Origins

The presence of Albanians in Canada is connected for the most part with the collapse of Communist rule in east-central Europe following the revolutions of 1989. The Albanian homeland is in the western part of the Balkan peninsula. Of the approximately 6 million Albanians living there today, just over half live in Albania itself. As many as 1.7 million live in the province of Kosovo in the southern part of Yugoslavia’s republic of Serbia, 0.5 million in the western part of Macedonia, and smaller numbers in the neighbouring Montenegrin republic of Yugoslavia and in northwestern Greece. There is also a large community of Albanians, known as Arberesh, who for centuries have lived in southern Italy and Sicily.

Albanians actually consist of two different peoples, the Gegs and the Tosks. The more numerous Gegs inhabit the mountainous regions of northern Albania, Kosovo, and western Macedonia; the Tosks dwell in the low-lying, more accessible regions of southern Albania and western Greece. After the Communists came to power in Albania in 1944, a concerted effort was made to eliminate regional peculiarities and to impose greater linguistic unity on the country. To achieve that goal, the government introduced a “unified literary Albanian” language based primarily on the Tosk dialect. Today, the differences between Gegs and Tosks are marginal and actually tend to be more pronounced in communities outside Albania than in the homeland itself.

For at least the past four centuries, two religions have co-existed in Albania: Islam and Christianity. The Christian presence dates back to Roman times, and after the eleventh century its adherents were split between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. As a result of the Ottoman occupation that began in the fifteenth century, the majority of Albanians adopted Islam, eventually following either the Sunni or Bektashi sects. By the twentieth century, 70 percent of Albanians were Muslims (spread throughout Albania and in Kosovo and Macedonia), 20 percent Orthodox Christians (mostly Tosks in southern Albania), and 10 percent Roman Catholics (primarily Gegs in northwestern Albania). After the Communists took over Albania, the rulers waged an extensive campaign against all religious institutions and in 1967 proclaimed that country the world’s first officially atheist state. With the collapse of Communist rule in Albania in 1991, a religious revival gained momentum there. Nevertheless, apart from areas such as Kosovo, where Islam serves to distinguish Albanians from Orthodox Serbs, religious feeling among Albanians has never been strong.

Albanian lands have been controlled by a succession of foreign empires from the Roman to the Ottoman. This historical circumstance has produced a national character that is noted, among other things, for a fierce patriotism in the face of foreign domination. At the core of that patriotism is the figure of George Kastrioti, or Skanderbeg, who in the fifteenth century led a movement of resistance against the Ottomans. His memory is preserved in poetry, song, and literature, and he remains a symbol for Albanians throughout the world of their determination to resist foreign tutelage.

Notwithstanding Skanderbeg’s legacy, Albanians, more than any other Balkan people, accommodated themselves to the realities of life in the Ottoman Empire, and in fact many achieved positions of great influence. The late nineteenth century witnessed the first stirrings of a national awakening, during which patriotic intellectuals concentrated on raising the level of national consciousness through cultural enlightenment and political struggle for autonomy under Ottoman rule. Fearing that the imminent dissolution of the Ottoman Empire would be followed by the partition of Albanian lands, nationalist forces proclaimed the creation of an independent state in 1912. One year later, Europe’s Great Powers recognized Albania as an independent principality, although the Albanians of Kosovo and Macedonia were left out of the new state.

Before Albania even had a chance to function, World War I broke out in August 1914. For the next four years, the country was occupied at various times by armies of both the Central and Allied Powers. When hostilities ended, Albanian independence was restored in 1919, largely because of the support of United States President Woodrow Wilson. The country’s new borders were more or less those of 1913, which meant that the large Albanian populations in Kosovo and Macedonia were outside Albania and under the rule of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes – later renamed Yugoslavia. Efforts were undertaken to establish a democratic government in Albania, but these were short-lived. After 1925 the country came to be ruled by Ahmed Bey Zogu, who three years later assumed the title of Zog I, king of the Albanians. Under King Zog, Albania remained an extremely poor country with little or no industry and a largely illiterate population.

Even before World War II broke out, fascist Italy invaded Albania and annexed it in April 1939. Two years later Kosovo was added to what became Italy’s province of Albania. Aside from the presence of Italians, the last years of the war witnessed a struggle between Albanian nationalists (Balli Kombetar) and Communists to drive out the invader and take over political control of the country.

By 1944 the Communists, led by Enver Hoxha, had seized power and declared Albania a socialist republic. The new regime maintained a dogmatic and at times fanatic adherence to Marxism-Leninism, and it frequently changed alliances to suit Hoxha’s need to stay in power. Hence, Albania began as a close ally of Communist Yugoslavia, then the Soviet Union (1948), China (early 1960s), and finally no one (1978).

Following its break with China, and in the absence of any foreign protector and benefactor, Communist Albania adopted a policy of self-reliance. The result, however, was virtually complete isolation abroad and ever growing poverty at home. When during the 1980s the Communist regimes in east-central Europe began to unravel, Albanians were directly affected wherever they lived. Throughout that decade, the Albanians of Kosovo openly protested against Serbian rule and helped to undermine the Yugoslav governing order. As revolutionary change spread to most Communist countries in 1989, Albania’s leaders were forced to implement changes within their country as well. In 1991 Albania’s first democratic elections brought victory for the communists, but, as the domestic crisis continued, new elections in March 1992 brought to power the Albanian Democratic party.

The Albanian Democrats, which at the outset were dominated by University of Tirana students and the more progressive urban strata of Albanian society, pledged to adopt a policy of “shock therapy” in order to transform the economy, as opposed to the gradualist approach offered by the Socialist party (former communists). The Democrats have continued to champion themselves as the country’s only hope for integration into mainstream Europe, an option that the majority of Albanians identify as the only way to overcome their centuries-old legacy of economic backwardness. Since coming to power, the Democratic party has waged an often aggressive campaign to eliminate the remnants of Communist rule and has been able to implement certain changes that have improved economic conditions. Nevertheless, Albania remains politically unstable and its economic future uncertain.