Albania: Political System
According to COMPUTERMINUS.COM, Albania is a parliamentary republic with a unicameral parliament. The head of state is the president, who is elected by parliament every five years. See AbbreviationFinder for more information about Albania politics, and acronyms as well.
The parliament has 55 members who are directly elected. Some of them also come to parliament through proportional elections. Elections for parliament take place every four years.
The President appoints the Council of Ministers, which is the highest executive body. This Council of Ministers is then confirmed by Parliament. The Prime Minister, who is the chairman of the Council of Ministers and thus the head of government, is elected from among him.
The official name of the country is:
| Republic of Albania |
National anthem
The national anthem of Albania was written by Alxsander Stavre Drenova and set to music by Ciprian Porumbescu in 1880. It became the country’s official anthem in 1912.
| In Albanian | In English |
| Hymni i FlamuritRreth flamurit të përbashkuar,
Me një dëshirë dhe një qëllim, Të gjithë Atij duke iu betuar, Të lidhim besën për shpëtim. Prej lufte veç ay largohet, Që është lindur tradhëtor, Kush është burrë nuk friksohet, Po vdes, po vdes si një dëshmor. Në dorë armët do t’i mbajmë, Të mbrojmë Atdheun në çdo vend, Të drejtat tona ne s’i ndajmë, Këtu armiqtë s’kanë vend. Se Zoti vet e tha me gojë, Që kombe shoes përmbi dhé, Po Shqipëria do të rrojë, Për te, për te luftojmë ne. |
Hymn to the FlagUnited around the flag,
With one desire and one goal, Let us pledge our word of honor To fight for our salvation. Only he who is a born traitor Averts from the struggle. He who is brave is not daunted, But falls – a martyr to the cause. With arms in hand we shall remain, To guard our fatherland round about. Our rights we will not comfortably, enemies have no place here. For the Lord Himself has said, That nations vanish from the earth, But Albania shall live on, Because for her, it is for her that we fight. |
National flag
In Albanian the name of the country is “Land of the Eagle”. Therefore the eagle belongs to the national coat of arms, which was also adopted for the national flag. Based on flag descriptions by Countryaah.com, the red color of the flag represents the blood spilled in the independence struggles.
- Check top-mba-universities for public holidays, sports events, UNESCO world heritage sites and major places to visit in Albania.
Albania: Known People
Rulers and politicians
Gjergj (Georg) Kastrioti – called Skanderberg (1405-1468)
He was the son of the “Bergfürsten Kastriota”, who waged a constant defensive battle against the Ottomans (Turks). As a result of this conflict, the boy was abducted by the Ottoman ruler Murad II to Adrianople – now Edine. There he converted to Islam.
But when the prince had his father, who had taken up arms again, murdered, he fled in 1443 and conquered the Kruja fortress. There he converted to the Catholic faith and blocked the Ottomans’ access to the Adriatic for about 25 years. Skanderberg died of natural causes in 1468. The Ottomans had tried several times to defeat Skanderbegs and also repeatedly besieged Kruja without being able to take the fortress. The Albanians, however, were too weak to be able to drive out the Ottomans, especially since there was no support from other European states.
It was only ten years after his death, i.e. in 1478, that the Ottomans were able to conquer and rule Albania.
Thereafter there was no longer an Albanian empire until 1912.
Ramiz Alia (born 1925)
The politician, born in 1925 in Shkodra, Albania, was the last communist head of state in his country.
Anastasios I (around 430-518)
The emperor Caesar Flavius Anastasius Augustus was emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire from 491 to 518.
Pjetër Arbnori (1935 – 2006)
This Albanian writer and politician, born Filip Toma in 1935, had to spend more than 28 years as a dissident in Albanian communist prisons before he became one of the leaders of the democracy movement in 1989/90, which marked the end of the communist regime Brought about rule in the country.
Luigj Gurakuqi (1879-1925)
This Albanian writer and politician had adapted the Latin alphabet for the Albanian language. In 1925 he was murdered in Bari, Italy.
Enver Hoxha (1908 – 1985)
Until his death on April 11, 1985, he was the undisputed ruler of the country that he had ruled with Stalinist brutality. During his reign he isolated the country more and more from the rest of the international community.
Out of paranoia he let z. B. build around 600,000 bunkers in particularly important locations throughout the country, some of which are now marketed as tourist attractions.
