Albania announces plan to create a Bektashi-run Vatican City-like microstate

Albania will transform the Tirana-based Bektashi Muslims, an Islamic Sufi order, into a sovereign state to promote moderation, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said Sunday.

If all goes to plan, the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order will become the world's smallest state, just a quarter of the size of Vatican City. The 10-hectare patch of land will have its own administration, passports and borders.

The new state would allow alcohol, permit everyone to wear what they want and impose no lifestyle rules, reflecting the Bektashi Order's tolerant practices.

Rama said the aim of the new state was to promote a tolerant version of Islam on which Albania prides itself.

Speaking at the United Nations, Rama pointed out that Albania, a tiny Western Balkan country, saved Jewish refugees from the Nazis during World War II and sheltered Afghans after the Taliban came to power three years ago.

Albanians are also proud of giving to the world the Catholic Church's famed humanitarian, Mother Teresa — born in neighbouring North Macedonia — who “embodied love for humanity,” he said. The Bektashi represent about 10% of Albania's Muslim community, according to the latest census.

The Balkan country of some 2.8 million is known for its religious tolerance in an otherwise divided region.

An offshoot of Sufism, the Bektashi movement or Bektashiyya originated in Turkey's region of Anatolia and soon became the official order of the elite military units, the Janissaries.

However, over time, the order came under fire for its liberal approach to faith and growing political influence, and it was reduced in size and limited to Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia.

The order was officially banned twice: first, in the