The recent Serbia-Albania football match was like a microcosm of the twenty-first century Balkans: lots of intense, emotional nationalism and "othering" and in the end, the result was completely irrelevant.
Haki Stërmilli 1936 novel If I Were a Boy portrays the contemporary problems of Albanian society that stem from a misogynistic mindset, and deserves to be (re-)read today.
Sixty miles north, in the rocky and desolate Spaç labor camp, political prisoners watched the ceremony from wooden benches in the television room. No one dared smile or cheer. Would Hoxha’s death mean their liberation or execution?
A recent spate of terrorist attacks in Albania has drawn virtually no international attention. But the consequences for the country could prove very serious indeed.
On life in prison generally, the most common complaints across five countries were about hygiene and space.
The post-1945 system is today overtaken by events and a new world order is about to emerge. This new—quite explosive—background doesn’t signal the end of the EU, but shouts out that its core features must be redesigned and receive broad popular support. The question is how.
A new socialist model is emerging in the western Balkans. Can its political vocabulary transcend the ethno-national dividing lines in the region?
Albania has been leading the Balkan region in its management of women prisoners – a complex group to detain and rehabilitate. Now, as a new government is sworn in and politically motivated staff changes look likely, this progress – and the wellbeing of its female inmates – is at risk.
A handy guide for journalists on how to write about this mysterious and brooding region.
“Are you saying that Le Pen has a branch even in Albania?!” – intervened the one who had found the envelope. “Yes, sir,” - I answered. “As I just said, Albania is now a free country.”
