Albania NATO Row: Recently, thousands of people in Moldova took to the streets to protest against the incompetency and recurring blunders of their government which operated on the authoritarian orders of the US and Europe. It was one of the biggest protests in Europe during the Russia-Ukraine war in which the public voiced their dissent in huge numbers over their government’s decision to stand with Ukraine in the war.
But it seems what happened in Moldova is happening in Albania. For a long time, the Albanian people have been neglected by their government. They say that their perspective was never taken into account while forging the path forward. Therefore, just like Moldovans, Albanians too have taken to the streets in a strong show of protest against their deaf government which has apparently forgotten the foremost norm of governance i.e. listening to the whims and wishes of the public.
In an effort to disrupt the parliamentary session, the opposition and its allies staged the third anti-government demonstration in a week outside of parliament in Tirana.
Outside the parliament, hundreds of people gathered, including a man on a horse dressed in traditional attire. Several protesters also launched smoke bombs at the building’s security personnel.
“I travelled from Kurbini on a horse since I lacked the funds to travel by automobile, which would have cost between 3,000 and 4,000 lek”, a 60-year-old man riding a horse said. He further added, “I got ready at four in the morning, mounted my horse, and came right here”.
The protests are being organised by the left-leaning Freedom Party of former president Ilir Meta and the centre-right Democratic Party of former president and prime minister Sali Berisha.
The opposition claims that the government is responsible for the large-scale exodus of young people from the country—700,000 in a decade—because of corruption laws that were subsidised to shield them from the price increases ravaging Europe, even though inflation is still among the lowest in the region.
Protesters also charge Albanian PM Edi Rama of being involved in the Charles McGonigal incident, in which a former FBI agent is charged in the US with concealing details about a 2017 trip to Albania during which it is said he was paid about $225,000 from a local intelligence official.
McGonigal reportedly met with Rama to discuss and forewarn against issuing oil drilling permits to Russian front companies, according to AP.
Although Rama claims to have met McGonigal, he rejected all claims of corruption and referred to the opposition’s claims as “a total abuse of freedom of speech, of the truth, of the public.”
All this is raising various questions.
Here are they:
Why do Albanians want to escape from the clutches of the West?
What’s caused the huge civilian unrest in Albania?
Albania is a staunch ally of the West, and a member of NATO. Albania has been used by the US as a proxy in its geopolitical endeavours. Washington has turned the nation into a launchpad for its malicious strategies against its arch-nemesis, Russia. Moreover, Albania is the potential site of a NATO naval station as well as an airfield for the alliance.
Also, the US intends to use a new agreement to turn Albania into the gas hub of the Balkans. In view of the present global energy crisis, the government is also considering expanding interconnectors. The American company, Excelerate Energy Inc, plans to use Albania as a way of transporting natural gas and natural gas products to the rest of the region.
Read more: Lukashenko has a solution for the Ukrainian stalemate
The US company will also provide floating power plants to Albania, allowing it to increase production, exports, and revenue. Moreover, the company is working with Exxon Mobil Corp. to construct an LNG-to-power facility in the Albanian city of Vlora.
However, unlike the government of Albania, the Albanians clearly understand the nefarious intentions of the West. They are well aware of the strategy behind these military and industrial investments made by Washington. They have witnessed how leaders have often abandoned their political sovereignty by having partnerships with the US and Europe. They are trying to wake their government up to the harsh reality i.e. having a relationship with the West is not in the best interest of the country.
That is because despite being a member of NATO, the citizens of Albania are not treated fairly and equally by other European countries. In fact, in order to enter the Schengen Area of Europe, Albanian nationals are required to complete a brief online application known as ETIAS starting in November this year. ETIAS is the European Travel Information and Authorization System.
Although Albanian people do not require a visa to travel to any of the 27 nations which make up the Schengen Zone in Europe, they are not permitted to work with the ETIAS authorization.
However, in 2019, around 23,400 Albanian nationals were turned down for entry into the Schengen Zone. As per the data of Eurostat, around half of the rejections of Albanian travellers were made at the border with Greece. The other countries with the highest rate of rejected Albanians were Croatia, with 2.670 rejections, the UK with 1,455 rejections and France with 1,450.
In fact, the Dutch government even called on the European Commission to suspend the visa-free regime for Albania. It accused Albanian people of running criminal networks in the Netherlands and illegal migration.
Similarly, the Albanian people were subjected to deportation and travel bans by Britain. In December last year, prime minister Rishi Sunak stated that he would enact a new law which will avert the entry of Albanian migrants into the UK. The number of migrants arriving in England from Albania more than doubled in the last two years.
Sunak further noted that he will put UK border officials in Albania for this purpose. Britain’s government exhibited an unprecedented level of the urge to drive out the Albanian migrants from the country. As a matter of fact, the UK’s interior minister, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, even went to the extent of labelling the arrivals of Albanians as an “invasion” and accused them of being criminals. This incited an agitated response from prime minister Edi Rama.
Read more: European countries decline to aid an incapable Ukraine
But in Albania, migrants from various European countries are not subjected to deportation and travel bans by Tirana. Therefore, the public of Albania has woken up to reality, it is now forging ahead on its own path. It is witnessing that Tirana is being destroyed by the unreasonable whims and wishes of the US and European Union. The Albanian people saw what happened with Georgia and Ukraine, and how their sovereignty got destroyed owing to its decision to follow the treacherous command of NATO. The Albanians have clearly witnessed the fate of Ukraine, i.e, how the systematic falsehoods and well-coordinated manipulation pushed Kyiv into a never-ending atrocious battle with Russia.
Located in Southeastern Europe, Albania is still not a part of the Schengen Zone or the European Union, but if you have a valid Schengen visa you can enter Albania visa-free for 90 days. Sounds discriminatory right?
And now, Albanians find their own country being the target of the West which is using it as a political and diplomatic weapon in its unsuccessful quest to damage the economic, military and political interests of Russia.
Albanians have realised that being within the European Union is equivalent to embracing a painful death. They don’t see any favourable consequences of being with Brussels. On the contrary, they are brutalised, discriminated against and vilified. Despite Tirana complying with the draconian orders of the West, the Albanian people are treated unfairly.
Seeing that the voices of the masses in Moldova managed to force the former pro-Western government to resign, the Albanian people have resolved to do the same. They are not going to endure injustice and unfairness anymore and therefore they are calling on their government to sever all diplomatic, political and economic ties with the West. The Albanians are trying to wake their government from a deep slumber before the eventual demise of Tirana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
