"Everyone is probably aware of the popular portrayal of the Italian occupation of Albania. After annexing the Sudetenland, in March of 1939 Nazi Germany marched into the remainder of Czechoslovakia, making Bohemia and Moravia German protectorates and allowing the establishment of an independent Slovakia, closely tied to Germany. Upset at being given no advance warning, and not wishing to be left behind in the gobbling up of small countries, a month later Benito Mussolini ordered Italian forces to occupy Albania. That is the usual story and it is usually told in the context of a long list of German and Italian acts of aggression that finally forced Britain and France to draw a line and eventually go to war over the German invasion of Poland. However, the untold truth is that the situation was not so clear-cut and, as was all too common with the Balkan monarchies of World War II, at least one of the future Allied nations was not, originally, sympathetic to the supposed plight of the Albanians. Everyone well remembered how the last world war had started over a problem in the Balkans and not a few were concerned that the second could start there as well. However, neither Hitler nor Mussolini were the ones most, at the time, were worried about starting it.
Ahmed Zog was the unknown quantity in Balkan affairs. He had first seized power by force in Albania in 1922 but was chased out only to return in 1924 with backing from the neighboring Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He was made president with dictatorial powers but when he refused to give Yugoslavia the special favors they expected for supporting him, the Yugoslav government felt betrayed and relations between the two countries became tense. Having lost their backing, Zog turned to the Kingdom of Italy across the Adriatic which, during World War I, had been given a secret agreement by the Allies recognizing Albania as an Italian protectorate in all but name. In 1928 President Zog elevated himself to "King of the Albanians" and while Italian investment poured into the country, others in the region and around Europe looked on with concern. As in Serbia, and Romania and Bulgaria there was a drive in Albania to expand to a "Greater Albania" and by declaring himself the king of a people rather than a country, many worried that Zog had his eye on territories of neighboring countries populated by ethnic Albanians (Kosovo, then as now, being the #1 ‘hot spot'). This would certainly have played well for the new King among the ranks of the Albanian nationalists and Zog certainly needed support.
Almost everyone in and outside of Albania seemed to have some reason or reasons to be frustrated with Zog. The local chieftains, from whose ranks he had risen, were always squabbling. Zog established a secular state, taking the new Republic of Turkey as his example, and so offended Muslim hardliners. Islamic clerics were also offended by his lifestyle, his love of gambling and his marriage to a Catholic Hungarian-American. This also disappointed Mussolini who hoped that he might marry an Italian princess and so draw Albania closer into the orbit of Rome. Muslim opposition was the most serious (when and where it occurred) in the overwhelmingly Islamic country but, as Zog tried to pull away from Italy he also angered the religious minorities such as when he nationalized all of the Catholic schools in Albania on the grounds that many were operated by Italians. Hitler had been friendly enough at first but the Nazi dictator was certainly not best pleased when Zog made Albania a haven for Jewish refugees. At the same time, there were fundamentalist Muslims who were just as upset at their Muslim king welcoming Jews into the country…"
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Amicalement
Armand
