ALBANIA
(Republic Albania)

The capital — Tirana. A state language — Albanian.

The name "Albanian" happens from the ancient city of Albanopolis mentioned by Ptolemaeus in the second century of b. with. also is in modern Albania. Etymologically it occurs from Latin Albus, a "white", possible mention of whiteness of nearby mountains. Arbyoresh occurs from the Albanian Arber, the term for Albanians in Italy. "Arbanit", "Arvanit", appointing the Greek Albanians, changed on Arbret and Arbyorekh, initially names of which were only for Catholic Albanians. "Arnnut" comes from Ottoman designation and as Albana, the original French name, it is possible to find in older sources. "Illyrian" is a name of the autochthonic population which partially partly belonged to the modern Albanian territory since the Iron Age, and sometimes it is used in the Albanian nationalist literature as designation of "ancestors of Albanians". Shiptar, "sons of an eagle", initially self-determination of the people of northern highlands, is in a modern Albanian correct ethnonym for all Albanians.

Location. Modern Albania occupies the space in 28 748 square kilometers located between 39 ° 38 'and 42 ° 39' NL and 19 ° 16 'and 21 ° 4' EL and Montenegro, Serbia, and Macedonia - on the North and the East, and Greece - on the South borders on the Adriatic and Ionic seas in the West. Seventy six percent of Albania - the hill and the mountain, 23,4 percent of plains. Climate Mediterranean among coastal plains and the foothills. In a mountain zone of internal Albania the climate becomes more continental, with less dry summer more cool, frequent in the snow winters.

Demography. In 1990 in Albania there were about 3,25 million Albanians from whom 35 percent - city. Rates of an increase in population are up to 2 percent a year at extremely high birth rate 24 on 1000 inhabitants (an average value of 1985-1990). The population has the youngest middle age in Europe: 33,9% - 14 years, 51,8% - 15-49 years and only 14,3% - higher than 50 in 1985. The expected life expectancy - 69 years for men and 74 women. More than a third of all Albanians live outside political borders of Albania which were established in 1913 after the Balkan wars. More than 2 million Albanians live in Kosovo in

The republic Serbia, Yugoslavia, with others Montenegro and Macedonia. In Greece there is also a big Albanian community, generally in Tshamariya (the Greek Epirus), in Peloponnese, in Thrace, in the Greek Macedonia and on the islands of Angistri, Euboea, Gidra, Poros, Spetsai, etc. There is one more 100 000 in the south of Italy and Sicily, descendants of religious refugees from the Ottoman Empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Thousands of Albanians came (1990-1991) quite recently. As political refugees to Greece, Italy and other countries of Western Europe. There are also Albanian enclaves in Turkey, Egypt, Russia and the United States.