1983. The country, while going through internal tumult, elects Leka Skënder Zogu as their new president. Only son to the famous King Zog, last king of Albania, he brings sweeping reforms of economic liberalisation, further opening the country to foreign investments.
1985. Two main reactions arise from the Communist side. Some, like Poland, saw Albania's similarity in gov't structure(big government, many state-owned companies, belligerent labour unions) as a model for their development; others like Bulgaria just saw it as proof of the "easy successes" of Capitalism.
1987. The democratic revolution strikes the world, including the Balkans. The Junta government is replaced with a civilian leader in Greece, and Czechoslovakia begins enacting both economic and political reforms. A major riot erupts in Sophia, but for now is brutally suppressed.
1989. The Berlin Wall falls, the Chinese Communist Party begins negotiations with the Tiananmen protestors. Countries either saw peaceful step-down of government(like Hungary or Poland) or violent coups/revolutions(like Romania). Albania is no longer the only gate between Communism and Capitalism but is rich enough to not care.
1991. As war begins in Yugoslavia, Albania forms the "Balkan Defence Union" with Greece, Bulgaria, and now-independent Slovenia to attempt peacekeeping with help from NATO. While the effort fails disastrously it does help set up a new era of integration in the Balkans.
1992. Amidst wide protests for leaving, Zogu steps down from the presidency due to the constitution only allowing 10 years of rule. Sali Berisha, leader of the democratisation movement until 1983 and politician since then, replaces him.
1997. The recession in the Soviet Union(now only the Russian and Turkic SSRs) severely affects newly developed countries, such as Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Albania. The country sees almost 40% of its work force unemployed for a period of time.
1998. Albania, Slovenia, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Greece forms the Balkan Economic Forum, an organisation for greater economic cooperation and stopping each other from the shit that went down in the previous year. Headquarters in Athens.
2004. While many ex-Communist states such as Poland and the Czech Republic eagerly join the EU, the Balkans sit on the fence - with Albania and Greece on their side, they have a much stronger supply of foreign capital. Slovenia joining the EU, although widely anticipated, becomes heavily criticised by the Balkan states as a "abandonment of friendships".
2007. The Balkan Economic Forum, now covering all countries in Eastern Europe except Serbia, Poland and the Czech Republic, stands as the main competitor to the Brussels System(common name for the EU). Situation becomes precarious however as Greece comes under financial siege.
2008. Iceland, Greece, and in turn America's economies take a severe drop. While the EU was flailing, the BEF was neck-deep in the possibility of bankruptcy. Protests spread throughout Albania, Greece, Bulgaria and the Ukraine.
2009. While the global financial crisis is over in a large sense, the BEF has been confirmed effectively dead. Albania, in a last-straw struggle, signs up for membership in the European Union.
2010. Membership to the Eurozone is granted to the Republic of Albania. Many other countries follow suit and join the Brussels System.
2015. Along with Pakistan, the Soviet Union, and Indonesia, Albania becomes a founding member of the Shanghai Economic Partnership Alliance. The SEP, along with the SCO(Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, defence-related alliance) and AIIB(Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank), signals the beginning of the rise of China as a world power.
Albania is now an export-dependent economy, with focus on medical engineering, chrome mining, steel production and machinery parts. It is the only country in the "developed economy" category in Eastern Europe other than Slovenia. Its military is one of the best in the world, with the large conscript army equipped with state-of-the-art gear and equipment; they also send the second-largest amount of peacekeeping troops for the United Nations. It is widely revered in the Balkans as a "model of success."
They also have a satellite, which is nice.
