VIDEO REPORT | Tirana with modern buildings covers the "monuments" of tyranny

The pyramid from the time of Enver Hoxha has been turned into a modern youth center/Photo: Sloboden pechat/Marina Damčeska

Albania, together with Macedonia, fought for the status of a candidate country for membership in the European Union, but their paths recently parted and the neighboring country continues the European integration process by opening the negotiation process with Brussels, while Macedonia is first expected to adopt the constitutional amendments .

At exactly 18 p.m., the bell rings from the grandiose Orthodox Church of the Resurrection of Christ and calls the Orthodox believers to the liturgy. In Albania, the Orthodox community is the third largest. At 18:30 p.m., the chimney sweep of Etem-bey Mosque, located on Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, calls the Muslim faithful to evening prayer. Half of the population in Albania are Muslims, members of Sunni Islam, but there is also a large Bektesh and Dervish community.

Somewhere in the streets that lead to the strict center of Tirana is the imposing Catholic Church "St. Paul", in the yard of which there is also a monument to Mother Teresa, because Albanians are proud of their compatriot and her holy humanitarian mission from Skopje to Calcutta which is why ten years ago the Holy See declared her a saint.

Albania has decided that it must travel to Europe at any cost. With the most expensive tickets, without a seat, in the dirty and suffocating compartment and with bitter disappointment that it blows strongly from the window. Despite all the risks, he caught this very train to Brussels, leaving Macedonia on the platform to wait for the next similar train, because the European trains of the ultra-modern European railway do not seem to be suitable for our track.

More than 30 percent of the Albanian population lives in the capital of Albania. Religious rights and freedoms have been practiced for the past 30 years since the fall of the regime of dictator Enver Hoxha and the Labor Party. They were strictly banned and punished for 45 years, until the fall of the Stalinist-Communist regime in 1992.

Enver Hoxha's bunkers become museums

Today, cranes hang over every building in Tirana, including religious buildings. It is rapidly built, edited and changed daily. The remnants of the dictatorship and four decades of isolation are now an attraction that captivates many tourists in Tirana. The characteristic bunkers have now been converted into modern museums, paying tribute to the thousands of victims of Enver Hoxha's regime. The former Forbidden City, which housed the residences of Hoxha's close associates and the policemen who terrorized the citizens, ironically, is now a neighborhood with noisy, beautifully decorated bars, where young people and tourists have fun.

A bunker from the time of Enver Hoxha is now a multimedia museum dedicated to the victims of the regime/Photo: Sloboden Pechat/Marina Damceska

Albania, together with Macedonia, fought for the status of a candidate country for membership in the European Union, but their paths recently parted and the neighboring country continues the European integration process by opening the negotiation process with Brussels, while Macedonia is first expected to adopt the constitutional amendments .

- On the one hand, citizens feel prepared. They may be ready to join the EU, but I don't know how much the government is either, because we are lagging behind on many fronts, including much-needed reforms. Some problems are coming to light, such as money laundering, organized crime and other aspects that are very worrying, especially from the aspect of the European integration of Albania - says fellow journalist and producer Ervin Qafmola, who has been living and working in Pristina for the last three years. , in A2 CNN.

I ask him - what will the separation of Albania from Macedonia mean in the accession negotiations with the Union and whether it will make Albania's accession path more difficult.

- It is a debatable issue, because the fact that we are on the same boat with Macedonia, on the one hand, has its own difficulties, because if one country fails for some reason, the other will suffer. But on the other hand, there is some kind of unity and the common interest is much greater. It has its obstacles, but also its advantages, and they are clear. Now, when the roads are separated and when Albania is having difficulties with achievements, especially as concerns are growing in the areas I mentioned, especially with crime and other related issues, I think in some ways it will be much more difficult for us - he says.

The opening of Albania's negotiation process with the EU, however, does not mean that the country will not face new blockades during the negotiations, such as the last one by Greece, which also stopped their progress towards the EU.

