ALBANIA MINORITY PROFILE
Profile
According to the 2011 census, there are 8,266 self-declared Aromanians (or Vlachs) in Albania. This figure corresponds to 0.30 percent of Albania’s resident population, although the number is disputed by community representatives.
Historical context
The presence of Aromanians or Vlachs on the territory of today’s Albania dates back to the sixth century. The community constituted a pastoralist nomadic population which over time switched increasingly to agricultural activities in rural areas and craftsmanship in urban centres. Elderly Aromanians recall participating in seasonal livestock movements until the middle of the last century, when the communist regime’s policies of confiscation and collectivization brought these deeply rooted traditions to an end.
Aromanians established the town of Voskopoja (Moscopole in Aromanian) in the thirteenth century. The town grew to become an important wool trading and processing centre, noted for its many churches and with a population of about 50,000 people by the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1769, the town was attacked and plundered by marauders, and in 1789, the Ottomans ordered its destruction, paving the way for its gradual decline. Today, only about 2,000 people live there.
For the first time, Albanian authorities introduced Aromanians to the population census statistics in 1950. In 2011, after many years of absence this ethnic group was reintroduced to the census questionnaire.
After the collapse of communism in Albania, Aromanian activists formed several associations, including ‘Armeni-Alban’, The Aromanians’ Association Voskopoja and ‘Aefallofisi’. They have been promoting their rights, culture and traditions.
Current issues
Aromanians are concentrated in the rural areas of Myzeqe of Fier and Vlora, in Frasher of Permet, in Moker of Pogradec, in Kolonja. In the urban areas, their communities can be found in Korça, Berat, Tirana, Elbasan and Durres.
The 2017 Law on Protection of National Minorities modified the status of Aromanians in the context of Albanian law from that of an ethno-linguistic group to being recognized as a national minority.
The long-term survival of Aromanian culture may be in question in today’s Albania. Since the population is small and scattered, community members tend to be bilingual. Their children lack access to Aromanian schooling. Urbanization is a further factor contributing to this minority’s increasing assimilation into majority Albanian culture.
Profile
The 2011 census recorded 3,368 self-declared Egyptians (Jevgits or Jevgs) in Albania. In contrast, according to the Union of the Egyptians of Albania and other estimates, there are approximately 200,000–250,000 Albanian Egyptians. Most Egyptians reside in the cities of Tirana, Korça, Berat, Gjirokastra, Vlora, Durres, Shkodra, Elbasan, as well as in the smaller settlements.
History
The substantial Albanian Egyptian community see themselves as distinct from the Roma community. According to some narratives, Egyptians are descendants of Coptic migrants who came from Egypt in the fourth century. Other accounts say they are descended from Egyptian slaves who arrived in Albania in the nineteenth century.
Current issues
Many Albanian Egyptians consider themselves to be a national minority distinct from both the Roma community and the Albanian majority, defining themselves by their ethnic background, their stated historical roots as descendants of persons from Egypt, their traditions and their cultural heritage. However, the authorities long refused to grant official minority status to Egyptians, thereby denying them constitutional protections against discrimination available to other members of minority groups. The government maintained that Egyptians did not meet some criteria, such as a distinct language and traditions, and instead considered them a community – rather than a distinct minority. This changed in 2017 with the new Law on Protection of National Minorities, which granted Egyptians official recognition alongside other minority communities.
While Egyptians have their own distinct identity, many of the issues they face are similar to the larger Roma community. Egyptians encounter segregation in housing and education as well as exclusion from formal employment opportunities. According to a 2015 UN report cited by the OECD, while 80 per cent of ethnic Albanians reached at least lower secondary level education, only 49 per cent of Egyptians did so.
