Around 3,000 Albanians turned out Saturday to pay their respects to the late self-proclaimed king Zog I, whose remains were reburied with state honours after they were returned from France where he died in exile in 1961. "King Zog is an illustrious figure who laid the foundations of the Albanian state," Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha as the coffin - draped with the Albanian flag - lay in state in the former royal palace.
The king, whose remains were returned to Albania on Friday, was later interred in a newly built mausoleum for the royal family. Zog ruled Albania from 1925 to 1939. He started out as president but in 1928 proclaimed a constitutional monarchy and was crowned king. He fled in 1939 after Italian dictator Benito Mussolini invaded Albania with an eye on the country's strategic Adriatic ports.
Zog died in exile in France aged 66 and was buried in the Thiais cemetery in the southern Paris suburbs. His son Leka and other members of the royal family returned to Albania in 2002. The repatriation and reburial was organised by Albania's conservative government as part of ceremonies to celebrate Albania's 100 years of independence from the Ottoman Empire.
But the socialist opposition did not take part saying it was being used by the government for political gain. Albanian historians are divided over Zog's role, who remains a controversial figure here. "Zog established a clannish, weak state, a hybrid state that while working on its modernisation could have never detach itself from its feudal traditions," historian Pellumb Xhufi told AFP. Albania is currently a republic with a parliamentary democracy.
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