Philip of Macedon, and later his son Alexander the Great, waged war against the fierce Illyrian tribes who occupied this mountainous region. A thousand years later the Illyrians distinguished themselves among the Roman legions for their bravery and were among the first to accept Christianity; Constantine the Great was of Illyrian descent, as were several of the most important emperors of early Byzantium, notably St. Justinian. Empires crumbled and the region underwent depradations from Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Huns, and Slavs … but the Albanoi, as Ptolemy and their neighbors called them, held on stubbornly to their language and their culture. Even 400 years of Turkish occupation could not suppress Albanian culture. While some 70% of the Albanian populace would ultimately profess Islam, their observance was notoriously casual, and it was said among the Ottomans that Albanians “had no religion but Albania.”

After he came to power, Communist Party Enver Hoxha decided to make that insult a reality as mosques and churches were closed and thousands of religious leaders executed. Like his friend and mentor Stalin, he industrialized a semi-feudal country and brought literacy and self-sufficiency to his country’s poorest; like Stalin, he did so by brutally suppressing all opposition and nationalizing all resources. Under Hoxha’s forty-year rule, Albania was closed off from West and East alike, its borders as tightly sealed as North Korea’s as Hoxha rejected Chinese, Russian and Yugoslavian attempts to influence and control him. His death left a generation of Albanians with little knowledge of the world beyond the rugged Albanian Alps. This became abundantly clear in 1997, when Albania’s government squandered some 50% of its country’s wealth on Ponzi schemes, and in 1999 when a flood of Albanian refugees fleeing violence in Kosovo further strained Albania’s already fragile economy.

Faced with an incipient humanitarian crisis, the world responded with relief: many of these early efforts came from Christian organizations. This aroused ill will in some Moslem quarters, who saw an effort to Christianize the only predominantly Moslem country in Europe. The oil-rich Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia, responded with their own missionaries and relief agencies, and soon old mosques were being restored and new mosques springing up all over the country, along with Quranic schools. Many of these schools were staffed by Arabs, or by Kosovo Albanians, and taught their own brand of Islamic political/religious fundamentalism. Still other Moslems came from Chechnya, Afghanistan, Yemen and other countries to assist the Kosovo Liberation Army, an Albanian guerrilla movement which seeks to expand Albania’s current borders by joining sections of Serbia and Montenegro into a “Greater Albania.”

Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are among the KLA’s more notorious supporters. Equally disturbing is their widespread and growing role in European narcotrafficing. Albanian mobsters control much of the heroin trade from Turkey into the continent, and a growing number of those mobsters have ties to the KLA. There have been numerous reports of “arms-for-drugs” trades, as well as links between the KLA and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The mountains of Albania have always been notorious as wild places filled with brigands; to this day armed robberies and smuggling are commonplace in Albania’s rural regions, and travelers are advised against leaving city limits after dark.

There is a large Albanian population outside the borders of Albania. Many Albanians fled the brutal Hoxha government, while still more fled the post-Hoxha economic chaos. Still others are the descendents of Albanians who traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire; by some counts there are more Albanians in Turkey than in Albania. Many Albanians have fled to Italy, where they face widespread discrimination and, in many cases, forced repatriation. As Eastern Europe recovers from Communism and struggles to redefine its borders, the Albanian populations scattered throughout Eastern Europe are likely to face continuing problems, as the psychic wounds of the Ottoman occupation are once again reopened.

The Serbian campaign of “ethnic cleansing” – with its attendant rapes, massacres, and atrocities – resulted in NATO going to war. NATO generals have made noises about intervening in Macedonia, where widespread tension exists between ethnic Albanians and the native Macedonian population. As links between Albanian organized crime, the KLA, and Islamic fundamentalists continue to surface, NATO sympathy – and support – is likely to dissipate.