Muhammad Ali Pascha (1769-1844)
Ali Pascha was born in 1769 to Albanian parents in Kavala in what is now Greece. From 1805 to 1848 he was viceroy of Egypt as well as Ottoman pasha and the founder of the ruling dynasty that ruled Egypt until 1953 and reached. He managed to make Egypt relatively independent from the Ottoman Empire.
In 1799 he fought against the Egyptian expeditionary army of Napoléon Bonaparte in Egypt. The young lieutenant made such an excellent impression that he was given command of the Albanian corp. In 1805 he took as pasha from the citadel in CairoPossession and in 1807 he defeated the British army, forcing them to withdraw from Egypt. The Mohammed Ali Mosque, built in Cairo from 1824 to 1884, was the result of his initiative.
Rexhep Meidani (born 1944)
The gebärtig from Tirana originating Meidani was between 1997 and 2002 President of the Republic of Albania.
Alfred Moisiu (born 1929)
This Albanian politician was the former president of his country.
Skanderbeg or Prince Gjergj Kastrioti (1405 – 1468)
This Albanian prince achieved great recognition, especially for his courageous defense of his country against the Ottomans. He is revered today by all Albanians as a national hero.
Fatos Nano (born 1952)
The Tirana-born politician was Albanian Prime Minister and chairman of the country’s Socialist Party several times between 1991 and 2005.
Ismail Qemali (1844 – 1919)
The later Albanian politician, publicist and leader of the Albanian national movement, who was actually born as Ismail Qemali Bey Vlora, proclaimed the independence of Albania in his hometown of Vlora on November 28, 1912. He also served as the new state’s first head of government.
Edi Rama (born 1964)
This Albanian politician was also an internationally recognized artist. He is the current (as of 2008) incumbent mayor of the Albanian capital Tirana. Among other things, Rama, who had to live in exile in Paris for a long time, gained notoriety because he had started to paint dreary buildings from the communist era in Tirana.
Ahmed Zogu ( 1895-1961)
Zogu was President of the country from 1925-1928 and King of Albania from 1928 until the German occupation in 1939.
Writer, poet and painter
Dritëro Agolli (born 1931)
The writer and poet Agoll glorified or idealized the system at the time of communism and extolled its attempt to educate the communist new man. From 1973 to 1992 he was chairman of the Albanian Writers’ Union. Agolli lives in Tirana and publishes a new book almost every year. His first work entitled Mesditë (noon) was published in 1969.
Ridvan Dibra (born 1959)
Dibra is a poet, literary scholar and journalist. Some of his works are available in English, German, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian and Italian.
Ledia Dushi (born 1978)
This Albanian writer and journalist became particularly famous for her poetry, which was written in the Gegic dialect. She is one of the most influential Albanian poets of the 1990s.
Gjergj Fishta (1871-1940)
The Albanian Father of the Franciscan Order also worked as a poet and translator. He is considered the most important Albanian writer of his time. Above all his work “The Lute of the Highlands” counts as the most important work of Albanian literature. It is about the national liberation struggle from 1858 to 1913.
Luigj Gurakuqi (1879-1925)
This Albanian writer and politician had adapted the Latin alphabet for the Albanian language. In 1925 he was murdered in Bari, Italy.
Ismail Kadaré (born 1936)
In his novels and poetry he deals with the Albanian present and past – including the novel “Albanian Spring”, which deals with the attempts at democratization of 1990. Kadaré moved to France in October 1990.
Fatos Kongoli (born 1944)
Kongoli is one of the most important contemporary Albanian writers. He currently lives with his wife Lili in the Albanian capital Tirana.
Migjeni (1911 – 1938)
The poet, born as Millosh Gjergj Nikolla in Shkodra, Albania, mostly worked under his acronym Migjeni. Almost without exception, he wrote his works in Albanian.
Arshi Pipa (1920 – 1997)
Pipa was an Albanian writer who had to flee from the communist regime to the USA after World War II, where he was one of the most important intellectuals of the Albanian diaspora.
Pashko Vasa (1825 – 1892)
The Albanian writer and politician, also known as Vaso Pasha, was very actively involved in the Albanian national movement Rilindja. Vasa achieved particular fame among his compatriots due to his poem “O moj Shqypni”, which is a poem about love for the Albanian people.
Ali Oseku (born 1944)
Ali Oseku was born on February 23, 1944 in Tirana, Albania. He had studied painting in Tirana for five years. Since he had orientated himself to the “moderns” like Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Jackson Pollack or Salvator Dali, he was forced to work in a mine for three years under the communists.
