Albanian PM Edi Rama on Sunday announced plans to establish a sovereign microstate for the Shia Sufi Bektashi Order in Tirana. While welcomed by the order, the move has also been greeted with surprise and skepticism.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wants to establish a sovereign Muslim mini-state within his country based on the model of the Vatican. It would be created in Albania's capital Tirana and run by the Muslim Bektashi order.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced on Sunday during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly's Summit of the Future an ambitious initiative to create a Bektashi sovereign state

The ND MEP asks the European Commission what its position is on this potential new state and whether its creation violates the agreements on Albania's accession path

The Bektashi Order, making up about 10% of Albania's Muslims, reportedly will receive sovereignty similar to that of the Vatican, governing religious and administrative issues independently of Albania

Prime Minister Edi Rama says he wants to give members of the Bektashi, a Shiite Sufi order, their own Vatican-style enclave as a way of promoting religious tolerance.

The tiny Vatican-like enclave within Albania’s capital Tirana will serve as the political home for Bektashi Muslims – the fourth largest religious community in Albania after Sunni Muslims, Orthodox Ch

The Albanian government is planning to create a “sovereign state” for the Bektashi, a Sufi Muslim order, modeled after the Vatican, occupying several hectares in the capital city of Tirana.