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Albania
Albania's history is ancient, tracing back to the kingdom of Illyria, a powerful naval force which alternately traded with and pirated Greece and Italy. Rome conquered Illyria in the 168 BCE, and the country in turn passed into Byzantine hands in 395 CE. Beginning in the ninth century, the country was alternately invaded and occupied by Bulgarians, Normans, and Serbs, before being conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1430. In the nineteenth century the Albanians joined the Greeks and othet Balkan peoples in fighting for independence from Turkish rule. For a time its coast became a favorite destination for western European travellers, including Lord Byron, Edward Lear, and Edith Durham. In 1910 a revolution against Turkish rule began which eventually won Albanian independence in 1912. Two years later Albania was plunged into the violence of the First World War, and armies from both sides occupied the country, which had no central government. Only the intercession of US President Woodrow Wilson averted the partitioning of the country between its neighbors after the war. Albania was invaded and occupied by Italy in April, 1939, and later by Germany. A Communist government was established shortly after the German withdrawal in 1944, after which a nearly fifty year period of xenophobic isolation ensued, under the rule of former college professor Enver Hoxha. One of Hoxha's first moves was to criminalize homosexual relations, with a penalty of up to ten years imprisonment. Not surprisingly, considerable evidence has been found since his death in 1985 that Hoxha may himself have been a closeted gay. In 1991, the Communist government collapsed, and was replaced first by a coalition government and then a freely elected one. Despite the collapse of the Communist regime, homosexuality remained illegal in Albania and Albanian gays were still discriminated against. In addition to imprisonment and police beatings, suicide was not uncommon among the gay population. In 1994 Genc Xhelaj, a native of the capital of Tirana, organized Shoqata Gay Albania, or The Gay Albania Society, a group dedicated to repealing anti gay laws and discrmination in his country. The group at its start had only ten members, and many Albanian gays would not join out of fear of discovery. Eventually the Gay Alabania Society was able to gain international attention and popular support, and began to openly oppose both the current law and a new one which would still make homosexuality illegal yet reduced the imposed prison sentence to three years. Three members of the society were arrested and tortured by the police. Still, the proposed new law failed, and the Albanian Parliament instead decriminalized gay sex in January, 1995, reserving criminal penalties only for sex with minors or rape. Because of the fairly new status for gays in Albania, tourism for gays in that country is still largely limited. Considerable social and political unrest exist as well. Albania is also beset with a high crime rate, owing to its poverty and especially to an increase in organized crme activity, fueled largely by the drug trade. Albania is currently one of the most active gateways for the entry of illicit drugs into Europe. For these reasons, gay travellers to Albania are advised to be especially cautious. Links: 1997 Brave New World Citizen Awards
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