Albania’s emergence onto the Balkan scene

Abstract

The Albanian people did not achieve statehood until the 20th century.
Half the Albanian nation was then left outside the state, and the state had a
precarious existence, suffering many severe vicissitudes, until well after the
second world war. Disputes with Greece over Epirus diminished after the war,
but relations with Yugoslavia have been periodically soured by the issues of
Kosova and western FYROM. Enver Hoxha and the Albanian Communist
Party successfully exploited the National Liberation Movement and the
German war to seize power in 1944 and reconstitute Little Albania, but they
could not make any progress towards achieving the national ambition of a 

Greater Albania. Only the Stalin-Tito breach saved Albania from being absorbed
into Yugoslavia. The imperatives of survival largely dictated Hoxha’s
subsequent policies of rapprochement with the Soviet Union, rapprochement
with China and finally complete isolation. The Albanian state having survived
until the communist system collapsed, it is now emerging as an autonomous
player on the European scene. The collapse of the old Yugoslavia has turned
Kosova and western part of FYROM into active issues. Albania is too weak to
influence developments there effectively, but the issues will not go away. The
Albanian question now has to be recognised as a real and important one, and
the international community will from now on have to give greater attention to
Albania’s needs and interests.