The National Action Plan for the Equality, Inclusion and Participation of Roma and Egyptians was renewed from 2021-25. It has seven priority sectors including access to education, employment, housing, health and social services. The 2019 monitoring report of the preceding Action Plan noted some improvements, including the fact that more Egyptians were being reached by social services. However, the report stated that there remained several serious gaps, notably in access to employment, funding for housing and education. Egyptian community representatives seek a separate action plan targeting their own particular needs. Previous initiatives have not succeeded in addressing Egyptian community concerns, especially in healthcare, employment and housing. Lack of properly disaggregated data prevents the Egyptian community’s needs from being thoroughly assessed.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in the case of X and others v. Albania (applications nos. 73548/17 and 45521/19) announced on 31 May 2022 will hopefully lead to better access to education for Albania’s Egyptians. The case was brought by Roma applicants, although its outcome will affect Egyptian students too. It concerned the Naim Frasheri School situated on the outskirts of the city of Korça. The school was colloquially labelled the ‘Roma and Egyptian school’, because virtually all its students belong to either of these two communities. Segregation at the school appeared to increase in 2012 following an outflow of ethnic Albanian students from a formerly ethnically mixed institution. The ECtHR found a violation of Article 1, Protocol no.12 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court noted that the government had taken steps to desegregate the school but had failed to implement sufficient measures aimed at desegregation of ethnic groups within a reasonable period of time. Albania is also obliged to remove discriminatory school segregation and ensure effective desegregation of the education process.
Profile
Greeks make up the largest ethnic minority in Albania. According to the 1989 census, there were 58,758 Greeks in Albania. The 2011 census recorded 24,243 self-declared Greeks in Albania, comprising 0.87 percent of the resident population. Other estimates are much higher. The size of the Greek minority is especially contentious on account of the history of claims to southern Albania made by the Greek government in Athens, and of the substantial support within Greece and among Greeks in Albania, for the establishment of an autonomous district of ‘Northern Epirus’. Hopefully, the census that was held during the autumn of 2023 will provide more accurate figures for the Greek minority population.
Historical context
The origin of the Greek minority is disputed. Many Greeks claim descent from the Greek population which settled in the Albanian lands during the pre-Christian period. Other sources indicate that Greeks moved into the region only much later, for instance as indentured labourers during the Ottoman period. It is impossible to evaluate the accuracy of these divergent accounts, although it may be that all contain elements of truth. Certainly, there appears to be a continuous history of Greek settlement in several of the Albanian coastal cities. Most of the present Greek population is, however, concentrated inland, south of a line running roughly from Vlora to Korça.
Assimilationist policies practised by the interwar governments led to the closure of Greek schools and to discriminatory measures against Greek Orthodox monasteries. After the communist take-over, a number of Greeks were appointed to high positions. In general, the communists were less interested in discriminating on grounds of ethnicity than they were in limiting religious practice. In this respect, the campaign against the churches hit the Greek minority disproportionately since affiliation to the Eastern Orthodox rite has traditionally been a strong component of Albanian Greek identity.
After the reforms of 1990, Greek Orthodox churches were reopened. The pressure group, and subsequent political party for the promotion of Greek human rights, OMONIA (Sociopolitical Organization – Democratic Union of the Greek Minority), founded in January 1991, took an active role in securing the return of ecclesiastical properties. A particular difficulty, however, was the absence of a trained clergy, which has led to a strong reliance upon priests coming from Greece. Greek-language education was additionally expanded, and bilingual education was permitted in the first eight grades of elementary school.
Nevertheless, tensions remained which are caused principally by fears of Greek irredentism. Having won five seats in the parliamentary election of March 1991, OMONIA was banned since it violated Law 7501 (1991) which forbade ‘formation of parties on a religious, ethnic and regional basis’. On behalf of OMONIA, the Unity for Human Rights Party contested the 1992 elections, and OMONIA continued as a member of this party. Following a border incident in 1994, provoked by Greek nationalists from Greece, six leaders of OMONIA were convicted of illegal arms possession, and of spying for Greece. Their trial was widely regarded as unfair and the six were subsequently released. In a separate incident in 1993, a Greek archimandrite, Chrysostomos Maidonis, was expelled on grounds of expressing ‘openly territorial claims’ and engaging in ‘the distribution of maps, leaflets and brochures that present and demand the hellenization and annexation of southern Albania to Greece’. Demonstrations in support of the archimandrite were violently suppressed by the Albanian police. The Greek government responded to the expulsion of the archimandrite and to the OMONIA trial by deporting in 1994 about 100,000 Albanians working illegally in Greece.
