Albanian Lictor Youth

Albanian Lictor Youth Djelmnia e Liktorit Shqiptar
Leader	Giovanni Giro
Founded	2 June 1939
Headquarters	Tirana, Albania
Ideology	Fascism
Mother party	Albanian Fascist Party

Albanian Lictor Youth (Albanian: Djelmnia e Liktorit Shqiptar, Italian: Gioventù del Littorio Albanese, abbreviated G.L.A.) was a youth organization which served as the youth wing of the Albanian Fascist Party.^[1] The Albanian Lictor Youth was one of the associated organizations of the Albanian Fascist Party, as stipulated in its statute, which was formulated in a decree of the Italian vicegerent issued on 2 June 1939.^[2]

Giovanni Giro, an Italian fascist official, had been sent to Albania to organize a fascist youth movement there prior to the Italian annexation of the country.^[3] However, these efforts had been largely unsuccessful.^[4] On the contrary, his activities created various diplomatic incidents.^[1]

Following the Italian invasion of Albania in April 1939, Achille Starace, a leading fascist organizer, was sent to Albania to set up the Albanian Fascist Party and the Albanian Fascist Youth.^[5] ENGA, an Albanian youth organization modelled after the Italian Opera Nazionale Balilla organization merged into GLA. After the founding of the GLA, Giro remained the main organizer of the movement.^[6] The GLA was modelled after the Italian Youth of the Lictor, and was politically under the command of its Italian counterpart.^[7] The uniforms of GLA were similar to those used in Italy.^[8] Girls were organized in Female Youth of the Lictor (Gioventù Femminile del Littorio) and boys under fourteen years of age were organized in Balilla groups.^[9] Parallel to the Youth of the Lictor there were also groups of university fascists, but these groups were rather marginal as Albania had few universities.^[1]

The Italian authorities built a marble palace for the GLA in Tirana, in the same complex as the Casa del Fascio, one of a series of lavish façades that popped up in the city during Italian rule.^[10][11]

The organization's press organ was Liktori (Lictor) newspaper, with Ligor Buzi as editor.^[12]

Ramiz Alia, who served as head of state of Albania in 1985-1992, had been a member of the fascist youth movement, but later left it and in 1943 he joined the Communist resistance movement.^{[citation needed]}