Friday, December 28, 2012
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Albania .... 8
The Albanians first appear in the historical record in
Byzantine sources of the late-11th century. At this point, they are already
fully Christianised. Christianity was later overtaken by Islam during the
centuries of Ottoman rule. After independence (1912) from the Ottoman Empire,
the Albanian republican, monarchic and later Communist regimes followed a
systematic policy of separating religion from official functions and cultural
life. Albania never had an official state religion either as a republic or as a
kingdom. In the 20th century, the clergy of all faiths was weakened under the
monarchy, and ultimately eradicated during the 1940s and 1950s, under the state
policy of obliterating all organized religion from Albanian territories.
The Communist regime that took control of Albania after
World War II persecuted and suppressed religious observance and institutions
and entirely banned religion to the point where Albania was officially declared
to be the world's first atheist state. Religious freedom has returned to
Albania since the regime's change in 1992. Albanian Muslim populations are
found throughout the country whereas Orthodox Christians are concentrated in
the south and Roman Catholics are found in the north of the country.
Despite the presence of the main monotheist religions in
Albania, many important Pagan days and rituals are celebrated and practiced by
Albanians. 14 March is a Pagan day, called "The summer day". It is
massively celebrated in the city of Elbasan and in Tirana.
Albanian folk music falls into three stylistic groups, with
other important music areas around Shkodër and Tirana; the major groupings are
the Ghegs of the north and southern Labs and Tosks. The northern and southern
traditions are contrasted by the "rugged and heroic" tone of the
north and the "relaxed" form of the south.
Albanian was proven to be an Indo-European language in 1854
by the German philologist Franz Bopp. The Albanian language comprises its own
branch of the Indo-European language family.
Before the establishment of the People's Republic, Albania's
illiteracy rate was as high as 85%. Schools were scarce between World War I and
World War II. When the People's Republic was established in 1945, the Party
gave high priority to the wiping out of illiteracy. As part of a vast social
campaign, anyone between the ages of 12 and 40 who could not read or write was
mandated to attend classes to learn. By 1955, illiteracy was virtually
eliminated among Albania's adult population. Today the overall literacy rate in
Albania is 98.7%, the male literacy rate is 99.2% and female literacy rate is
98.3%.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Albania .. 6
Albania is divided into 12 administrative counties. These
counties include 36 districts and 373 municipalities. There are overall 2980
villages in all Albania. The municipalities are the first level of local
governance, responsible for local needs and law enforcement. The Albanian
republic is a parliamentary democracy established under a constitution renewed
in 1998. Elections are held every four years. Albania, along with Croatia,
joined NATO on 1 April 2009, becoming the 27th and 28th members of the alliance.
Tirana is Albania's capital and largest city.
The Albanian population is relatively young by European
standards, with a median age of 28.9 years.
The dominant and official language is Albanian, a revised
and merged form of the two main dialects, Gheg and Tosk, but with a bigger
influence of Tosk as compared to the Gheg. The Shkumbin River is the dividing
line between the two dialects. In the areas inhabited by the Greek minority, a
dialect of Greek is spoken that preserves features now lost in standard modern
Greek. Other languages spoken by ethnic minorities in Albania include
Aromanian, Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Gorani, and Roma.
There are no official statistics regarding religious
affiliation in Albania. The CIA World Factbook gives a distribution of 70%
Muslims, 20% Eastern Orthodox, and 10% Roman Catholics.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Albania ... 4
Albania's independence was recognized by the Conference of
London on 29 July 1913, but the drawing of the borders of Albania ignored the
demographic realities of the time. The short-lived monarchy (1914–1925) was
succeeded by an even shorter-lived first Albanian Republic (1925–1928), to be
replaced by another monarchy (1928–1939), which was annexed by Fascist Italy
and then by Nazi Germany during World War II. After
the liberation of Albania from Nazi occupation, the country became a socialist
republic, the People's Republic of Albania, which was led by Enver Hoxha
and the Party of Labour of Albania.
The People's Republic was dissolved in 1990, and the Republic
of Albania was founded in 1991. The Communists retained a stronghold in
parliament after popular support in the elections of 1991. However, in March
1992, amid liberalisation policies resulting in economic collapse and social
unrest, a new front led by the new Democratic Party took power. The economic
crisis spread in late 1996 following the failure of some Ponzi schemes
operating in the country, peaking in 1997 in an armed rebellion that led to
another mass emigration of Albanians, mostly to Italy, Greece, Switzerland,
Germany and North America.In 1999, the country was affected by the Kosovo
War, when a great number of Albanians from Kosovo found refuge in Albania.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Albania .... 2
The history of Albania emerged from the prehistoric stage
from the 4th century BC, with early records of Illyria in Greco-Roman
historiography. The modern territory of Albania has no counterpart in
antiquity, comprising parts of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Macedonia. The
territory remained under Roman control until the Slavic migrations of the 7th
century, and was integrated into the Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century. The
territorial nucleus of the Albanian state formed in the Middle Ages, as the
Principality of Arbër and the Kingdom of Albania. The first records of the
Albanian people as a distinct ethnicity also date to this period.
At the dawn of the establishment of the Ottoman Empire in
Southeast Europe, the geopolitical landscape was marked by scattered kingdoms
of small principalities. The Ottomans erected their garrisons throughout
southern Albania by 1415 and established formal jurisdiction over most of
Albania by 1431. Along with the Bosniaks, Muslim Albanians occupied an
outstanding position in the empire, and were the main pillars of Ottoman policy
in the Balkans.
Enjoying this privileged position in the empire, Muslim
Albanians held various administrative positions, with over two dozen Grand
Viziers of Albanian origin, such as Gen. Pasha, who commanded the Ottoman
forces during the Ottoman-Persian Wars; Gen. Ahmed, who led the Ottoman army
during the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664); and, later, Muhammad Ali Pasha of
Egypt. In the 15th century, when the Ottomans were gaining a firm foothold in
the region, Albanian towns were organised into four principle sanjaks. The
government fostered trade by settling a sizeable Jewish colony of refugees
fleeing persecution in Spain.
Albanians could also be found throughout the empire, in
Iraq, Egypt, Algeria and across the Maghreb as vital military and
administrative retainers. This owed largely to their early use as part of the
Devşirme system. The process of Islamization was an incremental one, commencing
from the arrival of the Ottomans in the 14th century. Timar holders, the
bedrock of early Ottoman control in Southeast Europe, were not necessarily
converts to Islam, and occasionally rebelled; the most famous of these rebels
is Skanderbeg. The most significant impact on the Albanians was the gradual
Islamisation process of a large majority of the population, although such a
process only became widespread in the 17th century. Mainly Catholics converted
in the 17th century, while the Orthodox Albanians followed suit mainly in the
following century. Initially confined to the main city centres of Elbasan and
Shkoder, by this period the countryside was also embracing the new religion.
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