Tensions continued and during the local government elections in Himare in October 2000 there were a number of incidents of hostility concerning the Greek minority, including tensions and nationalistic rhetoric that arose between the Albanian majority and Greek minority, as well as the defacing of a number of signposts in Greek in the south of the country.
Current issues
While violent incidents have declined in recent years, the ethnic Greek minority has pursued grievances with the government regarding electoral zones, Greek-language education, property rights and government documents. Minority leaders complain of the government’s unwillingness to recognize the possible existence of ethnic Greek towns outside communist-era ‘minority zones’; to utilize Greek on official documents and on public signs in ethnic Greek areas; to ascertain the size of the ethnic Greek population; and to include more ethnic Greeks in public administration. While Greek-language public elementary schools are common in the southern part of the country, where most ethnic Greeks live, OMONIA complains that the community needs more classes both within and outside the minority zones. Every village in the Greek zones has its own elementary-middle (nine-year) school in the Greek language, regardless of the number of students, which has declined in recent years due to emigration to Greece; Gjirokaster has two Greek-language high schools. Teacher training is available for teachers of the Greek national minority at the Pedagogical High School in Gjirokaster, and there is a Greek language branch at Gjirokaster University.
Language issues affect Albania’s Greek minority in different ways. The national minorities legislation states that local authorities should provide conditions conducive to the use of minority languages. This applies to areas where national minorities traditionally live or make up at least 20 per cent of the local population. The bylaw to implement this provision fully was still pending at the end of 2023. Meanwhile, according to community representatives, the law is only applied in three municipalities: Dropuli, Finiq (where ethnic Greeks are in the majority) and Pustec (where ethnic Macedonians constitute the majority). Greek representatives complain that they have been forbidden from speaking Greek at local council meetings, even when all those present belong to their community. There are also reports that Greek minority children are taken into care in circumstances where no Greek is being spoken even when they do not speak Albanian. The Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) urged the authorities in 2023 to apply the 20 per cent rule flexibly, especially in areas where national minorities have traditionally lived.
Property rights and restitution are critical issues facing the Greek minority in Albania. Although property and tenure are not surprisingly questions facing the whole country, given its recent communist past, districts largely populated by minorities are disproportionately affected. Two distinct patterns have been noted as occurring in ethnic Greek areas, according to the Fifth Opinion of the Advisory Committee of the FCNM, published in 2023. One is that big construction companies are being granted licenses to build large-scale developments, destroying property owned by locals. The other is that property developers and individuals are using possibly fake documents purporting to have been issued by the Ottoman authorities to lay claim to already occupied land and buildings. Corruption in the construction sector contributes to these trends. As the Albanian tourism industry expands there is a risk that the Greek minority along southern coastal areas will be especially badly affected by these trends, affecting community cohesion and sustainability. A new property law was adopted in 2020 but as of 2023 was still awaiting its secondary legislation in order to be fully implemented.
Profile
The 2011 population census recorded 5,512 self-declared Macedonians in Albania, comprising 0.20 percent of the country’s population. The Macedonian minority was recognized only after the Second World War. It resides in the Prespa and Golloborda (or Golo Brdo in Macedonian) areas, and in the village of Vërnik. These areas are adjacent to the territory of North Macedonia. The areas where Macedonians live are extremely poor, and many survive as day labourers in the Republic of North Macedonia. Macedonians in the Prespa region are Eastern Orthodox Christian, and those in Golloborda are predominantly Muslim.
Historical context
The part of Macedonia known as Mala Prespa was given to Albania by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Albania is the only neighbouring country that recognizes the status of the Macedonian ethnic minority but restricts it to the region of Mala Prespa. Teaching in Macedonian has taken place in this region since 1945 in elementary education, for which textbooks have been issued by the state. It is expected that the right to education in a mother tongue, according to international standards, will also be extended to pupils of Macedonian ethnic affiliation in other parts of Albania. The introduction of education in Macedonian in secondary education is also expected. In 2022, the governments of Albania and North Macedonia signed a number of cooperation agreements, including in the field of education.
