Albania Vows to Sort Muddle Over Religious Property

Albanian agencies in charge of property compensation and legalisation are creating a special joint unit to resolve the thorny issue of religious properties.

The situation concerning religious properties in the country is complicated since it includes problems created during both communist and post-communist times, but the state agencies have pledged that the unit will resolve the problems within three years.

When the communist regime of dictator Enver Hoxha outlawed religion in 1967 the properties of around 1,200 mosques and 400 Catholic and Orthodox churches in Albania were seized and transformed into public property.

More than two decades after the communist regime fell, the state has failed to restitute and compensate mosques and churches, creating a financial headache especially for the Albanian Muslim Community, KMSH, which claims the largest number of seized properties.

Some 236 unreviewed folders of properties claimed by religious communities still lie in the drawers of the Agency of the Restitution and Compensation of Property, 172 of which are claimed by the Muslim community.

On the other hand, a contrary phenomenon has occurred during the past two decades, when hundreds of mosques and churches were built without permission on state or private land.

Artan Lame, director of the Agency for the Legalisation, Urbanisation and Integration of Informal Areas, ALUIZNI, said on Wednesday that 957 cult objects await legalisation.

The head of the Islamic community in Tirana, Ylli Gurra, told BIRN that most of these objects waiting to be legalized belong to Muslims and the KMSH has to pay the quotes that the agency sets for their legalisation.

"In Tirana alone, 93 mosques are waiting to be legalised and we have decided...