Pashaliman Naval Base
The Pashaliman naval base ( Albanian Baza ushtarake e Pashalimanit ) is one of the two main bases of the Albanian navy (the other is in Durrës ). It is located at the southwest end of the Bay of Vlora near Orikum . The small naval base on the island of Sazan , about 25 kilometers further north, also belongs to the Pashaliman naval base.
history
Pashaliman became internationally known when, after the establishment of the Warsaw Pact belonged in 1955, the Albania as a founding member, the Soviet Union there twelve of their by NATO as Whiskey class designated submarines stationed. Pashaliman was the only Soviet military base in the Mediterranean in the 1950s, and the Soviets invested significant sums in upgrading the base they leased. When the Albanian head of state and party leader Enver Hoxha took the party of China in 1960/61 in the beginning dispute between the Soviet Union and China and called on the USSR to end its military presence in Albania, Moscow threatened in April 1961 with the occupation of Vlora, the threatened one Avoid loss of the base and canceled all economic and military aid. The occupation of Vlora did not materialize, however, since the escalation of the Cold War preoccupied Moscow in other places.
When the Soviet Union then withdrew its submarines from Albania, Hoxha appropriated four of the boats built in 1955 and 1956 ( S-241 , S-242 , S-358 , S-360 ), which had sailed with Albanian crews and which therefore , in his opinion, are Albanian property. The boats were initially operated with Chinese help. When this did not materialize in the late 1960s, this became increasingly difficult. The first boat was decommissioned in 1976 and used as a spare part supplier for the others. The last boat was taken out of service in 2003. As a result, all four lay in an increasingly neglected condition on a pier in the northern part of the port of Pashaliman. In 2012, however, three of the four submarines are said to have been sold as scrap iron and disposed of.
The events surrounding the withdrawal of the Soviets and the Albanian takeover of the submarines were depicted by Ismail Kadare in the novel The Great Winter ("Dimri i madh", 1977).
Todays use
After the end of the communist regime , the base deteriorated, and it was devastated in the so-called lottery uprising of 1997. Thereafter, it was renovated by Turkey as part of an Albanian-Turkish agreement , which has since also had the right to use.
In May 2009 the first warship built in Albania was launched in Pashaliman . It entered service on September 13 in Pashaliman. The patrol boat P-132 Oriko (named after the ancient city of Oricum ) was built there in cooperation with the Dutch shipyard Damen Shipyards , and in 2008 the P-131 Iliria , the first of four Stan Patrol 4207 ships for the Albanian Marine, built in the Netherlands.
Coordinates: 40 ° 19 ′ 30 ″ N , 19 ° 25 ′ 8 ″ E
Web links
- Albanian Ministry of Defense: The first ship is produced at Pasha Liman September 13, 2011.
- Damen Shipyards: Second Damen Patrol Vessel delivered to Albanian Coast Guard. 17th July 2012.
Notes and individual references
- ^ Albania to sell Soviet-made submarines for scrap. on: in.reuters.com , March 4, 2010.
- ↑ S 241 was renamed to N 510 , then N 331 , and decommissioned in 1976. S 242 was renamed to N 512 , then N 523 , N 442 , N 024 , and decommissioned in 1991. S 358 was renamed to N 51 , then N 423 , and decommissioned in 1995. S 360 was renamed to N 514 , then N 552 , N 422 , S 33 , N 022 , and decommissioned in 2003. ( Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )
- ^ Lorenz M. Lüthi: The Sino-Soviet split: Cold War in the communist world. Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-06911-3590-8 , p. 203.
- ↑ Location on: maps.google.de
- ↑ Volker Grundmann: With the mobile home to Albania . In: WOMO series . tape 75 . Wohnmobil-Verlag, Mitteldorf 2013, ISBN 978-3-86903-751-6 .
- ↑ Two more sister ships , P-133 Lisus and P-134 Butrinti , also built in Pashaliman, are to be added in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