There are several organized and active associations of Macedonians in Albania, but the opportunities for strengthened political representation are small because the state does not financially support their organization. It was as late as 1993 that the first newspaper in Macedonian, the journal Mir (Peace), appeared.
Current issues
The four Macedonian organizations in Albania, Mir (Peace), Gora, MED (Macedonian Aegean Society) and Prespa, boycotted the 2001 census in Albania, because there was no option for Macedonian in the census list. In 2003, the Association of Macedonians in Albania (consisting of the four organizations) conducted their own census of the number of Macedonians in Albania. It estimated a population of between 120,000 and 350,000, while the Albanian state only officially recognizes 5,000. The census that took place in 2023 should hopefully provide updated and more accurate figures for Albania’s Macedonian minority population.
In its 2005 report the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recorded complaints by ethnic Macedonians that not all sections of their community had access to mother tongue education. This was due to the fact that they live outside areas previously categorized as ‘minority zones’ during the communist era. ECRI notes that, under Albanian law, minority-language schools are only established if a sufficient number of parents must request such a school and they must be recognized as belonging to that ethnicity. The Albanian authorities indicated to ECRI that they check the civil registry in order to determine ethnicity. However, members of minority groups living outside of areas previously categorized as ‘minority zones’ have difficulties registering their ethnic belonging in the civil registry.
ECRI furthermore recommended that the Albanian authorities ensure that people are not denied the possibility of having their ethnic identity officially recognized simply due to their geographic location in the country outside of areas previously categorized as minority zones.
In 2005 most Macedonian organizations united into the political party Macedonian Alliance for European Prosperity, which participated in the 2007 elections.
Along with Albania’s other minorities, Macedonians have benefitted from the 2017 Law on Protection of National Minorities. Actual implementation through the necessary secondary legislation has been delayed. For instance, in areas where minorities have traditionally resided or constitute at least 20 per cent of the local population, local municipal councils are authorized to put up signs in the relevant minority language; however, the bylaw for getting such processes started has yet to be adopted. Bilingual signage is currently only being used in three municipalities: Dropuli, Finiq (where ethnic Greeks are in the majority) and Pustec (where ethnic Macedonians constitute the majority). Macedonian minority representatives have complained that there are many other municipalities where their population size meets the 20 per cent threshold; they also say that the current bilingual signs in Pustec are outdated. Bilingual signs are important as they support the preservation of cultural heritage and provide vital acknowledgement of the long history and presence of minorities – in this case Albania’s Macedonian community.
Profile
Roma are among the most politically, economically and socially neglected communities in the Albania. In addition to widespread societal discrimination, Roma generally face high illiteracy rates, particularly among children, poor health outcomes, lack of access to education, and marked economic disadvantages. Official figures from the 2011 population census suggest that the Roma community in Albania consists of 8,301 persons. The accuracy of these figures is highly contested, and estimates of the community’s actual size range from 80,000 to 150,000. The census that was conducted in 2023 will hopefully provide a more accurate picture.
The 2017 Law on Protection of National Minorities modified the status of Roma in the context of Albanian law from an ethno-linguistic to a national minority.
Historical context
According to some historical accounts, Roma arrived in Albania around the fifteenth century – coming originally from India. During the Ottoman era, many Roma converted to Islam. With the establishment of an Albanian independent republic in 1912, Roma received better treatment than Egyptians – but still faced discrimination and deeper poverty than the rest of the population.
During the Second World War, Albania was largely under Italian rule; Nazi Germany only occupied Albania for a brief period in 1943-44. This meant that, unlike countries that remained under German occupation, Albanian Roma were not deported to death camps. Nevertheless, there are reports that Roma faced institutional racism and expressions of antigypsyism during those years. Archival records show municipalities evicting Roma, including upon the request of their non-Roma neighbours. Under the Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha, cultural differences were suppressed, and religious practices banned under a state-wide assimilation policy applying to all minorities; while draconian, this meant that for Roma citizenship, social security and employment were guaranteed. Even under this policy of homogenization, the Roma were not treated equally and faced deep prejudice.
