History of Albania
The history of Albania deals with the events and developments on the territory of the Republic of Albania from prehistory to the present, as well as on the regions outside of the nation state inhabited by (ethnic) Albanians until 1912.
prehistory
The first traces of human settlement in what is now Albania date from the Paleolithic Age . The finds from Xarra south of Saranda and Gajtan east of Shkodra are assigned an age of up to 100,000 years. For the period from about 30,000 to 10,000 BC. Around a dozen settlements have been identified. Significant finds from the Mesolithic period were made in the Konispol Cave .
The finds from the Neolithic Age are very numerous . The people now settled down . In Korçë District were at Dunavec and Maliq larger settlements in the style of stilt houses found. Settlements have also been found at Cakran . Numerous ceramic finds also date from this period .
In 2012, Albanian and American archaeologists discovered in Vashtëmija north of Korça remains from the European beginnings of animal husbandry and agriculture. The finds date to around 6500 BC. BC and included cereal grains ( einkorn and barley ) as well as numerous bones of farm animals (wild boar, rabbits, turtles, eels and fish).
Copper ore was also mined in Albania during the Copper Age . The first fortifications were built in the Bronze Age and are believed to have been built by the Indo-European Proto-Illyrians.
Northern Albania became a center for iron ore mining during the Iron Age , which also promoted the supra-regional exchange of goods. The now throughout Albania (except in the South, where they face the Greeks were mixed) settled Illyrians were building ever larger attachments, and - as a new burial rituals - numerous tumuli , whose most important ones of Pazhok ( Elbasan District ), Barça (Korçë District) and Piskova ( Përmet district ). The oldest cave paintings in Albania (near Tren , Devoll district ), which were also created in the Iron Age, come from the region of the Little Prespa Lake .
Antiquity
In ancient times the western Balkan Peninsula and thus also the area of today's Albania was populated by Illyrian tribes . They founded numerous cities in the interior such as Antigoneia , Amantia , Byllis , Nikaia , Gurëzeza and Zgërdhesh . The relationship of the ancient Illyrians to today's Albanians is controversial among historians and scholars. Since the 6th century BC Greek colonies arose on the Albanian coast . Thus, for example, the cities of Lezha ( ancient Greek Λισσός LISSOS ), Durres ( ancient Greek Ἐπίδαμνος Epidamnos later Δυρράχιον Dyrrachion ), Apollonia ( Ancient Greek Ἀπολλωνία Apollonía ) and Butrint ( Ancient Greek Βουθρωτόν Bouthrotón ) foundations of Greek colonists. Since the 5th century BC Some Illyrian tribal princes succeeded in founding short-lived empires, which for the most part quickly disintegrated after the death of the respective potentate. 250 to 230 BC King Agron ruled over an extensive empire from Epirus in the south to Dalmatia in the north. Teuta followed him as Queen of the Illyrians (230 to 228 BC). They relied on their own fleet, whose raids endangered the trade of the Roman Republic . The Romans wanted to eliminate this danger and therefore began with the expansion into Illyria .
229 and 228 BC It came to the first of two Roman-Illyrian Wars , as a result of which the cities of Apollonia and Epidamnos ( Latin Dyrrhachium ) in southern and central Albania became a Roman protectorate. The complete integration of Illyria into the Roman Empire was only completed under Emperor Augustus (reign: 30 BC to 14 AD). 27 BC The province of Illyricum is established with the inclusion of Dalmatia and Pannonia .
The Christianity spread very early in Albania. The Apostle Paul has his own words gospel brought unto Illyricum ( Rom 15:19 EU ) and Apollos to by early church tradition bishop in Dyrrachion (Hellenized form of Dyrrhachium been) be. As has been proven archaeologically, Christian sacred buildings have existed since the 4th century. Than 395 the Roman Empire into a Western (Latin) and eastern (Greek) half was divided , the northern part of Albania became part of the Western Empire , the south by the Eastern Empire (Byzantine Empire) . Therefore, among the Christian denominations, the Roman Catholic is the dominant one in northern Albania to this day , while the Orthodox one in the south .
middle age
| Chronology Middle Ages | |
|---|---|
| after 600 | Advance and settlement of the Slavs |
| about 830 | Establishment of the Byzantine theme of Dyrrhachion |
| approx. 880-1014 | Central and southern Albania part of the Bulgarian Empire |
| 1081 | The Normans invade Albania, which is under Byzantine rule |
| 1190-1216 | Principality of Arbanon in central Albania |
| 1204 |
Fourth crusade , collapse of the Byzantine Empire. The despotate of Epirus takes its place in Albania. |
| 1267-1272 |
Charles I of Anjou , King of Naples , conquered parts of Epirus and Durrës. He's called Rex Albaniae . |
| approx. 1345-1355 | Albania is part of the Serbian Empire under Tsar Stefan Dušan . |
| 1359-1388 | Principality of Karl Thopias ( Princeps Albaniae ) in central Albania |
| 1360-1421 | Principality of Ballsha / Balšić in northern Albania and Montenegro |
| 1385 | Battle of Savra in Myzeqe : Karl Thopia defeats Balša II with Ottoman help , Ottoman troops in Albania for the first time. |
| 1417 |
Vlora , Kanina , Berat and Gjirokastra for the first time under Ottoman rule |
| 1443-1468 |
Skanderbeg , Prince of Kruja and leader of the League of Lezha , successfully resisted the Ottomans for 25 years. |
| 1479 | The Venetians give up Lezha and Shkodra , all of Albania for over 400 years under Ottoman rule. |
After the fall of the Roman Empire, what is now Albania belonged to the Byzantine Empire. At the end of the Great Migration , Slavs also settled in large parts of the country . Numerous Slavic place names remind of it to this day. Central and southern Albania were part of the Bulgarian Empire from the end of the 9th century . From Ohrid (now in North Macedonia ) the Bulgarian church organization was expanded to the west. The diocese of Berat was established as a suffragan of Ohrid in the 10th century.
Between 980 and 1014 the Albanian territories were gradually recaptured by the Byzantines. Since the end of the 11th century, several military expeditions by southern Italian Norman armies led towards Thessaloniki through Albania. On October 18, 1081 Robert Guiskard defeated the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenus in the battle of Dyrrhachion. The Normans could not hold their ground on the Albanian coast in the long term. After an invasion by Bohemond of Tarents failed in 1107 , the Albanian territories remained firmly integrated into the Byzantine Empire until the end of the 12th century. The administrative center of this topic was the port city of Dyrrhachion (today Durrës).
In 1190 Progon, the Archon of Kruja , managed to make his administrative district independent from the Byzantines. For the first time, an Albanian nobleman founded his own principality. This principality, named Arbanon in the Byzantine sources, existed until 1216; In that year it was conquered by the Epirotian despot Theodoros I Angelos .
As a result of the Fourth Crusade (1204), Byzantine rule also collapsed in Albania. It split up into numerous small principalities or was temporarily ruled by foreign powers (Bulgaria, Serbia, Kingdom of Naples, Epirus, Venice ). In 1257 , Manfred of Sicily got Durrës, Vlora and Berat into his possession through his marriage to Helena of Epirus . After Manfred's death and the capture of the Queen (1266), Filippo Chinardo, administrator of the Albanian dowry, continued to hold these areas for Helena, along with the local nobility. Michael II of Epirus had Chinardo murdered, but could not prevail against his entourage. The knighthood kept the territories as well as Corfu and chose Garnier l'Aleman as regent.
In the long run, however, the resistance to Epirus was hopeless. Therefore, in 1267, l'Aleman became a feudal man of Charles I of Anjou , the new king of Naples. After Karl had secured his royal power in Italy , he began to conquer Albania based on the fiefdom. In 1272 he received homage from the local nobility and the local Franconian knights and thus founded a short-lived Regnum Albaniae , which included the coastal areas from Durrës to Vlora. Albania was only intended to serve Karl as a starting point for further expansion in the Balkans . The real destination was Constantinople . After Constantinople was retaken by the Byzantine troops (1261), Emperor Michael VIII went on the offensive in the west as well. It was thus possible to largely drive the Anjou out of Romania (1281), and Byzantium ruled over parts of Albania for the last time.
From 1343 to 1347 the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan was able to annex the area of today's Albania to his empire. Soon after his death in 1355, the local princes regained their independence. In the 14th century, the local Prince Karl Thopia was able to create a larger area of rule. From 1392, Venice secured rule over various places and interfered in internal disputes and the defense against the invading Ottomans . At the beginning of the 15th century, the noble family Ballsha / Balšić was important.
The ethnogenesis of the Albanian people took place during the confusing balance of power in the High and Late Middle Ages . This process has been little researched and its course is controversial among historians. The Albanian ethnic group seems to have originated either in the central and northern Albanian mountain landscapes or further north-east in what is now southern Serbia . It was a pastoral culture (in summer in the mountains, in winter in the coastal plains). This mobility seems to have favored the spread of the Albanians and their language in the Middle Ages. In any case, they are documented in large numbers in Thessaly as early as the 14th century . At the same time, they were the largest ethnic group in much of what is now Albania, as well as parts of Kosovo and Epirus .
In the middle of the 15th century, Prince Skanderbeg from Kruja succeeded in uniting the Albanians in a defensive battle against the Ottomans, which was at times successful. Under his leadership, Albanian and Montenegrin princes formed the League of Lezha . Skanderbeg was also at war with the Venetians in 1447/48. Although the Pope called him Athleta Christi because of the fight against the Ottomans , the Prince of Kruja tried unsuccessfully to establish solid alliances with the powers of the West. So the Albanians were largely left to fend for themselves in the fight against the Ottomans. Even today, Skanderbeg is considered a national hero by the Albanians .
