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In this episode of General Knowledge I tell you about the newest country that will soon be created in Europe! A microstate inside Tirana, the capital of Albania, called the "Bektashi Order Sovereign State". Which some people are comparing to the Vatican City in Rome, Italy - calling it a 'Muslim Version' of it. In the video we understand what the Bektashi Order is, why it's getting to become its own country, how that country will work, and why Albania - especially their Prime Minister Edi Rama - is so supportive of it, mostly due to its moderate nature.
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0:00
I actually had another video planned for this week but I had to quickly film this one because
0:04
oh my god there might be a new country in Europe. A couple days ago I came across this New York Times article titled Albania is planning a new
0:24
Muslim state inside its capital. People are describing it as a new city-state inside of
0:29
Europe and comparing it to the Vatican, calling it the Muslim version of it. A super small sovereign
0:36
state that will exist within the city of Tirana, the capital of Albania, who is behind this effort
0:42
of creating a new country. This would actually take away the Vatican's record for the smallest
0:47
country in the world at 0.44 square kilometers, because this new state would be only 0.11 square
0:55
kilometers. The Vatican is already really small. This one is outright minuscule. For my American
1:02
viewers who, like I explained a couple of videos ago, don't use the metric system, this is a 27
1:07
acre patch of land in Albania that will become its own country, with its own administration
1:15
passports, colored green after Islam, and official borders. Its name will be the sovereign state of
1:21
the Bektashi order and in this video we are going to find out why it's being created, why Albania is
1:27
behind it and supports the movement and how this will all happen. So let's start with the basics
1:33
learning a little bit about how this new country is going to be. We already learned its name and
1:39
its size but what about its exact location? It's going to be inside the Albanian capital of Tirana
1:45
sure, but where? The already updated Wikipedia page actually gives us the exact coordinates of
1:51
So we can't tell exactly in which part of Tirana it will be located
1:55
It's already the place that serves as the headquarters for the Bektashi order
1:59
A not too expensive residential district on the east side of the city
2:04
And some people on Reddit have actually already drawn up a map of this soon-to-be country
2:11
And it really does remind us of the Vatican in the way that it's displayed. It consists of a set of buildings surrounded by a wall with a main gate
2:18
The buildings are a library, archives, a crypt, museum, Holy See, and the world headquarters of the Bektashi Order
2:27
All of them are surrounded by various gardens. The archives contain many historic documents in various languages
2:33
such as Albanian, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, English, French, and Italian, with the earliest documents dating back to 1847
2:41
Which also makes a little bit of a connection with the Vatican, which, as we all know, has those huge basements with gigantic archives that date way before 1847
2:51
but it's still an interesting similarity. Its flag will presumably be the flag of bektishism, a green field with the white symbols atop it
3:00
The main symbol is a 12-race star representing the 12 imams who are important figures in Shia Islam
3:07
and deeply revered in bektishism. The government of this new country will likely consist of the ruling body of the religion which is called and I have to read this because it a little complicated the Dede Babat a sort of religious leadership that provides guidance to the community
3:24
The current and eighth Bektashi Dede Baba is Baba Mondi, who would act as the head of state of this new country
3:30
in the same way that the Pope serves as the head of state of Vatican
3:34
while being the religious leader of Christianity. In a recent interview, this future leader of the country said that the new country will not have an army, border guards, or even criminal courts, leaving all of this to their host of Albania
3:48
But he did say that they will likely maintain a small secret service because, to quote him, we have enemies too
3:56
When it comes to laws, the consumption of alcohol is planned to be allowed, and in fact, when this news was announced
4:03
the spiritual leader had some guests over and even celebrated by toasting, holding a drink of
4:08
raqi, which I think is a kind of wine. Other rules will be, for instance, allowing women to dress
4:14
however they like, in contrast to more conservative Muslim autocracies across the world. And this is a
4:20
little bit behind the reason why Albania is so supportive of this movement, but I'm going to
4:25
explain this a little further ahead. When it comes to the citizens, Baba Mondi has stated that
4:30
the citizenship will likely be limited to the clerics of the religion and whoever works in the
4:36
state administration, a similar situation to what happens in the Vatican. So now that we know what
4:41
the country will be and how it's going to work, there's still a pretty big question that we have
4:46
to answer. What is the Bektashi order? Because until I saw this article, I didn't even know that
4:51
it existed. The Bektashi order is a Sufi order of Islam. Originally one of many Sufi orders within
4:57
In Orthodox Sunni Islam, the Bektashi Order in the 16th century adopted the tenets of
5:03
the Shia including a veneration of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the
5:09
12 Imam that we see reflected on their flag. The order originated in the 13th century in the Ottoman Empire and Bektashism gained a
5:17
lot of prominence when the Janissaries, an elite Ottoman military corps, adopted it as
5:23
their official religion despite Sunni Islam being dominant in the rest of the empire
5:28
However, the Bektashis ended up facing persecution from both Shia and Sunni, who at one point
5:34
began seeing them as heretics of the religion. In 1826, Sultan Mahmoud II disbanded the Janissaries and outlawed the Bektashi order
5:44
because of their association with the former elite. The order continued to exist in rural areas of the empire, mostly East Anatolia and Albania
5:53
but without official state recognition. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Mustafa Ataturk decided
5:59
that the new state of Turkey was going to be a secular one, and so the Bektashi order was forced
6:04
to move their headquarters to Albania, where they still are today. But the same secular persecution
6:10
that forced them to leave Turkey was soon felt in Albania as well. Under the communist regime of
6:15
Inver-Oxa in Albania, the Bektashi order faced further repression. Religion was banned in 1967
