Italy and the end of communism in Albania, 1989–1991

Abstract

This article analyses Italy's foreign policy towards the end of the Albania's communism régime. At first, after the fall of the Berlin wall the Andreotti Government tried to link the Albanian question with Rome's policy towards Yugoslavia. Between 1990 and 1991 Italy was confronted with the deterioration of Albania's political and economic situation and was compelled to develop an ‘ad hoc’ policy, especially as far as the immigration issue was concerned. The crisis reached its climax in summer 1991. After the implementation of some emergency measures Italy tried to pursue a long term policy based on economic help and nation building initiatives in order to favour the setting up of a new Albanian post-communist régime.

Notes

Antonio Varsori is full Professor of History of International Relations at the University of Padova, where he is the Director of the Department of Politics, Law and International Studies. He published extensively on Italy's foreign policy, the Cold War, European integration and Britain's post-war foreign policy. Among his most recent publications in volume: La Cenerentola d'Europa. L'Italia e l'integrazione europea dal 1947 a oggi (Soveria Mannelli: 2010); European Union History Themes and Debates, ed. with W. Kaiser (Basingstoke: 2010); Europe in the International Arena during the 1970s: Entering a Different World, ed. with G. Migani (Brussels/Bern: 2011). He is completing a volume on Italy and the end of the cold war (1989–1992) and a volume in cooperation with V. Lomellini on the Italian Communist Party and the US during the 1970s and the 1980s. Correspondence to: Prof. Antonio Varsori, Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, Giuridiche e Studi Internazionali, Universitá di Padova, Via del Santo 77, 35123 Padova, Italy.

1 These aspects have been dealt with very early in the aftermath of the end of Communism; for the fall of the Berlin wall and the German reunification see, for example, Charles Maier, Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999); on the end of the Communist regime in the Soviet bloc and the fall of the Soviet Union see for example, Francois Fejto, La fin des democraties populaires: les chemins du post-communisme (Paris: Seuil, 1992) and John B. Dunlop, The Rise of Russia and the fall of the Soviet Empire (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993); on the Yugoslav crisis see, Joze Pirjevec, Le guerre jugoslave 1991–1999 (Turin: Einaudi, 2001).

2 For a current affairs approach, see for example: Leslie Holmes, Post-Communisn: An Introduction (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997); Roberto Menotti and Marta Dassú, Mediatori in armi. L'allargamento della Nato e la politica USA in Europa (Milan: Guerini, 1999); Liborio Mattina (ed.), La sfida dell'allargamento: l'Unione Europea e la democratizzazione dell'Europa centro-orientale (Bologna: il Mulino, 2004).

3 Philip Rees (ed.), Population Migration in the European Union (Chichester: Wiley, 1996); Thomas Faist and Andreas Ette (eds), The Europeanization of National Policies and Politics of Emigration: between Autonomy and the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2007).

4 I would like to thank the Luigi Sturzo Institute, especially the Secretary General, Dr. Flavia Nardelli, and the chief archivist, Dr. Luciana Devoti, for their precious help and cooperation, as well as Senator Giulio Andreotti for permission to consult his archives. This article is a part of a wider study of Italy's foreign policy between 1989 and 1992 and the end of the cold war.

5 One of the few scholarly contributions regarding the relationship between Italy and Albania after the fall of the Communist regime is Federico Niglia (ed.), L'Albania verso l'Unione Europea: il ruolo dell'Italia (Rome: IAI, 2007), a working paper of the “Istituto Affari Internazionali”.

6 See in general Mark Mazower, The Balkans A Short History (New York: The Modern Library, 2002).

7 Some entrepreneurs, such as the Venetian industrialist and financier Giuseppe Volpi, hoped to exploit Albanian resources and to transform Albania into the beachhead of Italy's economic influence in the Balkans; see Sergio Romano, Giuseppe Volpi: industria e finanza tra Giolitti e Mussolini (Milan: Bompiani, 1979).

8 Enrico Decleva, L'Italia e la politica internazionale dal 1870 al 1914l'ultima delle grandi potenze (Milan: Mursia, 1974): See also Richard Bosworth, Italy, the Least of the Great Powers. Italian Foreign Policy before the First World War (London: Cambridge University Press, 1979).

9 See for example Egidio Ivetic, Le guerre balcaniche (Bologna: il Mulino, 2006).

10 Duncan Heaton-Armstrong, The Six Month Kingdom Albania 1914 (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005).

11 Pietro Pastorelli, L'Albania nella politica estera italiana 1914–1920 (Naples: Jovene, 1970).

12 Mario Montanari, Le truppe italiane in Albania: 1914–1920 e 1939 (Rome: Ufficio Storico Stato Maggiore Esercito, 1978).

