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Type | Radio network and website |
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Country | United Kingdom |
Availability | International |
Owner | BBC |
Key people | Sarah Gibson (Head of Service) |
Launch date | 1940 1993 |
Dissolved | 1967 2011 |
Official website | www |
The BBC Albanian Service (Albanian : BBC Shqiptar) was a foreign language service of the BBC World Service. It ceased operations on 28 February 2011. [1]
Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeast Europe. The country is located in the Balkans on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares land borders with Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, North Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south. Spanning an area of 28,748 km2 (11,100 sq mi), it displays a varied range of climatic, geological, hydrological and morphological conditions. The country's landscapes range from rugged snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps and the Korab, Skanderbeg, Pindus and Ceraunian Mountains, to fertile lowland plains extending from the coasts of the Adriatic and Ionian seas. Tirana is the capital and largest city in the country, followed by Durrës, Vlorë, and Shkodër.
The Kosovo War, was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian separatist militia known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a country in Southeast Europe with partial diplomatic recognition. Kosovo lies landlocked in the centre of the Balkans, bordered by Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, Albania to the southwest, and Montenegro to the west. Most of central Kosovo is dominated by the vast plains and fields of Metohija and the Kosovo field. The Accursed Mountains and Šar Mountains rise in the southwest and southeast, respectively. Its capital and largest city is Pristina.
Telecommunications in Albania include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.
Edi Rama is an Albanian politician, painter, writer, former university lecturer, publicist and former basketball player, who has served as the 33rd and incumbent Prime Minister of Albania since 2013 and chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania since 2005. He was appointed Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1998, an office he held until 2000. First elected mayor of Tirana in 2000, he was reelected in 2003 and 2007.
Sylvio Mendes Campos Júnior, commonly known as Sylvinho, is a Brazilian football manager and former player, currently coaching the Albania national football team.
Radio Televizioni Shqiptar is the national public broadcasting company of Albania. Founded in 1938, it operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. The international television service via satellite RTSH Sat was launched in 1993 and is aimed at Albanian-speaking communities in Kosovo, Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and northern Greece, plus the Albanian diaspora in the rest of Europe. RTSH is funded by a combination of commercial advertising, an annual licence fee of US$10.00 and grant-in-aid from the Albanian government.
The Insurgency in the Preševo Valley was an approximately two year-long armed conflict between 1999 and 2001, between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the ethnic Albanian separatists of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac (UÇPMB). There were instances during the conflict in which the Yugoslav government requested KFOR support in suppressing UÇPMB attacks since they could only use lightly armed military forces as part of the Kumanovo Treaty that ended the Kosovo War, which created a buffer zone between FR Yugoslavia and Kosovo.
Albania is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the European Union (EU). It applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009, and has since June 2014 been an official candidate for accession. The Council of the European Union decided in March 2020 to open accession negotiations with Albania.
The flag of the Republic of Kosovo was adopted by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo immediately following the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo on 17 February 2008. The flag design emerged from an international competition, organized by the United Nations-backed Kosovo Unity Team, which attracted almost one thousand entries. The winning design was proposed by Muhamer Ibrahimi. It shows six white stars in an arc above a golden map of Kosovo, all on a blue field. The stars symbolize Kosovo's six major ethnic groups: Albanians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Turks, Romani, and Gorani.
Media Information Agency is a public information service of North Macedonia. It is among the news agencies that provide professional standards in the sphere of its basic function - covering events, news and information. MIA works 24 hours a day distributing news in Macedonian, English and Albanian supporting the entire information space - printed and electronic media in the country, the media on Macedonian language abroad, the embassies of North Macedonia and other organisations, institutions, missions
The Anthem of the Republic of Kosovo is anthem of the Republic of Kosovo. It was composed by Mendi Mengjiqi. As with the national anthems of Bosnia and Herzegovina, San Marino, and Spain, it has no official lyrics, but de facto lyrics are in use. It was adopted on 11 June 2008. It was chosen because it contained no references to any specific ethnic group. It was selected by the Assembly of Kosovo, with 72 MPs voting in favor, while 15 voted against, and five abstained.
Relations between Albania and Serbia have been complex and largely unfriendly due to a number of historical and political events.
Tavë kosi is a national dish in Albania. It is a dish of lamb and rice baked with a mixture of yogurt and eggs added to a roux. It is typically seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and oregano. The dish is also popular in Greece, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Turkey, where it is known as Elbasan tava, named after the Albanian city of Elbasan.
Slobodan Milošević was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia from 1989 to 1997 and president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 until his оverthrow in 2000. Formerly a high-ranking member of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) during the 1980s, he led the Socialist Party of Serbia from its foundation in 1990 until his death in 2006. Milošević played a major role in the Yugoslav Wars. During his reign, numerous anti-government and anti-war protests took place, and hundreds of thousands deserted the Milošević-controlled Yugoslav People's Army, leading to mass emigration from Serbia. During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, Milošević was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes in connection with the Bosnian War, the Croatian War of Independence, and the Kosovo War. He became the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes.
Končulj is a village located in the municipality of Bujanovac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the village has a population of 1,306 people, entirely composed of ethnic Albanians. There is border crossing between Serbia and Kosovo near Končulj.
The Fire and Rescue service is a government department in the Republic of Albania responsible for preventing dangers related to the spread of fires, protecting citizens’ lives and property affected by the fires while being involved in rescue and relief operations and providing recovery following a disaster. The PMNZSH operates at a local level in conjunction with the General Directorate of Civil Emergencies and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
On December 14, 1998, the Yugoslav Army (VJ) ambushed a group of 140 Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) militants attempting to smuggle weapons and supplies from their base in Albania into the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A five-hour battle ensued, ending with the deaths of 36 militants and the capture of a further nine. Dozens more fled back to Albania, abandoning large quantities of weapons and supplies, which the Yugoslav authorities subsequently seized. The ambush was the most serious war-related incident in Kosovo since a U.S.-negotiated truce took effect two months before. It came on the heels of increasing tensions in the province, where inter-ethnic violence had been escalating steadily since early 1995.
A timeline of notable events relating to the BBC World Service, the world's largest international broadcaster, which began broadcasting in 1932.
Albania and Iran have no diplomatic relations after Albania severed them in September 2022. Albania's alignment with the United States and their decision to allow the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran to take refuge in the country had already strained relations between the two countries. Tensions came to a head when Albania suspended diplomatic ties, accusing Iran of an alleged major cyber attack.