Hoxha was born in Gjirokastër, a city in southern Albania ( then under the Ottoman Empire ) that has been home to many prominent families.

The Communist Party of Albania will unite with any group that used to have contacts with the fascist invaders, but has now terminated those contacts and is willing to now fight against the fascist invaders, provided those groups have not committed any crimes against the people.

The modern territory of Albania has no counterpart in antiquity, comprising parts of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia ( southern Illyricum ), Macedonia ( particularly Epirus Nova ), and Moesia Superior.

Since 1992 Albania has been seeking a closer relationship with the West.

The workforce of Albania has continued to emigrate to Western countries, especially Greece and Italy.

Although Albania has made strides toward democratic reform and maintaining the rule of law, serious deficiencies in the electoral code remain to be addressed, as demonstrated in the June 2001 parliamentary elections.

In some Muslim-majority nations, such as Albania, Turkey, Jordan, Indonesia or Mali, same-sex intercourse is not forbidden by law, and in Albania there has been discussions of legalizing same-sex marriage.

Due to the 1997 unrest in Albania and the Kosovo War in 1998 – 1999 ethnic Albanian traffickers enjoyed a competitive advantage, which has been eroding as the region stabilises.

Luxembourg has financially supported international peacekeeping missions during the 1991 Gulf War, in Rwanda and, more recently, Albania.

The army also has participated in humanitarian relief missions such as setting up refugee camps for Kurds and providing emergency supplies to Albania.

The Macedonian language has the status of official language only in the Republic of Macedonia, and is a recognised minority and official language in parts of Albania ( Municipality of Pustec ), Romania, and Serbia ( Municipalities of Jabuka and Plandište ).

* Albania has an embassy in Doha.

It has exclusive authority over the following regions: Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, southern Albania and Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, and Ukraine.

It has done much – contributing to the success of IFOR, SFOR, efforts in Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and elsewhere – and has continued to expand actively its constructive regional engagement.

* Slovenia has observer status, like the United States, in ( the Turkish proposed ) Multinational Peacekeeping Force Southeast European ( MPFSEE ), with other participants being Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, the Republic of Macedonia, Romania, and Turkey ;

Since the out break of the Syrian civil war, the Syrian economy has been hit by massive economic sanctions restricting trade with the Arab League, Australia, Canada, the European Union, ( as well as the European countries of Albania, Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland ) Georgia, Japan, Turkey, and the United States.

* Albania has an embassy in Abu Dabi.

The UNCCD has 194 country Parties: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, the People's Republic of China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d ' Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Albania has concentrated on maintaining good relations with its Balkan neighbours, gaining access to European-Atlantic security institutions, and securing close ties with the United States.

Italy has also provided financial assistance to Albania to help its ailing economy.

Transport in Albania had been rather undeveloped during the Communist period ( between 1945 and 1990 ), after which the country has had to make significant investment into transport infrastructure.

Albanian asphalt from Selenice in Southern Albania is well known for its durability as it has been used on some Swiss motorways.

The economy of Albania has undergone a transition from its communist past into an open-market economy in the early 1990s.

By 1985, a case had not been heard of in the past twenty years whereas previously Albania had the greatest number of patients infected in Europe.

Hoxha stated that this was yet another of many attempts to overthrow the leadership of Albania which had been organized by Yugoslavia.

During the Bronze Age, several artifacts from tumulus burials have been unearthed in central and southern Albania, showing close connection with sites in southwestern Macedonia and Lefkada, Greece.

After the fall of Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941, the Italian Fascists added to the territory of the Kingdom of Albania most of the Albanian-inhabited areas that had been previously given to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The constitution's preamble also boasted that the foundations of religious belief in Albania had been abolished.

In 1995, Albania had been accepted into the Council of Europe and requested membership in NATO.

The relations between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian and Serb populations have been hostile since the rise of nationalism in the Balkans during the 19th century, rivalry which became strong after Serbia gained Kosovo from the Ottoman Empire in 1913 and after Albania became independent in the same year.

The frontiers of Albania had not been set during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, as they were left for the League to decide ; however, they had not yet been determined by September 1921, creating an unstable situation.

In November 1921, the League decided that the frontiers of Albania should be the same as they had been in 1913, with three minor changes that favoured Yugoslavia.

Parts of the Brigade have been employed many times in the Balkans ( Missions IFOR / SFOR in Bosnia and KFOR in Kosovo ), with MNF in Albania and Mission INTERFETd to East Timor.

The crown of Skanderbeg, believed to have been created for the medieval king in the 15th century, was smuggled out of Albania by members of the Kastrioti family following the occupation of Albania by the Ottoman Empire.

In addition to their importance to the ancestry of Chechens and Ingush, the Gargareans have also been considered possibly central to the formation of the Èrs, another historical ( albeit now extinct ) Nakh people living in Northern Armenia, Caucasian Albania and Hereti ( the name Hereti is derived from them ).

Recent arrivals in the pageant include China ( 2002 ), Albania ( 2002 ), Vietnam ( 2004 ), Georgia ( 2004 ), Ethiopia ( 2004 ), Latvia ( 2005 ), Kazakhstan ( 2006 ), Tanzania ( 2007 ), and Kosovo ( 2008 ); there have also been efforts to revive strong national pageants in South Africa, Canada, Spain, Japan ; Latin America ( especially Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil ) among other regions.

He has been appointed ( July 2, 2007 ) as a Knight Grand Cross of the Croatian Grand Order of King Tomislav, " For outstanding contribution to the promotion of friendship and development co-operation between the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Albania.

In this capacity he compromised a programme of joint U. S .- UK paramilitary operations ( Albanian Subversion, Valuable Project ) in Enver Hoxha's Albania ( although it has been shown that these operations were further compromised " on the ground " by poor security discipline amongst the Albanian émigrés recruited to undertake the operations ).

In 1931, King Zog of Albania made a rare foreign tour and visited Vienna in an unsuccessful attempt to repatriate the crown, presumably for a future coronation ( he considered giving himself the regnal name " Skanderbeg III ").

In August of the same year Dushku visited Albania to film a documentary promoting tourism on her father's country of origin with a crew from the Travel Channel and Lonely Planet entitled Dear Albania.

In 2006, she visited her father's family in Albania after an invitation from the Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha.

Two Irish pilgrims who visited Albania on their way to Jerusalem in 1322, report that Durres is “ inhabited by Latins, Greeks, perfidious Jews and barbaric Albanians ”.< ref > Itinerarium Symonis Simeonis et Hugonis Illuminatoris ad Terram Sanctam, edited by J. Nasmith, 1778, cited in:

Strauss visited communist Albania on 21 August 1984, while Enver Hoxha, the ruler from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, was still alive.

In August 2011, American actress with Albanian origin Eliza Dushku visited Albania to film a promotional documentary on her father's country of origin.

The head of the Black Hand movement, Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević ( called Apis, the bee ), one of the greatest intiguers of his time, visited northern Albania several times in order to get in touch with the leaders of the Albanian uprising, especially Isa Boletini.

Shulman visited Albania then moved to China in 1968 and worked as an editor of English language publications during the Cultural Revolution in Beijing.

He alleged that he " completed " all the exams in Albanian ( a language he is not fluent in ), and had not visited Albania even once ( according to the Albanian border police system ).

In 1987 Teresa visited Albania and visited the grave of the former Communist dictator Enver Hoxha.

In 1908, anthropologist Edith Durham visited the Malesia region and catalogued her findings in her ethnographic work " High Albania ," which was, for nearly a century, the most trusted source of information about the Albanian highlanders.

Soon Alexander Thomson, a Scottish missionary, joined the Society and visited Albania in 1863.