13 H. James Burgwyn, Il revisionismo fascista. La sfida di Mussolini alle grandi potenze nei Balcani e sul Danubio 1925–1933 (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1979).

14 Francesco Jacomoni Di San Savino, La politica dell'Italia in Albania (Milan: Cappelli, 1965) and Massimo Borgogni, Tra continuità e incertezza. Italia e Albania (1914–1939). La strategia politico-militare dell'Italia in Albania fino all'operazione “Oltremare Tirana” (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2007).

15 See in particolar H. James Burgwyn, Mussolini's Conquest of Yugoslavia 1941–1943 (New York: Enigma Books, 2005); Massimo Bucarelli, Mussolini e la Jugoslavia (1922–1939) (Bari: Edizioni B.A. Graphics, 2006); Francesco Caccamo and Luciano Monzali (eds), L'occupazione italiana della Iugoslavia (1941–1943) (Florence: Le Lettere, 2008); Luca Micheletta, La resa dei conti. Il Kosovo, l'Italia e la dissoluzione della Jugoslavia (1939–1941) (Rome: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2008); Luciano Monzali, Il sogno dell'egemonia. L'Italia, la questione jugoslava e l'Europa centrale (Florence: Le Lettere, 2010).

16 Elena Aga Rossi and Maria Teresa Giusti, Una guerra a parte. I militari italiani nei Balcani 1940–1945 (Bologna: il Mulino, 2011).

17 Elez Biberaj, Albania A Socialist Maverick (Oxford: Westview Press, 1990).

18 In the immediate post-war years Italy tried to maintain some relationship with Tirana, although Italy became the base for covert operations against the Communist régime organised by the British SIS and the CIA; see Settimio Stallone, Ritorno a Tirana. La politica estera italiana e l'Albania fra fedeltà atlantica e ambizioni adriatiche (1949–1950) (Rome: Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2011) and Nicholas Bethell, The Great Betrayal.The Untold Story of Philby's Biggest Coup (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984).

19 Institute Luigi Sturzo (hereafter ILS), Giulio Andreotti Archives (hereafter GAA), ‘Albania’, box No. 329, tel. No. 407, Italian Embassy (Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 12 December 1983.; tel. No. 90, Italian Embassy (Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 1 March 1984. and memorandum ‘Albania’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, 24 September 1983.

20 See for example V. Nigro, ‘L'Albania non vuol cedere: “quei sei fratelli sono nostri”’, La Repubblica, 22 December 1985.

21 For Andreotti see Massimo Franco, Andreotti. La vita di un uomo politico, la storia di un'epoca (Milan: Mondadori, 2010). For his foreign policy see the recent contribution by Mario Barone and Ennio Di Nolfo (eds), Giulio Andreotti. L'uomo, il cattolico, lo statista (Soveria Mannelli: Rubettino, 2010).

22 For this decade see Ennio Di Nolfo (ed.), La politica estera italiana negli anni Ottanta (Manduria: Lacaita, 2003); Simona Colarizi, Piero Craveri, Silvio Pons, Gaetano Quagliariello (eds), Gli anni Ottanta come storia (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2004); Marco Gervasoni, Storia d'Italia degli anni Ottanta. Quando eravamo moderni (Venice: Marsilio, 2010).

23 For De Michelis's experience as Foreign Minister see Gianni De Michelis, La lunga ombra di Yalta. La specificità della politica italiana (Venice: Marsilio, 2003).

24 ILS, GAA, box No. 382, tel., Italian Foreign Ministry (Rome) to various Italian embassies, 16 November 1989.

25 See for example ILS, GAA, Yugoslavia, box No. 542, despatch No. 1187, S. Vento (Italian Embassy Belgrade) to G. Andreotti (Italian Foreign Ministry), 10 April 1989. The Italian Ambassador pointed out that in his opinion the Kosovo situation was the most serious problem the Yugoslav authorities had to face.

26 Massimo Bucarelli, ‘Roma e Belgrado tra Guerra fredda e Distensione’, in Pia G. Celozzi Baldelli (ed.), La politica estera italiana negli anni della Grande Distensione (1968–1975) (Rome: Aracne, 2009), pp. 144–157.

27 ILS, GAA, ‘Yugoslavia’, box No. 542, memorandum ‘Iniziativa adriatica’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, no date.

28 See the records in ILS, GAA, Yugoslavia, box No. 542.

29 ILS, GAA, ‘Yugoslavia’, box No. 542, memorandum ‘Iniziativa adriatica – aspetti politici’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, no date but September 1989. It is of some significance that in the late 1970s the Italian regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia and the two Yugoslav republics of Croatia and Slovenia had set up a working community, the ‘Alpe Adria’, which developed forms of economic and cultural cooperation.

30 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, box No. 329, tel. No. 20398/C, Italian Foreign Ministry (Rome) to the Italian embassies (Tirana, Belgrade, Athens), 7 November 1989.

