Part A: Albania and Basic Human Rights
Albania is a relatively new democracy and one that is currently in the process of reforming itself to be in line with the Copenhagen Criteria. Despite the fact that the country was a communist regime for nearly 45 years, the citizens of Albania have experienced some version of free speech since the 1960s. The concept was called “flete- rufe” and the process by which one could criticize public officials was done so by posting a comment on a town bulletin board. The official had three days to respond to the comment and would face consequences if the critique was removed. Eventually, the dictator Hoxha stripped away these rights that were previously granted as his paranoia about maintaining power increased (Crossan, 2016). The current constitution of Albania grants citizens free speech, press, and assembly and the government generally respects these rights (US Department of State, 2017). Hate speech and propaganda is explicitly prohibited in the constitution. The media in Albania is reportedly influenced and pressured by political parties and business interests but balanced reporting does exist, such as with the Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH) (Freedom House, 2018). The Democratic Party is a center right party and its beliefs are extremely polarized against those of the other major party, the Socialist Party. The far-right Albanian National Front Party currently holds no seats in parliament and is therefore not very influential in shaping the politics of the nation.
While denial of the Holocaust is not technically illegal in Albania, there are few reports of anti-Semitic sentiments and hate speech. Albania prides itself on being the only occupied European country to end with a higher Jewish population than it began with. The country has been recognized for its efforts in taking in hundreds of Jewish refugees during WW2 (Mashbaum, 2018). Another reason for the limited incidents around hate speech is that the country has experienced very high ratings of religious tolerance. This is the result of the ban on religion that the country experienced during the communist regime. In addition, throughout the nation’s history there has been extreme religious persecution of its people by various foreign oppressors.
Part B: Russian Engagement in Albania’s Politics
The history between Russia and Albania is ever-changing. During the cold war, the Soviet Union had significant influence in the Balkan region and used Albania to bring materials to communist troops fighting in Greece. Albania did have a good relationship with Yugoslavia but was never fully under the influence of the Soviets. The biggest divide between these two states came after the ideological split between the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union, in which Albania sided with PRC. Yugoslavia and other Eastern European nations remained under complete control by the Soviets and therefore Russia still has more influence in these nations.
Today, Albania (aside from Kosovo) is the most pro-west/ pro- EU nation in the Balkan region. Russia does not want Albania and other Balkan states to integrate into the European project as that would strengthen the continent against them (MacShane, 2018). Albania sees Russia “not as a threat but is worried about disruptive activities for democratic state building in the region” (Gotev, 2018). The Prime Minister Edi Rama is currently in talks with the European Commission about the timeline for Albania’s accession into the European Union. He has been attempting to fast track membership by arguing that Russia is trying to radicalize the country’s Muslim population as a means to disrupt cohesion and therefore the EU needs to step in and defend them before this is possible. Russia does own some online information space in which it promotes its own political and cultural agenda. They also use these sources to promote the right- wing sentiments of a Greater Albania as a means to weaken the trust that the country has in European Integration (Tlis, 2018). During the recent election PM Edi Rama accused the Democratic Party (PD) of using a USA lobbyist group funded by a Russian company to set up a meeting with the party leader and President Trump to show his support for the party, therefore meddling in the election and future of the nation (Semini, 2018).
As a result of the history between the Soviet Union and Albania, Russia does not have as much influence in Albania as it does in other nations of the region and therefore has been relatively unsuccessful in interfering in political affairs within Albania.
Works Cited:
“Albania.” Freedom House. May 04, 2018. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/albania.
“Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017.” U.S. Department of State. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/#wrapper.
Crossan, Antonia. “Albania.” Free Speech and Free Press Around the World. April 28, 2016. Accessed November 18, 2018.https://freespeechfreepress.wordpress.com/albania/.
Gotev, Georgi. “We Are Aware of ‘Europeisation Fatigue’, Warns Albanian Minister.” Euractiv.com. April 27, 2018. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/albanian-minister-we-are aware-of-the-europeisation-fatigue/.
MacShane, Denis. “Opinion: Why It’s Such a Big Problem for Putin If the Balkan Countries Enter the EU.” The Independent. May 17, 2018. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/putin-balkan-countries-eu-join-russia-problem-serbia-albania-a8355866.html.
Mashbaum, Yael. “Jews In Albania.” Yad Vashem. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/jews-in-albania.html.
Semini, Llazar. “Albania Opposition Denies Links to Russian Election Meddling.” U.S. News & World Report. March 07, 2018. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-03-07/albania-oppositiondenies-links-to-russian-election-meddling.
Tlis, Fatima. “Russian Ambassador’s Claim to Albania: No “Aggressive Plans” – Belied by Actions.” POLYGRAPH.info. June 27, 2018. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-russia-nato-balkans-albania/29324087.html.
This is a well written summary of freedom of expression in Albania and Albania-Russia relations. Perhaps the reason holocaust denial is not illegal in Albania is because it is neither a political nor significant problem in the country (due to the large number of Jewish Citizens). It seems that in the cases that Bleich examined where holocaust denial is illegal may be countries that have a history of antisemitism while countries such as the United States need no such laws because they do not have a prevalence of antisemitism or history of it as much of Europe does.
It’s clear that Albanians do not favor Russia or their politicians. Perhaps you could expand on Russia’s ownership of Albanian online information space in which Russia allegedly promotes its own political and cultural agenda? This could be interesting given accusations of Russian influence in the United States’ online community. In addition, while it’s commonly known that Russia wants to weaken EU influence in many European countries, the accusation that Russia is trying to mobilize extremist Muslims in Albania is engrossing. Given that Albania has not yet joined the EU, it will be interesting to see or research what type of methods Russia is using to stop Albanian accession to the European Union.
Gabriella,
I liked how you connected Albania’s western attitude to the rest of the West Balkans. Montenegro, my country, has a similar issue yet half of the population favors Russia and Serbia. Similarly to my case study, freedom of speech and protest is also called into question. In order to ascend into the EU, Albania must improve freedom indicators to allow for a legitimate democracy
Wonderful! Your article is very detailed – easy to understand. The Democratic Party is a center-right party and its beliefs are extremely polarizing compared to that of the other major party, the Socialist Party. The far-right National Front Party of Albania currently has no seats in parliament and therefore has little influence in shaping the country’s politics.
Yugoslavia and other Eastern European countries were still under full Soviet control and therefore Russia still had more influence in these countries.