6:22
and portions of the Bektashi land were seized by the government Eventually after the fall of communism they ended up losing even more territory due to illegal land development Not of their own but people started building houses on their property and so their previous size of 0 square kilometers or 90 acres was reduced to
6:41
the 0.11 that they have today. And while it's not much it's apparently enough for your own country
6:47
and the leader is even quoted saying that size doesn't matter. Today in 2024 Baktashis make up
6:53
about 10% of Albania's Muslim population and 5% of its total population. A European country that
6:59
according to the 2023 census, is still over 50% Muslim because of their long belonging to the
7:06
Ottoman Empire and the introduction of Islam in the region in about the 15th century, which led a
7:12
lot of people to convert both because of spirituality and actually believing in it, and also for tax
7:17
purposes because the Ottoman Empire charged less taxes to its Muslim subjects
7:23
Estimating the number of Bektashi in Turkey is a little more difficult ever since they left
7:28
especially because they're usually mixed with the Alevi community, which is another Islamic group
7:32
But estimates point to around 15% of the Turkish population may be following this order
7:40
Okay, so now we know about the country, its flag, what the rules are going to be
7:44
and what the Bektashi order actually is. But there's also another question, which is why are they becoming a country
7:51
When we look at the other groups of Islam that exist, I don't think any of them has their own country
7:56
They just exist across the world. Sometimes they have headquarters in specific countries, but none of them are a sovereign state
8:03
just like the Bektashi didn't have one either until now. And why is Albania so supportive of this movement when it only represents about 5% of their population
8:12
Well, one reason is that the headquarters are there. Sure. In addition, members of the sect played a prominent role in Albania's nationalist awakening
8:20
against Turkish rule, promoting a relaxed version of Islam that helped rally the country's large
8:27
Muslim and Christian communities together for the cause of independence. But it seems that the
8:33
Albanian government, especially their prime minister, Edi Rama, who by the way is a Catholic
8:38
has another objective in mind. As you know, since I just mentioned it, Albania continues to be a
8:43
majority Muslim country. And as you may also know, there is a stigma and a problem around religious
8:48
extremism. In an interview, Mr. Rami, the Albanian Prime Minister, stated that the creation of this
8:54
new state was a way to fight that extremism and the perception of it, because it will promote a
9:00
more tolerant version of Islam, which the Bektashi order follows, but not exclusively. It's also
9:06
followed by the majority of people that practice Islam inside of Albania. He stated how we should
9:12
take care of this treasure, which is religious tolerance, and which we should never take for
9:17
granted. The New York Times article also quotes him and says that
9:21
"...an avowedly moderate Islamic microstate, the Prime Minister said, would send a message
9:27
do not let the stigma of Muslims define who Muslims are." And Baba Mondi, the spiritual
9:33
leader, agrees. Because he also expressed his belief that, sovereign status would uplift the Bektashi order and enhance its ability to fight radical ideologies that have affected the Muslim world and the international community
9:51
So, what is next? According to the New York Times, a group of international lawyers are now
9:56
drafting the legislation that defines the legal status of this new sovereign state inside of
10:01
Albania, and after that is done, it will have to be approved by the Albanian parliament
10:06
It's unclear which, if any, other countries will also recognize Bektashi sovereignty
10:12
I would guess that the nearby Kosovo and northern Macedonia will because they have seemingly
10:16
relevant Bektashi communities inside of their borders. Maybe Bosnia will as well because it is a Muslim country too
10:23
But that brings around an interesting subject because a lot of other Muslim countries that
10:27
are either Sunni or Shia still don't love what the Bektashi order stands for, even today
10:33
One country that is very unlikely to recognize them is Iran, despite the fact that they do have a pretty sizable Bektashi community inside their own people
10:42
But they position themselves against heterodox readings of the Islamic faith, as they say that Bektashism is
10:49
But Iran's opposition might at the same time push those that are against Iran to more quickly recognize and support this new state, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, or even Qatar
11:00
When it comes to the rest of Europe and the Western world, it remains to be seen
11:05
I wonder if the Vatican, for instance, will come to recognize this other super small sovereign state
11:11
and let go of their record of being the smallest country in the world when they do so
11:16
The Albanian Prime Minister has admitted that this new idea will take time
11:20
and it might seem a little crazy to some people. He said, maybe everyone will say, this guy is crazy
11:26
They have said that many times before. I don't care. the important thing is, crazy or not, to fight for good
11:33
But what do you think? Are you excited to see this new country being created
11:37
Do you think it's a good idea or maybe not? And will this cause other religious movements across the world
11:43
and other groups of Islam or Christianity to try and set up their own sovereign states
11:48
Let me know in the comments. Thank you to my patrons for making this video possible
11:53
Over on the Patreon, they have already seen the video that I'm posting next week because they get early access to every video that I publish here on YouTube
12:00
And so if you want to enjoy that perk and support me at the same time
12:04
make sure to join as well. But if not, that's totally okay too. Thank you so much for watching anyway
12:09
and I will see you next time for more general knowledge. I had to write this video so quickly
12:22
because I just saw this in the news a couple of days ago. and I was going to post a video that I'm now posting next week about, well, something else
12:31
And so, yeah, but I think it went okay. I had to read more off the paper. So you're
12:36
you probably noticed that there was more like animation and footage in the video rather than
12:40
just me showing my face reading because I have to memorize stuff, right? Every time that I'm
12:44
looking at the camera and just talking is because I read this and I memorized it before. And it's a
12:49
little difficult but it's getting easier so I think you know as we keep going with this new format it's
12:56
gonna it's gonna be okay
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