Ottoman rule
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At the end of the 14th century, the Ottoman troops penetrated the Albanian-settled countries for the first time. The Ottoman conquest of these areas took place in stages and was only completed decades later. The principalities and feudal lords in Epirus and southern Albania had to recognize the supremacy of the sultan at the beginning of the 15th century. Vlora and Berat were conquered in 1417, Ioannina (Alb. Janina ) followed in 1430. Only a few years after the death of Skanderbeg the Turks were able to occupy northern Albania in 1478/79. They then ruled the country for more than 400 years. The long defensive battles, and then the temporary interruption of trade relations with Italy and the rest of Europe, damaged economic and cultural development. Shkodra , the old center of Northern Albania, fell into disrepair and only regained importance in the 17th century.
Large sections of the population converted to Islam , partly out of conviction, partly under duress, partly motivated by social and economic incentives . By the 17th century at the latest, the Muslims were in the majority. Along with the Bosniaks , the Albanians were the only Balkan people who adopted the beliefs of the Ottoman conquerors. As a result, quite a few Albanians made careers in the Ottoman administration and in the army and gained positions that were closed to the Christian subjects of the sultan.
As in many peripheral regions of the empire, the sultan exercised rule over Albania primarily indirectly. The central Ottoman authorities expected tax payments and military services from the subjects in the first place; In Albania, as elsewhere, the order of internal affairs was largely left to the local elite. During the 15th century were after their main places mentioned in the Albanian-populated countries Sandschaks İşkodra , Durac , Elbasan , Avlonya , Delvine , Yanya , Görice , Manastır , Debre , Üsküp , Prizren , pristine and İpek built. This administrative organization served primarily to recruit and supply the Sipahis . The first Sandschak- Beys came from leading families in the region. It was normally customary in the Ottoman administrative system to reappoint the Sanjak-Beys annually or to replace them if they failed. In Albania this office became de facto hereditary. With a few exceptions, the Beys always came from the same families. In this way, the feudal conditions as they had existed in medieval Albania were preserved in the Ottoman period. During the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent (1520–1566), Defter (tax registers) were created for all Albanian sanjaks . There had been no general surveys since the 17th century and taxes were leased to private collectors.
Some relatively inaccessible areas were practically out of control for the Turks. These included the Mirdita , the Mati area , the Dibra region , the Dukagjin and Malësia landscapes and , in the south, the Himara region . The Beys received only a symbolic tribute from these areas. The northern mountain regions persisted in archaic tribal traditions and adhered to their own custom , the Kanun , until the 20th century . Also between the pastures in the Pindos back on the coast and the winter pastures and herziehenden Vlachs enjoyed a high degree of autonomy.
Economically, the Albanian countries were almost insignificant in the structure of the Ottoman Empire. The farmers operated subsistence farming and did not produce for the supra-regional market. By and large, the latter also applied to urban handicrafts. Only in trade could some Albanian cities play a greater role. An important export item was salt , which had been exported to Venice as early as the Middle Ages. In the 18th century the export of wool and grain gained importance. At the same time a number of merchants in Albania succeeded in profiting from the revival of long-distance trade between Europe and Turkey . The rise of the trading town of Voskopoja was one of the consequences. Merchants traveled from there to Venice and Vienna . Other supraregional markets in or on the edge of the Albanian countries were Shkodra and Prizren for the north, Elbasan and Berat for the center and Bitola (Alb. Manastir ) and Ioannina ( Janina ) for the south of the country.
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ottoman Empire was in deep crisis and the central power lost control in many peripheral provinces. In southern Albania, the Albanian Pasha Ali of Tepelena tried to establish rule independent of the sultan. The Bushati family also created a semi-autonomous area in the Shkodra region at the end of the 18th century, which the Sublime Porte did not regain control over until the 1820s.
The Tanzimat reforms (1839–1856), which were supposed to bring about a modernization of the Ottoman state, met with a lot of resistance in the Albanian countries. Above all, many Muslims who were against the legal equality of Christian subjects, but also the autonomous north Albanian tribal associations, which should be obliged to pay regular taxes, opposed the intended innovations. As a result of administrative reforms, the Sandschak-Beys finally lost their quasi-hereditary position of power, because from now on such posts were to be awarded according to suitability and training. In 1847 some of the degraded Beys led their clientele into the armed uprising against the Ottomans.
In 1865 the Ottoman government divided the Albanian settlement area into four vilayets : İşkodra in the northwest, Kosova in the northeast, Yanya in the south and Manastır in the southeast. This administrative reorganization angered the northern Albanian tribes, who feared they would lose their self-government and tax exemption. Ottoman troops were able to suppress local uprisings in the accessible coastal plains, but not prevail in the mountains. The violent clashes hit the already weak economy in the Albanian Vilayets hard. The poor economic and security situation in particular drove many Tosks (southern Albanians) from southern Albania to emigrate. Destination countries were Romania , Egypt , Bulgaria , Italy and later the United States . The Ottoman capital Istanbul also saw an increase in the influx of Albanians in the last third of the 19th century.
National movement
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It was only during this time that an Albanian national consciousness slowly developed in response to the other Southeast European nationalisms. The social conditions for this were extremely unfavorable, because there was practically no Albanian society and public. Especially in the north, social life took place exclusively within patriarchally structured family associations (Alb. Fis ) and tribes. Central and southern Albania, on the other hand, was ruled by large conservative landowners who kept the bulk of the population in quasi-feudal dependence and who counted themselves to the Ottoman upper class. In addition, the Albanians were religiously divided into Sunnis, Bektashi , Catholics and Orthodox, so that unlike the Serbs and Greeks, for example, religion could not create identity for the Albanian nation. Nevertheless, clergymen of different denominations played an important role in the formation of the Albanian nation ( Rilindja in Albanian : “rebirth”, “renaissance”), because they were almost the only members of their people with a higher education. By 1900 over 90% of Albanians could neither read nor write. Only in the cities of Shkodra, Prizren and Korça was there a narrow middle class - mostly merchant families who had come into contact with Western education. Besides the clergy, this small group provided most of the supporters of the Albanian national movement "Rilindja".
League of Prizren aspirations for autonomy
For wider circles of the Albanian elite, the national question became evident for the first time in connection with the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the Treaty of San Stefano of 1878. The Russian peace dictate would have placed parts of the Albanian settlement area under the rule of the Christian states Bulgaria and Montenegro. On the other hand, Albanian resistance formed on a national basis for the first time, as it was not only supported by the Sunnis and Bektashi, but also by the Catholic counterparts . In the spring of 1878, influential Albanians in Constantinople formed a secret committee to organize the resistance of their compatriots. Among others, Abdyl Frashëri , the most important leader of the early Albanian national movement, was involved. At the initiative of this committee, more than 80 delegates (mostly Islamic clergy, Muslim landowners and various tribal leaders) from the four Vilayets with Albanian population came together in Prizren on June 10, 1878. As a permanent organization they formed the League of Prizren , headed by a central committee , the aim of which was to form troop units to defend the Albanian settlement area against division and the claims of foreign powers. In return, she also took on the tax collection. Furthermore, the league sought the formation of an autonomous Albanian administrative district within the Ottoman Empire.
Inevitably, the weakened Ottoman government initially supported the activities of the League, only demanded that the Albanians declare themselves primarily as Ottomans and as such act in the interests of the state as a whole. That was controversial among the Albanians. Some of the delegates relied on the common Ottoman-Muslim identification, others around Abdyl Frashëri focused on working for Albanian interests, not least to win the Christian Albanians for the League's program.
In July 1878 the league sent a memorandum to the representatives of the great powers at the Berlin Congress . The league demanded that the entire Albanian settlement area should remain as an autonomous province under Turkish rule. Congress ignored this request; The negotiator in Berlin , Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , stated apodictically that an Albanian nation did not even exist, which is why such a demand was irrelevant. The borders with Montenegro proposed by the Berlin Congress and the fear that the whole of Epirus could fall to Greece sparked bloody uprisings by the Albanians, which were more or less controlled by the League and supported by its troops. Some of the Albanians were equipped with weapons by the Sublime Porte. At times the league associations controlled the disputed area between Ulcinj , Shkodra, Plav and Prizren. Here and there the borders were changed because of the resistance in favor of the Ottoman Empire and thus the Albanians.
Once the border issue was resolved, the Prizren League turned increasingly to its domestic demand for autonomy. The Ottoman regime, which was again halfway stabilized, was not prepared to make concessions. The government dispatched an army to Albania under the command of Dervish Turgut Pasha , which captured Prizren in April 1881 and dispersed the League's troops. It was important to note that many Muslim Albanians did not want to fight the Sultan's soldiers. The leaders of the league were arrested and deported, and Abdyl Frashëri even sentenced to death. However, he was only imprisoned and expelled from the country after his release in 1885.
After the breakup of the Prizren League, there was no political Albanian movement for two decades. The national activists in the country itself, but above all those who emigrated, were mainly involved in the cultural field in the following period, while the Muslim landowners and the Islamic clergy, insofar as they were involved in the Albanian movement from 1878 to 1881 at all to reintegrate into Ottoman society.
The creation of a national culture
The cultural movement of the Albanians was concentrated in a few places at home and abroad at the end of the 19th century. The individual groups of national activists acted relatively isolated from one another, which was not least due to the unfavorable traffic and communication conditions in the Balkans. But that was by no means the only obstacle to the establishment of an Albanian cultural life. In most of the centers of the Albanian-settled Vilayets, other languages and cultures dominated the urban upper classes: in Skopje and Manastir Turkish and Bulgarian , in Janina Greek and Turkish, in Prizren Turkish and Serbian . Only in Shkodra was Albanian the main language of the urban bourgeoisie. In Korça, on the other hand, Greek was just as strongly represented as Albanian. The coastal cities of Durrës and Vlora , important in the 20th century, were not cultural centers for the Albanians at the end of the 19th century . Its importance lay in the good connection to Western Europe. Here, as in Shkodra, Italian was an important language of communication and culture.