But he was imprisoned for a total of 10 years because he was supposed to have made propagansa for the enemy. I was only able to rehabilitate it to some extent through huge real-socialist paintings by Enver Halil Hoxha – German: Enver Hodscha (1908-1985).
In the early 1970s, Hodscha began a culture war against western modernity. He ruled the country dictatorially from 1944 until his death in 1985.
Odeku lives and works in Tirana.
Athlete
Adnan Januzaj (born 1995)
Adnan Januzaj was born on February 5, 1995 in Brussels and grew up there.
He is a Belgian soccer player with Kosovar Albanian roots. He played for Manchester United (as of 2014).
His parents are both Kosovar Albanians: His father fled to Belgium in 1992 because of the Bosnian War.
His mother’s family was deported from Kosovo to Turkey, where they emigrated to Belgium.
Altin Lala (born 1975)
The Tirana-born soccer player mostly plays in defensive midfield and has played for the German club Hannover 96 since 1998. Since 1994 he has also played for the Albanian national team.
Mirela Maniani or Mirela Tzelili (born 1976)
This Greek javelin thrower of Albanian origin managed to become world champion twice in her career. She was also able to win Olympic medals in 2000 and 2004.
Hamdi Salihi (born 1984)
This Albanian football player began his professional career in 2002 with Vllaznia Shkodër.
Igli Tare (born 1973)
This Albanian soccer striker started his career in Germany and is now an active player in Italy .
Other personalities
Mother Theresa (1910-1997)
She was born on August 26, 1910 as Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje in Macedonia in Albania. She worked in Calcutta as a Catholic nun in a poor hospital. She received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her social commitment.
At the age of twelve she decided to become a nun and at the age of 18 became a member of the Order of the Loreto Sisters. In 1928 she left Skopje for the mother house in Irelandto go. Two months later she came to the house of the Loreto Order in Bengal. She later worked for 17 years at St. Mary’s School in Calcutta, where she ultimately worked as director.
On a trip through Calcutta on September 10, 1946, she claims to have received the divine calling to help the poor there. But it wasn’t until two years later that she received permission to leave the Loreto Sisters. She was exclaustrated so that she could leave the order without having to give up her status as a nun. After that she lived in the slums of Calcutta, where she was soon joined by some former students.
In 1948 she received Indian citizenship and founded the order “Missionaries of Charity” in 1950, for which she worked until her death. She died on September 5, 1997. On September 13, 1997, Mother Teresa was buried in Calcutta with a state at her request, she was buried in the monastery that she had founded herself.
She was also beatified on October 19, 2003. In the year of her beatification, the country’s only international airport – a little more than 15 km from Tirana – was opened. Named Nënë Tereza (= Mother Teresa) in her honor.
James “Jim” Adam Belushi (born 1954)
Belushi was born on June 15, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. He is an Albanian-American actor and blues musician and the younger brother of John Belushi.
His parents were the Albanian immigrants Adam Belushi and Agnes Belushi (née Samara) – whose parents had immigrated from Albania.
John Adam Belushi (1949-1982)
He was born on January 24, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois. John Adam Belushi was an American singer and film actor and the older brother of the blues musician and actor James Belushi.
His parents were the Albanian immigrants Adam Belushi and Agnes Belushi (née Samara) – whose parents immigrated from Albania.
He died on March 5, 1982 in West Hollywood, USA
Edi Hila (born in Shkodër in 1944)
This Albanian painter has exhibited internationally since 1990. He fell out of favor in 1974 during the communist dictatorship.
Inva Mula-Tchako (born 1963)
The opera singer became famous for her soprano in the film “The Fifth Element”.
Vinçenc Kolë Prennushi OFM (1885 – 1949)
The Catholic Archbishop of Durrës died in 1949 in a communist prison of the Albanian regime as a result of permanent torture.
Rita Sahatçiu Ora (born 1990)
Rita Sahatçiu Ora was born on November 26, 1990 in Pristina in what is now Kosowo. Before her first birthday, she and her family moved to London.
She is a Kosovar Albanian British singer, actress and model.
Bleona Qereti (born 1979)
The Albanian pop singer, born in Korça in 1979, now lives in Tirana and the USA.
Gjergj Xhuvani (born 1963)
This director shot the award-winning film “Dear Enemy”, which is a satire on communism. For the screenplay he received the award for the best European screenplay at the Sundance Film Festival.
