Forsaken Albania

By Artan Lame
Tirana, April 1937. Irrespective of their intensity, Italo-Albanian relations during the period of King Zog were constantly a source of friction, mutual distrust, imposition and diplomatic games, which irrespective of the victories of one or the other, in the final account, the winner was always the stronger side and not the more diplomatic side, in other words, Italy. In one of these moments when Zog tried to pander to the Italians, it was the organization of the visit of Mussolini’s Foreign Affairs Minister to Tirana in April 1937 Galeaco Ciano, Count, son of an Admiral, Foreign Minister and Mussolini’s son in law, was the typical representative of that stratum of Italians, indulged by good fortune and who loved the benefits of being a Great Power, the brilliance that this lent Italy, the pomposity of the uniforms and the parades, but without the implications and the trouble that followed. When the parades ended and the real war broke out, not everyone rose to the occasion as they should have according to their duties and fortune reserved most of them a miserable fate. Ciano himself, captured by the Germans, was sentenced to death and was executed by a firing squad in January 1944, tied to a chair.
Anyhow, we are now seven years prior to this unhappy ending. Ciano arrives in Albania on 28 April and was received by King Zog on the same day. The next day he visited the south of the country, whilst on the 30th of April he was once again given an audience by the King. This photo presents this second meeting, although it did not have all the protocol. The King was in civilian dress and not in uniform as two days earlier, while Ciano preferred to attend wearing the uniform of the Italian Fascist Militia. The reception was held in one of the halls on the first floor of the newly completed Royal Villa which was precisely for official receptions and served as the government residence. After the war this building became the Palace of Pioneers and some months ago it was handed back by the State to the former Royal Family.
Count Ciano’s visit was considered successful. One year later, in April 1938, he returned to Albania as the witness at the marriage of King Zog and the following year he came to Albania in April 1939 to be this time round the player and the witness of the toppling of the monarch with whom he is having a conversation in this photograph.
“This is how the glory of the world goes,” say the Latins, who witnessed more than we did.