Albania , officially the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë, , or simply Shqipëria, Gheg Albanian: Shqipnija, Shqypnia), is a country in South Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Greece to the south-east, Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, and Macedonia to the east. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. It is less than from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which links the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea.

Albania is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe, World Trade Organisation, and one of the founding members of the Union for the Mediterranean. Albania has been a candidate for accession to the European Union since January 2003, and it formally applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009.

Albania is a parliamentary democracy and a transition economy. The Albanian capital, Tirana, is home to approximately 895,000 of the country's 3.6 million people, and it is also the financial capital of the country.Population stats from tirana.gov.al Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy and transportation infrastructure.

Etymology

Another suggestion is derivation from the Illyrian tribe of the Albani recorded by Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria who drafted a map of remarkable significance for the history of Illyria. This map shows the city of Albanopolis (located Northeast of Durrës) which was later called Albanon and Arbanon.

In his History written in 1079-1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was the first to refer to Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbër or Arbën and referred to themselves as Arbëresh or Arbnesh. As early as the 16th century,Fact: date=October 2008 a new name for their home evolved among Albanian people: Shqipëria, popularly interpreted as "Land of the Eagles" or "Land of the Mountain Eagle" hence the two-headed bird on the national flag, though most likely the origin lies in Skanderbeg's use of the Byzantine double-headed eagle on his seals.

History

main: History of Albania

Prehistory

main: Illyria