In 1880 there was no school with Albanian as the language of instruction. The printing of Albanian books was temporarily banned in the Ottoman Empire. A standardized Albanian written language did not even begin to exist. If Albanian was written at all, it was in the Gegic or Tuscan dialect. The Arbëresh in southern Italy also had their own spelling. In addition, depending on the denomination, either the Latin or the Greek alphabet , and less often the Arabic script , was used.
Around 1870 the efforts of Albanian intellectuals began to standardize the written language. In Elbasan they created their own Albanian alphabet, but it was only used there and could not prevail. The efforts of some Albanians in Constantinople were more successful: a group that included Pashko Vasa , Hasan Tahsini , Jani Vreto and Sami Frashëri published a pamphlet in 1878 with the title The Latin alphabet adapted for the Albanian language . This laid down important principles for the Albanian spelling, some of which are still valid today.
In Constantinople, the Society for Printing Albanian Scripts (alb. Shoqëria e të Shtypuri Shkronja Shqip ) was founded in 1879 . The first newspapers in Albanian appeared in the vicinity of this association in 1884. Other places where Albanian books were printed were Bucharest , where there was a large community of emigrants, and various Italian cities. Naim Frashëri wrote the first Albanian-language school books in the 1890s.
Although the Greek Orthodox Church was hostile to Albanian as a school, administrative and church language, the first Albanian-language school was founded in Korça in the immediate vicinity of the Orthodox cathedral in 1887. This private school was also the first secular education facility in the country open to students of all denominations. By the time independence was proclaimed, barely three dozen such schools had been established across the country. Albanian was also taught at the Catholic schools in the north and at many of the Bektashi Tekken . The schools of the Catholic orders as well as the Bektashi did a lot for the further development and spread of the Albanian language. In 1902 the Franciscan priest and poet Gjergj Fishta took over the direction of the grammar school of his order in Shkodra. He also worked as an editor of various magazines.
On the way to the nation state
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At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the internal crisis of the Ottoman Empire worsened again. There was practically anarchy in the Balkan provinces . Gangs of thieves of various nationalities operated in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia , whose national targets often only served as a pretext for robbery and murder. The government tried to come to terms with the situation by using force against the nationalisms of the Balkan peoples. In 1897 the leaders of the revived Prizren League (again calling for an autonomous Albanian province) were arrested. The use of the Albanian language and the distribution of Albanian books were banned. The political manifesto Shqipëria - ç'ka qenë, ç'është e ç'do të bëhet (Albania - what it was, what it is and what it will be) by Sami, published anonymously in Bucharest in 1899, was of the greatest importance for the Albanian national movement Frashëri . In this much-read pamphlet, the demand was made for the first time to establish an Albanian nation state.
The last years of Ottoman rule over Albania were in chaos and were overshadowed by acts of violence by government troops and various groups of insurgents as well as gangs of robbers. In 1906 a secret committee for the liberation of Albania was formed in Manastir . A year later, Albanian terrorists murdered the Greek bishop of Korça.
During this time of turmoil, the Young Turkish Revolution also fell , which had its center in the remaining European provinces of the Ottoman Empire (Albania, Macedonia and Thrace ). A number of Albanians also belonged to the reform-oriented political movement of the Young Turks. In 1907 young Turkish members of parliament met in Thessaloniki and founded a revolutionary committee. In July 1908, under the leadership of Enver Pascha and Talaat Pascha, a successful military revolt began against the absolutist ruling Sultan Abdülhamid II , which brought the movement to government. At the beginning of their rule, the Young Turks tried to set up a parliamentary-constitutional government in the Ottoman Empire, which also tried to take into account the aspirations for participation or autonomy of Christian and non-Turkish Islamic minorities. In particular, they wanted to cooperate with the organized representatives of the Armenians and the Albanians.
During the liberal early phase of the Young Turkish regime, Albanian intellectuals from all parts of the country met in November 1908 for the Monastir Congress . At this meeting it was finally decided that from now on the Albanian language should be written exclusively in Latin script . They also agreed on a strict phonetic notation with only two special characters. These regulations are still valid today, and the Monastir Congress is therefore seen as the birth of a modern, uniform Albanian orthography.
The constitutional experiment of the Young Turks failed because of the resistance of the old conservative elites and the general crisis of the empire, which the new government could not get under control. Conditions similar to civil war prevailed in Albania and Macedonia. Here the supporters of the Young Turkish government fought against the old elites and against the supporters of the national movements who wanted to achieve independence, regardless of whether the empire should prove to be capable of reform or not. At the end of 1909, the Young Turkish government suspended the constitution and the regime turned more and more into a military dictatorship. This soon relied on an aggressive Turkish nationalism as the ideological basis for their rule and renewed the pressure on the ethnic minorities. This brought the Ottoman rule into disrepute among the Albanians. Even before the First Balkan War broke out in 1912/13 , the government in Istanbul had hardly any supporters even among the Muslim Albanians.
In 1910, an armed uprising against Ottoman rule broke out in Kosovo, which spread to northern Albania over the course of the following year. The rebels now wanted to enforce state independence by force of arms. Soon only the larger cities were under the control of the Ottoman forces . When the First Balkan War broke out in the autumn of 1912, the insurgents found themselves in a difficult position. If they had previously tried to weaken the Turkish garrisons in the country, it was now necessary to fight against the invasion of the armies of Montenegro and Serbia into the Albanian settlement area in order to achieve a unified national state. Because Serbs, Montenegrins and Greeks planned to divide the Albanian settlement area into their already existing states. After a short time, however, the armies of these states had gained the upper hand. At the end of November 1912, only Shkodra and Ioannina were in Turkish hands; Kosovo, parts of northern Albania and Macedonia were occupied by Serbs and Montenegrins, respectively; the Greeks were in Epirus. Serbian associations arrived in Durrës on November 29, 1912. Only a relatively small area between Elbasan in the north and Vlora in the south was controlled by local Albanian groups.
independence
In this situation the leadership of the Albanian national movement decided not to delay the declaration of independence any longer, and on November 28, 1912, Ismail Qemali proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of Albania in the southern Albanian port city of Vlora . After the Ottoman Empire had lost all claims to Albania, the state was recognized by the great powers on May 30, 1913 at the London Ambassadors' Conference . It was there that the approximate boundaries of the new state were determined . Here were Russia and France as allies of Serbia can achieve that a large part of the Albanian settlement area ( Kosovo and the northwest of the present-day Nordmazedoniens) was given to the Serbian state. Parts in the south of today's Albania were meanwhile occupied by Greece. A mission sent by the great powers tried on the ground to determine the borders of the new state. In December 1913, the borders were laid down in the Florence Protocol . While a power ruling by the great powers moved the Montenegrins to leave Shkodra, the Greek troops stayed in the south of the country.
The conference of ambassadors had also decided that Albania should be a principality . The German Wilhelm Prinz zu Wied , who only held this office for a few months in 1914, was made prince . Left in the lurch by the great powers and rejected by many Albanian tribal leaders and Beys , threatened by rebellious peasants and neighboring states, he was unable to enforce his rule even in the area around the then capital, Durrës . The creation of state institutions was not even rudimentary. When the First World War broke out , Wilhelm left the country and never returned.
First World War
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During the war, Albania disappeared from the political map. Although the country was formally neutral, various warring powers gradually occupied all of Albanian territory. From 1914 to autumn 1915, conditions similar to civil war prevailed again in large parts of the country. Essad Pasha Toptani was able to build up a larger sphere of influence with the help of a private army in central Albania. He had already worked against Wilhelm von Wied, but was unable to gain national recognition even after his withdrawal. Essad Pasha allied himself with Serbia against the Danube monarchy , which led to his expulsion from Albania in early 1916.
When the Central Powers conquered Serbia in late 1915, the defeated Serbian troops fled through Albania to Greece . The north and center of the country were occupied by the Austro-Hungarian troops from 1916 . Because Albania was not formally a belligerent power, the Austrians set up a civil administrative council chaired by the consul general August Kral . In the south there were Italian troops and the south-east around the city of Korça was occupied by the French. The Austrians and French tried to win over the Albanian population in their occupation areas. So they founded some schools and organized civil administration. Some roads were also built, although they were primarily used for military purposes.
