Word: tirana
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Donkeys laden with firewood shambled about aimlessly among the crowd in the shabby central square in Mamuras, 19 mi. north of the Albanian capital of Tirana. The townsfolk's timeless talk about rain, marriages and hardship had given way to the excitement of an epochal event: the country's first free elections. "We want the same things as the rest of Europe -- freedom to go where we like, to work hard and to secure our future," said Shaban Sula, 37, who works on a nearby collective farm. But in Mamuras, where Europe seems like a distant continent, his words betrayed...
...tractor factory on the outskirts of Tirana, 4,200 workers toil on machines that have been in use since the 1940s, converting scrap metal into tractor parts. Now mass layoffs loom. Production and wages have been slashed for lack of raw materials. "We're terrified that we'll be left with no money," says Gezime Sula. Nevertheless, she supports the Democrats, even though an unbridled marketplace would almost certainly close the factory gates...
Even after his death in 1985, Enver Hoxha dominated the town and city squares of Albania. Statues of the dictator were everywhere, including a 30-ft. bronze monolith in the center of Tirana, the capital. But the legacy of the Stalinist strongman has come under assault in recent months, and last week Hoxha's statues were falling. Students in the capital, demanding that Enver Hoxha University be renamed, threw ropes around the monument and brought it crashing down...
...Pindus Mountains, which straddle Greece and Albania, are all but impassable. That has not stopped thousands of desperate Albanians from crossing into Greece since the last week of 1990. In early December, four fleeing Albanians were shot dead ( near the frontier by soldiers of the Stalinist regime in Tirana. Last week, by contrast, refugees walked into Greece with little to deter them except the cold and the mountains. Instead of opening fire, border guards merely shot curses at the fugitives. By week's end about 5,000 refugees streamed into the northwestern Greek province of Epirus, doubling the population...
With few volunteers for the trip back to Albania and more refugees expected in the months to come, Mitsotakis scheduled a trip to Tirana. He will be the first Western leader to visit since Albania withdrew into isolation at the end of World War II. Athens is aghast at the prospect of accommodating a good part of Albania's estimated 400,000 ethnic Greeks, especially when it believes that Tirana is encouraging the flight to wriggle through political difficulties...