Albania as a laboratory of socially engineering Islam continues, argues Olsi Jazexhi, with the normalisation with Zionism and the Zionist entity a key factor.
Prime Minister Edi Rama’s declaration at the UN on September 23, 2024, of the creation of a sovereign Bektashi State in Tirana, is the culmination of a series of political earthquakesthat have shaken Albania in relation to its orientation against the Islamic world and towards Israel. These changes began with the opening of the Israeli embassy in Albania in 2012, the hosting of 3,000 Iranian Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK) members in 2016, the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador from the country in 2018, and the severing of diplomatic relations with Iran in 2022. Albania’s enmity with Iran and its alignment with Israel have been accompanied by attacks against Sunni and Shia Islam in the country.
This article examines the evolving role of Bektashism in Albania, particularly its alignment with Israel and its implications for relations with the Islamic world, Iran, and Turkey. It explores how Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, in collaboration with Bektashi leader Baba Edmond Brahimaj (Baba Mondi), has pursued policies that distance the Bektashis from its traditional Islamic institutions while fostering closer ties with Israel. The article highlights key events, such as the establishment of a Bektashi state in Tirana, the hosting of the Iranian Mujaheden (MEK) organization, and the expulsion of Iran’s diplomatic mission, as part of a broader strategy to align Albania with Israeli and U.S. interests. It also discusses the persecution of Sunni and Shia Muslims in Albania, the influence of Gülenists in the Albanian Muslim Community, and the Bektashi sect’s shift from an Iranian-version of Shia Islam to a pro-Israeli stance. The article argues that these developments reflect a deliberate effort to create a “Shia-Zionist” Islam that serves Israeli geopolitical goals, while isolating the Bektashis from the broader Muslim world. Critics, including Turkish and Albanian analysts, view the Bektashi state project as a tool of Israeli influence aimed at undermining Muslim unity and countering Iran’s regional influence. The article concludes by questioning whether Bektashism is being weaponised as a political instrument against Islam, Iran, and Turkey in the Balkans.
- Edi Rama and the Bektashi State
On September 12, 2024, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Albania, Israel was at the peak of its genocide in Gaza. Awaiting him were two Muslim clerics: Baba Edmond Brahimaj, a former military officer installed as the head of the Bektashi Community of Albania in July 2011, and Taulant Bicaj, the Gulenist deputy chairman of the Albanian Muslim Community. These two clerics did something no other Islamic cleric in the Muslim world would dare to do: they met with the president of a state committing genocide in the Holy Land.
During the Israeli president’s visit, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, in his speech, not only expressed his government’s loyalty to Israel and its hostility toward Hamas, and indirectly Iran, but also invited Israelis from around the world to relocate from Israel and make Albania their home. Nine days after Herzog’s visit, in an interview with The New York Times, Rama declared that his government had plans to create a Bektashi state in Albania. In the interview, the Bektashi state was described as a source of religious tolerance but one that would not be recognized by Iran.
Rama continued to push his bizarre idea of declaring a Bektashi state, and on September 23, 2024, he notified the United Nations of the creation of a sovereign Bektashi State in Tirana.
These declarations came after repeated attacks by the Prime Minister against Iran at the UN, defending the presence of the MEK terrorists in Albania. Rama mentioned the Bektashi state and the MEK before the Israeli lobby in the U.S., where Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, decorated him.
- Edi Rama Has Persecuted Muslims in Albania
Prime Minister Rama is notorious in Albania not only for the corruption of his governments but also for his hatred of Islam, Muslims, Iranians, and Turks. Unlike most Albanians, who come from a Muslim background, Rama’s family is part of the Vlach-Catholic minority. In 2005, when Sali Berisha became Prime Minister of Albania, Rama attacked the head of the Democratic Party as an “Islamist” who was taking advice from people “sent by Gaddafi” (referring to advisor Dritan Mishta, who had studied in Libya) or others “sent by Assad” (referring to Bashkim Gazidede, the former head of the Albanian Secret Service). Since September 11, 2013, when Rama became Prime Minister, he has repeatedly expressed hatred toward Albanian Muslims. Most of the ministers in his governments have been Christian. Some of his prominent advisors and friends include Maks Velo, Sandër Lleshi, Artan Shkreli, Ben Blushi, Fatos Nano, and Piro Misha—figures known in Albania for their hatred, Islamophobia, and xenophobia toward Muslims.
