About Albania
Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipėrisė, IPA ) is a Mediterranean country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Serbia and Montenegro in the north, the Republic of Macedonia in the east, and Greece in the south; it has a coast on the Adriatic Sea in the west, and a coast on the Ionian Sea in the southwest. The country is an emerging democracy and is formally named the Republic of Albania.
Geography
Main article: Geography of Albania
Albania consists of mostly hilly and mountainous terrain, the highest mountain, Korab in the district of Dibra reaching up to 2,753 metres (9,032 ft). The country mostly has a continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers.
Besides capital city Tirana, with 800,000 inhabitants, the principal cities are Durrės, Elbasan, Shkodėr, Gjirokastėr, Vlorė, Korēė and Kukės. In Albanian grammar a word can have indefinite and definite forms, and this also applies to city names: so both Tiranė and Tirana, Shkodėr and Shkodra are used.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Albania
Most of the population is ethnically Albanian (95% according to the CIA World Factbook Feb 2005), there is a Greek minority (3% of the population), this however could significantly vary according to other sources, (note: in 1989, other estimates of the Greek population ranged from 1% (official Albanian statistics) to 12% (from a Greek organization) cia.gov (external)). Many ethnic Albanians also live in the bordering countries of Serbia and Montenegro (around 1,850,000; of that, around 1,800,000 in Serbia (around 1,700,000 in its province called Kosovo and around 50,000 in Montenegro) and the Republic of Macedonia (around 500,000) although a lot of Albanians believe that the number might be higher. Also a small number of ethnic Albanians live in Greece which are called Ēam or Cham. Claims over Ēam numbers have ranged from 20,000 to over 200,000 but are believed to be understated because Athens has not considered the local Albanians to be a separate ethnic group.frosina.org (external) Since 1991, large numbers of Albanians have emigrated, both legally and illegally, to Greece and Italy.
The language is Albanian, although Greek is also spoken by the Greek minority in the southern regions of the country.
At the height of the Ottoman occupation, the majority of Albanians were mostly Muslim (70%), even though religion was prohibited during the communist era. The Albanian government proclaimed Albania the only officially atheistic country in the world. After the fall of the Communist Regime in 1989-1990 religions were reinstated. According to 1939 statistics, the Albanian Orthodox (20%) and Roman Catholic Church (10%) would be the other main religions in Albania. Religious fanaticism has never been a serious problem, with people from different religions living in peace and even getting married although this was not considered to be an optimal solution. 20% of the total Muslim population is Bektashi, people who follow a faith originating in the Turkish migrations into Turkey, and came to Albania through the Ottoman Janissaries.