The Albania Thread

[Aslan]

So I thought that maybe some people (A certain tankie) may be interested in discussing the current political and social situation in Albania. Now I certainly know most of people in Revleft neither know or care much about Albania, but the point of this isn't that. Instead it is to attract potential Albanians (some I know have been here) to the website.

John Kerry visits Albania

While going to Munich, Kerry went on a minor stop by the small Republic of Albania, where he met both Prime Minister Rama (PS) and opposition leader Lulzim Basha (PD). The basic summary of his visit was that he was happy to see Albania had eliminate ''most'' of its corruption (eliminated my ass). Rama did his usual wooing and everything went smoothly.

What was the obvious reason for the visit though was the growing extremism in Albania. Now Islamic extremism had existed before, in Kosovo it was quite common. However it has recently spread to central Albania as well, and is causing a lot of problems. All these extremists have to do is travel through Greece and Turkey (which has an open border with ISIL) to enter into the middle of a warzone. These people have ties with drug producers (that's a story for another day) and potentially with the Albanian mafia.

All in all, it shows some of the many problems with Albania.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/kerry-notes-friendly-relations-with-albania-in-his-first-visit-there/2016/02/14/4c89699a-d2a8-11e5-90d3-34c2c42653ac_story.html

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

So I thought that maybe some people (A certain tankie) may be interested in discussing the current political and social situation in Albania.


Technically speaking, I think the one of which you speak thinks Tankies (defined narrowly, not broadly) are "revisionists". Well, I guess any Hoxhaist would.


Rama did his usual dick sucking and everything went smoothly.


I'm sure this comment was meant innocently, but some on this forum might find it a problematic way to express your meaning.


What was the obvious reason for the visit though was the growing extremism in Albania. Now Islamic extremism had existed before, in Kosovo it was quite common. However it has recently spread to central Albania as well, and is causing a lot of problems. All these extremists have to do is travel through Greece and Turkey (which has an open border with ISIL) to enter into the middle of a warzone. These people have ties with drug producers (that's a story for another day) and potentially with the Albanian mafia.


Are there any stats on the rise of Islamist fundamentalism? It is curious, since Balkan Islam (from my understanding) has not traditionally been as radical but opted with the more pragmatic Ottoman variety, but I wonder if the ideological void left by enforced secularism made it more common.

[Modern Marx]

Despite the fact that it isn't part of the Soviet bloc, it still seems to be rotten.

[Aslan]

Technically speaking, I think the one of which you speak thinks Tankies (defined narrowly, not broadly) are "revisionists". Well, I guess any Hoxhaist would.

I'm sure this comment was meant innocently, but some on this forum might find it a problematic way to express your meaning.[QUOTE]

Ahh Ismail... And I also fixed it to be more grounded.

[QUOTE]Are there any stats on the rise of Islamist fundamentalism? It is curious, since Balkan Islam (from my understanding) has not traditionally been as radical but opted with the more pragmatic Ottoman variety, but I wonder if the ideological void left by enforced secularism made it more common.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Albania_majority_religion_2011_census.png


Almost 80 percent of Albania’s 3.6 million citizens are Muslims In this population, three distinct groups can be distinguished. The Muslim Community of Albania is the major body representing the country’s Sunni Muslims (and Albanian Muslims in general), and it is deemed to be the most “legitimate” representative of Albanian Muslims by the state and by the international community.2 Secondly, the World Bektashi Center in Tirana officially represents the Shi’ite Bektashi Sufi order (comprising around 20 percent of Albania’s Muslim population). However, the Bektashi order is considered heretical by many Muslims for its more relaxed, liberal practices and differing theology. The Bektashi are particularly despised by the third and most dangerous Islamic group present in Albania—the puritanical minority attracted to Wahhabism and other extreme forms of Islam prevalent in the Arab world.

