BB: Competing Pasts in Albania

Albania’s violent twentieth century was shaped by two dictatorships although most people only talk about one. The communist period (1944-1991) was arguably more brutal than the soft and even incompetent one of King Zog (1928-1939) but both periods warranted a national conversation. After the collapse of Albanian communist rule in 1991, Albania charted an uneven course towards transitional justice that focused exclusively on the communist period. But what else happened?

Robert C Austin is a professor and Associate Director at the Centre for European and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.