Capitalist Albania in the Cold War

Is it possible for Albania to remain a capitalist country after WW2, either through soviet bloc negligence or through slightly different post-war planning treaties (Tehran, Yalta, etc.)?
If so, then what are the effects of a western-aligned Albania on the Iron Curtain, Yugsolavia, etc.?
 
1) Any timeline where Germany surrenders, but there are still German occupation forces in the Balkans, these stay in place until Allied forces arrive to disarm them. The Allies prop up some faction they like.
2) Another scenario is where Germany and Italy surrender at the same time and the area is under continued Italian occupation (until Allied forces arrive).

Obviously you don't have the OTL Chinese Albanian friendly relations.
It is certainly one less security threat for NATO (geographical vs actual military)
How prosperous would Albania be as a capitalist country in the 40s and 50s, what would they export to the west?
As a European muslim country, without communist era, would they have some diplomatic role?
 
Albania was largely liberated by local partisans under the leadership of Hoxha, some guidance from Yugoslavia, and considerable material support from the UK. As a small country of less than 1 million inhabitants, the country was more or less ignored in the war-time conferences. Had it gone the other way, I highly doubt Stalin would've cared as both Yugoslavia and Albania were outside of his planned Soviet sphere of influence. Albania's position in the Cold War was a result of neither Soviet bloc actions nor post-war planning conferences but rather actions taken by various Albanian actors during the German occupation of 1943-44.

During the war, both the UK and US actively sought to shift their support from Hoxha to anti-communist resistance forces. Unfortunately, these anti-communist forces had been successfully wooed by the Germans into either active or passive collaboration. In the minds of many anti-communist leaders, both the eventual Allied victory and support against the communists was a given. Why bother bloodying themselves against the German occupiers and losing men before the advent of the real battle with the Communists, and more importantly, with their Yugoslav backers over the province of Kosovo? Unfortunately, by siding with the "independent Albania" created by the German occupiers, Albanian anti-communists lost whatever legitimacy they had after the Italian occupation and left the Allies with little recourse other than to shift their full support to Hoxha.

Yet the construction of an "independent" Albania was quite fraught and largely propped up by one man, the Reich's Special Plenipotentiary in the Southeast: Hermann Neubacher. Had he died prior to September 1943, the Wehrmacht and SS would've likely gotten their way and stripped whatever Albanian government that was set up on Hitler's orders of any real power and any real chance of bringing anti-communist resistance groups such as the Balli Kombetar into their fold even temporarily. Radicals like Bedri Pejani would still likely try to side with the Germans in Kosovo, but more moderate anti-communists would likely gravitate to the Allies in the absence of Neubacher's efforts in Albania. Should the Western Allies use Kosovo as a wedge issue, these moderate anti-communists could've ended up liberating Albania in the aftermath of World War II.

Alternatively, you could have someone other than Enver Hoxha spring up to lead the resistance in Southern Albania. Had Fan Noli not abandoned his leadership role in the Anti-Zogist resistance in the 1930's he might have been able to oversee a political resurgence post 1939 and led Albania on a more moderate path than Hoxha.

In either scenario, I think Kosovo becomes an immediate issue that would need to be dealt with to prevent WWIII. In OTL over 20,000 Partisans defected to fight the incorporation of Kosovo into Yugoslavia in addition to all those that had collaborated with the Germans! IMHO, I think the Allies and Tito would work something out, perhaps involving population transfers and a new border being drawn. In OTL Tito encouraged thousands of Albanians to emigrate to Turkey and was more than willing to create an Albanian Socialist Yugoslav Republic with parts of Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro when Koci Xoxe was aiming to take over from Enver Hoxha. Like all good peace treaties each side gets something and neither side gets everything.

Depending on who takes power and how, Albania may experience a civil war with the Communists, but I think that eventually the Albanian Communist party's ties with the Yugoslav state (and more importantly Albania's mortal enemy: Serbia) would do them in. A shorter/non-existent Civil War coupled with more natural resources and American aid likely allows Albania to experience more economic growth than Greece.

Albanian economic growth during the 1940s and 50s could be interesting depending on who ends up determining policy and to what extent American ideas are followed. In OTL modern Albania was built by Yugoslav, Soviet, and later Chinese financial and technical assistance. In TTL I'd imagine America/UK would be providing most if not all of this and would be interesting in ensuring a strong Albania to guard the Greek northern border and secure the other shore of the Adriatic. Agriculture, infrastructure, and mining likely are the focus of investment initially, but I'd imagine that Albania quickly becomes a tourist destination like Greece due to it's glorious beaches and several other attractions such as the Albanian alps and the city of Berat. Unlike Greece, the mining sector has the potential to be quite strong due to large chromium and iron ore deposits. If part of Kosovo is annexed, chances are their mines could also add to this. In OTL the communists built a massive steel mill in Elbasan with Chinese assistance. Might TTL's government be persuaded to do something similar with better effects? I'd also wager that if given the chance, a large portion of the Albanian population would eagerly participate in any Guest-worker programs. Any way that you slice it, corruption's going to be a huge problem, but then again, it's not going to be too difficult to have Albania turn out better than OTL.
 
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