A few months after Rama became Prime Minister, his government ordered the arrest and imprisonment of dozens of Muslim believers across the country under the pretext of participating in the Syrian war. The police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs compiled lists of hundreds of Muslim believers, who were labelled extremists due to their religious and political beliefs. Under Rama’s governance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs expanded the Counter-Terrorism Police Directorate with 104 officers—up from the previous 15. The Counter-Terrorism Police in Albania has been notorious in recent years for persecuting and harassing innocent Muslim believers. The arrests of Muslims, raids on mosques, and persecution by the counterterrorism police reached their peak in November 2016. At the request of Israel’s Mossad, Edi Rama’s government detained and mistreated dozens of Albanian and Kosovar Muslim believers across the country, falsely accusing them of planning a terrorist attack against the Israeli football team scheduled to play in Albania.
While targeting Sunni Muslims, in 2016, Edi Rama’s government agreed to host 3,000 terrorist fighters from the Iranian Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) organization led by Maryam Rajavi. With the arrival of the MEK, Albania became a significant hub for MEK terrorism against Iran. From the Manza Camp and in collaboration with Israel’s Mossad, the MEK launched successive attacks against Iranian presence in Albania, the Balkans, and Europe.
Responding to the demands of the MEK and Israel to expel Iran from Albania, Edi Rama’s regime shut down all Iranian organizations, foundations, and schools operating in the country. The government froze the bank accounts of all Iranians living in Albania, except for those who agreed to serve the MEK’s terrorist sect against their own country.
The peak of Rama’s alignment with the MEK and Maryam Rajavi’s sect came in 2018 when Albania expelled the Iranian ambassador and a diplomat, while allowing the MEK to launch attacks from the Albanian territory against Iran, organize disinformation campaigns, and attack Canadian, Albanian, and Iranian citizens who tried to leave or expose life inside the Manza MEK camp. For these attacks against Iran, Prime Minister Edi Rama was personally thanked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. government.
The attacks by Rama’s government against Iranian and Shia organizations in Albania were paralleled by attacks against Sunni Islam. In 2020, Edi Rama’s government placed Imam Genci Balla in isolation under the 41-Bis system[i], subjecting him to psychological torture, isolation, and denial of halal food. Another attack by Edi Rama’s government against Islam during his tenure was his support for the Gülenist movement, which controls the Albanian Muslim Community, even though it was declared a terrorist movement by Turkey in 2016. Sunni Muslims have been excluded from the leadership of the Muslim Community, which is exclusively Gülenist.
Institutional attacks against Shia Islam in Albania culminated in 2022. In September of that year, Edi Rama’s regime severed diplomatic relations with Iran, closed the Iranian embassy in the country, and accused Iran without evidence of being behind the cyberattacks that hit Albania in July 2022. Rama’s attacks against Iran were supported and coordinated with the U.S. and Israeli governments, which amplified his actions to fuel a massive disinformation campaign against Iran and its support for Palestine.
- Baba Mondi, Isaac Herzog, and the Bektashi State Surprise
On September 12, 2024, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Albania, he reportedly had a special meeting with the self-proclaimed World Leader of the Bektashis, Baba Edmond Brahimaj. Baba Mondi’s closeness to the Israelis has alarmed the Turkish embassy in Tirana. In March 2024, Turkish Ambassador Tayyar Kagan Atay publicly criticized Baba Mondi for his closeness to the Israelis, publicly appealing to him:
“We call on Baba Mondi to be cautious; Israel has killed more than 30,000 civilians.”
