“BEXIT” - a nation in the making?

by Stuart Notholt

photos courtesy the author

Bektashi World Centre, Tirana

Most people familiar with Albania will know of the Bektashi, the 13th century Sufi mystic order whose tiny tekkes (chapels) are dotted around the Albanian countryside. Expelled from Turkey in the 1920s and persecuted, in common with other religions, under Enver Hoxha, Bektashism is today embraced by about 5% of the Albanian population and is acknowledged by many more as a tolerant and moderating influence on Albanian society. Certainly, the values the Bektashi espouse are some of those which have often been in all too short supply in the Balkans.

In September 2024 came the startling announcement that the Bektashi leader, Baba Mondi, and Albanian Prime Minister Ali Rama, were proposing the creation of an independent Vatican City-style Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order, based in the Bektashi Order’s beautiful world headquarters in Tirana.

The Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order would become the world's smallest country, barely a quarter of the size of Vatican City. The new state would reflect the Bektashi Order's tolerant worldview, allowing alcohol, unsegregated worship for men and women, permitting everyone to wear what they wish, and imposing no firm lifestyle rules.

The broader aims, according to Baba Mondi, include raising the status of the Bektashi Order and enhancing its ability to offer a peaceful and moderate alternative to the Islamist ideologies that afflict the Muslim world.

While few people of good will would disagree with these sentiments, Bektashism is not without its controversies. Despite, or perhaps because of, its moderation, Bektashism is regarded as heretical by wide sections of Islamic society. Expecting theologically hardline states like Iran or Saudi Arabia to suddenly start embracing Bektashism is surely wishful thinking.

Other critics argue that far from fostering unity, the proposal sets a dangerous precedent, opening the door for other groups to demand similar privileges, and fostering resentment and division rather than the reverse. Indeed, Albania is home to other sects less benign than the Bektashi. Take, for example, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) a militant group which advocates a combination of Shia Islam and revolutionary Marxism. Like the Bektashi, MEK was expelled from their original homeland (Iran) and in 2016 moved their headquarters to a site called Camp Ashraf 3 in Durrës County. While there is no current suggestion that MEK would seek “independence”, the potential is surely theoretically there if the Bektashi state were to proceed.

That said, it is not true that the Bektashi proposal is without precedent. In addition to the Vatican example, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which has no territory (other than a handful of buildings in Rome and Malta) is nevertheless generally considered a sovereign entity under international law and maintains full diplomatic relations with over a hundred countries. The Orthodox monastic community of Mount Athos in Greece also enjoys certain aspects of extraterritoriality, including a prohibition on females, whether human or animal, which would certainly not be acceptable elsewhere in Europe.

So, if there are examples of religious communities enjoying sovereignty, the real question is whether it leads to any lasting practical benefits. One obvious problem is that to survive at all any microstate has to rely on the willingness of its neighbours to abide by civilized standards. Modern democracies like Italy and France are unlikely to invade and conquer San Marino or Monaco, nor Albania the Bektashi state, for that matter, but it is much less clear what protection independence accords a microstate in less benevolent environments. While it is true that neither the Allies nor the Nazis occupied the Vatican during World War II, those other two microstates fared less well - Monaco was occupied by Italy and the neutrality of San Marino was at various times violated by both sides.

To take another hypothetical case, the Samaritans - the ethno-religious group of Biblical times - have now dwindled to barely 900 individuals, around half of whom live in Kiryat Luza, a Palestinian West Bank village situated on Mount Gerizim, which the Samaritans consider sacred. Outside both Judaism and Islam, the Samaritans are potentially a vulnerable minority. But would sovereignty for Kiryat Luza seriously provide any additional protections for the Samaritans in the cauldron of the West Bank?

Other microstates are able to offer residents lucrative tax breaks and other benefits, but Bektashi leaders have said that citizenship in their new state would be limited to clerics and other officials. Possession of a Bektashi diplomatic passport might provide protection to Bektashi officials travelling abroad, but that again relies on other countries recognizing their validity. Beyond the admittedly valuable public relations opportunities and possible access to international forums, it is hard to see what an independent state would do that the Bektashi community cannot do anyway.

The Balkans' turbulent history does, however, make it conceivable that physical threats to the integrity of Bektashi properties could arise in the future, and one only has to look over the border, to North Macedonia, to see an actual example. In 2002 armed militants of the Islamic Community of Macedonia (ICM) occupied the 16th century Arabati Baba Tekke in Tetovo, with the intention of converting it into a mosque. The Macedonian authorities did nothing to resolve this situation. (The ICM is recognized as a legal representation of Islam in Macedonia; Bektashism enjoys no such status.) An incursion into the territory of a sovereign Bektashi state would at least represent an unequivocal breach of international law.

Although of fascination to geographers, there is no definition of what constitutes a microstate. Some, like Liechtenstein, are surely simply “ordinary” countries, just small ones. Others, like Nauru, are islands limited by their physical geography. Singapore, despite its small physical size, is generally ruled out by virtue of its large population. Some microstates are genuine attempts at breakaway states, often based on a loose interpretation of historical treaties. Others are scams, offering for sale elaborate philately, passports and opportunities for money laundering. Some are basically harmless. Seborga, a village in Italy, declared independence in 1963 but, in what is perhaps a typically Italian compromise, as long as the Seborgans pay their (Italian) taxes and the sale of flags and souvenirs brings in tourist euros (or should that be Seborgan Luiginos?) the official attitude is to turn a blind eye.

The true distinguishing feature of the micronation is not merely that they are small but that there is something “odd” about them: they are interesting historical and constitutional anomalies that, like the coelacanth, have somehow survived into the modern age.

The Bektashi state has some significant hurdles to leap before it can become a reality, not least that legislation would need two-thirds approval from Albania’s fractious parliament, and somehow overcoming its incompatibility with the Constitution, which defines Albania as “indivisible”. We shall have to watch this (27 acre) space to see whether the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order joins the world’s eclectic collection of mini countries.

inside the Odeon, completed in 2015