According to a 2003 World Bank report, the end of communism in Albania marked the beginning of the Roma minority’s steep decline into extreme poverty. The collapse of state-run industries and agricultural enterprises impacted harshly on Roma and Egyptians. Since then, these communities have had fewer opportunities for formal employment, and this has had severe consequences for their access to health care and education, as families struggle to make ends meet. A survey of Albanian households in 2000 found that only 25 per cent of Roma had enough money to buy medicine. According to academic research published in 2014, as much as 67.7 per cent of Roma in Albania lacked health insurance coverage. More recent research underscores that not only the costs of healthcare and medication can be prohibitive, the paperwork and other bureaucratic obstacles can also hamper Roma access to healthcare.
Current issues
The Albanian government signed up to the Decade of Roma Improvement – a World Bank-sponsored initiative which ran from 2005 to 2015. It had four priority areas: education, employment, health and housing, and two cross-cutting areas, gender and non-discrimination. Ten-year action plans have since followed. For instance, the first action plan for the years 2005-15 included initiatives such as a tuition fee waiver, free textbooks and salary support.
The current National Action Plan for the Equality, Inclusion and Participation of Roma and Egyptians was renewed from 2021-25. It has seven priority sectors including access to education, employment, housing, health and social services. The 2019 monitoring report of the preceding Action Plan noted some improvements; however, the report stated that there remained several serious gaps, notably in access to employment, funding for housing and education.
Despite these initiatives, the record has not been encouraging. The European Commission in November 2006 noted that the disparity between the social and economic situation of Roma and that of the rest of the Albanian population was increasing, with 78 per cent of the Roma living in poverty and 39 per cent in extreme poverty. More recent research reconfirms these statistics. The situation of the Roma community in Tirana notably worsened in 2006 with some 40,000 Roma in need of social and economic support by November 2006.
Conditions for Roma alongside the rest of the population worsened further in November 2019 when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Albania. According to UNDP, the worst earthquake in over 30 years struck 11 municipalities, including the major urban centres of Tirana and Durres. Fifty-one people died, over 200,000 people were directly or indirectly affected, and around 17,000 people had to evacuate their homes. Minority communities, especially Roma, were particularly badly affected, as they were more likely to be living in informal housing prone to earthquake damage. Since then, many have described being stuck in a bureaucratic ‘Catch-22’ situation where they could not access the rental bonus they should have received in order to afford alternative accommodation, because they needed a lease, identity documents and the bank account of their landlords. Given widespread discrimination in the property sector, just obtaining a lease could be a difficult obstacle. Roma caught in this situation noted that even if they received the bonus, it would only cover rent for a year.
According to the World Bank, 43 per cent of Roma have completed compulsory education compared with 98 per cent of non-Roma. Only 15 per cent have completed secondary education, while 75 per cent of non-Roma have done so. Roma girls are less likely to complete compulsory education than Roma boys, as traditional gender roles mean that they often assume family responsibilities at an early age. Other social factors, including school segregation, and the mobility of certain groups make lack of access to education and health services, especially vaccination, a particular problem.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in the case of X and others v. Albania (applications nos. 73548/17 and 45521/19) announced on 31 May 2022 will hopefully lead to better access to education for Albania’s Roma. It concerned the Naim Frasheri School situated on the outskirts of the city of Korça. The school was colloquially labelled the ‘Roma and Egyptian school’, because virtually all its students belong to either of these two communities. Segregation at the school appeared to increase in 2012 following an outflow of ethnic Albanian students from a formerly ethnically mixed institution. The ECtHR found a violation of Article 1, Protocol no.12 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court noted that the government had taken steps to desegregate the school but had failed to implement sufficient measures aimed at desegregation of ethnic groups within a reasonable period of time. Albania is also obliged to remove discriminatory school segregation and ensure effective desegregation of the education process.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, over 1,500 people were at risk of statelessness in Albania in 2021. Roma and Egyptians are especially vulnerable; in a separate 2018 study by UNHCR, they comprised half of all recorded stateless cases in the country. This is largely due to the challenges faced in proving citizenship. The numbers could be much higher given the invisibility faced by many stateless persons. The 2018 study emphasized that the vast majority are children. A key issue is birth registration, where the costly and complicated procedure can prevent Roma and Egyptian parents from completing the process. Less prevalent or non-existent birth registration of Roma and Egyptian children in Albania, as well as lack of personal documents, also makes them particularly vulnerable to human trafficking.
