Viktor Frans Tiranë

Viktor Frans Tiranë was the Minister-President of The Adriatic Republic for four terms, as well as a former mayor of Durrës, and was Minister of Foreign Affairs and secretary of the Treasury of Albania.

Early Life and Childhood
Viktor Frans Tiranë was born on the 7th of November 1975 to Johann, or Ioian Tiranë, an Austrian-Albanian politician, formerly the Albanian representative to Austria under Enver Hoxha, although he was staunchly in disagreement with Hoxha’s policy. His mother was Anna Aziz, an Egyptian immigrant to Albania during the war. Anna’s father was Muslim, however when Anna married Ioian Tiranë she converted to his religion, Catholicism.

Tiranë spent much of his younger years in the center of Tirana with the care of his loving parents and his older brother, Miakis. Eager to follow in the footsteps of his father, Tiranë was at a very young age interested in politics. Even in 5th grade he was recruited to his school’s high school debate team. Described then by Hoxha himself as “Eloquently spoken, but makes fiery points.” During the year that he was on the high school debate team as a 5th grader, their team won the national debate championship.

Although he was a Socialist even from a young age he was also against Hoxha’s authoritarian policies. When he was 15 years old he was arrested for “civil disobedience” while in a peaceful protest against Hoxha’s rule over Albania. He never got into such an incident again. Around that same age his father was given a mansion near Durrës in an eclectic 1700s style by Ramiz for his “great service for the betterment of the nation.” The family moved to the mansion, and Tiranë’s wife and kids still live there.

Even though the family had lived in Hoxha’s Albania, they were all devout Catholics, so come Tiranë’s 16th birthday the family made a pilgrimage to the Vatican. Being a notable experience for Tiranë, he heartily considered becoming a bishop or a priest after meeting the Pope, but he decided against it.

Studies Abroad and early political career
When he was 16 years old as well, the University of Cambridge had noticed his growing political notoriety and offered him a full scholarship to study international law there. Having skipped a grade, he accepted and went to Cambridge in 1992 when he was just 16 years old. Eventually earning a Masters in international law, he went back to the University of Tirana to get a Masters in Albanian law in graduate school.

After a brief stint of being a public defender in Turkey, he came back home to Albania in 1999 to once again immerse himself into the world of politics. He ran for mayor of Durrës in 2000 and won, making it his first major political win when he was just 25. He only stayed there one term, because in 2003 he was offered the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs. He accepted, and helped Albania’s relationship status with other nations, particularly the United States and United Kingdom flourish. He was given the Order of Skanderbeg and awarded the order of the British Empire for his deeds.

After this massively successful run as the Minister of Foreign Affairs he was appointed as the secretary of the Treasury, where he would prove his economic prowess as well. Making a series of long term investments in the people and slightly raising taxes, he caused an economic boom in the nation. However, one of his biggest fears was to become a “political elite,” out of touch with society and too blinded by greed to do the right thing. He worked his hardest to stay away and frown upon these people. He believed that the new president, Bair Topi was one of these “political elite” and made multiple statements against him. In September of 2008, he was fired from his position in the treasury. He then decided to take the next few years away from politics.

During this time he met his then-to-be wife, Marża Płodownica in Paris during vacation. They kept a long-distance relationship for a while with Viktor being in Tirana and Marza being in Olsztyn. In winter of 2009, Marza moved to live with Viktor, and they got married that summer. Later in 2015 they would have a son named Henry, and then a daughter in 2019 named Elizska.

During this time Tiranë also wrote a book, dubbed “The Dangers of Compliance,” documenting the horrors that went on in Hoxha’s Albania, and calling for justice and representation of the people. This book did quite well and was translated into 26 different languages, with the English version becoming a New York Times bestseller. Life was peaceful, but unimportant for Tiranë. Then, in 2020, everything changed.

The conception of the Adriatic Republic and the Revolution
Edi Rama was the centrist prime minister of Albania, and Tiranë was not pleased. Rama’s isolationist and discriminatory policies along with his corruptive political eliteness were “a disgrace to our own people and good nation,” said Tiranë. Many people, captivated by Tiranë’s honesty, morality, and oratory joined his cause and it grew. Protests were breaking out all over Albania with Tiranë acting as the movement’s de facto leader. Soon these protests became more demanding, and the government more angry, until this hotbed of racial and social tensions clashed in the main square of Durrës.

A small-level protest in the city of Durrës was met with police force. They were at a standstill and stayed in place until the police opened fire on the protesters. In the ensuing chaos the crowd dispersed, with 26 citizens dead and 13 injured. Later that day Tiranë declared an official revolution, citing this massacre as a justifiable cause.

Many of the Albanian military defected to join Tiranë’s forces. They also brought equipment from the military to Tiranë’s forces for a leg-up. Kosovo independence groups were in support of Tiranë, and so Kosovo decided to merge with Tiranë’s forces. Now having distinct areas they could attract from, Tiranë did not have to send in many troops as the people themselves led a successful rebellion, and along with Kosovan Aid, Tiranë was able to capitulate the Albanian government in just 23 days. At the end of the fighting Tiranë made arguably his most influential speech to date in the war torn ruins of Tirana, calling for a re-building of Albania and first uttering the phrase “the Adriatic Republic'' in his Independence day speech. When this Adriatic Republic was set up, including the former nations of Albania and Kosovo, an election came. Tiranë was elected Minister-President with an overwhelming majority of 83%.

Tiranë worked quickly to set up this new nation, writing a constitution, forming a parliament and choosing his Vice Minister President, Zledir Vëlo. He also had military goals. His eyes were set on Montenegro, whom Tiranë hated in many ways. He believed that the president of Montenegro was one of the Political elite that he hated so much, not only to add on to the fact that the military of Montenegro was sent to fight Tiranë’s revolutionary forces, so no less than a month after his election he began an invasion of Montenegro. A swift capture of the capital, Podgorica in less than 30 days was a sweeping military victory. Tiranë, closely following behind the advancing troops was met with a parade along with the Albanian troops when he came back home to Tirana. All the leaders in the world now recognized his Political, Economical, and Military prowess.

Wars in the Balkans
Serbia was causing trouble for the Adriatic Republic, due to the fact that they did not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign state so the Adriatic Republic could not invade Kosovo. However, Hungary at the same time was being attacked by Serbia, so Tiranë and the president of Hungary at the time, Duncan Turing met multiple times in Ghent, Belgium (the Ghent conferences), and decided to do a joint invasion of Serbia. However, Serbia wasn’t alone in this fight, as they had allied with Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia so a full on war was set to begin. The Adriatic Republic was to take care of and capitulate Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Hungary would do the same of Serbia and North Macedonia. On August 7th, 11:29 AM 2020, the first shot was fired. Staying mostly at a standstill in the first few days, Viktor made his move.

Blockading the Croatian coast with his superior navy he took smaller boats to land at areas in the coast and surround towns and cities from behind the coast. Quickly capitulating the coast he moved inward to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a series of fast-paced almost erratic movements. The capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, fell just 23 days after the beginning of the war. Then the troops focused on moving up north to Zagreb. Slovenia had also joined the fight against the Adriatic Republic, so due to the Adriatic Republic’s fast military success, Tiranë was put in charge of invading Slovenia.

Charging through the mostly rural northern area of Bosnia and Herzegovina he soon reached the Croatian heartland. With his troops taking the city of Split and Mostar in rapid succession,

Having also fought in the war against Portugal’s imperialism, they got a small territory around and including the city of Porto in Portugal.