But Baba Mondi, who has been accused by Bektashi believers of being a spy for the secret service and is suspected of having criminal files under investigation by SPAK (Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime), has not distanced himself from his relationship with Israel.
A few days after the Israeli Prime Minister’s visit, Prime Minister Rama and Baba Mondi announced the creation of the Bektashi state. According to former Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo, the goal of creating a Bektashi state is part of a broader global approach and game in which Israel is a key player against the Muslim world. It is unknown whether Baba Mondi stands behind the creation of the Bektashi state or if he is merely a pawn in Israel’s larger game against global Islam. After the news of the Bektashi state’s creation was made public by Edi Rama, the World Bektashi Headquarters, which also seemed unprepared for this news, stated in a media declaration on September 22, 2024, that “they were not aware and were not consulted” about the creation of the state.
However, these declarations would change later when Baba Mondi shifted his stance and followed the Prime Minister’s line.
- Bektashism from the Turkish Gjëmë to the Iranian Revival
The news of the creation of the Bektashi state has stunned Albanian citizens as well as many Turks. Given that a large Bektashi community lives in Turkey, where this sect of Islam originated, Turkish media explained this declaration by Prime Minister Rama and Baba Mondi as an Israeli project.
The Bektashi Dervish Order, which in Albania seeks to become a separate religion from Islam and be granted statehood, is a Shia-Sufi order practiced by a significant portion of Albania’s Muslim population. This order is believed to have been founded by Haji Bektash Veli (d. around 1290), who lived in Anatolia in the second half of the 13th century. Bektashi legends claim that Haji Bektash Veli became the “patron saint” of the Janissaries during the reign of Sultan Orhan or Murad I. The sect played a significant role in the Islamization of Christians in the Balkans through the recruitment of Balkan people into the Janissary corps.
The Muhib of Bektashism and ideologue of Albanian nationalism, Sami Frashëri, claims that Haji Bektash Veli was a saint of Iranian origin from the city of Nishapur in the Khorasan region. After his death, Haji Bektash passed the order to Pir Balım Sultan (d. around 1520 CE), who organized the order and built the mother lodge (Pirevi) in Hacıbektaş, Anatolia. Bektashism served as a religious order for the Ottoman military corps of the Janissaries. But in 1826, when Sultan Mahmud II destroyed the Janissaries, the Bektashis were also targeted. This blow to Bektashi theology is known as the “first gjëmë (calamity) of Bektashism.” The second gjëmë came in 1925 when Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk banned all Sufi orders in the country, and as a result, the Bektashis established their headquarters in Albania in 1930. At the 1929 Congress of Prishta in Skrapar, the Bektashis emphasized that they are a sect of Islam[ii] which believes in the twelve Imams of Shia Islam, with Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq being their most important Imam. [iii] The connection of the Bektashis with the twelve Imams of Shia Islam can also be read in the Holy Decree given by Dede Ahmed Myftari to Dervish Reshat Bardhi on June 30, 1967, where Dede Ahmed states that the Bektashis follow the line of Imams from Imam Ali to Imam Mahdi through Hynqar Haji Bektash Veli, Seyyid Hussein Balım Sultan, and the Dedes of Bektashism.
After the fall of communism and the revival of religions in Albania, the Bektashi sect was also revived. Being Shia in origin and anathematized as non-Muslim by Sunnis who were influenced by Wahhabism en masse after the fall of communism, the Bektashis built good relations with the Shia world. Shia, Bektashi and Alevi communities from Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Iraq, Iran, etc., established relations with the Bektashis. In the post-communist transition years, the Bektashi community was massively sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran and Shia networks worldwide. Iranian institutions educated Bektashi children en masse, built lodges, and produced literature on Bektashism. Books such as Qerbelaja by Naim Frashëri, studies on Iranian literature and mysticism in Albania, Albanian Iranologists, and numerous conferences and publications were sponsored by institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has supported Bektashi Babas, dervishes, and muhibs by sponsoring their travels, pilgrimages, and education in Najaf, Karbala, Mashhad, Kufa, Qom, Tehran, and other global Shia centers. Baba Reshat Bardhi, Baba Edmond Brahimaj, and other babas were welcomed by personalities of the Islamic Republic, and Bektashism in Albania was revived with the help of Iranian sponsors. Many lodges in the country were reconstructed with Iranian money, and hundreds of Bektashi children were educated in Iran.