– There will always be obstacles. It is true that tensions have been renewed at the diplomatic level with Greece, especially regarding the elections in the city of Himara, in the south of Albania, but I think that the main obstacles facing Albania are from ourselves. The problems we have now are because of us and nobody's fault. We don't need Greece or Bulgaria or anyone else to put obstacles on our way to Europe, we are doing "good" or "bad" work for ourselves - says Qafmola.

Edi Rama's Mission

The charming Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama faces a really big challenge - managing the negotiation process with the Union, but my interlocutor is not very convinced that he will succeed in his mission to ensure full membership of Albania in the EU, and it is not even known when, because the country is flourishing crime, corruption and money laundering with "amen to the government", as Qafmola says, and the efforts to deal with them are only declarative.

Rama is an experienced, pro-European politician, long present on the political scene of Albania. The artist and professor at the Academy of Arts, before becoming prime minister, was the mayor of Tirana, minister of culture and minister of foreign affairs, and also translated the Socialist Party of Albania.

- Rama takes actions as part of his charm and compromises, but when we talk about internal compromises, Albania de facto becomes a big machine for money laundering and that's why we have, for example, the collapse of the euro against the drug, our national currency. That's strange for a country that doesn't have a lot of manufacturing. All of a sudden we have a super strong drug and the euro keeps falling because we have huge amounts of euros floating around the country and no one can say for sure where they're coming from. Even our economists, our financial experts, even the most independent ones cannot find any reason other than money laundering - says Qafmola.

Kitsch is also inevitable. Next to the Skanderbeg monument in the center, a ferris wheel spins and a carousel shines. In addition to the historical museum with the characteristic and recognizable mural that records the historical past of the Albanian people, turbo-folk music from all over the region echoes and entices visitors to record an interesting tiktok video of their visit to Tirana.

Historical Museum in Tirana/Photo: Free Press/Marina Damceska

The citizens of Tirana do not influence the "urban" solutions

In daylight, Tirana looks decent, modern, clean. A huge construction site, a combination of the Italian legacy in the form of large, functional buildings built during the occupation, which are now colleges and state institutions, and huge skyscrapers in all colors and luxury hotels mushrooming around the city in an attempt to give a modern opulence, artistic creativity, colorfulness, but also strict business of the landscape of the capital. The new face of Tirana and the colorful covering of Soviet-era buildings, as well as the repurposing of buildings built during the time of Enver Hoxha, are mainly the product of the concept established by Rama during his three terms as mayor of Tirana, with the help of prominent Albanian artists. worldwide.

The central city area of ​​Tirana is under construction, a crane above the Etem Bay Mosque/Photo: Sloboden Pechat/Marina Damceska

The characteristic bunkers, reminders of the country's dark past, the lack of freedom and terror faced by the Albanian people and minority communities, are located in beautiful green oases. But under the pressure of the pace of construction, they are slowly disappearing at the expense of the buildings that are the fruit of the urban mafia. Investors are often kept silent as long as money is invested in new contents from which the city and the state will have some economic benefit.

– I think that the legacy of Tirana is largely under attack for the worse. Also, citizens and other bodies were not consulted about some of the constructions. There may have been "kangaroo" consultations and not real ones. The fact is that most of the buildings are concentrated in the strict center of the city and, basically, they close the sky and the view, overhanging the real, traditional landmarks of the city. Our Prime Minister announced that there will be at least 20 more such tall towers that will adorn the landscape of Tirana, and that is problematic. We know very little about the choice of their appearance, about their impact on the community, on traffic, on the possibility of free circulation around the city. The citizens of Tirana do not have much of a choice about it - says my interlocutor.

Dear reader,

Our access to web content is free, because we believe in equality in information, regardless of whether someone can pay or not. Therefore, in order to continue our work, we ask for the support of our community of readers by financially supporting the Free Press. Become a member of Sloboden Pechat to help the facilities that will enable us to deliver long-term and quality information and TOGETHER let's ensure a free and independent voice that will ALWAYS BE ON THE PEOPLE'S SIDE.

SUPPORT A FREE PRESS.
WITH AN INITIAL AMOUNT OF 100 DENARS

Video of the day