Albania is a country in South-Eastern Europe, in the West of the Balkan Peninsula. The Republic of Albania is surrounded in the North and North-East borders with the Former Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), on the East with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and in the South and South-East with the Republic of Greece. On the West, Albania is washed by the Adriatic and the Ionian seas. It is mostly a mountainous country. Albania is included in the humid sub-tropical zone of the Northern hemisphere, and it belongs to the Mediterranean climatic zone. CLIMATE: Approximately 70 percent of Albania’s surface area is covered by mountains or hills. The climate is Mediterranean. Summers are dry and hot, while winters are typically cool and rainy. POPULATION: The population of Albania is about three and a quarter million (113 inhabitant per square kilometer). Almost as many ethnic Albanians (3 million) live outside of the Republic of Albania. About 70 percent of the total population still lives in the Countryside, though the capital city of Tirana \nd other principal cities have attracted inflows \n recent years. The population is growing at a rate of 19 per 1000 inhabitants. Albania’s population is young. back>>

History

The question of the origin of Albanians is still a matter of controversy among the ethnologists. It is generally recognized today that the Albanians are the most ancient race in the southeastern Europe. All indications point to the fact that they are descendants of the earliest Aryan immigrants who were represented by the kindred Illyrians, Macedonians and Epirots. According to the opinion of most ethnologists and linguists, the Illyrians formed the core of pre-Hellenic, Tyrrhenopelasgian population, which inhabited the southern portion of the Peninsula and extended its limits to Thrace and Italy. Illyrian culture is believed to have evolved from the Stone Age and to have manifested itself in the territory of Albania toward the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BC.
In 165 BC Illyria became a Roman dependency. When the Roman Empire divided into east and west in 395, the territories of modern Albania became part of the Byzantine Empire. Albania was first mentioned in the 2nd century by the geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria, which stood for a single Albanoi tribe and spread to include the rest of the country as Arbri and finally, Albania.
Albania, beginning in the 9th century, came under the domination, in whole or in part, of a succession of foreign powers: Bulgarians, Norman crusaders, the Angevins of southern Italy, Serbs, and Venetians. Later on the Ottoman Turks invaded Albania in 1388, which were to last for almost five centuries. At the Treaty of Berlin, Albania is divided among several states. In 28th November 1912 Albanian national delegates met at a congress in Vlore. Led by Ismail Qemali, they declared Albania’s independence, which was recognized in 1914 during the Conference of London. Prince Wilhelm zu Wied is installed as head of the Albanian state by the International Control Commission. His rule ended within six months, with the outbreak of World War I. In 1922 Ahmet Zogu assumes position as Prime Minister. Later on he flees to Yugoslavia, and Noli was installed as Prime Minister of the new government in June 1924 who set out to build a Western-style democracy in Albania. In 1928 Zogu pressures the parliament to dissolve itself, a new constituent assembly declares Albania a kingdom and Zogu becomes Zog I, “King of Albanians”.
On April 7th, 1939, Italy invaded and shortly after occupied the country.
In November 1941 various communist groups formed the Albanian Communist Party and seized control of the country on Nov.29, 1944 with Enver Hoxha as its leader. Albania fell under the collective dictatorship of the Albanian Communist Party. The country became officially the People’s Republic of Albania in 1946 and in 1976 the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. Albania turned to the communist world: Yugoslavia (19944-48), the Soviet Union (1948-61) and China (1961-78). Alienated from both East and West, Albania adopted a “go-it-alone” policy and became notorious as an isolated bastion of Stalinism.
After Hoxha’s death in 1985, Ramiz Alia sought to preserve the communist system. In December 1990 Alia endorsed the creation of independent political parties, thus signaling an end to the communist’s official monopoly of power. In March 1992 a decisive electoral victory was won by the anticommunist opposition led by the Democratic Party. Alia resigned as president and was succeeded by Sali Berisha, the first democratic leader of Albania since Bishop Noli. Albania was thus well on its way toward integrating its politics and institutions with the West, which Albanians have historically viewed as their cultural and geographic home.

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Language

This language is particularly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages, which formed the primitive speech of the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula. It is estimated that of the actual stock of the Albanian language is of undisputed Illyrian origin, and the rest are Illyrian-Pelasgian, ancient Greek and Latin, with a small admixture of Slavic, Italian (dating from the Venetian occupation of the seaboard), Turkish and some Celtic words, too. There are two prevailing dialects: Ghego to the North and Tosko to the South.
In 1967 the government abolished all the institutions of religious character, previously 70% of the population were of Muslim faith, 20% of Greek-Orthodox faith and 10% of Catholic belief. The cult freedom was restored in 1990.

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