Albania: The Last Domino
Albania: The Last Domino

Author(s): Elez Biberaj
Subject(s): Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: CEEOL Digital Reproductions / Collections
Summary/Abstract: On the eve of the violent overthrow and the execution of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceau§escu in December 1989, the president of Albania and first secretary of the ruling Party of Labor (APL), Ramiz Alia, assured the world that his country was immune to the dramatic developments that were reshaping the political landscape of Eastern Europe. Addressing a meeting of the Communist-controlled Trade Unions Council on December 11, 1989, Alia confidently declared: “There are people abroad who ask: Will processes like those taking place in Eastern Europe also occur in Albania? We answer firmly and categorically: No, they will not occur in Albania.” The Albanian leader said that after the break with the Soviet bloc in 1961 and alliance with Mao Zedong’s China, Albania had embarked on a totally different political and economic road from its former allies. He added that his country was not faced with the same problems as other East European states. “The crisis that is sweeping the countries in the East is the crisis of a definite community, the crisis of what used to be called the socialist community, but not the crisis of socialism as a theory and practice. Consequently, the events taking place there have nothing to do with us.

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