It is difficult to quantify the number of Wahhabis in Albania, as they operate largely outside of official structures. Although they continue to make determined efforts to usurp power from the country’s legitimate Islamic representatives, Wahhabis have also established parallel institutions, ranging from mosques to schools and charities. Correspondingly, in July 2012, Peter Rettig, a Catholic charity leader, voiced his alarm over a perceived increase in Islamic fundamentalist attitudes among Albanian Muslims. He stated that he had encountered several instances of anti-Christian activities and social separatism from Muslims, particularly from members of the younger generation, in a manner that had been unprecedented even just two years prior. He also asserted that an increase in the number of young Muslims returning from schooling in Saudi Arabia and Turkey could have something to do with the trend of increasing fundamentalism.

An ongoing trend in Islamist activities in Albania (and the Balkans in general) is the manipulation of the concept of “civil society.” As part of this process, Islamist groups employ the liberal rhetoric of human rights and religious freedom in pursuit of an Islamic supremacist agenda. This is chiefly done through the public discourse of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)—entities utilized by Western state-builders since the 1990s as tools in the broader democratization movement in post-Communist Eastern Europe. NGOs and charities are also attractive to radical elements for money laundering purposes, as their financial records can easily be manipulated, and they can achieve disproportionate influence in poor, rural areas. And, despite their non-governmental designation, many are in fact informal entities supported by various governments (discussed below).

One of the more conspicuous Muslim NGOs is the Muslim Forum of Albania (MFA). The organization was created in 2005, during a heated feud between moderates and radicals over the official Muslim Community’s bylaws. Because of this history, some seasoned foreign and local observers have concluded that the MFA was created to compete with official Islamic bodies. Indeed, the MFA has been accused of creating “parallel structures” from those of the official Muslim Community Although the MFA claims merely to be interested in protecting human rights and opposing discrimination against Muslims, its public statements have revealed a more dogmatic agenda. Such statements include: attacking Pope Benedict XVI for his comments on violence in Islam; condemning Albanian Christian groups and all church-building initiatives; denouncing the Danish cartoonist who famously drew the depictions of Prophet Mohammed in 2005; petitioning the government to accept Chinese Uighur prisoners being released from Guantanamo Bay; and insinuating that Albania’s foreign Islamist residents are oppressed.

The degree of influence that such organizations currently wield over the public discourse remains limited. However, it is clear from their deliberate use of the English language instead of Albanian and their attempts to petition international organizations to their cause that they are interested not only in the internal, local Albanian audience, but in becoming part of a broader, global Islamic movement. In terms of Albania’s national security and social cohesion, the biggest threat that this poses is the potential for Islamists to divide the nation on religious grounds; Albanians have historically taken pride in their ability to maintain ethnic cohesion, despite being cumulatively composed of differing Christian and Muslim groups. If the MFA and other like-minded groups continue to gain influence, it could easily endanger this cooperative legacy.

Most significantly, formal and informal Islamic organizations have been used to challenge the legitimate Muslim leadership in the country in order to implement a more radical policy and to overthrow the leadership. This type of activity has undergone a notable progression in the past decade. While Islamic extremism in Albania once was solely funded and fomented from abroad, in recent years it has found a foothold within the country itself. (The current activities of foreign Islamist charities and groups are discussed in greater detail below.)

As part of this evolution, extremists of Albanian background have been trained abroad, and some have returned to take up active roles in Albania (operating independently or as part of Islamist groups). Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration asked Albania to shutter several charities suspected to be fronts for radical activity; one, al Haramain, was suspected of organizing the murder of a moderate Muslim Community leader, Salih Tivari, in January 2002.9 Shortly before his death, Tivari had pledged to remove foreign Islamist elements from the country. In fact, the Albanian authorities believe that local Albanian extremists trained in Islamic states actually carried out his murder.10 In 2006, other Muslim Community leaders received death threats after an extremist group tried, but failed, to change one of the Community’s official statutes. Such homegrown threats are a new menace with which Albania must contend.