The French occupied Korça in 1918 by the Greeks. The Serbs moved into Shkodra and the surrounding area (the city itself was handed over to the French a little later), while the rest of the north and the center of the country were initially left to their own devices after the dissolution of the Danube monarchy.
| Chronology 1912–1939 | |
|---|---|
| October 8, 1912 | Outbreak of the First Balkan War |
| November 28, 1912 | Declaration of Albanian independence in Vlora |
| May 30, 1913 | International recognition of the independence of Albania by the major European powers |
| March 7, 1914 |
Wilhelm zu Wied arrives in Durres and exits as Prince of Albania in the rule |
| September 3, 1914 | Prince Wilhelm leaves Albania, the collapse of the young state due to the First World War and internal contradictions |
| October – December 1915 |
Escape of the defeated Serbian army through Albania to Greece |
| January 1916- 1918 |
Albania is occupied, the north and the center by the Austrians, the south by the French and Italians |
| 28–31 January 1920 |
Lushnya Congress , establishment of a universally recognized government, restoration of state independence |
| December 17, 1920 | Admission of Albania to the League of Nations |
| April 21, 1921 | Members of the Albanian Parliament come to the first meeting in the new capital Tirana together |
| December 1922– July 1924 |
first government of Ahmet Zogu |
| July 1924– December 1924 |
Democratic reform government Fan Nolis , overthrown by Zogu in a coup |
| January 1925 | Zogu becomes President of Albania |
| November 27, 1926 | Signing of the 1st Tirana Pact , initiates Albania's increasing dependence on Italy |
| September 1, 1928 | Ahmet Zogu can be the king of Albania cry |
| April 7, 1939 | Italian occupation of Albania, Zogu goes into exile |
Because Albania had not achieved political stability since its foundation and did not have a generally recognized government in the country, it was included in the expansion plans of the warring powers from the start. Italy, Serbia and Greece claimed parts of the country for themselves. Both Italy and Greece were made promises of territorial gains in Albania by the Triple Entente in 1914/15 in order to induce them to enter the war against the Central Powers . During the Paris Peace Conference , at which Albania was only represented by an officially unauthorized delegation, the division of the country was negotiated in 1919. To prevent this, the delegation under Turhan Pascha Përmeti accepted the protectorate of Italy; but the Greeks refused. Other representatives of the Albanians who were present in Paris and were supported primarily by the communities in exile in the United States and in Constantinople wanted to prevent submission to Italy.
With like-minded people in Albania they organized the Lushnja Congress , which met in January 1920, overturned Turhan Pasha's government and elected a new one. The government under Prime Minister Sulejman Delvina quickly gained recognition, so that the occupying powers withdrew in the same year - in the case of Italy after military conflicts. In December 1920 Albania was recognized as a sovereign power when it was admitted to the League of Nations .
Interwar period
Albania was a purely agricultural country with almost no public infrastructure. In the plains and valleys, large estates dominated, in the mountains small-scale subsistence farming, which produced hardly any essentials. In 1921 of 534 schools in Albania, 472 were only two-graded and there were only two secondary schools. After the First World War, there were barely 150 kilometers of paved roads and no railroad. Telegraph connections existed only in the coastal cities.
Post-war Albanian history was also chaotic. Beys and tribal leaders fought for power and none of the rapidly changing governments prevailed. In April 1921 the first parliamentary elections were held. There were no parties in the modern sense, rather client associations that rival each other. The bourgeois forces gathered around Fan Noli , their members of parliament formed the so-called People's Party ; the parliamentarians of the large landowners united in the Progressive Party . Both parties were little more than fluctuating parliamentary clubs without a mass base. There was also the strong group of Kosovars around Bajram Curri , who, with their efforts to separate their homeland from Yugoslavia , caused the young state major domestic and foreign policy problems. The dominance of the large landowners in the political system meant that the Albanian state remained almost without income, because the only economically powerful group was able to achieve that they had to pay almost no taxes.
Ahmet Zogu , tribal leader in the Mati area , was appointed minister of the interior in 1921, he secured the loyalty of tribal leaders through bribery and thus gained influence. In 1923 the murders of two American tourists and the popular Avni Rustemi , the assassin Essad Pasha , triggered a domestic political crisis, as a result of which the Democrats led by the Orthodox Bishop Fan Noli took power. In 1924 he made the first attempt to create democratic conditions. A constitution should be drawn up, land reform carried out and free elections held. However, his government was unable to implement this program against the resistance of the large landowners.
With the support of Yugoslavia, Ahmet Zogu managed to overthrow the Noli government in December 1924 and establish authoritarian rule. The legal government went to Italy. Under Zogu, Albania received a civil code based on the civil code and a new criminal law that largely followed the Italian one. Zogu could not find reliable sources of money for the state. His land reform law passed in 1930 also remained ineffective. Zogu oriented itself in the economic area to Italy, which bought about 80 percent of Albanian exports. Italy was concerned with a trade agreement and concessions for oil production in Albania, which clashed with British interests. In order to get loans for investments in infrastructure, Zogu agreed to the establishment of the Albanian State Bank with Italian capital in 1925 . Italy was also given permission to search for oil. At the end of August 1925, Rome and Tirana signed a secret military agreement after Benito Mussolini had built up appropriate pressure with a fleet demonstration off the Albanian coast. Albania had to complete the two Tirana Pacts in 1926 and 1927 , which made it even more dependent on Italy. Italy sent a military mission to Albania and practically took over the protection of the country to the outside world. In the period that followed, some small industrial companies were built up with Italian loans; A large part of the borrowed capital was also used for the construction of the government district in Tirana and the construction of other administrative and representative buildings in the provincial cities.
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In 1928 Zogu was proclaimed King of the Albanians . However, the self-confident act could not hide the fact that his dependence on Mussolini was becoming increasingly oppressive. Zogu introduced compulsory labor for road construction. After fascist model of a state youth was Enti Kombëtar founded. The compulsory schooling introduced in 1934 could not be enforced. There was a lack of school buildings, teachers and books.
Zogu's reform measures were at least partially successful. In an almost hopeless situation, progress was made in many areas and a partial modernization of the country was initiated. From today's historical research the Zogu regime is judged more positively than it was 20 or 30 years ago. However, a high price had to be paid for this progress. The Kingdom of Albania became dependent on Mussolini's Italy, which could no longer be resolved . Zogu had also turned the country into a police state , at least as far as the arm of his security forces could reach. Zogu, who survived several conspiracies and attempts at insurrection, set up a political court to prosecute his opponents , which often imposed the death penalty . Several hundred political prisoners were held in the prisons. Even the corruption widespread in the country could not or would not contain Zogu; Foreign visitors were uncomfortable with the contrast between his luxurious courtyard and the country's poverty. In 1929 the king received 1.5% of the state budget (half a million gold francs ) as an annual allowance , in addition to payments for his relatives and for official expenses, and several state goods were transferred to him. The press was increasingly censored after 1928.
Second World War
Since the mid-1930s, Zogu tried unsuccessfully to free Albania from its close economic and financial ties to Italy. When Germany smashed Czechoslovakia in March 1939 , Mussolini tightened his expansionist Balkan policy. Albania was occupied by Italian troops on Good Friday, April 7, 1939 . The Albanians could hardly offer any resistance. Zogu fled and Victor Emanuel of Italy became King of Albania in personal union. An Albanian puppet government was formed under the control of an Italian governor ; Prime Minister Shefqet Vërlaci became the landowner . On the eve of the national holiday (November 28, 1939) a large number of Albanians demonstrated against foreign rule; workers in some factories in the capital also went on strike in protest.
On October 28, 1940, Albania formed the basis for the Italian invasion of Greece . This campaign was a disaster for Italy. Greek troops were able to repel the invasion in a short time and advance into Albanian territory. Among other things, they occupied the cities of Saranda and Gjirokastra in the extreme south of Albania. It was not until Germany intervened in the Balkans in April 1941 in the course of the Balkan campaign that the situation changed, when Yugoslavia and Greece were occupied by German troops. Kosovo and the region around Ulcinj in Montenegro as well as parts of what is now North Macedonia were connected to Albania. This state structure was called Greater Albania .
The resistance against the Italian, since September 1943 ( Axis case ) German occupation and its colonialist exploitation had already begun in 1939. The first partisan groups were formed by dismissed police and army officers ( Abaz Kupi , Myslim Peza , Muharram Bajraktari ). Soon, however, the Communist Party of Albania (KPA) was to become the leading group of the resistance. It was not founded until November 8, 1941, but was tightly organized by the so-called Korça group around Enver Hoxha . What role the Yugoslav Communist Party played in this is controversial. But by 1943 at the latest, the relations between the two parties were very close and the Albanian communists mostly adhered to the guidelines given by the Yugoslav Communist Party. The few contacts to the Soviet Union also passed through Tito .
In September 1942, with the formation of the National Liberation Front at the Peza Conference, a broad political alliance of most of the anti-fascist groups was achieved. The KPA thus asserted its claim to leadership against the nationalists. But the national Albanian anti-communist partisan movement Balli Kombëtar remained outside the front .
After the Labinot Conference in March 1943, at which Hoxha was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party, the numerous partisan units of the Liberation Front were combined to form the National Liberation Army of Albania . In August it already had an active crew of 10,000 fighters and around 20,000 reservists. Since the summer of 1943, the Albanian partisans occasionally received weapons from the British. These were also present in Albania through some liaison officers. The Mukja agreement concluded by the communists and the Balli Kombëtar immediately before the collapse of fascist Italy failed due to conflicting views on the post-war order in Albania. In the period that followed, the two partisan groups also fought against each other.
After Italy capitulated on September 8, 1943, units of the German Wehrmacht occupied Albania and disarmed the Italian troops. In the military vacuum that prevailed before the arrival of the Germans, the National Liberation Army had taken control of large parts of the country and Balli Kombëtar had liberated a larger area around Vlora . In order to deter the population from supporting the partisans, the Wehrmacht introduced a so-called atonement quota : 100 Albanians were to be killed for every German killed. In application of this rule, the village Borova near Erseka in southern Albania, the Albanian Lidice , was destroyed: over 100 residents were murdered in the Borova massacre . The harsh repression measures also brought the partisans a crowd, especially among young people.
During the German occupation, Albania supplied raw materials for the German war economy, especially oil , chrome ore , magnesite and lignite . Although Germany had installed an Albanian collaboration government, all areas of military interest were under German control. The Albanian government was barely able to maintain the administration of the country, and it also lacked loyal combat-ready troops to fight partisans.
