Editing Albania (section)

=== Fourth Republic ===
{{Main|Fall of communism in Albania}}
{{Further|Pyramid schemes in Albania|Albanian civil war of 1997|l1=Pyramid schemes|l2=civil war of 1997}}

[[File:Tirana Square 1988.jpg|thumb|right|In 1988, the first foreigners were allowed to walk into the car-free [[Skanderbeg Square]] in [[Tirana]].]]

After four decades of communism paired with the [[revolutions of 1989]], Albania witnessed a notable rise in political activism, particularly among students, which led to a transformation in the prevailing order. After the first [[multi-party elections]] of [[Albanian parliamentary election, 1991|1991]], the communist party maintained a stronghold in the parliament until its defeat in the [[Albanian parliamentary election, 1992|parliamentary elections of 1992]] directed by the [[Democratic Party of Albania|Democratic Party]].<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe]] (CSCE) |title=Report: The Elections in Albania |url=https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/publications/report-elections-albania |access-date=1 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001110932/https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/publications/report-elections-albania |archive-date=1 October 2020 |date=4 April 1991}}</ref> Considerable economic and financial resources were devoted to [[Pyramid schemes in Albania|pyramid schemes]] that were widely supported by the government. The schemes swept up somewhere between one sixth and one third of the population of the country.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jarvis |first=Christopher |year=2000 |url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2000/03/jarvis.htm |title=The Rise and Fall of the Albanian Pyramid Schemes |journal=Finance and Development |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bezemer |first=Dirk |year=2001 |title=Post-socialist Financial Fragility: The Case of Albania |journal=Cambridge Journal of Economics |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.1093/cje/25.1.1 |jstor=23599718 |hdl=10419/85494 |hdl-access=free |url=http://papers.tinbergen.nl/99045.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://papers.tinbergen.nl/99045.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Despite the [[International Monetary Fund]]'s warnings, [[Sali Berisha]] defended the schemes as large investment firms, leading more people to redirect their remittances and sell their homes and cattle for cash to deposit in the schemes.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Musaraj |first=Smoki |year=2011 |title=Tales from Albarado: The Materiality of Pyramid Schemes in Post-socialist Albania |journal=Cultural Anthropology |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=84–110 |doi=10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01081.x}}</ref>

The schemes began to collapse in late 1996, leading many of the investors to join initially peaceful protests against the government, requesting their money back. The protests turned violent in February 1997 as government forces responded by firing on the demonstrators. In March, the Police and Republican Guard deserted, leaving their armories open. These were promptly emptied by militias and criminal gangs. The resulting [[1997 Albanian civil unrest|civil war]] caused a wave of evacuations of foreign nationals and refugees.<ref>For the most part, the [[Albanian diaspora|Albanian refugees]] emigrated to [[Albanians in Italy|Italy]], [[Albanian communities in Greece|Greece]], [[Albanians in Switzerland|Switzerland]], [[Albanians in Germany|Germany]], or North America.</ref>

The crisis led both [[Aleksandër Meksi]] and [[Sali Berisha]] to resign from office in the wake of the general election. In April 1997, [[Operation Alba]], a U.N. peacekeeping force led by Italy, entered Albania with two goals: to assist with the evacuation of expatriates and secure the ground for international organisations. The main international organisation involved was the [[Western European Union]]'s [[Albanian civil war of 1997#International intervention|multinational]] [[Albanian Police]] element, which worked with the government to restructure the [[Judicial system of Albania|judicial system]] and simultaneously the Albanian police.
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