Albania: How likely is a civil war?

Albania: How likely is a civil war?

"It is the only nation in the world, which, although divided into three religious communities live in peace and brotherly in a country where the inhabitants are proud to declare they are Albanians. But is not it? Indisputable fact is that while Albania has a heterogeneous their ethnic or religious characteristics of the population accepted the urban model, namely Albania for Albanians first and then for anyone else. However, recent developments and events of 1997 clearly demonstrates the vulnerability of this country.

The state institutions, with the huge financial scandal, had dissolved completely and if the UN did not intervene under the leadership of Italy, Albania today will not exist. The conflict then was killed about two thousand people. The recent riots of January 21 in which three people died recalled the events of '97 and the fragile balance of the Albanian state.

The social tension

The recent riots are only the culmination of an underlying tension between the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the opposition Socialist Party, headed by the mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, who accuses Berisha that he rigged parliamentary elections of June 2009 to keep the power. The conflicts and divisions of the Albanian society is not only political.


The two main tribes

If the riots judged superficially appear to be two political parties fighting for power, but a deeper analysis will give a different opsi.To Socialist Party has more support from the southern Albanian towns where the majority live Tosca (Tosk), while the majority of the Democratic Party is Gkegs (Gheg).

These are the two main tribes of Albania.

The race is the same as that of Kosovo, Macedonia Montenegro and southern Serbia (Presevo and Bujanovac). Between these two nations are eternal diferences. The ghegs fully embraced Islamism, which after so many centuries is in their subconscious, but at the same time retain many of their original traditions such as law, the law of the feud, known as Law the "Doukatzini Lek". They are two thirds of the total population in Albania. The Toscs (Tosk) living in southern Albania, and most of them are Christians. An and their geographic boundary as there is Shkumbin River, Tirana is a neutral ground for both population groups.


A few decades

In the past Gheges were organized into tribes and Tosca lived in semi-feudal community .Before the Second World War Ghges dominated Albanian politics, but after the war many of Tosca found in power with the new Communist government . The communist dictator Enver Hoxha tried to suppress these cultural differences to the homogenization of the Albanian society. Albania declared as the first atheist state in the world and established 'saints' only people who belong to the Albanian nation.

The genesis of Albanian national ideology began during the revival of ethnocentrism in the last century, dominated by the slogan "The religion of Albania is Albanian and God is the single Albanian state."
Established eternal prayer to the deity it (Albania) and established the Feast of the Albanian reality. The Albanian flag is the only thing that unites all Albanians.

The Albanians claim that the double-headed eagle flag indicates that this is the land of eagles, while the origin of the double-headed eagle from the flag of the Byzantine period.The headed eagle was a symbol of Orthodox Byzantium, which symbolized power in the east and west. Or in other one's head eagle symbolizes secular government or the monarchy and the other the spiritual reality of the state, namely, religion.