Albanian King Goes Home After 58 Years in Exile

Albania’s King Leka I returned home Saturday after 58 years in exile and told the people of the violence-plagued Balkan state that restoration of the monarchy could unify the country.

Speaking at a news conference shortly after landing to a loud welcome from supporters in a country he left as an infant, Leka said he would start work immediately on getting Albania’s emergency all-party government to agree on a referendum on the monarchy.

He said Albania’s armed turmoil had come about because Albanians have had their political will denied for more than 50 years.

“It is up to the Albanian people themselves to decide through a referendum whether they want a monarchy or republic,” Leka said, adding he did not want to predict the outcome.

When asked why he returned to the country where nearly 300 people have been killed in lawlessness provoked by the collapse of popular get-rich-quick investment schemes, Leka replied: “My people are suffering.”

Leka, who received a thunderous welcome from nearly 2,000 Albanians as he arrived at Tirana airport by private plane from South Africa, was just a few days old when his father, King Zog, fled the country with his family in 1939.

He only once tried to visit Albania, in 1993. He was deported on the grounds that his passport marked “Kingdom of Albania” was invalid.

“According to the 1928 constitution, which I still consider in force, I was automatically proclaimed king when my father died in 1961,” said Leka.