Given that after the 1990s, the Sunni Arab world focused on reviving Sunnism, while Turkey until 2002 neglected Islam in the Balkans and generally refused to sponsor Bektashism even after its return to the Balkans, Iranian sponsorship became one of the main sources that helped revive Bektashism and other tariqas in the Balkans, from Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Albania.
- Bektashism: from Iranian Shiaism to Israeli Zionism
The severing of relations with Iran was the culmination of a series of attacks that Rama’s government undertook against Iranians in Albania. These attacks began in 2018 after the MEK’s claim that Iran would attack the MEK and the Bektashis. The counterterrorism police froze the bank accounts of all Iranians who were not members of the MEK and expelled the Iranian ambassador from the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally thanked Edi Rama for these steps. The attacks against Iranians continued even in 2020 when the director of the Saadi Shirazi Foundation was expelled from the country, accused of being an agent, and the Foundation, along with the “Saadi” school, was closed.
Iranian influence on post-communist Bektashi Islam has worried Americans and Israelis, as can be read in many writings by Western orientalists. After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq and the weakening of Sunni Islam’s influence as a result of the ‘war on terror’, Americans also attacked Shia Islam, which was seen as part of Iranian influence. In Albania, they experimented with installing the Gülenists at the head of Sunni Muslim Community, while working to distance the Bektashis from Iran and its version of Shia Islam.
While in Shia-Bektashi doctrine, Israelis are seen as a cursed and oppressive people against the Palestinians, Americans began working with the Bektashis in the early 2000s, building relations between the Bektashis and Israelis. In 2007, Baba Mondi was invited to Jerusalem, a visit possibly sponsored by USAID.
Relations between the Bektashis and Israel progressed further after the opening of the Israeli embassy in Tirana in August 2012. At a time when the Bektashi Community’s relations with Iran were very close, Israel began public relations with Baba Mondi. In February 2013, Baba Mondi sought Israel’s help for his sect. After the embassy’s opening, Israel began collaborating with a number of Albanians who had previously worked with Iran and the Islamic world. One example is Professor Shaban Sinani, who in 2014 published the book Albanians and Hebrews, was promoted in Israeli media. For this book, Sinani was decorated with the “Gratitude of the State of Israel” for his monographic study (2014). Shaban Sinani is the perfect example of Israeli influence replacing Iranian influence. From 1995 to 2021, Sinani worked for the Iranian Saadi Shirazi Foundation, initially publishing the Shahnameh in Albanian and later as the chief editor of the magazine Perla, which promoted Iranian-Albanian cultural ties.
Relations between the Bektashis and Iran were destroyed after the allocation of the MeK in Albania. This Iranian terrorist organization would build its paramilitary camp in Manza, Durrës. After their settlement the MeK were used by Americans and Israelis to weaken Iranian influence in Albania. Thanks to their pressure and massive process of disinformation against Iran, Albania expelled the Iranian ambassador and eventually closed the Iranian embassy in the country.
The first incident where the MEK served as an Israeli tool against Iran occurred on March 22, 2018, when the Bektashi community organized a congress on Imam Ali, to which two Iranian journalists were invited. The MEK used the presence of the Iranian journalists to claim that Iran was planning a terrorist attack in Albania against them. The false news spread by the MEK, which blackmailed the Bektashi community and Iran, was disseminated by different MEK officials in Albania. This false flag terrorist incident, created by the MEK and amplified by the Israelis, seems to be one of the last instances where Baba Mondi and the Bektashis organized an event in collaboration with Iranians.
