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As Ukrinform reports with reference to Reuters, this was stated on Saturday by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“The history of the Bektashi is in itself a powerful call to grant the holy residence of the Bektashi World Center a status similar to that of the Vatican,” Rama said during a ceremony marking the 95th anniversary of the holy residence’s transfer to Albania from Turkey.
If implemented, the enclave for the Islamic Sufi order would become one of the smallest states in the world, with its own administration but no tax regime or police force. Rama said the symbolic state would be "without walls, without police, without an army, without taxes or other trappings, but as a headquarters, a spiritual state."
However, the prime minister did not release details on the timing, and the plan still needs to be approved by the Albanian parliament.
It is noted that, founded in the Ottoman Empire in the 1929th century as an offshoot of Sufism, the Bektashi order has been based in Albania since XNUMX after the newly formed Turkish Republic under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk banned its activities.
Rama said last year that Albania planned to create a state in the eastern part of the capital as a spiritual center for the Bektashi, who are scattered across the region, including Kosovo, North Macedonia and Albania itself. About 10% of the country's population, according to the latest census, are followers of the Bektashi order.
