By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

The violation of the diplomatic immunity of the Iranian embassy in Tirana by police forces a day after the Albanian regime severed ties with Iran on a baseless allegation and expelled Iranian diplomats following a short 24-hour notice to leave the country, is clearly indicative of the positive influence of the Islamic Republic on the predominantly Muslim population of the Adriatic Republic, much to the frustration of the enemies of humanity – the US and the illegal Zionist entity.

Why would Iran launch a cyber-attack on Albania, whose people share close cultural and religious affinities with the Islamic Republic and strongly detest the unwanted presence in their capital of some 3,000 MKO terrorists whom the US relocated from Iraq after the fall of the repressive Ba’th minority regime with whom these murderous traitors sided during the 8-year war Washington had imposed on Iran in the 1980s through Saddam?

It is just a ridiculous accusation and part of a vain bid by the Americans to prevent Islamic resurgence in formerly socialist Albania, which under Prime Minister Edi Rama has forged unnatural ties with usurper Israel and is willing to slavishly serve US-Zionist terrorist interests.

The US, which is losing on all fronts since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, has imposed what it calls sanctions on Iran’s Minister of Intelligence in support of the Albanian regime’s baseless allegations, although these sanctions have no effect on Iranian officials who neither have any assets in American banks nor do business with western companies.

These undiplomatic moves by its enemies, however, will not prevent Iran from its right to take all legally justified measures to bring to justice the MKO terrorists in Tirana and save Albania from the ignominy of sheltering murderers whose hands are dipped in the blood of at least 17,000 Iranian citizens, including senior government officials.   

It is worth noting that following the collapse of Godless socialism in Albania in the 1990s, Tehran established formal diplomatic ties for the first time with Tirana, similar to its expansion of relations and support for the rest of the Muslim people of the Balkan countries, including the Bosnians – who are greatly indebted to the Islamic Republic for their emergence as an independent European Muslim country after undergoing the genocide unleashed by the Serbs.

Tehran-Tirana diplomatic ties which led to promotion of relations in several other fields, including the setting up of a full-fledged Albanian radio service at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), may be called a recent post-Cold War development, but the fact cannot be denied that the cultural and religious ties between the peoples of the two countries are deeply rooted in history.

Of the 70 percent-plus Muslim population of Albania, some 30 percent are known as Bektashi Muslims who are the followers of Seyyed Mohammad ibn Seyyed Ibrahim Ata of Nishapur in Khorasan (eastern Iran) who had migrated to Anatolia (present day Turkey) during the era of the Seljuq Sultanate of Roum over seven centuries ago and had an important influence on the Turkish tribes and thence on the Greek and Illyrian (Albanian) peoples in embracing the truth of Islam.

Popularly known as Haji Bektash Vali, he was a direct descendant of Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and this explains the intense attachment of the Bektashi Muslims to the Twelve Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt and to Hazrat Abu’l-Fazl al-Abbas (AS), the valiant standard-bearer of Karbala, to whom a magnificent shrine was built in 1620 on Mount Tomorr in Berat, south-central Albania, where every year during August 20-25 huge celebrations take place.

Moreover, the tragedy of Karbala is commemorated every year in Muharram with Ashura being a holiday for the Bektashis, who, along with the Sunni Muslims and the Christians of Albania also celebrate Nowruz on March 22 as a public holiday, holding it as the birth anniversary of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

Albanian Muslims continue to visit Iran and Iraq for pilgrimage to the shrines of the Infallible Imams and some are enrolled at the seminaries in the holy cities of Najaf and Qom. 

Could thus firm historical ties, which Godless communism could not destroy, be disrupted by American imperialism, Zionism, and Saudi Salifism, which bears the cost of the 3,000 MKO terrorists in Tirana and is spending huge amounts in an attempt indoctrinate Albanian Muslims and turn them against Islamic Iran?

The answer is obvious in view of the above cited facts, which means both the MKO terrorists and the client regime of Rama are merely temporary phases in Albanian history.