TIRANA, Jan 25, 2025 – Albania will create a sovereign Muslim state in Tirana for the Bektashi religious order, similar to the Vatican in Rome, to preserve and promote religious tolerance, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced on Saturday.
If established, the enclave for the Islamic Sufi order would be one of the world’s smallest states, with its own administration but no taxation or police, and would not challenge Albania’s sovereignty. “The history of the Bektashi is in itself an imposing call to give the holy seat of the Bektashi World Centre a status similar to that of the Vatican,” Rama said during a ceremony marking the 95th anniversary of the holy seat’s move to Albania from Turkey.
Rama described the symbolic state as “without walls, without police, without an army, without taxes or other attributes, but a headquarters, a spiritual state.” He did not provide details on the timing, and the Albanian parliament would need to endorse the plan.
Founded in the Ottoman Empire in the thirteenth century as an offshoot of Sufism, the Bektashi order has been headquartered in Albania since 1929 after the newly created Turkish Republic of Kemal Ataturk prevented it from practicing. Rama stated in 2024 that Albania planned to create a state in the eastern part of the capital as a spiritual center for the Bektashis, who are scattered across the region in Kosovo and North Macedonia as well as in Albania.
According to the last census, about 10 percent of Albania’s population is Bektashi.