As early as May 24, 1944, the Liberation Front formed a provisional government at the Përmet Congress under the leadership of the Communists. In August 1944, according to Wehrmacht documents, three partisan divisions were active with regional focuses in the southern mountainous region and between Peshkopia and Kukës in the northeast. On October 2, 1944, the Wehrmacht took full control of the country in order to secure the withdrawal of their units from Greece.
As in Yugoslavia succeeded the National Liberation Army to liberate their country without the help of Allied troops, when the German armies had to withdraw because of the dramatic change in position to the south of the Soviet-German front from Greece and the Balkans, not rounded up to be. When they withdrew, the Wehrmacht destroyed ports and bridges in order to make landings for the Allies more difficult and to prevent or slow down the push of the Liberation Army. With the withdrawal of the Wehrmacht from Shkodra on November 29, 1944, all of Albania was finally liberated.
According to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the war killed around 30,000 Albanians. Great importance was attached to the partisan struggle in the following decades under communist rule; Monuments , large and small, were erected across the country to commemorate heroes of the resistance.
It is noteworthy that Jews in Albania were not affected by the Holocaust . The Italian occupation forces did not persecute the small Jewish minority of around 120 people. In the early years of the war, several hundred Jews from other parts of Europe fled to Albania. The extradition of the local Jews and immigrant guests to the Germans (occupying power since 1943) was handled slowly by the government and refused by the population. Albanian families hid the Jews from the occupiers. So it happened that in 1945 Albania was one of the few European countries in which more Jews lived than before the war. No Jew from the central Albanian area was deported. Only in Kosovo , which was part of Albania during the war, there were deportations and persecutions, in which the SS Skanderbeg division , which mainly consisted of Muslim Kosovars, was also involved. The foreign Jews and around 100 Jewish Albanians left the country in 1944/45. In 1991 around 300 Jews, relatives and descendants, emigrated to Israel . Only a few who had married into non-Jewish families and did not want to leave their homeland stayed in Albania.
People's Socialist Republic of Albania
Based on Yugoslavia (1944–1948)
In 1944 the communists took power under the leadership of Enver Hoxha . In the following years, a communist one-party rule was established in Albania, eliminating any opposition . Immediately after the end of the war, Hoxha formed the Albanian secret police Sigurimi (security) from particularly reliable partisans as his most powerful instrument of power, to which tens of thousands of people fell victim over the next 40 years. Many former partisans who were not communists were the first to be murdered. In this way the Albanian CP was able to successfully establish the myth that it led the anti-fascist liberation struggle almost alone. The party leadership derived its absolute claim to power from this.
When Winston Churchill and Stalin divided the Balkans into zones of influence at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the two had not included Albania. The division plan has only partially become a reality. For Albania, the development in this regard in its two neighboring countries was important: In Greece, western influence was only able to assert itself after a long civil war: Neither the Soviet Union nor the Western powers were able to gain control over Yugoslavia . Immediately after the liberation (at the end of 1944), the state of Titos became Albania's closest ally, with its leadership working towards finally integrating the small neighbor into the Yugoslav Federal Republic.
After the end of the war, Kosovo was reunited with Yugoslavia, as the Yugoslav and Albanian communists had already agreed during the war. In January 1945, both states signed a treaty on this. Immediately thereafter, Yugoslavia became the first country to be diplomatically recognized by the provisional government in Tirana. The USSR and the US did not follow this move until December 1945, while Britain refused to recognize it and froze Albanian balances with the Bank of England because the government in Tirana supported the Communists in the Greek Civil War .
One of the first drastic measures taken by the new rulers was the land reform in the summer of 1945. The large estates were distributed to landless farmers without compensation. This measure ensured the communists the recognition of large parts of the rural population. The communists became very popular especially in central and southern Albania, where the land was almost 100 percent in the hands of the Beys. That's one of the reasons that the southern Albanian Tosks were the new regime set more positive than the counter in the north. The second reason was that the communist elite were mostly recruited from the southern Albanian cities (Gjirokastra, Korça, Vlora and others), which was related to the personal relationships of Hoxha. Traditional clan structures also played a major role in the internal party power structure of the CP.
Parliamentary elections were held on December 2, 1945, and the Communist Party emerged victorious. The few MPs from other parties were murdered before the end of the first legislative term. In the communist government formed in early 1946, Enver Hoxha was prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister, as well as commander in chief of the armed forces and general secretary of the Communist Party. This consolidated not only the communist regime but also Hoxha's personal rule. The 1946 constitution banned all non-communist parties and associations.
In July 1946, Yugoslavia and Albania signed a friendship treaty, which was followed by a series of agreements on technical and economic cooperation that formed the basis for Albania's integration into the Yugoslav economic area. The economic plans, price systems and currencies have been coordinated. The relations were so close that Serbo-Croatian became a school subject because young Albanians would later study at Yugoslav universities. In November 1946, a monetary union was concluded that tied the Albanian lek to the Yugoslav dinar in a ratio of 1: 1 . In the same year, Tito and the Bulgarian Prime Minister Georgi Dimitrov negotiated the formation of a Balkan Federation to which Albania should also belong.
Yugoslav advisors were sent to the Albanian army, ministries and numerous authorities and companies. The starving country also received emergency aid in the form of 20,000 tons of grain from Yugoslavia. With the exception of $ 26.3 million from UNRRA in the immediate aftermath of the war, Albania was entirely dependent on Yugoslavia's support. The Tito government viewed their aid as an investment in their own future, as Albania was soon to be annexed. Joint companies in mining, railroad construction, oil and energy, and foreign trade were established. The telephone network of Albania was connected to the Yugoslav one.
Soon, however, there were disagreements between the two governments, because the Albanian side wanted to develop the manufacturing industries, while the Yugoslavs saw Albania primarily as a raw material supplier and agricultural producer. There was therefore a dispute over direction within the Albanian Communist Party leadership, in which the pro-Yugoslav faction around Koçi Xoxe prevailed for the time being. In the course of 1947 there was a veritable wave of purges against the actual or supposed anti-Yugoslavs in the party. Among other things, nine members of parliament were sentenced to long prison terms for this in May 1947. A month later, the Central Committee of the Yugoslav CP criticized the Albanian party leader Enver Hoxha for his stubborn policies. The Yugoslavs in Tirana “bought” support for their politics with large loans, which made up more than half of the Albanian state budget. When Nako Spiru , head of the Albanian planning commission, nevertheless presented an economic plan that should bring the country more independence, Belgrade intervened immediately. Spiru was then sharply criticized by the Albanian leadership and came under such pressure that he eventually committed suicide, which at least his opponents claimed.
| Chronology 1944–1990 | |
|---|---|
| May 24, 1944 | Formation of a provisional government led by the communists in Përmet |
| November 20, 1944 | The Albanian partisans marched in Tirana a |
| November 29, 1944 | The Wehrmacht evacuates Shkodra , all of Albania is liberated |
| January 1945 | A Yugoslav-Albanian treaty formally seals the return of Kosovo to Yugoslavia |
| December 2, 1945 | directed parliamentary elections, overwhelming victory for the communists |
| January 11, 1946 | Proclamation of the People's Republic, socialist constitution, ban on all non-communist associations |
| July 1946 | Yugoslav-Albanian friendship treaty |
| June 29, 1948 | Albania breaks with Yugoslavia and allies itself with the Soviet Union |
| February 1949 | Albania becomes a member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance |
| May 14, 1955 | Albania is a founding member of the Warsaw Pact |
| October 1957 | Foundation of the University of Tirana |
| June 1959 | Nikita Khrushchev visits Albania |
| November 16, 1960 | Hoxha criticizes Khrushchev's reforms |
| 1961 | Alliance with the People's Republic of China (until 1978) |
| 3rd December 1961 | The USSR breaks off diplomatic relations with Albania |
| 1967 | Total religious ban, Albania officially the first atheist state in the world |
| September 13, 1968 | Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact |
| December 28, 1976 | New constitution, which i.a. Prohibits foreign debt |
| 18th December 1981 | Mysterious death of Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu ; probably Hoxha had him murdered |
| April 11, 1985 | Death of Enver Hoxhas, successor is Ramiz Alia |
| January 1990 | First anti-communist demonstrations in Shkodra |
Albania had hardly any relations with western states. Talks about establishing diplomatic relations with Great Britain were broken off after disagreements between the two states as a result of the Corfu Canal incident in 1946. The Americans and British, using supporters of the former King Ahmet Zogu, carried out some commando actions between 1947 and 1951 that were intended to spark an uprising against the communist regime. These actions failed miserably every time because the double agent Kim Philby , who worked for the British , betrayed them to the Soviet Union , with which Albania had been allied since 1948. The secret agents and "Zogists" who landed on the coast were always picked up by the Sigurimi after a short time . On paper, there was still a state of war with Greece until the 1980s. Because of the role of the Albanian communists in the Greek civil war, the two countries did not want to negotiate a treaty to end the Second World War for a long time.
Albania was seen by the other communist parties and governments only as a satellite of Yugoslavia. The Albanian CP was therefore not invited to the founding meeting of the Cominform in September 1947 , but was represented by Tito's party. Milovan Đilas reported that at that time the Yugoslavs had Josef Stalin's consent to swallow Albania . (M. Đilas: Conversations with Stalin, 1962). The pro-Yugoslav course in the Albanian CP reached its peak in the spring of 1948. During a Politburo meeting in April, Koçi Xoxe suggested asking Belgrade to accept Albania into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Based on the Soviet Union (1948–1968)
When the Cominform expelled the Yugoslav Communist Party on June 28, 1948 because of ideological differences, the Albanian leadership made a radical change in its relations with Yugoslavia. From now on Tito and his comrades were considered enemies of Albania. On July 1, all Yugoslav advisors were expelled from the country with 48 hours' notice, all bilateral agreements with the neighboring country were terminated and the borders were closed.
