Albania – The Permanent Shrinking of Territory
Written by Flamur Buçpapaj
Albania is not merely a small country on the map. It is a nation diminished over time, in space, and in will. A state divided into five parts, a people fragmented across borders they never chose, a history built on successive losses. Since 1912, political Albania has never been the real Albania.
This country was born small. Its territory was mutilated, its people divided, its state weakened. And instead of rising above this historical injustice, Albania was administered as a remnant, as a silent protectorate, subordinated to foreign interests and to domestic elites without a homeland in their conscience. At its head stood not statesmen, but servants of others—sold mercenaries of politics who never saw Albania as a national project, but as a temporary possession.
Long occupations did not only take our land; they stole our time. While other Balkan nations were building universities, institutions, and armies, Albanians were excluded from knowledge and development. When Belgrade and Athens were opening the doors of higher education, we were still under domination, forbidden to learn, forbidden to form an elite. This historical delay followed us like a curse and turned into a structural weakness of the Albanian state.
Today, that weakness has become policy. Albania has been left without a real army, without strategic industry, without a productive economy. A country that does not produce and cannot defend itself is not a sovereign state. It is open territory for pressure, blackmail, and humiliation. If tomorrow there were a real military threat, Albania would not be able to defend even itself, let alone the nation divided into five states.
The tragic irony is that, despite all the shadows of the past, more factories, plants, and industries were built in difficult historical periods than in all the decades of the so-called “democratic” transition combined. Today we have more concrete, more façades, and more propaganda—but less production, less real work, and less economic sovereignty. Industry was destroyed in the name of the free market, while the country was left totally dependent on imports and debt.
This is not an accident. It is a choice. A model of governance that prefers manageable poverty to genuine development. A system where the party stands above the state and the state above the people. A society held hostage by fear, where citizens vote not for progress, but for survival. Thus was created this party-enslaved population, which prefers familiar misery to the risk of change.
Albania does not suffer only from bad government; it suffers from the absence of real political rotation, from the lack of accountability, and from the absence of punishment for failure. Democracy has been reduced to a voting ritual, while the state has become the property of a few. Instead of development, poverty was preserved—because poverty guarantees power.
The consequences are severe and irreversible if this path continues. Emigration has become the norm, not the exception. Albania is being emptied of its youth, its energy, its hope. A country without youth is a country without a future. A divided nation, without a strong state, without an economy, and without vision, is a nation at risk of disappearance.
The final and most painful question is no longer “who did this to us,” but “do we truly want to become a state.” Because a state requires courage, knowledge, sacrifice, and responsibility. Instead, we have chosen silence, submission, and departure. If this continues, Albania will not be conquered by foreigners.
It will have surrendered itself.