Migration, usually to neighbouring Greece and Italy, has become a crucial source of income for many Roma families’ survival. However, undocumented migration has also facilitated human trafficking, and Roma women and children are among those most affected. International organizations are concerned about the rates of child trafficking from Albania, noting that a disproportionate number come from Roma and Egyptian communities. Albanian Roma who migrated to Greece in the hope of finding jobs and better lives say their living conditions were better in Albania. The income Roma earn as casual workers is insufficient, especially in more expensive Greece. Roma women are rarely able to obtain work.
Set against this fairly bleak picture, there has been greater mobilization of Roma communities through the work of NGOs. Community-based projects to improve access to, among other things, better sanitation and schools have had some successes. However, discrimination is still widespread. In January 2005, the Tirana municipality demolished the homes of 18 Roma families comprising 150 persons, reportedly without warning, leaving them homeless in the middle of winter. The municipality demolished homes located in a settlement close to the Lana River, because they blocked its territory regulation plan and were built without permits. A similar case resulted in the eviction of 51 Roma families in June 2004. In 2015, Roma houses were demolished to make way for a highway in the Selita district of Tirana. The Ombudsman’s office complained that the demolitions had not followed established procedures, as the affected families had not received proper warning. According to Albanian legislation, the families would be eligible for compensation if their homes had been built before the fall of the communist government. The community stated that they had been living there for that long but were unable to provide documentary evidence. Although the municipality offered a lump sum to pay for 2 years’ rent, the evicted families pointed out that most landlords refused to rent homes to them.
Despite community mobilization, poor quality housing remains an issue. According to the 2016 report by the Albanian Helsinki Committee, almost 11 percent of complaints on the issue of property originated from the Roma community. A survey conducted in 2017 showed that only 48 per cent of Roma had piped drinking water inside their homes compared with a figure of 90 per cent for non-Roma. Only 62 per cent had access to sewerage compared with 76 per cent for the rest of the population. The 2019 earthquake and its impacts would have made these disparities even worse.
ABOUT ALBANIA
Main languages: Albanian, Greek, Romani, Aromanian (Vlach), Macedonian
Main religions: Islam (mainly Sunni), Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism
Minority groups include Greeks (59,000), Macedonians (4,700), Roma, Vlachs/Aromanians, Macedonians, Egyptians, Serbs and Montenegrins. These figures draw on the 1989 census. The 2001 census had no question concerning ethnicity, and the 2011 census results remain queried. A new census was conducted during the autumn of 2023.
Law no. 96/2017 on Protection of National Minorities in the Republic of Albania was approved by the National Assembly in October 2017 and entered into force in November 2017. It eliminated previous differences between national and linguistic minorities and acknowledges the following groups as national minorities in Albania: Aromanians, Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Egyptians, Greeks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Roma and Serbs.
General
Macedonians
- Association of Macedonians in Albania (consisting of MIR, Prespa, Bratstvo, MED)
- MIR
- Prespa, Pustec (Korça)
Roma
Environment
Albania is situated in the western Balkans. It is bordered by Greece to the south, North Macedonia to the east and Kosovo and Montenegro to the north. To the west, there is a 420 km coastline along the Adriatic Sea. More than three-quarters of Albania is mountainous and about a third is wooded.
History
Albanians are most probably the descendants of the ancient Illyrians who were colonized after the seventh century BCE by the Greeks and subsequently by the Romans. During the Middle Ages, modern-day Albania formed successively parts of the Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian and Angevin-Norman empires. The Albanian lands lay at the meeting point of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Following the schism between the two churches, the northern population generally adhered to Roman Catholicism and the southern to Eastern Orthodoxy. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Albanian lands were overrun by the Ottomans. Most Albanians subsequently embraced Islam.