The hermetic seal, which lasted around 40 years, tore numerous families apart on both sides of the border. Not only were the Albanians in Kosovo and their relatives in northern Albania affected, the members of the Macedonian minority in the regions of Dibra , Golloborda and Prespa were cut off from their relatives in Macedonia overnight . In contrast to the inner-German border after 1961, no travel permits were issued for family reasons until 1990. Only in the 1970s there was some contact between scientists from Kosovo and Albania. The border remained closed to everyone else.
From the summer of 1948 onwards, the Albanian communists became supporters of the Stalinist Soviet Union. Enver Hoxha, who initiated the radical change of alliance, used the new situation to cleanse the party apparatus of power competitors and adversaries. Numerous functionaries were accused, convicted and imprisoned or executed as actual or alleged Titoists . Among many others, 14 members of the Central Committee and 32 MPs fell victim to the terror. The most prominent victim of this wave of purges was the former Interior Minister Koçi Xoxe , who was executed after a secret trial in May 1949. 25% of all members were expelled from the party because of Titoism.
The first five-year plan aimed at Yugoslavia was suspended and replaced by a two-year plan that initiated the transition to the new partner. The Yugoslavian was replaced by Soviet economic aid and Soviet advisors came into the country. Soon the first Albanian students were also sent to the Soviet Union. In February 1949 Albania joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), and in May 1955 the Balkan state was among the signatories of the Warsaw Pact . Despite the close association with Josef Stalin , the new alliance was more favorable to Albanian independence, because there were no direct borders to the Soviet sphere of influence.
In economic terms, the 1950s and 1960s were the most successful phase of the communist regime. With Soviet help, numerous industrial plants were built and hydropower plants were built to meet the country's electricity needs; the railway construction started in 1947 was accelerated. Essentially, all major infrastructure investments were made during this period. The yields of agriculture could be increased. The decisive factor was not so much the use of modern agricultural technology as the enlargement of the cultivation area by draining swamps in the lowlands and building irrigation systems. From 1948 onwards, agriculture was collectivized within a short period of time . Although the Albanian population grew rapidly, sufficient food could be produced in the 1960s and 1970s. (In 1955 they had to rely on extensive grain deliveries from the Soviet Union.) In 1968 the collectivization of agriculture was completed. The traditional extended family associations in the north, which had also formed economic units, were smashed.
From a cultural point of view, communist rule meant a huge surge in modernization that changed Albanian society forever. The communists managed to set up a comprehensive school system. While almost 80 percent of Albanians were still unable to read or write at the end of the war, in the 1980s illiteracy was a phenomenon that could only be found in the old generation. In 1957 the University of Tirana was founded. For the first time, it was possible to train academics in the country. This was accompanied by the establishment of scientific publication organs. For the communists, of course, education was also the most important means of ideological indoctrination of the population. That is why they secured the educational monopoly early on: in 1948 the Catholic schools were closed. Many of their teachers disappeared forever in camps and prisons.
The literary traditions of the prewar period were only selectively linked. All religious writers were banned, and only certain unpopular works were no longer printed or performed by other more progressive writers. Overall, the system of political censorship was very erratic and difficult to see through. What was still allowed today could be forbidden tomorrow. This uncertainty and the resulting fear of the intellectuals was an important instrument of rule for the party. Overall, the cultural modernization of Albania under the communists was a double-edged sword. In fact, the level of education of the Albanians rose, while at the same time the people remained cut off from the intellectual developments in the rest of the world (including the socialist part) because of the increasing self-isolation of Albania. On the one hand, important cultural achievements were made under the communists (establishment of universities and cultural institutions), on the other hand, evidence of older cultural epochs was destroyed, in particular sacred art, churches and mosques.
The persecution of religions, which began at the end of the war, reached its climax in 1967: Albania was declared an atheist state and Muslims and Christians were forbidden to practice any religion. Churches and mosques have been converted into warehouses, cinemas, sports halls, etc. Many clergymen had already been executed or imprisoned before 1967, the rest were now being sent to prison at the latest. Few saw the fall of the communist regime 23 years later.
The communist regime did more than just verbally advocate equal rights for women. The proportion of women in politics and administration has actually increased. Women achieved a similarly high level of education in the 1970s and were as free to choose their professions as men within the limits set by the party. Even so, patriarchal values and behavioral patterns were retained in many families, which meant a double burden for women. They had to do their job duties and follow the directions of the head of the family at home. The leading positions in party and state remained in male hands. Family relationships were also of great importance among the communists: in 1962, five of the 61 ZK members were married and 20 other members were related by marriage.
While Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev initiated reforms in the party and state in 1956 (see thaw period ), which led to a relaxation in the communist system of rule in the Soviet Union, Enver Hoxha stuck to the old Stalinist course. Khrushchev was able to see this for himself when he visited Albania in 1959. His warnings to introduce reforms went unheeded. In particular, Hoxha resented him for trying to reconcile with Tito. Neither did Hoxha want to give the Soviet Union military bases on the Mediterranean coast, which Khrushchev had asked of him, nor did he believe in developing Albania into a vacation paradise for workers from all over Comecon, as Khrushchev had suggested. (In fact, at the end of the 1950s, state travel agencies in the GDR offered trips to the Albanian coast.)
In November 1960, during a visit to Moscow , Hoxha openly criticized the Soviet course. In 1961 Albania broke off with the Soviet Union and the USSR broke off diplomatic relations with Albania in December 1961. The students were recalled from the Soviet Union and the joint projects to develop the Albanian industry were canceled. In this respect, the situation was similar to that of 1948, when Yugoslavia was separated from it. Again, the Albanians had to reorient themselves ideologically within a short period of time. The Soviet Union was now considered a revisionist regime, whose imperialism was just as condemned as the US. The Sino-Soviet rift also played a role in this break .
Based on the People's Republic of China (1968–1978)
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In 1968, the final exit from the Comecon and the Warsaw Pact after the occasion of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia was invaded. As in 1948, a wave of purges broke out over the Labor Party, which again sent many cadres to prison. In the following years they leaned closely on Maoist China . The alliance with the Chinese could not even remotely compensate for the lack of economic aid from the Comecon countries. Due to a lack of skilled workers and the lack of spare parts for Russian machines, the Albanian industry began to decline in the 1970s. In addition, bad investments such as in the gigantic steelworks in Elbasan put a heavy burden on the state budget. In terms of the share of employees in the various economic sectors, Albania remained an agricultural state. In the 1980s, too, two-thirds of the working population worked in agriculture. In the last decade before the fall of the Wall, food production could no longer meet the growing demand. Most of the staple foods were rationed. For ideological reasons, the farmers were strictly forbidden from doing any private business. Even small livestock were no longer allowed to be kept at home.
Albanian solo effort (1978–1990)
As a result of the Chinese reforms after Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Albania also broke off relations with the People's Republic of China in 1978. The ideological orientation of the communists towards self-sufficiency and the special path of Albanian socialism prompted Hoxha to have around 750,000 bunkers built to defend against an invasion according to the concept of the “people's war” . For their construction - contrary to the still rumored figures, fewer than 200,000 were built - the concrete industry was specifically stimulated and expensive special steel was imported. In 1975 Albania was the only European country that did not participate in the CSCE and did not sign the Helsinki Final Act .
Rather, the oppression of their own population continued, as in the form of internment villages . These were created in remote areas that were less favored by nature (the swamps of the coastal plain and in high mountain valleys). Families of people who were guilty of alleged political offenses were deported there in a kind of kin detention .
In 1981 the Albanian Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu died under mysterious circumstances. The death of long-time political companion Enver Hoxhas was officially passed off as a suicide. Shehu was probably eliminated on behalf of Hoxha. After his death, Ramiz Alia became 1st Secretary of the Labor Party of Albania and was established as the successor to the dictator.
After Enver Hoxha died in 1985, Alia largely continued the previous policy. However, he tried - not least because of the desperate economic situation - to resume or deepen diplomatic relations with various western and eastern states. In October 1986 the Albanian government signed a trade agreement with Yugoslavia. In 1987 the state of war with Greece was formally ended, and during this time the Federal Republic of Germany - as the last country in Europe - set up an embassy in Tirana on the initiative of Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher .
