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Albania
Albania , Albanian Shqipëria or Shqipnija, officially Republic of Albania, republic (2005 est. pop. 3,563,000), 11,101 sq mi (28,752 sq km), SE Europe. Albania is on the Adriatic Sea coast of the Balkan Peninsula, between Montenegro on the northwest, Kosovo on the northeast, Macedonia on th...
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Zog
Zog , 1895-1961, king of Albania. Originally Ahmad Zogu, he came from a Muslim family and served in the Austrian army in World War I. He became Albanian minister of the interior in 1920, minister of war in 1921, and premier in 1922. A revolution in 1924 led to his flight, but he returned with Yugosl...
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Enver Hoxha
Enver Hoxha , 1908-85, Albanian Communist leader and general. A founder (1941) of the Albanian Communist party (Albanian Labor party from 1948), Hoxha headed the radical resistance group in Italian-occupied Albania during World War II. General secretary of the party from 1943, he was premier (1946-5...
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Dinaric Alps
Dinaric Alps , Ital. Alpi Dinariche, Serbo-Croatian Dinara Planina, mountain system, extending c.400 mi (640 km) along the east coast of the Adriatic Sea from the Isonzo River, NE Italy, through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia, to the Drin River, N Albania. The ...
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Durrës
Durrës , Ital. Durazzo, city (1989 pop. 82,719), capital of Durrës dist., W Albania, on the Adriatic Sea. The chief seaport of Albania and the leading commercial and communications center, it has a dockyard, a shipyard, and industries that manufacture leather, plastic, and tobacco produc...
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Scanderbeg
Scanderbeg or Skanderbeg , c.1404-1468, Albanian national hero. His original name was George Castriota or Kastriotes, but the Ottomans called him Iskender Bey, and this was corrupted into Scanderbeg. The son of a prince of N Albania, he was educated in the Muslim faith as a hostage at the court ...
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Tiranë
Tiranë or Tirana , city (1989 pop. 238,057), capital of Albania and of Tiranë dist., central Albania, on the Ishm River. It is the largest city and the chief industrial and cultural center of the country. Tiranë is located on a fertile plain that yields a variety of agricultural p...
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Warsaw Treaty Organization
Warsaw Treaty Organization or Warsaw Pact, alliance set up under a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1955 by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. The organization was the Soviet bloc's equivalent of the North Atlantic ...
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Leopold Berchtold, Graf von
Leopold Berchtold, Graf von , 1863-1942, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (1912-15). During the Balkan Wars he successfully worked for the creation of an independent Albania to block Serbian access to the Adriatic Sea. After the assassination (June 28, 1914) of Archduke Francis Ferdinand at Saraj...
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Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea , arm of the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and the Balkan Peninsula. It extends c.500 mi (800 km) from the Gulf of Venice, at its head, SE to the Strait of Otranto, which leads to the Ionian Sea. It is from 58 to 140 mi (93-225 km) wide, with a maximum depth of c.4,100 ft (1,250 m). ...
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