Baba Mondi’s relations with Iran and Israel changed significantly after 2019. Israelis began several visits to the Bektashi World Headquarters. In July 2019, the Vice President of the American Jewish Congress decorated Baba Mondi. In October 2019, Baba Mondi declared that the Iranian journalists he had invited might have had other (i.e., terrorist) intentions. In December 2019, after Albania was hit by a powerful earthquake, Israel sent a team from the IDF to inspect the situation at the World Headquarters.
The collaboration of the Bektashis with Israelis continued even in 2020. In July, Baba Mondi and the Gülenist head of the Sunni Community of Albania, participated in the inauguration of the Holocaust Memorial in Tirana in the presence of Ambassador Noah Gendler.
In October, the Bektashi World Headquarters reported a meeting between Baba Mondi and the Chief Rabbi of Albania, Yoel Kaplan. Baba Mondi’s relations with Yoel Kaplan, who was initially rejected by the Jewish community of Tirana, became very intense, as we will see below. On October 30, Yoel stated that he had created an international organization called “Peace-Shalom” with Baba Mondi, which would work for peace and goodness.
In December 2020, Baba Mondi was interviewed by journalist Benny Ziffer of Haaretz, who asked him, among other things, about the Bektashis’ relations with Turkey and Iran.
March 2021, Mondi was visited by Israeli Ambassador Noah Gendler, where the Bektashis discussed possible Israeli investments in Bektashi assets and a visit by Baba Mondi to Israel to meet with one of the rabbis of Israel, whose name was not specified. In May, Baba Mondi hosted an iftar for Ramadan, to which Israeli Ambassador Noah Gal Gendler was invited. This iftar with the Israeli ambassador was denounced in a public letter by many Albanian imams, who denounced the Gülenist Imam Lauren Luli and Baba Edmond Brahimaj for hosting a “shameful iftar” with the Israeli ambassador. A few days after this denunciation, Baba Mondi met with an Israeli army colonel and the director of the American Jewish Committee, Avital Leibovich, where the Bektashi World Headquarters declared: “Our friendship with the United States and Israel will be continuous, and the World Bektashi Headquarters has always its doors open to these friendly states.”
In October, the World Headquarters was visited by former Israeli Knesset Deputy Speaker Hilik Bar, where Baba Mondi presented to his Israeli guest “several economic, cultural, and social projects that are feasible with the assets of the World Bektashi Headquarters, which further contribute to the economic and cultural development of both countries and shared beliefs.”
In 2022, the Bektashis’ relations with Israel and against Iran took a new direction. First, the visits of Iranians and Bektashi activities with Iran disappeared from the website of the World Bektashi Headquarters (the year is unknown).
In July 2022, when Albania was hit by cyberattacks, Edi Rama’s government began to sever relations with Iran. Initially, in July, the Albanian government cancelled a meeting of Maryam Rajavi’s MeK scheduled for July at their paramilitary camp in Manza. In July, the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK), at the request of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, raided the offices of the anti-MeK Asila association in Tirana and by accusing 20 Iranians who had abandoned the MeK and were refusing to fight against Iran, of “espionage in service of the Iranian regime.”
Repeated cyberattacks were used as justification by Prime Minister Rama to sever diplomatic relations with Iran and close the Iranian embassy on September 7, 2022. A few days after the closure of the Iranian embassy, hackers from the group “Homeland Justice” published the emails of Gledis Nano, the head of the counterterrorism police. In these emails, which the Albanian judiciary banned from publication, one could read how the counterterrorism police coordinated its attacks against Albanian Sunni Muslims, Palestinians, and Iranians in the country in collaboration with Israel’s Mossad, the U.S. embassy. These emails documented the collaboration of the Iranian MEK with counterterrorism police against those Iranians who had deserted MEK and were refusing to fight against Iran on behalf of Maryam Rajavi’s group.
After breaking with Iran and making unfounded accusations that Iran was behind the cyberattacks, in October, Edi Rama’s government sought Israel’s help to deal with the cyberattacks.