31 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, box No. 329, tel. No. 244, Italian Embassy (Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry (Rome), 12 April 1990.

32 V. Nigro, L'Albania libera i fratelli Popa, ‘La Repubblica’, 17 May 1990.

33 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, box No. 331, memorandum ‘Relazioni culturali tra Italia e Albania’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, no date but September 1991.

34 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, memorandum ‘Rifugiati albanesi nelle Ambasciate a Tirana’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, 11 July 1990., confidential, copies of the memorandum were sent to both De Michelis and Andreotti.

35 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, memorandum ‘Albania’, by the Italian Foreign Ministry, November 1990.

36 ILS, GAA, ‘Yugoslavia’, Box No. 544, letter No. 975/312.043.01, Admiral F. Martini (SISMI) to the President of the Council, the Defence Minister, the Foreign Minister, 10 October 1990., secret.

37 ILS, GAA, ‘Yugoslavia’, Box No. 543, memorandum ‘Iniziativa adriatica e pentagonale’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, no date, but July 1990; see also memorandum ‘Pentagonale – ipotesi di partecipazione di altri paesi’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, July 1990.

38 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, tel. No. 54, G. De Andreis (Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 17 January 1991., urgent. For an analysis of the Albanian situation after the fall of Communism till the crisis of the second half of the 1990s see R. Morozzo Della Rocca, Albania. Le radici della crisi (Milan: Guerini e Associati, 1997).

39 On Italy's policy towards the Gulf War see ILS, GAA, Box from No. 1266 to 1271.

40 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, tel. No. 167, T. Cardilli (Italian Embassy Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry (Rome), 23 February 1991.; tel. No. 173, T. Cardilli (Italian Embassy Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 25 February 1991., most urgent; tel. No. 181, T. Cardilli (Italian Embassy Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 26 February 1991., urgent confidential.

41 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, memorandum ‘Albania: aiuti d'emergenza’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, no date, but February 1991.

42 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, Minute by M. Conciatori, ‘Crisis Unit’ of the Italian Foreign Ministry, 9 March 1991.

43 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, memorandum by the Italian Foreign Ministry, 14 March 1991.

44 Raffaella Palomba and Alessandra Righi, Quel giorno che gli albanesi invasero l'Italia (Rome: IRP, 1993) and Adrian Vehblu and Rando Devole, La scoperta dell'Albania. Gli albanesi secondo i mass media (Milan: Paoline, 1996).

45 Mario Agnes, Ad occhi abbassati, ‘L'Osservatore Roma’, 11–12 March 1991.

46 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, letter G. Andreotti to M. Agnes, 17 March 1991. For the polemics with the local authorities see the letter D. Mennitti, mayor of Brindisi to G. Andreotti, 10 March 1991.

47 ILS GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, letter from the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers to G. Andreotti, no date but March 1991.

48 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, memorandum ‘Esodi di cittadini albanesi verso l'Italia’, no date, but Spring 1991.

49 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, tel. No. 91, Italian Foreign Ministry (Rome) to the Italian Embassy (Tirana) with a personal message from G. Andreotti to F. Nano, 16 March 1991., most urgent.

50 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, Note for the President of the Council, 18 March 1991. The influential Catholic community of S. Egidio has often been in the past the instrument of Italy's informal diplomacy.

51 See the telegrams by the Italian Ambassador Cardilli, especially ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, tel. No. 586, T. Cardilli (Italian Embassy Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry (Rome), 14 May 1991.

52 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, letter T. Cardilli, (Italian Embassy Tirana) to G. De Michelis (Italian Foreign Ministry), 26 April 1991.

53 See the sources quoted in footnote 43.

54 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, letter the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers to G. Andreotti, 22 May 1991. and enclosed memorandum.

55 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, memorandum ‘Rapporto del Commissario Straordinario del Governo per gli interventi resi necessari dallo straordinario afflusso di albanesi in Italia nel marzo 1991’ by M. Boniver, no date, but June 1991.

56 ILS, GAA, ‘Esodo albanese 1991’, Box No. 329, telefax No. 22/2, T. Cardilli (Italian Embassy Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry (Rome), 7 August 1991., most urgent

57 See the alarmed report by the Chief of the Italian Police in ILS, GAA, ‘Esodo albanese 1991’, Box No. 329, ‘Appunto per l'On.le Sig. Ministro’, 18 August 1991. The Chief of the Italian Police argued that numerous refugees aimed to create problems and skilfully exploited media coverage of the event. He also pointed out that some were armed and their concentration in the Bari stadium was the only solution in order to avoid bloody consequences. At the end of the crisis numerous weapons were confiscated: 2 Kalashnikov machine guns, two rifles, 21 handguns, several knives, bayonets, etc. The memorandum recorded that 164 members of the Italian police forces had suffered injuries during the riots. The report seemed to neglect the desperate conditions and the frustrated hopes of most refugees.

