FLASH
Shkruar nga Sarah Hooper
Thousands of people are taking to the streets as part of the Flamingo Revolution to protest not only against development, but also other frustrations...
Albania is in the midst of a 'Flamingo Revolution', sparked by Ivanka Trump's plans to turn a rural island into a luxury hotel.
Donald Trump's daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, are reportedly moving forward with plans to transform a Cold War-era military base into a luxury resort.
Sazani is the largest island of Albania and is a designated military exclusion zone, located in a strategically important location between the Strait of Otranto and the mouth of the Gulf of Vlora.
It is also the location of the last wild river delta in Europe, which is home to the critically endangered Balkan lynx, the Mediterranean monk seal and thousands of pink flamingos.
Kushner and Trump's proposed project, which is backed by Saudi Arabian investors, would cripple the already fragile ecosystem.
Activists have clashed with police in the country, hanging banners such as 'Albania is not for sale', 'Hands off Albanian land' and 'Sazani is not a private island, it belongs to the Albanian people'.
“ From start to finish, there has been a total lack of transparency ,” Aleksandër Trajçe, executive director of the country’s main conservation group, the Protection and Conservation of the Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA), told The Guardian.
" We haven't seen any public consultation or public documentation regarding the permits, and so now what we're saying is, if they take down the bulldozers, take down the fence and restore the habitats to what they were, then we can start talking ," he said.
It is also a moment of reckoning for the Albanian government, led by Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Rama told CNN: 'The challenge is not to pour concrete over the heads of flamingos. The challenge is to prove that development and nature can not only coexist, but that nature and development need each other .'
Thousands of people are taking to the streets as part of the Flamingo Revolution to protest not only against development, but also other frustrations with the Albanian government's approach to land access.
An investigation has been launched by Albania's anti-corruption office into how Kushner was able to purchase the land by bypassing the normal system of public tenders for contracts.
In Albania, the law states that the sea and sand are public property, but newly erected fences on the island have caused further anger.
A newly passed law in 2024 allows 'structures of excellence, five stars or more' to be built in environmentally protected areas.
Melitjan Nezaj, an environmental biologist at the Albanian organization Protection and Conservation of the Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA), told CNN: ' The project is quite destructive, as it is actually planned to be built within a protected area, within a protected landscape, which is actually one of the most intact wetlands in the Mediterranean .'
For now, Trump seems to be moving forward with the project. Ivanka said on a recent podcast: ' You can't impose yourself on a country or a culture, you have to understand it first to do it in a beautiful, subtle and meaningful way .' / Adapted from " Metro "
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