Albania General

AREA: 28,748 sq km (11,100 sq miles). The Canadian Embassy in Budapest deals with enquiries relating to Albania (find Hungary in the contents).

POPULATION: 3,300, estimate).

POPULATION DENSITY: 114.8 per sq km.

CAPITAL: Tirana. Population: 244,).

GEOGRAPHY: Albania shares borders with Montenegro and Serbia to the north, with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the northeast, and with Greece to the south; to the west are the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. Most of the country is wild and mountainous, with extensive forests. There are fine sandy beaches and, inland, many beautiful lakes.

LANGUAGE: The official language is Albanian. Many Albanians also speak Italian and English. Greek is widely spoken in the Gjirokastra and Saranda districts in south Albania.

RELIGION: Three religions coexist in Albania: Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox. The majority of the population is Muslim. The Government closed all mosques and churches in 1967 and declared atheism as part of the constitution in 1976. After the overthrow of the communist regime, the existing religious institutions were reopened and are now widely in use.

TIME: GMT + 1 (GMT + 2 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October).

ELECTRICITY: 220 volts AC, 50Hz.

COMMUNICATIONS: Telephone: IDD is available to major towns. Country code: 355. Outgoing international code: 00. City codes: Tirana 42, Durresi 52,

Elbasan 545, Shkodra 224, Gjirokastra 726, Korça 824, Vlora 63, Berati 62, Kavaja 574. For other regions, international connections are made through the nearest city. Telegram/telex/fax: These services are offered in post offices. Post: All mail to and from Albania is subject to delays. Letters can be sent recorded delivery to avoid loss. There are DHL offices in Tirana and Durres, offering services between Albania and other countries. The postal and telecommunication sytems are to undergo extensive modernisation in the near future. Services include letter and parcel post, telephone booths and video information. Post office hours: Monday to Friday and Saturday. Press: Publications that diverge from the Party line have only been permitted since 1990. There are about 400 national and regional newspapers, many of which are independent. The main newspapers are published daily. The Rilindja Demokratike, the organ of the ruling Democratic Party, sells 15-20,000 copies. The only daily, the Zëri i Popullit (Voice of the People), is the Socialist Party (formerly the Communist Party) newspaper, the daily circulation of which has been reduced from 180,000 in 1990 to 15,000 in 1992. English-language newspapers available include the International Herald Tribune, The Sunday Times, The Independent, Balkan News and The Observer. Over 30 magazines are published in Albania.

BBC World Service and Voice of America frequencies: From time to time these change. See the contents for more information.

Voice of America: MHz15.

HISTORY: Despite Albania’s geographical inaccessi-bility, the country has suffered continual invasions over the last 1000 years. From 1467, the country endured the often corrupt and repressive rule of the Turks as part of the Ottoman Empire. Independence came in 1912, after several demands for autonomy had been ruthlessly suppressed, but the country at once became involved in the chaos of the Balkan War and, subsequently, in the war. During the reign of King Zog (1928-39), relations with Italy deteriorated, and in April 1939 Albania was conquered by Mussolini’s forces. Resistance to the occupation was centred on the Communist-led National Liberation Front, which ultimately took power in November 1944. The new regime, under the communist leader Enver Hoxha, was initially close to the Tito government in neighbouring Yugoslavia but broke off contact following the latter’s expulsion from the Soviet bloc in 1948. Soviet efforts at rapprochement with Yugoslavia precipitated Albania’s own secession from the bloc in 1961 and its alliance with China. The post-Mao liberalisations in China were bitterly denounced by the Albanian government, which embarked forthwith on a policy of almost total isolation from the rest of the world. Only with the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985 and his replacement by the Albanian Labour Party’s (ALP) First Secretary, Ramiz Alia, did Albania start to develop foreign links once again. The closest of these appear to be with Western European nations (mostly neighbour-ing Greece, but also Italy and France), principally for economic reasons. To the north, relations with Yugoslavia have been particularly sensitive recently due to ethnic unrest in the southern Yugoslavian province of Kosovo, which has a substantial ethnic Albanian population. However, the Government’s main concern in recent years has been that the unstable regional situation as a whole should prompt a groundswell of discontent within Albania itself. The Government knows that its future survival depends on opening up Albania’s uniquely rigid political and economic system, but it is nonetheless proceeding cautiously, not least because of the powerful conservative grouping within the ALP backed by the still powerful Sigurimi secret police, which is still opposed to reform. In the face of continuing discontent, the Government agreed to hold elections in 1991. The Communist Party won and managed to hold onto office for a month before a general strike brought it down. New elections in March 1992 brought a landslide victory for the Democratic Party. The most urgent task facing the new Government has been to arrest the continuing deterioration of the Albanian economy. Having decided that the country could not stand a Polish-style economic ‘Big Bang’, the Government has embarked on a more moderate reform programme: it does comprise, nonetheless, of far-reaching measures including comprehensive transfer of land, industry and housing to private ownership accompanied by the abolition of price controls and trade restrictions.

GOVERNMENT: Legislative power rests with the elected 250-seat People’s Assembly. Executive power is held by the Council of Ministers drawn from the largest party in the Assembly and headed by the Prime Minister, Sali Berisha. The former Communist leader, Ramiz Alia, is President and Head of State. A draft constitution establishing a parliamentary republic has been published during 1993, which is due to be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee before consideration by the full house.