Leadership challenges and internal conflicts within the Albanian Muslim community are allowing radicalism to flourish, as moderates become increasingly intimidated and mired in controversy. The Muslim Community is Albania’s second-largest landowner, and some of the “scandals” frequently invoked by critics of the Community’s leadership concern alleged profiteering from land sales. In recent years, this has caused a division within the Community’s General Council between supporters of head mufti Selim Muca and his opponents. The former seem to currently hold the upper hand: on September 21, 2010, following an attempt by Muca’s opponents to prosecute him for corruption, a special session of the General Council reconfirmed Muca’s authority, and sacked four prominent opponents among the Islamic leadership. This came four years after similar infighting which resulted in the firing of the Mufti of Shkoder, Bashkim Bajraktari. It is interesting to note that U.S. officials were concerned at the time that the local Islamic leadership in Shkoder was ”stacked with “extremists” due to the local influence of the MFA and its international links with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Not only has it created internal frictions within Albania’s Muslim community, it has also distracted its leadership from dealing with attempts by religious extremists to strengthen their foothold. Muca, for example, has been criticized for failing to stop the formation of a union of imams with reported Wahhabi leanings in the large town of Kavaja, located between Tirana and the Adriatic coast. As a show of opposition to Muca, the above-mentioned Muslim Forum of Albania held an event in Kavaja in February 2008, attracting Islamists from Kosovo, Macedonia and other parts of the region. A new group, the Union of Islamic Youth, is now registered in Kavaja and believed to be associated with Wahhabi elements (although available information about the group is sparse). In any case, local and foreign observers agree that the Kavaja mosque and its worshippers are increasingly wary of outsiders and seem to have more fundamentalist views.

Such loose associations have been greatly expedited by the Internet, allowing them to operate across borders, with like-minded brethren coming and going to spread the word in Wahhabi-controlled mosques throughout the region. One advantage of this method of operations is that an organization’s activities, funding and directives remain completely unregulated and unrestricted by any law or official body. This is not to say, however, that Islamists do not wish to take over the Muslim community of Albania. In fact, that is their ultimate goal—one that, if achieved, will confer control over vast amounts of money, properties and, crucially, legitimacy by default in the eyes of the state and the international community.

It is hard to say how many of them there are, but from Albanian news reports I have deduced that there must be at least 3000 extremists in total in Albania. Mostly reported in central rural villages, where local rouge mosques encourage this sort of behavior. This wasn't a big problem before, there was previously no trace of Al-Qaeda in the nation. However the reason why were are talking about this in the first place is because of ISIL, they have infected into Kosovo. And from Kosovo they have grown into Albania. Now, keep in mind it isn't a horrible problem, but we must keep in mind that these organizations need to be eliminated before they cause severe damage.

Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani was a prominent Salafi cleric who could be called the father of Albanian extremism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Nasiruddin_al-Albani

http://www.neweasterneurope.eu/articles-and-commentary/1301-the-hidden-growth-of-islamic-extremism-in-kosovo *

http://almanac.afpc.org/Albania *

(*keep in mind these are outdated, since most of the issues are since the rise of ISIL, but the roots are there)

[Ismail]

Despite the fact that it isn't part of the Soviet bloc, it still seems to be rotten.Albania wasn't "part of the Soviet bloc" after 1961, I even wrote an article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Albanian_split

As for Albania's "rottenness" since 1991, here's a nice summary:

"With the fall of Communism schoolhouses were often see as symbols of the regime and therefore destroyed. The virulent revival of blood feuds, which a hapless central authority can do little to remedy, requires thousands of school-age children to stay at home. The economic disaster that is Albania has little funding left for education. The population of Tirana grew from approximately 300,000 in 1991 to almost one million in 2003, but not one new high school was built during that twelve-year period. The mass exodus of the best and the brightest — in the first ten years following the collapse of Communism possibly 20% of the population fled what they considered a hopeless situation — has resulted in an unprecedented brain-drain. Albanian education is in crisis with no quick fix in sight. Women's rights, another of Hoxha's achievements, have been severely set back with the explosion of human trafficking which has seen thousands of Albanian girls and women transported abroad for prostitution and thousands more kept home from school by their parents for fear of such forcible abduction... with patriotic intellectuals openly suggesting that the only way out of the morass may be for Albania to become a ward of the United Nations or an Italian condominium."
(Bernd J. Fischer (ed). Balkan Strongmen. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. 2007. pp. 266-267.)

