ABSTRACT
The smallest country on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe, Albania is 320 kilometres from north to south and about 100 kilometres east to west (28,750 square kilometres or 11,000 square miles). Bounded on the west by the Adriatic Sea and the Strait of Otranto, on the north and east by the republics of former Yugoslavia and by Greece on the south, Albania’s population of 3.3 million is divided into two major groups which form 98 per cent of the country: the Gegs in the north and the Tosks in the south. Greeks, Vlachs, Serbs, Bulgars and Gypsies make up the remainder. Tirana, the Capital and largest city, has a popu lation of about 300,000.
