Lajme flash
Albania does not need religious states
2026-08-19 15:31:00 / IDE
By Sokol Neçaj
The idea of creating a “Sovereign Bektashi State” within the territory of the Republic of Albania is not a diplomatic curiosity nor a symbolic gesture without consequences. It touches on the three fundamental pillars of the Albanian state: territorial indivisibility, the secular character of the Republic, and the equality of religious communities.
Bektashiism is a precious part of our national heritage. Bektashi tekkes have been hotbeds of the Albanian language, of the National Renaissance, and of resistance to foreign rule. Precisely for this reason, Bektashiism must be protected from political instrumentalization and from becoming a geopolitical experiment that does not stem from any need of Albanian believers.
Albania can guarantee the Bektashi World Patriarchate full religious autonomy, the return of property, protection of the headquarters, ease of international activity, and special status as a spiritual center. But none of this requires new borders, passports, citizenship, or separate sovereignty. A religious community can be global without becoming a state.
The comparison with the Vatican is historically and legally false. The Vatican is a product of a unique history, of the continuity of the Holy See and the Lateran Accords. It is not a model that can be copied whenever a government wants to produce an international symbol. Albania is not the Italy of 1929 and the Bektashi Patriarchate is not the Holy See.
The Albanian Constitution is clear: The Republic is a unitary and indivisible state; sovereignty belongs to the people; the state is neutral in matters of faith and recognizes the equality of religious communities. The creation of a sovereign territory for a single community would violate all three of these principles. If one religion is granted sovereignty, by what constitutional argument would a similar request be denied to other communities tomorrow?
The danger does not end in Tirana. Kosovo has been facing Serbia's efforts for years to transform Orthodox churches and monasteries from protected religious and cultural sites into instruments of Serbian sovereignty. Today, they enjoy special protection zones, but remain within the constitutional order and territory of the Republic of Kosovo.
If Albania creates a religious microstate of its own, Belgrade will immediately use it as a propaganda argument: why can a religious order have sovereignty in Tirana, while the Serbian Orthodox Church cannot claim a similar status in Kosovo?
Legally, the comparison would be invalid. Politically, it would be a valuable gift to Serbian diplomacy. Albania has no reason to place this weapon in Belgrade's hands.
Even the role of foreign lobbyists, including Christopher Hyland, must be subject to full transparency. It is publicly known that Hyland is a special representative of the Kryegjysjata and an active promoter of the Bektashi state. But Albanians have the right to know who conceived the project, who finances it, to whom it was presented, what international interests support it and what obligations Albania would assume. Friendship with Albanians is not a mandate to experiment with their territory and constitutional order.
We should not invent conspiracies without evidence, but neither should we behave like a naive people who accept any idea just because it comes packaged with the words “tolerance,” “peace,” and “interfaith friendship.” In international politics, even symbolism produces precedents, and ill-considered precedents can turn into territorial claims.
The strength of the Albanian model has always been the opposite of religious fragmentation: Muslims, Bektashis, Catholics and Orthodox have lived as part of one nation, under the same state and the same flag. Albania does not demonstrate tolerance by erecting borders between religions, but by guaranteeing that no religion has less freedom nor more sovereignty than the others.
Therefore, this project should not be approved behind closed doors, nor treated as a privilege of a parliamentary majority. Any proposal should be published, reviewed by constitutional experts, sent for opinion to the Venice Commission, and subjected to a genuine national debate.
Bektashism does not need a state within Albania. It needs respect and protection from the Albanian state. While Albania does not need religious microstates, but the strengthening of its weak and still unfinished Republic.
Religion should have complete freedom. But sovereignty should remain with the Albanian people alone.
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