Why do Albanians have a particular weakness for the US?

Albania has gained momentum as a travel destination in recent years. The country's stunning blue coastlines tend to get the most attention, but there's plenty to discover inland, too. When I visited the capital, Tirana, last month, I was struck by the stark architecture and mountain views, as well as a particular street sign I noticed.

One of the busiest streets running through the city center was called Rruga George W. Bush, meaning George W. Bush Street.

As I drove to the nearby town of Fuse-Kruja, I spotted even more tributes to the 43rd president of the United States. There was a George W. Bush bakery, a George W. Bush bar, and even a nearly three-meter-tall statue of George W. Bush proudly saluting from his pedestal in the eponymous George W. Bush Square.

So what's up with Albania's particular weakness for former US President George W. Bush? It turns out that it has deeper roots and more dimensions than one might imagine.

“George W. Bush is highly respected in Albania for three historic roles he played as U.S. president,” said Edward P. Joseph, a lecturer and senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University and an experienced Balkans analyst. “First, the Bush administration strongly supported Albania’s accession to NATO, which was completed shortly after his term ended in 2009.”

The second point concerns the Bush administration’s role in the independence process of Kosovo, a country with an ethnic Albanian majority, which culminated in the declaration of independence in 2008. Joseph described it as “a arduous process that required strong American leadership.” That independence came after a brutal 1999 war, in which Serbian forces waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing, including killings, displacements, and other atrocities against Kosovo Albanians.

"Finally, in 2007, Bush became the first sitting American president to visit Albania, receiving an expected, explosive reception in Tirana," Joseph noted, referring to the reasons that led to the creation of the statue, the square, the bakery, the bar, etc.

Indeed, reports from that visit in June show the extent of the excitement: huge crowds, American flags everywhere, and even the decision of the Tirana City Council to rename the street in front of the Parliament “George W. Bush Street” ahead of the president’s arrival.

After this momentous moment, the bakery and bar the president visited were renamed George W. Bush, while the bronze statue was unveiled in 2011.

Besar Likmeta, editor-in-chief of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, said Albania's reaction was not solely due to Bush, but to a deep, decades-old national sympathy for the United States.

“Albania is a small country and a visit by a sitting American president does not happen every day,” he said. “It is also a very pro-American country. The US is considered Albania’s main ally and played an important role in the development of its democracy after the fall of the Iron Curtain.”

He explained that Albanians saw the United States as "a shining city on a hill" and as the embodiment of freedom and opportunity, especially after decades of isolation under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, who ruled from 1944 until his death in 1985.

“Albania was the North Korea of Europe,” Likmeta said. “The US had this ideal of freedom that became very popular among Albanians after the Stalinist regime. And Albanians tend to identify with a lot of American values like self-creation and personal progress through your own work and effort. They are very entrepreneurial people.”

Today, american Citizens can stay in albania without A visa for up to 12 months. And the “presidential cult” among albanians Is not limited to Bush.

Just across the border, in Kosovo, the love for former President Bill Clinton is evident with Bill Clinton Avenue in Pristina, complete with an eleven-foot statue and a 25-foot-tall mural. There's also a nearby clothing store named Hillary in honor of the former first lady and a statue of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

These tributes honor the Clinton administration's actions in launching the 1999 NATO air campaign against Serbian forces amid their attacks on Kosovo Albanians. Other signs of the region's love for American leaders include a statue of Senator Bob Dole, a restaurant called The White House (with familiar decorations), and a street dedicated to George W. Bush.

A Kosovar musician has even released a song titled “Thank You USA,” which has reached an American audience through TikTok.

In Albania, there is also a history of presidential appreciation that reaches back more than a century.

"Albania's love for American presidents goes back to Woodrow Wilson," Joseph said, referring to his role at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where he vetoed plans to partition Albania and defended its right to independence after World War I.

“In the eyes of Albanians, it was Wilson who defended Albania against the European powers, insisting on the creation of the Albanian state in the Balkans, after the war and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire,” he explained.

The gratitude was so deep that in 1924, the seaside town of Shengjin was temporarily renamed Qyteti Uillson – Wilson City. Many Albanians even began to name their sons Wilson. And to this day, there is a statue of Woodrow Wilson in Tirana, on Sheshi Uillson Square.

Likmeta noted that the tradition of statues of foreign leaders also reflects Albania's artistic and political history.

“Building statues for visiting leaders is part of our culture,” he said. “It comes from our communist past, when there were many statues of Stalin and Lenin. Now we have George W. Bush, the two popes who visited us, and other artistic creations to mark such occasions.”

He admitted that the idea of building a statue after a leader's visit To washington, for example, might seem strange to Americans.

“But for a small country like Albania, these are once-in-a-century events,” Likmeta said. “And for Fuse-Kruja, which is a small town, hosting an American president is something they want to preserve for future generations to remember.”

Joseph noted that this appreciation for the US role in the region in recent years extends throughout the Balkans – at least among Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians and Montenegrins.

“Like the Albanians, and this is timeless, most citizens and leaders in the region see the US in sharp contrast to the Europeans and the EU,” he said. “In essence, they see the US as the real source of power and authority in the region, while they see Europe as weak and often divided.”

Translation from Huffpost.com