FLASH
Shkruar nga Michael Rubin
While SPAK cracked down on anyone who asked Rama tough questions, Rama deepened his involvement in real estate projects and apparent money laundering schemes with drug cartels...
There is an unfortunate tendency among American analysts and journalists to assume that everything revolves around US policy. Albania is just the latest case in point. In late May, protests erupted in Zvërnec against plans by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to develop a multi-billion dollar housing project in an environmentally sensitive area.
Yet Kushner was just one of many sparks that ignited the protests. Another was Alex Soros, who has been reaching out to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to secure approval for similar development projects. Another reason is Rama’s persecution of Albania’s Greek minority, which lives on the Albanian Riviera. On May 12, 2023, for example, Rama’s police arrested Fredi Beleri, a Greek-born candidate for mayor of Himara. The charge? He had improperly spent about $100 during his campaign. Albanians understood the farce — Rama wanted his people to win in order to complete his real estate deals. In this context, Kushner’s project was a symptom, not a cause.
Albania may have slipped out of the Western media spotlight, but the protests have continued to gather momentum. Recent visitors to Albania say the atmosphere is tense, with patience for Rama’s vested interests reaching a boiling point. Today, Albanians talk not about Kushner or even the United States, but about the “Flamingo Revolution,” their version of the color revolutions that liberated many Eastern European countries from dictatorship.
Of course, Albania is not a communist country and, if you ask the US State Department, it is a thriving democracy. But that is not what Albanians say. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, Albanians embraced democracy with enthusiasm. Albania became the most pro-American country in Europe, if not the whole world.
Then the US State Department and USAID got involved. They helped create the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK). To understand what happened next, imagine if Chicago mobster Al Capone had taken control of the FBI before it had a chance to destroy him and the Chicago mafia in the 1930s. Rama, the leader of the Socialist Party, hijacked SPAK and used it to crack down on anyone who threatened his power: former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, former Deputy Prime Minister Arben Ahmetaj, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, and many others.
There was never any talk of clean governance. While SPAK cracked down on anyone who asked Rama tough questions, Rama deepened his involvement in real estate projects and apparent money-laundering schemes with drug cartels. The mechanism was his decision to legalize cannabis cultivation. As marijuana plantations began to flourish, so did cocaine trafficking from Latin America and West Africa, as well as opium trafficking from Afghanistan and Turkey. The Italian coast guard regularly intercepts cocaine shipments entering Albania; ironically, Rama’s coast guard does not.
Meanwhile, Rama has openly followed the path of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was no coincidence. A former Rama aide who was present at the meeting between the two leaders said that Erdogan gave Rama a crash course in how to destroy a democratic system by cracking down on opponents and cultivating relationships with American diplomats. Erdogan consolidated power by taking control of the tax audit authority, the Turkish equivalent of SPAK. He made former American diplomats and attachés business partners or gave them donations to support their new roles at think tanks. Rama appears to be doing the same. Like Erdogan, Rama hands out favors in the form of concessions and real estate development projects.
Trump's critics describe him as the opposite of King Midas, where everything he touches turns to lead. (King Midas is a mythological character known for his magical ability to turn anything into gold.)
In foreign policy, however, their Trump-obsession syndrome can be just as destructive. In the case of Albania, the desire to blame everything on Kushner blinds politicians to deeper problems, which include the misuse of American resources, the rise of organized crime and drug trafficking under Rama's regime, as well as questions about the responsibility of several former American ambassadors who fully supported Rama. /Adapted from "Washington Examiner"
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