Under circumstances which are disputed, Albanians spread eastwards into Kosovo, western Macedonia and Greece. The Albanian national movement which developed in the late nineteenth century sought to unite Albanians in a single state. The independent Albania established on the eve of the First World War did not, however, include Kosovo and western Macedonia, which then had a combined population of about 800,000 Albanians. Aspirations for a state which united the Albanian people were briefly realized under the aegis of the Italians and Germans during the Second World War. After 1945, however, Albania returned to its former borders. It is presently estimated that two-thirds as many Albanians live in neighbouring states as in Albania itself.
In 1944, the communists led by Enver Hoxha imposed a strict Stalinist regime on Albania. In 1967, Albania was proclaimed ‘the first atheist state’, and all religious practices were banned. Churches and mosques were demolished or converted to secular use, and in the mid-1970s personal names of a Christian religious character were prohibited. Hoxha died in 1985, and a moderate reform programme was introduced which accelerated with the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989.
In 1990, the ban on religious practice was lifted, and the establishment of political parties was permitted. Multi-party elections held in March 1991 resulted in a victory for the communists, who subsequently renamed themselves the Socialist Party of Albania. New elections held in spring 1992 led to the formation of a coalition government headed by the opposition Democratic Party. In 1996 the Democratic Party recorded a landslide victory in a general election which was widely reported as unfair. Albania descended into anarchy during the spring of 1997 following the collapse of widespread pyramid saving schemes, and the country remained unstable for some years until the early 2000s.
Today’s Albania is a transitional democracy. Since 2009, the country is a NATO member. It seeks to become an EU member state and currently enjoys candidate status.
Minorities and history
A number of Albania’s smaller minorities face issues that are rooted in the country’s history. For example, there is a significant Bektashi Sufi community in Albania. The Bektashi order was founded in the Ottoman Empire during the thirteenth century. Their presence in Albania dates to the seventeenth century. By the nineteenth century, Bektashis were found among many leading figures of the Albanian national movement. During the communist regime, the community’s activities were sharply curtailed, but it witnessed a revival in the 1990s. According to the 2011 census, 2.09 per cent of the population identify themselves as Bektashi. The Albanian authorities have signed an agreement with the community, and a 2009 law directs the government to provide funding to it, along with other officially recognized faith groups. The Bektashi community has faced lengthy delays in numerous property restitution cases.
The substantial Egyptian community (sometimes known as Jevgs) see themselves as distinct from the Roma community. According to some narratives, the Egyptians were descendants of Coptic migrants who came from Egypt in the fourth century. Other accounts say they are descended from Egyptian slaves who arrived in Albania in the nineteenth century. Egyptians had long expressed their wish to be recognized as persons belonging to a national minority and benefit from the provisions of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on National Minorities. The Egyptian minority was not officially considered as such, falling neither in the national nor the ethno-linguistic categorization of minorities in Albania. This changed with the 2017 Law on Protection of National Minorities which accorded the community official recognition. Egyptians face similar challenges to the country’s Roma minority, including systemic discrimination and segregation. Many members of the Egyptian community are unaware of their rights. Indeed, although Roma and Egyptians are officially recognized as separate minorities, Egyptians are often conflated with the larger Roma minority by the authorities, hampering targeted initiatives to address the specific concerns of respective communities.
Albania has long had a Jewish minority. According to one account, the first Jews arrived in Albania in 70 CE, after which the community was augmented in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by an influx of Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain. The Jewish community remained small, with the 1930 census recording 204 individuals. In the years leading up to the Second World War, Jewish refugees arrived from Austria and Germany, later joined by Jews fleeing Croatia and Serbia. The numbers were not large; on the eve of the war, about 600 Jews, mainly refugees, lived in Albania. Albanians were known to have protected Jews, and the community grew as more refugees arrived. After Nazi Germany occupied the country in 1943, approximately 600 Albanian Jews were sent to concentration camps; only a hundred survived. Following the war and because of the curbs on religious practice introduced by the communist government, Jews were unable to maintain a communal life. In 1990–91, the remnants of the Albanian Jewish minority, numbering about 300 people, migrated en masse to Israel at the invitation of the Israeli government. Only 40 to 50 Jews are thought to remain in Albania.
