from Turkey in
1912 has indeed been dominated by attempts of one, or a combination, of
its neighbors to dismember it.

The boundaries of Albania in 1970 were essentially the same as those
delineated by representatives of the Great Powers after Albania had
declared its independence. Ethnic problems raised by the drawing of the
boundaries have never been solved to the satisfaction of the countries
involved. The Albanians hold that in 1913 about 40 percent of their
territory, with a population at that time of about 600,000 ethnic
Albanians, was unjustly assigned to Serbia. The area has been a
continuing source of friction between Albania and Yugoslavia.

A source of tension between Albania and Greece has been the status of
Albania's two southernmost districts. Known to the Greeks as Northern
Epirus, this region was awarded to Albania by the boundary delineations
of 1913, but the Greeks have never relinquished their claims to the
area.

Italy, located only about forty-five miles across the narrow Strait of
Otranto, has attempted on several occasions to impose its hegemony over
Albania. The extreme influence exercised on Albanian affairs by Italy
between 1925 and 1939 that culminated in a military invasion in April of
1939 has been a source of great resentment by the Albanian people.

The Communist Party of Albania assumed control of the country in 1944.
The fact that the Communist regime installed itself in the capital city
of Tirana on November 28, Albania's traditional Independence Day, was
an indication that originally it did not intend to cut off all ties with
the past, although its declared intention was to create a new social
order. A year later, however, on November 29, the regime proclaimed a
new national holiday, which it called Liberation Day. Until about 1960
the traditional Independence Day was mentioned only in passing, whereas
Liberation Day was celebrated with considerable publicity.

A basic change of attitude, however, occurred when the regime broke with
the Soviet Union in the 1960-61 period. The ruling elite, apparently
feeling insecure both for their personal safety and for the future of
the country, launched an intensive campaign to win popular support by
appealing to the people's nationalist and patriotic sentiments. The
country's major patriots who were responsible for the national awakening
in the second half of the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth
centuries had been forgotten aft