The London Conference and the Albanian Question (1912-1914)

The London Conference and the Albanian Question (1912-1914) PDF

Author: Robert Elsie

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2016-07-14

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9781535304726

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It was by no means evident in the early years of the twentieth century that Albania in southeastern Europe would become an independent country and would join the family of European nations. After five centuries as a part of the Ottoman Empire, the country was hardly noticed by the other peoples of Europe. This was to change at the time of the Balkans Wars (1912-1913) and the London Conference, at which Albania played a central role and where its fate was decided. The present volume brings together British Foreign Office documents focusing on Albania from 1912 to 1914. Among them are the dispatches and private correspondence of the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, who chaired the London Conference and endeavoured to keep peace in Europe at an age when the Great Powers were unwaveringly gravitating towards war and conflagration.

The Albanian Question

The Albanian Question PDF

Author: Miranda Vickers

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2006-10-27

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0857710249

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Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008 - and the overt manipulation of this precedent by Russia in its war with Georgia and South Ossetia shortly afterwards - has focused the world's attention once again on the Balkans. But Albania's role within the region remains little known and less understood. In this revised edition of a major work of contemporary history, two well-known and internationally-respected authorities elucidate Albania's place in the Balkans, from the explosion of violence in the 1990s, which brought the country to the brink of civil war, to the present day. Since 1997, the Albanian region has been forced simultaneously to come to terms with the realities of a post-Communist world and the threat of Slobodan Milosevic's 'Greater Serbia' project. Its people, the authors, argue are involved in the process of national self-emancipation: the re-establishment of free markets and ending of Communist border controls have renewed long dormant cultural and economic links between the Albanian people and the wider region. The future of the Albanians in the Balkans is the most pressing issue in the region today, a fact which the West must pay close heed to if this long neglected nation is to become a European partner. Indeed, the authors argue, in this rapidly evolving political climate, failure to come to terms with the importance of the Albanian question could return the region as a whole to armed conflict.

Albania and Europe in a Political Regard

Albania and Europe in a Political Regard PDF

Author: Klodiana Beshku

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2013-09-11

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 1443852600

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Albania and Europe in a Political Regard is a multidisciplinary work which aims to develop different points of view in the field of social sciences. In this sense, it is not by chance that the chapters cover a variety of different disciplines like history, sociology, political science and philosophy. These chapters stand alone and, at the same time, create a whole network of relationships between Albania and Europe. An important element of this work is its multidimensional considerations of Europe; it is conceptualised on a number of different levels throughout the chapters, sometimes as a continent, sometimes as an organization, and other times as a leader. In some chapters, Europe is understood in terms of European integration or European civilization. In others, Europe is simply the idea of the continent and its reflections in the Albanian society. The main axis that drives the chapters is the idea of Albania in relation to Europe – how this relationship is understood, how it has worked in the past, and how it works today. The idea of Europe in this book is conceptualised and explored in a number of different ways, from the idea of “European modernity” to a “soft power”, from a “construction of identity” to a “model of behaviour”, according to each author’s varied point of view and discipline of studies. All the nine chapters in this volume utilise different ways of thinking and approaches, but are all connected by a common axis, that is, Albania and Europe in a Political Regard.

Is There an Albanian Question?

Is There an Albanian Question? PDF

Author: Judy Batt

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13:

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Is there an 'Albanian question'? If so, what is it? Is it a traditional 'national question', centred on the dream of a 'Greater Albania' that would gather in all the Albanian communities in the Balkans? Many outside observers, in particular among the Albanians' neighbours in the Balkans, see it that way and fear its destabilising consequences, but none of the contributors to this Chaillot Paper finds this scenario convincing. The core of the Albanian national question today is Kosovo, an issue that has the power to unite Albanians in the Balkans and in the sizeable diaspora communities spread across the globe. While the answer - for Albanians - is independence for Kosovo, beyond that, views diverge. It seems that only a minority of Albanians remain committed to the project of Pan-Albanian political unification. Most Albanians are fully aware of the diversity of interests of the various Albanian communities in the Balkans, who have lived in different states over the past century. The end of communism made it much easier for Albanians to keep in contact with each other, but this did not lead to greater national cohesion. The dramatic 'high politics' of the Kosovo issue tends to obscure the fact that for most Albanians, the most urgent questions today are not 'national' ones at all, but questions of economic underdevelopment, unemployment, the quality of democratic governance, political corruption and criminality, and the emigration of large numbers of the brightest and best of the younger generation. None of these challenges is unique to the Albanians, but they possess a particular asset in their young diaspora in the West, closely linked via the internet with young democracy activists in the Albanians' Balkans homelands. This new generation of Albanians aims to leap out of the isolation and introversion of traditional village and clan-based politics to form a new 'post-modern' transnational political community, committed to building democracy within their states and across them.

Bittersweet Europe

Bittersweet Europe PDF

Author: Adrian Brisku

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2013-08-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0857459856

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From the late nineteenth century to the post-communist period, Albanian and Georgian political and intellectual elites have attributed hopes to “Europe,” yet have also exhibited ambivalent attitudes that do not appear likely to vanish any time soon. Albanians and Georgians have evoked, experienced, and continue to speak of “Europe” according to a tense triadic entity—geopolitics, progress, culture—which has generated aspirations as well as delusions towards it and themselves. This unique dichotomy weaves a nuanced, historical account of a changing Europe, continuously marred by uncertainties that greatly affect these countries’ domestic politics as well as foreign policy decisions. A systematic and rich account of how Albanians and Georgians view Europe, this book offers a fresh perspective on the vast East/West literature and, more broadly, on European intellectual, cultural, and political history.

Modern Albania

Modern Albania PDF

Author: Fred Abrahams

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2018-10-16

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1479896683

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In the early 1990s, Albania, arguably Europe’s most closed and repressive state, began a startling transition out of forty years of self-imposed Communist isolation. Albanians who were not allowed to practice religion, travel abroad, wear jeans, or read “decadent” Western literature began to devour the outside world. They opened cafés, companies, and newspapers. Previously banned rock music blared in the streets. Modern Albania offers a vivid history of the Albanian Communist regime’s fall and the trials and tribulations that led the country to become the state it is today. The book provides an in-depth look at the Communists' last Politburo meetings and the first student revolts, the fall of the Stalinist regime, the outflows of refugees, the crash of the massive pyramid-loan schemes, the war in neighboring Kosovo, and Albania’s relationship with the United States. Fred Abrahams weaves together personal experience from more than twenty years of work in Albania, interviews with key Albanians and foreigners who played a role in the country’s politics since 1990—including former Politburo members, opposition leaders, intelligence agents, diplomats, and founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army—and a close examination of hundreds of previously secret government records from Albania and the United States. A rich, narratively-driven account, Modern Albania gives readers a front-row seat to the dramatic events of the last battle of Cold War Europe.

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