Governance
In 2006, Albania signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU. Theoretically, this is the first step towards membership of the EU. For the country, it crowned 16 years of sometimes rocky transition to democracy. Under this agreement, Albania is obliged to improve its treatment of minorities in order to bring it into line with EU-wide standards.
Prior to this, the country had already undertaken some important reforms. In 1993, a charter of rights passed by the Albanian legislature assured ‘individuals belonging to minorities’ full protection and equality before the law and made provision for education in their mother tongue. In addition, the Albanian Constitution guarantees the rights of recognized national minorities, including the right to study and be taught in their mother tongue. Correspondingly, there is some provision of schools and classes for Greek and Macedonian national minorities, where education in the minority language is available, to varying degrees. However, other minorities do not fare so well. There is a lack of education in and of minority languages for the Aromanian/Vlach and the Roma minorities. The Committee on National Minorities is intended to serve as the channel for minority concerns to the government. However, given that the Chair and deputy are appointed by the Prime Minister, it is widely viewed by minorities as neither independent nor effective.
The Greek minority participates politically through a number of national parties. For example, the Unity for Human Rights Party theoretically represents Albania’s minorities, even though in practice this applies predominantly to the Greek minority. During the elections of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the party was winning 3 or 4 seats in parliament. In more recent years, it has been joining alliances with larger parties. It gained a single seat in the parliamentary elections of 2021. Other minorities, in particular Roma and Egyptians, appear to fall outside the electoral system. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, in its third report on Albania in December 2004, expressed its concern over the lack of effective participation of persons belonging to some minorities in the country’s decision-making processes at the national as well as local levels. It said that a lack of statistical information made it impossible to assess the extent of the problem but highlighted the marginalization of Roma and Egyptians in particular, saying that ‘numbers of Egyptians and Roma in state institutions seem particularly low, with those few persons that are employed in the public sector for the most part filling functions such as cleaning and maintenance’.
In the July 2005 elections there were no Roma candidates for mayor for a single municipality or commune, although the main parties did include some Roma candidates in their lists for the local councils. In practice though, their exclusion continues to the present day. In the May 2023 local elections, few Roma candidates stood for office. Those that did were listed so low down on the party lists that they had no chance to succeed.
A law on protection from discrimination was adopted in 2010. Its provisions were strengthened in 2020, including through protections from multiple, intersectional and structural discrimination. Serious forms of discrimination were identified with more severe punishments, while organizations could now file complaints on behalf of groups.
In 2017, the Law on Protection of National Minorities in the Republic of Albania was adopted. Critically, it grants official recognition to a range of minorities, including smaller communities such as Egyptians. Despite improvements, it did not resolve many of the minority-specific issues in Albania. Greeks and Montenegrins continue to demand representation in state institutions to solve linguistic and property issues. There is also frustration with the implementation of the law, as some governmental institutions continue to provide outdated information regarding this legislation and, thus, still categorize Roma, Aromanians and Egyptians as ethno-linguistic communities. Moreover, as of 2019, bylaws for the implementation of the minority law were either delayed or unimplemented.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in the case of X and others v. Albania (applications nos. 73548/17 and 45521/19) announced on 31 May 2022 will hopefully become a landmark with regard to the situation of Albania’s Roma and Egyptian communities. It deals with racial segregation at the Naim Frasheri School situated on the outskirts of the city of Korça and colloquially labelled the ‘Roma and Egyptian school’ because virtually all its students belong to either of these two groups. The trend towards segregation at the school started to be observed in 2012 and was characterized by an outflow of ethnic Albanian students from a formerly ethnically mixed institution. The ECtHR found a violation of Article 1, Protocol no.12 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Hence, Albania failed to implement sufficient measures aimed at desegregation of ethnic groups in school within a reasonable period of time.