Meanwhile, in September 2022, Baba Mondi participated in the welcoming ceremony of the new Israeli Ambassador, Galit Peleg, to Albania. At this ceremony, Baba Mondi wished:
“success to Ambassador Galit in fulfilling her diplomatic mission in Albania and expressed his desire to further strengthen relations between the Holy Bektashi Order and the State of Israel.”
Two months later, in November, Israeli Ambassador Gali Peleg visited the World Headquarters, where she declared:
“The highest considerations for the Bektashis, the World Bektashi Headquarters, and especially for the World Grandfather, appreciating the mutual relations between the State of Israel, the Bektashi Community, and Albania over the years.”
In December, Baba Mondi, together with Prime Minister Edi Rama, participated in the Hanukkah celebration with Chief Rabbi Yoel Kaplan.
In September 2022, when Prime Minister Edi Rama closed the Iranian embassy in the country, Ervin Karamuco, an analyst close to the counterterrorism police and Albanian secret service, recycled in the media the MEK’s claim of Iranian terrorist attacks and declared that Baba Mondi and Pandeli Majko had been targeted for assassination by Iran.
A few weeks after this declaration, on December 14, 2022, the Bektashi Community, in collaboration with other religious communities in the country, sent a letter to the President of the Republic of Albania, Bajram Begaj, and Prime Minister Edi Rama, where four religious communities—Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, and Sunni Muslims—expressed their agreement that the World Bektashi Headquarters should enjoy a special international status[iv].
The Bektashis’ relations with Israelis continued normally in 2023. In March, Ambassador Peleg thanked Baba Mondi and declared that “relations between Israel and the World Bektashi Center will always be fraternal, for the good of peace and religious freedoms.” On March 28, a delegation of Israeli students visited the lodge. On March 31, the World Headquarters and the Israeli embassy hosted an iftar for Ramadan, in the presence of Ambassador Galit Peleg. In May, the Bektashi Headquarters participated in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel. Meanwhile, a day earlier, the Israeli Ambassador, with a group of clerics and businessmen, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, and the Mayor of Meltepe-Istanbul municipality, Ali Kiliç, surprised Baba Mondi by celebrating his birthday at the Plaza restaurant in Tirana.
On October 4, 2023, Munr Kazmir, Vice President of the American Jewish Congress, visited the Continental Hospital owned by the Bektashi World Headquarters. Meanwhile, three days later, on October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, Baba Mondi sent a message to the Israeli embassy, where the Bektashi World Headquarters condemned Hamas and expressed support for Israel. Throughout the 18 months that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and the entire world condemned Israeli crimes, and Iran and the Axis of Resistance came to the aid of the Palestinians, the Bektashi World Headquarters has not made any statements in defence of the Palestinians or any condemnations against Israel. On the contrary, the Bektashis’ relations with Israel continued as before.
During Ramadan/March 2024, when Muslims in Gaza suffered from starvation due to the Israeli blockade, the Bektashi World Headquarters organized a Ramadan iftar, in which the Israeli Ambassador Galit Peleg participated. The portal Mexhlis.com denounced the meetings of the Gülenist head of the Albanian Muslim Community and the Bektashi World Headquarters with Baba Mondi, writing:
“The Albanian Muslim Community is the only Muslim community in the world that has not condemned the genocide in Gaza. The Gülenists in the Albanian Muslim Community and the Bektashi World Headquarters, led by Baba Mondi, have regularly demonstrated their alliance and friendship with Israel, without showing any regret for the killings of Muslim children in Palestine.”
In April, the Bektashi World Headquarters was visited by Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz and Ambassador Galit Peleg, where both parties called for the release of Hamas hostages but said nothing about Palestinian prisoners held captive by Israel.
