound, and can result from the neutralization reaction of acids and bases. Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
. Lunch also includes a main dish of vegetables and meat. Seafood specialties are also common in the coastal areas of
DurrësDurrës is the second-largest city of Albania. It is the most ancient and one of the most economically important cities of Albania. It is located on the central Albanian coast, about west of the capital Tirana. It is situated at one of the narrower points of the Adriatic Sea, opposite the Italian...
,
VlorëVlorë or Vlora is the second largest port city of Albania, after Durrës, with a population of about 94,000 .-Names:...
and
SarandëSarandë or Saranda is the capital of the District of Sarandë, Albania, and is one of the most important tourist attractions of the Albanian Riviera. It is situated on an open sea gulf of the Ionian Sea in the Mediterranean, 2 nautical miles from the Greek island of Corfu. The city of Saranda has...
. It has long been Albanian tradition that the coordinator of a social gathering, also known as Papi Muejer, purchase the first round at a local bar for all those in attendance.
International rankings
Demographic
- Population ranked 133 out of 221 countries
- CIA World Factbook: Life expectancy ranked 50 out of 221 countries
- CIA World Factbook 2008: infant mortality rate ranked 112 highest infant mortality
Infant mortality is defined as the number of infant deaths per 1000 live births. The most common cause worldwide has traditionally been due to dehydration from diarrhea...
rate out of 222 countries
- United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. The UNDP is an executive board within the United Nations General Assembly...
: literacy rate ranked 45 out of 177 countries
Environmental
- Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
: Environmental Sustainability IndexThe Environmental Sustainability Index ' is a composite index tracking 21 elements of environmental sustainability covering natural resource endowments, past and present pollution levels, environmental management efforts, contributions to protection of the global commons, and a society's capacity...
2005, ranked 24 out of 146 countries
Economic
- The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, it has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000...
and the Heritage FoundationThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
: Index of Economic FreedomThe Index of Economic Freedom is a series of 10 economic measurements created by the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal. Its stated objective is to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations.- History :...
2006, ranked 52 out of 157 countries
- International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by following the macroeconomic policies of its member countries, in particular those with an impact on exchange rates and the balance of payments...
: GDP (nominal) per capita 2006, ranked 95 out of 182 countries
- International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by following the macroeconomic policies of its member countries, in particular those with an impact on exchange rates and the balance of payments...
: GDP (nominal) 2006, ranked 111 out of 181 countries
- World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world...
: Global Competitiveness Index 2006-2007, ranked 98 out of 125 countries
- World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides leveraged loans to poorer countries for capital programs, tied to neoliberal market restructurings...
: Ease of Doing Business IndexThe Ease of Doing Business Index is an index created by the World Bank. Higher rankings indicate better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights...
2008 report, ranked 136 out of 178 countries
- United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
: Human Development Index 2006, ranked 73 out of 177 countries
- Foreign exchange reserves as of December 2007 ranked 112 out of 156 countries
See also
External links
Government
General information
- Albania information from the United States Department of State
The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc. in other countries...
- Albania from UCB Libraries GovPubs
- Albania national profile from the Association of Religion Data Archives
The Association of Religion Data Archives is a free source of online information related to American and international religion. Founded as the American Religion Data Archive in 1997, and online since 1998, the archive was initially targeted at researchers interested in American religion...
Tourism
Other