[PikSmeet]

Sounds Grim Ismail and after 25 years of that they still don't want a return to what life was like under Hoxha. That tells you all you need to know about how rotten that regime was.

[Ismail]

Sounds Grim Ismail and after 25 years of that they still don't want a return to what life was like under Hoxha. That tells you all you need to know about how rotten that regime was.Actually there's quite a bit of nostalgia for the socialist period. Even among those opposed to it, e.g. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0710/p10s01-woeu.html?page=1

The state no longer guarantees jobs, houses, or healthcare, as it did before. In rural areas, industry and state-farm collectives have collapsed, leaving people to fend for themselves, and many government services are no longer available. In rural areas, for example, 85 percent of secondary schools have shut their doors.

Researchers say that poverty is becoming increasingly entrenched, particularly in rural areas, among Albania's minority Roma population and in families with children. Indeed, across the region, countries with the lowest birthrates also have the lowest poverty levels.

"What has emerged is the concentration of disadvantage. Families with children seem more disadvantaged than before, relatively speaking," says Menchini, emphasizing that the state must do more to protect children. "It's important for these counties to invest in social services. They have to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty."

Jalldyz Ymeri, a young grandmother who lives near the Daljani family, says in communist days she would not have nearly lost her 3-year-old grandson Orgito – a spiky-haired boy with angelic eyes – whom races around the family's dirt yard as she watches. A few months earlier, the boy fell seriously ill, and Ymeri had to bribe a doctor to see him.

"The medicines to cure him are very expensive," she says. "Sometimes we have to choose between food or medicine. Nobody will treat us if we don't pay."

"For us it was much better in communist times," insists Ymeri's husband, Safet. "We were obliged to go to school. The government gave us housing. We like democracy, but this is not real democracy."

[PikSmeet]

Actually there's quite a bit of nostalgia for the socialist period. Even among those opposed to it, e.g. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0710/p10s01-woeu.html?page=1

Yet not many votes...nostalgia is a funny thing, in WW1 Siegfried Sassoon noted that troops leaving the trenches became nostalgic for the trenches and sad at leaving. Of course they weren't really, had they been offered the chance to cancel their leave and stay they would have turned that down.

[Ismail]

Yet not many votes...nostalgia is a funny thingThere's a number of reasons for that, such as people thinking that there's no way Albania could return to its prior system (i.e. voting anything other than "the next best thing," the social-democrats, is akin to throwing away your vote) and the modern-day Communist Party having relatively little in common with the Party of Labour.

To give a more concrete example of nostalgia, an important Albanian newspaper called Koha Jone did a poll back in 2000. Some 20,000 people voted for whom they considered Albania's "man of the century." Enver Hoxha came first place, Ismail Qemali (Albania's founding father) second, and Mother Teresa fourth.

[PikSmeet]

There's a number of reasons for that, such as people thinking that there's no way Albania could return to its prior system (i.e. voting anything other than "the next best thing," the social-democrats, is akin to throwing away your vote) and the modern-day Communist Party having relatively little in common with the Party of Labour.

To give a more concrete example of nostalgia, an important Albanian newspaper called Koha Jone did a poll back in 2000. Some 20,000 people voted for whom they considered Albania's "man of the century." Enver Hoxha came first place, Ismail Qemali (Albania's founding father) second, and Mother Teresa fourth.

Other reasons would be they don't want the unbelievable repression to return to Albania.
So if 20 000 people took part in a German newspaper poll and voted Hitler "man of the century" that would prove what?

[Ismail]

Other reasons would be they don't want the unbelievable repression to return to Albania.The average citizen did not experience "unbelievable repression." If Albanians from school age onward are that if Albania is not integrated into the capitalist system it is forever doomed to be "poor," that the Western parliamentary form of government is the pinnacle of democracy, that Communists are "anti-national," etc., it isn't surprising that most people are going to be wary of supporting socialism.


So if 20 000 people took part in a German newspaper poll and voted Hitler "man of the century" that would prove what?Germany's population in 2000 was 82 million. Albania's was 3 million. 20,000 is a bit more representative in the latter. It's obviously not a perfect indicator in either case, but it does prove that there's nostalgia which is something you're denying.