- The Bektashi State Welcomed by Israel
The Bektashi World Headquarters’ relations with Israel continued normally throughout 2024. On September 12, 2024, Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Tirana, where he met with a Gülenist cleric and Baba Mondi, the head of the Bektashis. Herzog’s visit and his meeting with Baba Mondi and the Gülenist deputy chairman of the Albanian Muslim Community, Taulant Bicaj, sparked massive online protests and reactions on the streets of Tirana. Imams and Muslim believers denounced Baba Mondi and the deputy chairman of the Albanian Muslim Community as collaborators with the Israeli genocide. But most of the attacks were directed against the Albanian Muslim Community, which is controlled by the Fethullah Gülen movement, while criticism of Baba Mondi and the Bektashis was secondary.
A few days after the scandal of Baba Mondi’s meeting with the Israeli president, on September 21, 2024, in an interview with The New York Times, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama stunned both domestic and international public opinion by announcing the creation of a Bektashi state as part of the fight against extremism.
The Prime Minister’s announcement of the Bektashi state was formalized during Rama’s speech at the United Nations on September 22, 2024, where he notified the UN General Assembly of the transformation of the World Bektashi Muslim Center into an independent state within the capital city of Tirana “as a center of moderation, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence.” Rama’s declaration came parallel to his attacks against Iran at the meeting of the Movement to Combat Antisemitism, where the Prime Minister was decorated by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism.
Rama’s declaration of the creation of the Bektashi state was met with outrage by Albanian public opinion. Muslim and civil organizations protested in front of the Albanian Muslim Community headquarters, denouncing the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the “Bektashi state.” Lawyer Altin Goxhaj sued Prime Minister Edi Rama in SPAK[v] for treason for creating the Bektashi state. He declared that the Bektashi state was a project of Zionist secret services aiming to divide Albania. He declared that they want: “To create a state for the Bektashis; a state for the Iranians[MEK]; a state for the Palestinians; and in this way, erase Albania.”
Meanwhile, the leader of the Albanian opposition, Sali Berisha, called the project:
“a hostile attempt to divide the Muslim faith in Albania… a stab in the back of the Muslim faith in Albania… The creation of a state with extraterritoriality in the Tirana headquarters and 170 lodges as Edi Rama preaches is a terrible fragmentation of Albanian territory, which will never happen.”
Former Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo declared that Israel may be behind the idea of creating the Bektashi state:
“All this must have been a reason why the President of Israel, during his visit to Tirana, had a special meeting with Baba Mondi. It has not happened before that heads of state and government go and meet the Grandfather of the Bektashis. I do not know if it has ever happened, it has never been part of the protocol.”
Milo added: “Israel is certainly interested because of its traditional enmity with the Arab-Muslim world. It is interested in Muslim communities not having unity. If there were united, it would always be to its detriment.”
The Bektashi state provoked many denunciations from Sunni Muslims and even the Bektashis. The Sunni Muslim Community issued a statement distancing itself from the Bektashi state, writing: “In this context, we express our concern regarding public statements that speak of ‘modern Islam’ or ‘Albanian Islam’ or even an Islamic state within our republic.”
The Bektashi state was also rejected by Baba Eliton Pashaj from the Albanian lodge in Detroit, who said that the Bektashi Community does not need a state and that Baba Mondi violated the statute of the World Bektashi Headquarters by making this decision.
The statements of Baba Eliton, who is well-connected to the Bektashi community in Turkey, show the division occurring within the tariqa. This division or heresy of creating a Bektashi state, besides being welcomed by Israeli circles, is causing concerns not only in Iran but also in Turkey, where the sect originated. The statement of Turkish Ambassador Tayyar Kagan Atay, in which he called on Baba Mondi to distance himself from Israel, shows the official concern that Ankara has about these ties.
Turkish media denounced the declaration of the Bektashi state as a plot by Israel and George Soros. In fact, the Turkish administration’s distancing from the Bektashi World Headquarters was first noticed in March 2024 when the embassy organized a Ramadan iftar with the Bektashi Headquarters in Elbasan and Haxhi Baba Ardit Selmani, who is known as an opponent of Baba Mondi’s pro-Israeli line. Many Bektashis have started to privately label Baba Mondi as the Yazid of Bektashis.