Transformation years
| July 1990 | 4000 Albanians flee to western embassies; Anti-communist demonstrations in Tirana are dispersed at gunpoint |
| November 1990 | Again mass demonstrations in Tirana and Shkodra ushered in the end of the communist regime |
| 4th November 1990 | First public service in Albania since 1967, Simon Jubani celebrates a Catholic mass in the Shkodra cemetery |
| December 12, 1990 | Founding of the Democratic Party (PD) |
| February 20, 1991 | Protesters overthrow Enver Hoxha's statue in Tirana |
| March 31 / April 7, 1991 |
First pluralistic election , the communists win again; there was no equal opportunity for the opposition |
| 4th June 1991 | A general strike forces the resignation of the communist government; Formation of a government of national unity |
| June 19, 1991 | Albania signs the CSCE Final Act. |
| August 8, 1991 | The catastrophic economic and supply situation leads to a mass exodus: over 10,000 people get on board the freighter Vlora to Bari, Italy |
| January 1992 | Withdrawal of the PD from the government of national unity |
| March 22, 1992 | The PD wins the first free elections with almost two thirds of the vote, and the doctor Sali Berisha becomes president |
| April 1992 | Start of radical economic reforms; however, the economic and social situation of the Albanians is only improving very slowly |
| April 25, 1993 | Pope John Paul II visits Shkodra and Tirana |
| August 1993 | An Albanian soldier is shot dead on the border with Kosovo; Albania is calling for UN observers to be sent to prevent a conflict with the rest of Yugoslavia |
| May 26, 1996 | The ruling PD wins the elections, which, however, were massively manipulated |
| January 15, 1997 | After several investment funds ( pyramid schemes ) go bankrupt, defrauded savers protests against the government in Tirana because it has a connection to the investment fraudsters |
| January 28, 1997 | The clashes between the police and demonstrators claim the first deaths; the uprising spreads across the country |
| March 2, 1997 | Imposition of a state of emergency; in the south of Albania the state power no longer has any control |
| March 4, 1997 | The OSCE appoints Franz Vranitzky as Special Coordinator for Albania |
| March 13, 1997 | All over Albania there is anarchy; the powerless government asks foreign countries for military intervention |
| March 27, 1997 | The UN Security Council approves the deployment of a multinational protection force for Albania |
| April 21, 1997 | Operation Alba begins : 6,000 multinational protection forces are stationed in Albania |
| June 29, 1997 | Early parliamentary elections under the supervision of the OSCE; The winners are the socialists |
| September 18, 1998 | The assassination of the popular opposition politician Azem Hajdari once again provokes serious unrest. |
| March 1999 | The flow of refugees from Kosovo, which began in autumn 1998, reached its peak; around 300,000 Kosovar Albanians are housed in camps and private accommodation. |
| February 2006 | Albania signs the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU. |
| July 9, 2009 | Albania will meet with Croatia of NATO in. In the same year it also submits an application for membership to the European Union . |
| June 24, 2014 | Albania officially becomes a candidate for EU membership. |
| April 30, 2015 | Parliament decides to open the archives of the communist secret police Sigurimi , most of which were destroyed before 1997. |
Despite isolationism, the Albanian population learned about the political changes in the Eastern Bloc from neighboring countries via radio and television . The victory of the Solidarność movement in Poland , the change in Hungary , the fall of the wall and the revolutions in 1989 also encouraged Albanians to rebel against the dictatorship. In January 1990 there were first demonstrations in Shkodra and in July 1990 thousands of Albanians fled to western embassies - 3200 to German ones alone . Demonstrations in Tirana were beaten down by security forces.
In the fall of 1990, the anti-communist movement in Tirana, initially supported by students, could no longer be suppressed and the regime had to negotiate with the insurgents. The ban on religion was lifted in November and the first Catholic worship service was held in Shkodra since 1967. Shortly thereafter, Muslims and Orthodox Christians followed suit. In December, the first non-communist Democratic Party of Albania was founded on the campus of Tirana University .
At first it was not foreseeable whether the government would use force against a revolution. Because of the desperate economic situation and the uncertain political situation, thousands fled illegally over the snowy mountains to Greece. In March 1991, 20,000 Albanians boarded ships and boats in the ports of Durrës and Vlora and crossed for Italy. This caught the attention of western countries for Albania. The states of the European Economic Community and the United States provided humanitarian aid, Italy ensured the distribution of goods in Albania in Operation Pelikan (September 1991 to December 1993). Nevertheless, many Albanians later emigrated to Italy .
The Communist Party under Ramiz Alia won the parliamentary elections on March 31, 1991 . During the election campaign, the old rulers controlled the media and fueled fear of change in the rural population (70% in Albania). Nonetheless, the new government started some reforms. The armed forces were formally removed from party control and placed under the command of the parliamentary government. On June 4, the Fatos Nano government was forced to resign after a nationwide general strike. A government of national unity was formed for the next nine months . In June 1991, when the CSCE Final Act was signed, human rights were recognized.
In April 1992 the Democrats took over the government under the doctor Sali Berisha . On June 6, 1992, Albania joined the NATO Cooperation Council and applied for NATO membership, which was rejected in December 1992. In 1992 Albania signed a comprehensive mutual assistance pact with Turkey , with which it has historical and cultural ties. Such agreements followed in October 1993 with the USA and the UK . In April 1993 Pope John Paul II visited Shkodra and Tirana.
In the summer of 1993 the expulsion of a Greek Orthodox priest put a strain on Albanian-Greek relations. The Greek government ( Konstantinos Mitsotaki's cabinet ) used this as an opportunity to deport over 10,000 illegal Albanian immigrants, some of them using drastic violence. After the Albanian government promised to respect the minority rights of the Greeks, the situation eased again in mid-November.
On July 10, 1995 Albania became the 35th member of the Council of Europe . In the summer of 1995, the then German President Roman Herzog visited Albania.
Five years after the fall of the Wall, the failure of the transformation process became apparent. Economic transformation stagnated, industrial production and social systems collapsed, there were no laws on private property, company formation, customs and banking, and the private banking sector was without legal regulation. The land of the state-owned enterprises was wildly divided up from 1991 and the claimed ground was marked with torn-out railway tracks and telegraph wires. The food shortage that had existed since the late 1980s worsened and emigration continued.
Corruption and nepotism flourished, and posts in government and administration were divided among clans. According to a report by Human Rights Watch published in 1996, the judiciary was exposed to massive government pressure and a new intelligence agency, SHIK ( Shërbimi Informativ Kombëtar ; "National Intelligence Service") gained influence. Society was deeply divided between the supporters of the democrat Sali Berisha and the supporters of the socialists who emerged from the Labor Party . Fraudulent parliamentary elections on May 26th and June 2nd, 1996 secured Berisha power.
In the mid-1990s, Western governments focused primarily on dealing with the aftermath of the war in the former Yugoslavia . The few MEPs who dealt with Albania were reluctant to criticize Berisha's government and the 1996 election fraud for lack of political alternatives.
In early 1997 riots broke out across the country following credit fraud cases. The reasons for the lottery uprising were complex; ultimately, there was a rebellion because of the transformation process that had failed in all parts. In March 1997 the state structures outside the capital completely collapsed. There was looting, destruction and conditions similar to civil war; more than 1000 people died. Germany (with Operation Libelle ) and the United States brought foreign citizens out of the country.
An OSCE mission supported by international peacekeepers (Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, French, Turks and Romanians) restored peace. Free elections were held in July 1997 under the supervision of the OSCE. The Socialist Party took power at the head of a center-left coalition, and Fatos Nano became head of government. The European Union organized reconstruction aid, the economy recovered and living conditions improved.
In 1998 the new constitution was adopted by referendum. There were still economic problems, high unemployment and an unstable political system. 300,000 Kosovars fled in the spring of 1999 because of the Kosovo war and were provided with international aid. The crisis showed solidarity in Albania and political opponents temporarily cooperated. Increased international aid and presence under the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe improved the situation.
After the 2005 elections there was an orderly change of power to the Berishas Democratic Party. The 2009 parliamentary elections were won by a center-right coalition. The Socialist Party lamented election manipulation, which triggered a political crisis in Albania . The socialists temporarily boycotted parliament and organized demonstrations, which escalated in January 2011, killing several people.
In 2006 Albania signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU. The impact of the explosion in Gërdec in March 2008, in which 28 people died and 4,000 people were left homeless, also shook Albania politically. In 2009 Albania joined NATO and applied for membership in the European Union . In 2010, the entry requirements into the EU for Albania were relaxed. Citizens now only need a biometric passport to enter the Schengen area . On June 24, 2014 Albania was granted EU candidate status.
On April 30, 2015, Parliament decided to open the archives of the communist secret police Sigurimi . A committee of five decides on access for those under surveillance, institutions and former employees and issues certificates of non-objection to civil service candidates and candidates for election. According to ORF, at least 7,000 opposition activists were killed and more than 100,000 were sent to labor camps during communism. From 1944 between 10,000 and 20% of the Albanians had cooperated with the secret police. It was dissolved in the early 1990s. Most of the files were destroyed by 1997.
On July 22, 2016, Parliament, with an internationally mediated consensus between the government and the opposition, passed a constitutional amendment and passed several laws in order to implement the judicial reform recommended by the Venice Commission , which was controversial for months. In the spring of 2017, the Democratic Party boycotted parliament and the presidential election for 90 days and did not nominate candidates for the parliamentary elections on June 25, 2017 because they did not expect a fair and free election under the then government. They were unable to enforce their demand for a resignation from the government, but under pressure from international mediators a compromise was reached which included postponing parliamentary elections by one week, the appointment of seven non-party ministers by the opposition for a "technical government" and several reforms in the electoral process .
In 2018, the Albanian government commissioned the International Commission for Missing Persons to search for and identify missing victims of communist repression. This started work on November 16 of the same year. Since the early 1990s, around 6,000 dead victims of the PAA tyranny have been identified, but most of the burial sites are unknown.
literature
swell
- Robert Elsie (Hrsg.): Early Albania: A reader of historical texts 11th-17th centuries (= Balkanological publications of the Eastern European Institute at the Free University of Berlin. Volume 39). Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-447-04783-6 .
- Ludwig Thallóczy, Konstantin Jireček , Milan Šufflay (eds.): Acta et Diplomata Res Albaniae Mediae Aetatis. Vol. 1, Vienna 1913; Vol. 2, Vienna 1918.
- Robert Dankoff (Ed.): Evliya Çelebi's Book of Travels. Evliya Çelebi in Albania and Adjacent Regions (Kosovo, Montenegro). The Relevant Sections of the Seyahatname. Translated by Robert Dankoff. (Critical edition in English). Leiden / Boston 2000, ISBN 90-04-11624-9 .
- Peter Bartl: Sources and materials on Albanian history in the 17th and 18th centuries.
- Volume I: From the correspondence of Archbishop Vinzenz Zmajević . Wiesbaden 1975.