[PikSmeet]

The average citizen did not experience "unbelievable repression." If Albanians from school age onward are that if Albania is not integrated into the capitalist system it is forever doomed to be "poor," that the Western parliamentary form of government is the pinnacle of democracy, that Communists are "anti-national," etc., it isn't surprising that most people are going to be wary of supporting socialism.

Germany's population in 2000 was 82 million. Albania's was 3 million. 20,000 is a bit more representative in the latter. It's obviously not a perfect indicator in either case, but it does prove that there's nostalgia which is something you're denying.

It sure was awful
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha#Human_rights
Why would anyone want to live like that? The obvious answer is they don't. Hence why they tore the system down and no one wants it back.
The only comparision to Albania under "communism" would be the DPRK, a regime where people are desperate to leave but can't due to...unbelievable repression.

[LionofTepelenë]

Gentlemen please! This is not a Hoxha discussion board, it is for the current situation in Albania, modern times! If you want to discuss about Enver Hoxha, we can all do it in another thread!

[LionofTepelenë]

Gentlemen! This isn't a Enver Hoxha discussion, this is modern times! Please, if you want to discuss Albania pre-1991, make another thread!

[PikSmeet]

Albania supported Dubcek in the Prague Spring in '68?
Wow, now that fact threw me, given that Albania was more repressive than the USSR was at that time. Perhaps they were just following the "my emenies enemy is my friend" theory.

[John Nada]

Albania supported Dubcek in the Prague Spring in '68?
Wow, now that fact threw me, given that Albania was more repressive than the USSR was at that time. Perhaps they were just following the "my emenies enemy is my friend" theory.The PPSh held that capitalism had been restored in the USSR and that the USSR had become a social imperialist power. The invasion of Czechoslovakia was said to be in order to maintain neo-colonial capitalist super-exploitation, not to "defend the revolution", and in violation of Czechoslovakia's right to self-determination, regardless of the government's flaws. IIRC Hoxha also condemed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and even said if the Soviets invaded Yugoslavia(their mortal enemy) Albania would help defend Yugoslavia.

And what's a thread about Albania without bunkers:grin: https://worksthatwork.com/3/albania-bunkers

[PikSmeet]

The PPSh held that capitalism had been restored in the USSR and that the USSR had become a social imperialist power. The invasion of Czechoslovakia was said to be in order to maintain neo-colonial capitalist super-exploitation, not to "defend the revolution", and in violation of Czechoslovakia's right to self-determination, regardless of the government's flaws. IIRC Hoxha also condemed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and even said if the Soviets invaded Yugoslavia(their mortal enemy) Albania would help defend Yugoslavia.

And what's a thread about Albania without bunkers:grin: https://worksthatwork.com/3/albania-bunkers
Thanks for this!

I'm laughing at the modern day tankies, who support both Albania under Hoxha and the Prague spring invasion.

[Ismail]

Aslan, I think you should have a mod split the topic if the Hoxha-era discussion becomes too obtrusive.


I'm laughing at the modern day tankies, who support both Albania under Hoxha and the Prague spring invasion.In my experience "tankies" (i.e. Brezhnevites) don't really support Hoxha. They'll call him "ultra-left," "sectarian" or whatever.

But yes, the Albanian and Chinese view was that the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia was an act of aggression and yet another repudiation of the policy of Lenin and Stalin. Both Dubček or Husák were revisionists, the former linked with American imperialism and the latter with Soviet social-imperialism. The Soviet revisionists had no problems praising Dubček's revisionism until he began going "too far," seeking to openly link his country with the West.

Lin Biao, speaking on behalf of Mao at the 9th Congress of the CPC in 1969:

In order to justify its aggression and plunder, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique trumpets the so-called theory of “limited sovereignty”, the theory of “international dictatorship” and the theory of “socialist community”. What does all this stuff mean? It means that your sovereignty is “limited”, while his is unlimited. You won’t obey him? He will exercise “international dictatorship” over you--dictatorship over the people of other countries, in order to form the “socialist community” ruled by the new tsars, that is, colonies of social-imperialism, just like the “New Order of Europe” of Hitler, the “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” of Japanese militarism and the “Free World Community” of the United States. Lenin denounced the renegades of the Second International “Socialism in words, imperialism in deeds, the growth of opportunism into imperialism". (Lenin, Collected Works, Chinese ed., Vol. 29, p. 458.) This applies perfectly to the Soviet revisionist renegade clique of today which is composed of a handful of capitalist-roaders in power.