58 ILS, GAA, ‘Esodo albanese 1991’, Box No. 329, memorandum by the Ministry of the Interior, 12 August 1991.

59 See for example ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, tel. No. Quaroni (Italian Embassy Vienna) to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 14 August 1991.

60 The movie is regarded by movie experts as an example of renewed neo-realism, see Paolo D'Agostini, ‘Il cinema italiano da Moretti a oggi’, in Gian Piero Brunetta (ed.), Storia del cinema mondiale, vol. 3, L'Europa. Le cinematografie nazionali, second part (Turin: Einaudi, 2000), p. 1105. The images of the incredibly crowded ship ‘Vlora’ are still available on the web.

61 ILS, GAA, ‘Esodo albanese 1991’, Box No. 329, memorandum ‘Visita a Tirana del Sig. Presidente della Repubblica, On. Francesco Cossiga’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, 14 August 1991.

62 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box. No. 331, ‘Memorandum d'intesa’ signed at the Italian Embassy in Tirana by T. Cardilli and by Ambassador Bashkim Dino, Director General for Political Affairs of the Albanian Foreign Ministry, confidential. See also memorandum ‘Operazione Albania’ by the Italian Defence Ministry, no date, but late August 1991, confidential.

63 See for example the non-committal reaction by the International Monetary Fund to some Italian initiative, in ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, tel. No. 1787 R. Petrignani (Washington) to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 15 August 1991., most urgent.

64 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, memorandum ‘Albania – Aiuti di emergenza della Comunità Europea’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, no date but September 1991.

65 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, memorandum “CEE-Albania” by the Italian Foreign Ministry, 9 September 1991.

66 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, “Verbatim Report”, no date, but September 1991.

67 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, annex 2 to the memorandum “Cooperazione allo sviluppo con l'Albania”, by the Italian Foreign Ministry, September 1991.

68 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, tel. No. 1271, T. Cardilli (Italian Embassy Tirana) to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 9 September 1991., most urgent.

69 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, Note by C. Vitalone (Ministry for Foreign Affairs), 17 October 1991., confidential.

70 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, memorandum ‘Kossovo’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, no date but September 1991. See also the letter by the Albanian Foreign Minister M. Kapllani to the Italian Foreign Minister G. De Michelis, 5 September 1991.

71 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, memorandum ‘Albania – cooperazione allo sviluppo’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, 13 January 1992.

72 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 331, memorandum ‘Albania’ by the Italian Foreign Ministry, January 1992.

73 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, telex. Italian Foreign Ministry to the Italian Defence Ministry, 16 April 1992 and memorandum by the Italian Foreign Ministry to G. De Michelis, 5 May 1992.

74 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, memorandum by the Italian Foreign Ministry to G. De Michelis, 5 May 1992.

75 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, memorandum General L. Ramponi (SISMI) to the Presidency of the Council and the Ministry of Defence, April 1992 and enclosed letter, 28 May 1992, confidential.

76 ILS, GAA, ‘Albania’, Box No. 329, letter, T. Cardilli (Italian Embassy Tirana) to E. Colombo (Italian Foreign Ministry).

77 On this new policy see Andrea De Guttry and Fabrizio Pagani (eds), La crisi Albanese del 1997: l'azione dell'Italia e delle organizzazioni internazionali: verso un nuovo modello di gestione delle crisi ? (Milan: Franco Angeli, 1999).

78 Nevertheless, it has to be pointed out that since 1992 Albania was one of the former Communist countries which received the most financial support from the European Union, also owing to Italian pressures. See Michele Comelli, ‘Le relazioni fra l'UE e l'Albania’, in Federico Niglia (ed.), op. cit., p. 8. In five years the EU gave Albania aid for an amount of 557 million ECU. On the development of the Albanian situation during the 1990s see also Roberto Morozzo Della Rocca, op. cit., passim.

79 See Luca Gori, L'Unione Europea e i Balcani occidentali: la prospettiva europea della regione (1996–2007) (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2007). The author, an Italian diplomat, was a member of the Italian representation at the EU and was in charge of policy towards the Balkans.

80 For an analysis of the political and economic relations between Italy and Albania since the late 1990s see the contributions in Federico Niglia (ed.), op. cit.

81 The statistical data in www.dossieremigrazione.it are the outcome of studies pursued by the Catholic organisation ‘Caritas/Migrantes’. The largest community is Rumanian with 887,763 immigrants. The number of Albanian immigrants in Italy is particularly impressive as Albania has about 3,200,000 inhabitants, which means that in about twenty years more than 10% of the Albanian population had emigrated to Italy.