Even Greek media concurred with the Turkish critique. Protothema described Rama’s efforts to create the Bektashi state as a flirtation with Israel and linked to the decoration he received from the Movement to Combat Antisemitism in the U.S.
The declaration of the Bektashi state finds Albanian Bektashism isolated from the Islamic world. Being distanced from Iran since the MeK incident of March 2018 and the recent friction with Turkey, hasseen the Bektashis consolidate their ties with Israel. In his diplomatic offensive for the propagation of the Bektashi state, Baba Mondi was accompanied by Rabbi Yoel Kaplan, with whom on January 16, 2025, he visited the Pope to inform him about the Bektashi state. Meanwhile, on October 13, 2024, the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post published an interview with Baba Mondi titled: “Religious leader of Albania: ‘I consider myself a brother of the people of Israel.'” The article echoed the creation of the Bektashi “Vatican” in Tirana and portrayed the Bektashis as good Muslims who love Israel.
Conclusion
While Sunni Muslims have been persecuted for reasons ranging from sympathy for the Syrian war to football matches with Israel, and the organization controlling Albania’s mosques has been placed under Gülenist control, Shia Muslims have been forced not only to distance themselves from Iran but now, Prime Minister Rama has declared that he will create a Vatican like – Bektashi state which will be hostile to Iran, Hamas, Turkey and political Islam and friendly to Israel.
In 2023–2025, while Israel committed genocide in Gaza and most of the international community condemned Israel, the Bektashis of Albania sided with Israel. Isolated from the Islamic world, Baba Edmond Brahimaj, a former military officer and member of the Albanian secret service, has turned the Bektashi sect into one of the few currents in the Islamic world that dares to side with a genocidal anti-Muslim state like Israel.
The Chief Rabbi of Albania, Yoel Kaplan, who boasts of his participation in battles against Muslims in Gaza, is seen standing behind Baba Mondi in his meetings with the Pope or during his visits to Israeli institutions. Rabbi Yoel Kaplan is the strongest and the only cleric in Albania who supports the idea of the Bektashi state.
Many analysts, religious scholars and diplomats suspect that Israel is using the isolation of the Bektashis from the Islamic world to create a new Islam. A Shia-Zionist Islam, which will serve both Prime Minister Edi Rama for his political survival in the West with the support of the Zionist lobby, and Israel which desperately needs to create a new version of Islam which stands against the liberating Islamic theology which Iran, parts of the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinians propagate and which seeks the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation and genocide.
Dr. Olsi Jazexhi is a Canadian-Albanian historian who is specialized in the history of Islam, nationalism and religious reformation in Southeastern Europe. His interests cover nationalism, radicalism, terrorism, religious and ethnic identities in the Balkans and in the late Ottoman Empire. He has taught history at University of Durres and Elbasan in Albania and now is teaching Palestinian, Middle East, Russian and Ottoman history at the International Islamic University Malaysia. He is also a freelance investigative journalist.
[i] The 41 bis regime, also known as the hard prison regime, was introduced into Albania in 2018, modelled on the system of that name is Italy. These measures were formulated to deal with organized crime. Prisoners (including those on remand) affected by these measures, would have limited and supervised family visits, no or few visits from non-family; one phone call a month; all correspondence except with Ombudsmen, monitored, and a variety of other measures highly violating of basic rights or easily abused to violate a prisoner’s rights.
[ii] Kalicani, Selim. Bektashizmi si Sekt Mistik Islam. Tirana: [Publisher], [Year], 190–196.
[iii] Frashëri, Naim. Fletorja e Bektashinjet. Bucharest: [Publisher], 1896, 9.
[iv] Letër e Komuniteteve Fetare Drejtuar KM Edi Rama dhe Presidentit Bajram Begaj, 14/12/2022.
[v] Special Structure against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK, Struktura e Posaçme Kundër Korrupsionit dhe Krimit të Organizuar) is a judicial entity tasked with investigating organised crime in Albania.