And Hoxha that same year (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/1969/01/10.htm):

Of what fight against bourgeois ideology can the Soviet revisionists speak while revisionism is nothing else by a manifestation of the bourgeois ideology in theory and practice, while egoism and individualism, the running after money and other material benefits are thriving in the Soviet Union, while careerseeking and bureaucratism, technocratism, economism and intellectualism are developing, while villas, motor-cars and beautiful women have become the supreme ideal of men, while literature and art attack socialism, everything revolutionary, and advocate pacifism and bourgeois humanism, the empty and dissolute living of people thinking only of themselves, while hundreds of thousands of western tourists that visit the Soviet Union every year, spread the bourgeois ideology and way of life there, while western films cover the screens of the Soviet cinema halls, while the American orchestras and jazz bands and those of the other capitalist countries have become the favorite orchestras of the youth, and while parades of western fashions are in vogue in the Soviet Union? If until yesterday the various manifestations of bourgeois ideology could be called remnants of the past, today bourgeois ideology has become a component part of the capitalist superstructure which rests on the state capitalist foundation which has now been established in the Soviet Union...

Or let us take the case of Yugoslavia. In "criticizing" the Yugoslav Titoites, who supported the Dubcek clique and spoke against the Soviet aggression in Czechoslovakia, the Soviet revisionists thought of pointing out that the program of the Communist League of Yugoslavia is the complete embodiment of the ideology of revisionism. But how does this comply with the other statements of the Soviet leaders who, after having kissed and embraced the Tito clique, proclaimed and continue even today to call Yugoslavia a socialist country? ...

After the 1956 Hungarian events, also, the Khrushchevite clique of the Soviet Union undertook a campaign of criticisms against the Yugoslav revisionists, but only as a matter of form, for it had collaborated with them behind the scenes to bring counter-revolutionary Kadar to power, and as soon as the tension relaxed somewhat the honeymoon started again. This is what will surely happen this time, too. Indeed the tone of the anti-Yugoslav propaganda in the Soviet Union has already greatly diminished. The Brezhnev-Kosygin clique can deceive nobody by its sham criticism of the Tito clique. They are two revisionist cliques which, despite the contradictions they have about the questions of the roads of development of revisionism and of relations between the revisionist countries and parties, belong to a single revolutionary trend—modern revisionism.

[Guardia Rossa]

I like how Hoxha criticizes other M-L's, he's actually right and I only like Hoxhaists because of that. However, Albania had the same economical system of Russia, China and Czechoslovakia...

[Ismail]

I like how Hoxha criticizes other M-L's, he's actually right and I only like Hoxhaists because of that. However, Albania had the same economical system of Russia, China and Czechoslovakia...The USSR, China and Czechoslovakia had superficially "socialist" economies under the revisionists, but there was a qualitative difference in how the economies of the USSR and the Eastern European People's Democracies operated when Stalin was alive, and how the economies of these countries (with the exception of Albania) operated following his death.

See for example in the case of the USSR in the 1950s:
* http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv3n1/gosplan.htm
* http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv1n1/marksoc.htm
* http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv4n2/polecon.htm

For a book-length work dealing with the 1960s-70s economy: http://www.oneparty.co.uk/html/book/ussrmenu.html

As far as China goes, there's a good pamphlet on the subject (by an author who is otherwise sympathetic to Mao) which contrasts its treatment on economic matters with Albania: https://archive.org/details/SocialismCannotBeBuiltInAllianceWithTheBourgeoisie

[Guardia Rossa]

It was superficially "socialist" from the very moment it was declared socialist. It was just natural for capital to re-assert itself.

And thanks for the papers! That's exactly what I was looking for.