The Albanians

Oliver Jens Schmitt

The “Albanian question” has occupied European politics since the Kosovo war and the subsequent independence of Kosovo. Even though the Albanian state emerged in 1912 after the end of the Ottoman Empire, it only contained about half of all Albanians, who are the largest group of Muslims in Europe. This brief volume is unique because it describes the history of all the Albanians in southeastern Europe, in Albania, but also in Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Greece. For many years, Albania was isolated from the world under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. Now Albania and Kosovo are effectively two Albanian states, both of which are struggling with serious political and economic problems. Leading Albanians increasingly to ask themselves whether they belong to the Islamic East or to the European West.