Since 1991, Albania has welcomed foreign visitors but, as the poorest country in Europe, it has attracted relatively few of them. Yet there are many reasons why the outside world should be interested in Albania and concerned for it's future. Albania is a Balkan country and thus a crossroads of East and West, North and South; it is

Despite Alia's efforts to proceed with change on a limited, cautious basis, reform from above threatened to turn into reform from below, largely because of the increasingly vocal demands of Albania's youth. On December 9, 1990, student demonstrators marched from the Enver Hoxha University at Tiranë though the streets of the capital shouting slogans and demanding an end to dictatorship. By December 11, the number of participants had reached almost 3,000. In an effort to quell the student unrest, which had led to clashes with riot police, Alia met with the students and agreed to take further steps toward democratization. The students informed Alia that they wanted to create an independent political organization of students and youth. Alia's response was that such an organization had to be registered with the Ministry of Justice. The student unrest was a direct consequence of the radical transformations that were taking place in Eastern Europe and of Alia's own democratic reforms, which spurred the students on to make more politicized demands. Their protests triggered the announcement on December 11, 1990.

To defuse the crisis in July 1990, the Central Committee held a plenum, which resulted in significant changes in the leadership of party and state. The conservatives in the leadership were pushed out, and Alia's position was strengthened. Alia had already called for privatizing retail trade, and many businesses had begun to operate privately. In a September 1990 speech to representatives of Albania's major social and political organizations, Alia discussed the July crisis and called for electoral reform. He noted that a proposed electoral law would allow all voting to take place by secret ballot and that every precinct would have at least two candidates. The electors themselves would have the right to propose candidates and anyone could nominate candidates for the assembly. Alia also criticized the bureaucratic "routine and tranquility" of managers and state organizations that were standing in the way of reform.

I remember for the first time when the people broke the gates of the foreign countries embassies in Albania. That was the first step for the people to get out of there, but the government told us that all those people who broke those gates will be punished. I still remember the crying of the relatives of those people, they thought that their sons or daughters would be killed, but what they didn't know was that their sons and daughters were the first ones to brake free from a fifty year old communism, and that a very good future was awaiting them.

as rich in history as it is in resources. When Albania achieved independence, nearly half its population found itself outside its newly drawn borders, in what is now called "the former Yugoslavia." But Albanians are not Slavs, and the Albanian language is not Slavic. Much has been written about historic "transition" from communism, but Albania's transition is ignored in most of these accounts. This is probably because Albania's brand of communism was different from the others, and its society is more difficult for a Westerner to understand, or maybe because people didn't pay much attention to what happenes in a tinny little country in Eastern Europe. (A portrait of High Albania)

The Communists ended much of the traditional, male-dominated clan system and guaranteed equal rights to women. Aspects of t

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2285
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)