- Volume II: Notitie uniuersali dello stato di Albania, e dell'operato da Monsig.r Vincenzo Zmaieuich Arciuescouo di Antiuari Visitatore Apostolico dell'Albania . Munich 1979.
- Friedrich Wallisch : The eagle of the Skanderbeg. Albanian letters from the spring of 1914.
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Report of the International Commission to Inquire the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars. Washington 1914. (Reprint 1993)
- Albert Ramaj (Ed.): “Poeta nascitur, historicus fit - ad honorem Zef Mirdita”, Albanisches Institut-Hrvatski Institut za povijets, St. Gallen-Zagreb 2013.
Representations
German (alphabetical)
- Peter Bartl: Albania. From the Middle Ages to the present. Regensburg 1995, ISBN 3-7917-1451-1 .
- Peter Bartl: The Albanian Muslims at the time of the national independence movement. (1878–1912) (= Albanian Research. Volume 6). Wiesbaden 1968.
- Peter Danylow: The foreign policy relations of Albania to Yugoslavia and the USSR 1944–1961. Munich 1982.
- Johannes Faensen: The Albanian National Movement . Wiesbaden 1980.
- Iliaz Fishta: Agricultural problem and agricultural reform in Albania in the interwar period. In: Südost-Forschungen 59/60 (2000/2001).
- Peter Jordan (Ed.): Albania. Geography - historical anthropology - history - culture - post-communist transformation. (= Österreichische Osthefte. Special volume 17). Vienna, Frankfurt am Main and others 2003, ISBN 3-631-39416-0 .
- Thomas Kacza: Between Feudalism and Stalinism. Albanian history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Verlag Trafo, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89626-611-8 ( review ).
- Marenglen Kasmi: The German occupation in Albania 1943 to 1944 (= Potsdam writings on military history. Volume 20). Potsdam 2013, ISBN 978-3-941571-24-2 .
- Marenglen Kasmi: The German-Albanian Relations 1912-1939. In: Journal of Balkanology. Volume 49, No. 1, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2013, pp. 60–86.
- Hans Krech : The civil war in Albania. Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89574-280-5 .
- Hanns Christian Löhr: The founding of Albania, Wilhelm zu Wied and the Balkan diplomacy of the great powers 1912-1914. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-631-60117-4 .
- Hubert Neuwirth: Resistance and Collaboration in Albania 1939–1944 (= Albanian Research. Volume 27). Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05783-7 .
- Hans-Jochim Pernack: Problems of the economic development of Albania. Investigations of the economic and socio-economic change process from 1912/13 to the present. Munich 1972.
- Hanns Dieter Schanderl: The Albania policy of Austria-Hungary and Italy 1877-1908 (= Albanian research. Volume 7). Wiesbaden 1971.
- Michael Schmidt-Neke: Development and expansion of the royal dictatorship in Albania (1912–1939) (= Southeast European works. Volume 84). Munich 1987, ISBN 3-486-54321-0 .
- Jens Oliver Schmitt: The Venetian Albania 1392–1479. Munich 2001.
- Jens Oliver Schmitt, Eva Anne Frantz (ed.): Albanian history. Status and perspectives of research (= Southeast European work. Volume 140). Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-58980-1 .
- Jens Oliver Schmitt: The Albanians - A Story Between Orient and Occident. Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63031-6 .
- Georg Stadtmüller : Research on early Albanian history (= Albanian research. Volume 2). Wiesbaden 1966.
- Christoph Stamm: On the German occupation of Albania 1943–1944. In: Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 30,2 (1981), pp. 99–120.
English and Albanian (alphabetical)
- Fred C. Abrahams: Modern Albania. From dictatorship to democracy in Europe. New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-4798-3809-7 .
- Elez Biberaj: Albania in transition. The rocky road to democracy. Boulder (CO) 1998, ISBN 0-8133-3502-7 .
- Robert Elsie : Historical Dictionary of Albania (= European Historical Dictionaries 42). Lanham 2004, ISBN 0-8108-4872-4 .
- Bernd Jürgen Fischer : Albania at War, 1939–45 . C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 1999, ISBN 978-1-8506-5531-2
- Faik Konitza: Albania. The Rockgarden of Southeastern Europe. Boston 1957.
- Muzafer Korkuti and others: Shqipëria Arkeologjikë. Tirana 1971.
- James O'Donnell: A coming of age: Albania under Enver Hoxha. Boulder 1999.
- Owen Pearson: Albania and King Zog. Independence, Republic and Monarchy 1908-1939 (= Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History . Volume 1). IB Tauris, London 2004, ISBN 1-84511-013-7 .
- Owen Pearson: Albania in occupation and war. From fascism to communism 1940-1945 (= Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History . Volume 2). IB Tauris, London 2005, ISBN 1-84511-104-4 .
- Owen Pearson: Albania as Dictatorship and Democracy. From Isolation to the Kosovo War 1946-1998 (= Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History . Volume 3). IB Tauris, London 2006, ISBN 1-84511-105-2 .
- Pjetër Pepa: Dosja e dictaturës. Tiranë 1995. (History of Albania 1941–1990)
- Stavro Skendi: The Albanian National Awakening: 1878-1912. Princeton 1967.
- Miranda Vickers: The Albanians. A modern history. London 1995, ISBN 1-85043-749-1 .
- Tom Winnifrith (Ed.): Perspectives on Albania . Palgrave Macmillan, London 1992.
Magazines
- Studime Historike ("Historical Studies"), ed. v .: Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipërisë . Vol. 1 (1964) ff. (The most important historical periodical of Albania).
Web links
- Report: The fear of the Sigurimi (German, Studio Klarheit Dresden, November 2015, 5min)
- Scientific evaluation of the census carried out under Austrian occupation in 1918 (English)
- High Albania. Travel report from Albania 1909 by Edith Durham (English)
- Detailed description of the Albanian national movement 1870–1912 (Albanian)
- Khrushchov's visit to Albania (1959), film sequence
- Harry Hamm: Albania - China's Beachhead in Europe. (1962; English)
- Maurus Reinkowski: Customary Law in the Multinational State: The Ottomans and the Albanian Kanun. In: Michael Kemper, Maurus Reinkowski (ed.): Legal pluralism in the Islamic world: customary law between state and society. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, pp. 121–142.
- Sources of Albanian history (English)
- Albania Institute Ludwig Maximilians University Munich: History
- Albanian Institute in St. Gallen
Individual evidence
- ^ One of Earliest Farming Sites in Europe Discovered. In: ScienceDaily. April 16, 2012, accessed September 15, 2013 .
- ↑ John J. Wilkes : The Illyrians . Ed .: Blackwell. Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-631-19807-5 , pp. 81 ( online ).
- ↑ see e.g. B. Hubert Neuwirth: Resistance and Collaboration in Albania 1939–1944 . 1st edition. Harrassowitz-Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05783-7 .
- ↑ Stefanie Bolzen: Besa "saved the Jews from certain death. In: Die Welt . January 26, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2011
- ^ Ana Laja: Albania and the Warsaw Pact . In: Torsten Diedrich , Winfried Heinemann , Christian F. Ostermann (eds.): The Warsaw Pact. From foundation to collapse 1955–1991. 2008 (hardcover) / 2009 (licensed edition of the Federal Agency for Civic Education ), ISBN 978-3-89331-961-9 , pp. 27–42 , here pp. 34ff.
- ↑ Norbert Wiggershaus , Winfried Heinemann (editor on behalf of the Military History Research Office ): National foreign and alliance policy of the NATO member states . Oldenbourg 2000, pp. 277f.
- ↑ Files on the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1962 (January 1 to March 31), de Gruyter 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-71830-0 , p. 18 .
- ^ Everyone in cover. Bunkerland Albania , in: SpiegelOnline, 6 August 2012.
- ↑ Admirina Peci: Ekskluzive / Hapet dosja, ja harta e bunkereve e tuneleve sekrete , Shqiptarja.com, December 5, 2014.
- ↑ a b Werner Bartels: The Beginnings of the German Embassy Tirana. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Federal Foreign Office , archived from the original on March 22, 2011 ; Retrieved on May 4, 2013 (PDF file, 9.65 kB). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Der Spiegel March 25, 1991 (pp. 183–190): Rush to the prosperity festivals
- ^ Albania decided to open the secret police archives , ORF.at May 1, 2015
- ↑ Gjergj Erebara: Albania Agrees to Start Search for Communists' victims. In: Balkan Insight . June 7, 2018, accessed January 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Gjergj Erebara: Search Begins for Missing Victims of Albanian Communism. In: Balkan Insight. November 16, 2018, accessed January 29, 2019 .
History of Europe
45 European member states of the United Nations:
Albania |
Andorra |
Belgium |
Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Bulgaria |
Denmark |
Germany |
Estonia |
Finland |
France |
Greece |
Ireland |
Iceland |
Italy |
Kazakhstan |
Croatia |
Latvia |
Liechtenstein |
Lithuania |
Luxembourg |
Malta |
Moldova |
Monaco |
Montenegro |
Netherlands |
North Macedonia |
Norway |
Austria |
Poland |
Portugal |
Romania |
Russia |
San Marino |
Sweden |
Switzerland |
Serbia |
Slovakia |
Slovenia |
Spain |
Czech Republic |
Turkey |
Ukraine |
Hungary |
United Kingdom |
Belarus .
European non-member of the United Nations:
Vatican City .
Dependent areas:
Åland Islands |
Faroe Islands |
Gibraltar |
Guernsey |
Isle of Man |
Jersey .
Disputed Territories:
Kosovo |
Transnistria
History of the States of:
Africa |
Asia |
North America |
Oceania |
South America
