Latest news with #EnverHoxha
Bloomberg
29-05-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
Now with Colorful Blocks, Tirana's Pyramid Represents a Changing Albania
CityLab Design A monument to Albania's former dictator, remade as a tourist-friendly community center, points to the western design influences reshaping the capital city. The top of the Piramida, as residents of Tirana call it, is a great place to see the skyline of Albania's capital. The soaring, communist-era ode to longtime dictator Enver Hoxha, who ruled the country for more than 40 years after World War II, offers clear views across downtown. From there, you can see the boxy silhouettes of the modernist apartment blocks built under his rule. Today those apartment buildings are overshadowed by stylized high-rises — and the monument itself has a new sheen, too.
Irish Times
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Is a happy ending in sight in the Albania-EU tale of unrequited love?
A young graphic art student, Jorgis Xha, works in a bunker in Tirana . The former bomb shelter was built in the basement floor of a block of apartments, but has since been turned into a bar popular with tourists. 'It used to be an actual bunker. It was built when the building was made ... That's what the dictator most feared; he feared the country would be bombed,' says Xha. The dictator in question is Enver Hoxha, the communist leader who ruled Albania from the mid-1940s until his death in 1985. Initially allied to the Soviet Union before cutting those ties, Hoxha turned the small Balkan state into one of the world's most closed-off societies. His paranoia about an invasion saw the construction of tens of thousands of bunkers across the country. READ MORE The vast majority of the Cold War-era shelters have since been destroyed. The few that remain have been turned into bars, restaurants or museums telling the story of repression under the Hoxha regime, as the modern day state has pivoted to tourism. A statue of Enver Hoxha in Skanderbeg Square, the main plaza of Tirana, Albania's capital. Photograph: John van Hasselt/Sygma/Getty Albania has been doing everything it can to open itself up to the rest of Europe and the wider world, with some success. The number of visitors in a given year has more than tripled, up from 3.6 million in 2014 to 11.7 million last year, according to figures from the department of tourism. The Adriatic coast destination has emerged as a cheaper alternative to popular spots such as Greece and Croatia. Edi Rama, Albania's colourful prime minister known for his dark humour, has invested a lot of effort into steering the country towards the fold of the European Union. This week he was re-elected for a record fourth term. The Socialist Party leader decisively beat an opposition coalition fronted by the 80-year-old conservative politician Sali Berisha. Post-communist states aren't known for liking their elected leaders to stay in office too long, but Rama has bucked that trend. Albanian prime minister Edi Rama prepares to cast his ballot at a polling station in Tirana on Sunday He campaigned as the man who can shepherd Albania into the EU, in part – independent election observers say – by using the resources of the state to tip the scales in his favour. Gjergji Vurmo, an expert on Balkans policy, says Rama's widely predicted victory was down to the weak alternative put forward by the main opposition, the Democratic Party. Its leader, Berisha, was elected president in 1992, and was prime minister from 2005 to 2013. More recently he has been dogged by corruption allegations. On the campaign trail he tried to mirror the rhetoric and playbook used by US president Donald Trump to unseat Rama, but the message fell flat. People did not turn out to vote for someone they believed 'should have left the scene years ago,' says Vurmo. 'These elections were not won by Rama because the elections were stolen, but because the opposition failed to inspire.' However, pro-democracy campaigners say the prime minister has overseen a capture of the levers of state power by his party. There were allegations during the election of public sector employees feeling pressure to vote for the governing party. The result means the Socialist Party will be able to rule 'unbothered' for a further four years, says Daniel Prroni, a researcher at the Tirana-based Institute for Democracy and Mediation. 'What lies behind the facade in Albania is massive corruption, attacks on the media, attacks on the judiciary and inefficient and ineffective public administration, and organised crime,' he told a panel talk organised by the European Policy Centre think tank. Rama, a former artist, has worked hard to cultivate Albania's image as a modern state that will soon be ready to enter the EU. However, many say corruption is still endemic in the country, from petty bribes paid to grease the wheels of its public services, to high-level cases involving senior political figures. Earlier this year the mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, was arrested on corruption charges, which he contests. A relatively new anti-corruption agency, Spak, is so far seen as being genuinely independent and not afraid to go after politically sensitive cases. 'The EU has started to look at Albania more favourably in recent years,' says Andi Hoxhaj, a law lecturer at King's College London who specialises in Albanian politics. Corruption 'was seen as a major issue in the judiciary but also other areas of public administration,' he says. That has started to change, he adds. There is a sense Albanian officials are serious about internal reforms that need to be undertaken. The government has turned to artificial intelligence to translate thousands of pages of EU laws, known as the 'acquis', into Albanian, so its national legislation can be aligned. It does not carry the same baggage as some of its neighbours from the break-up of Yugoslavia. The scars from the vicious ethnic conflicts that followed are still very much felt in other parts of the western Balkans. The journeys of Serbia and Kosovo towards EU membership remain blocked because of the deterioration in their relations. North Macedonia is way back in the EU queue due to separate disputes with Bulgaria and Greece, who as member states can veto any step forward. 'The EU is in bad need of a success story,' says Hoxhaj. Montenegro and Albania are seen as front-runners; both could realistically be ready to join by the end of the decade if all 27 member states agree to let them in. Rama has also positioned himself as someone European leaders can do business with, particularly when it comes to migration. Civil rights activists protest after the first group migrants intercepted in Italian waters arrived at Shengjin port in Albania last October. Edi Rama signed a deal with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni allowing facilities to be set up in Albania where Italy could detain asylum seekers while their claims are processed. Photograph: Adnan Beci/AFP He signed a controversial deal with Italy's hard right prime minister Giorgia Meloni, allowing facilities to be set up in Albania, where Italy could detain several thousand asylum seekers rescued at sea while their claims were processed. The Albanian leader is 'willing to consider whatever will bring him international points,' Prroni, of the Institute for Democracy and Mediation, says. 'It seems his motto is always to build alliances rather than create tensions. The thing that we fail to scrutinise sometimes is under what conditions these alliances are built.' The prime minister's political legacy is now tied to his country's bid for EU accession. Several blue European flags were dotted among the red Albanian ones at an election victory rally on Skanderbeg Square in the centre of Tirana. Xha, the young student working in the bunker-turned-bar, says young people find it difficult to care about politics, or the prospect of joining the EU. 'I would say people here mostly view money as the most important thing, not passion or your dreams ... The quickest way to make a lot of money, that's what people care about here.' Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Rama described his country's journey to join the EU as a 'love story' that for too long had been unrequited. Albania had been 'serenading' the EU from outside, but for years the union had kept its bedroom window shut, he said. 'Now the window is open ... As lovers, we will need to climb up.'
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Poisoned legacy of Albania's steel city
Once the pride of Albania's communist regime, the giant Elbasan metals complex is now one of the most polluted sites in the Balkans, burdened with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste, much of it hazardous. Built in the 1970s with Chinese help, the vast "Steel of the Party" site once employed 10,000 workers in 500 factories during Enver Hoxha's dictatorship. Now only a tenth of that number work in the privatised plants that have survived, with everything that could be sold stripped from the ruins of the rest. Despite the risks and the stench, anyone can enter large swathes of the site and many earn a living scavenging the piles of hazardous waste in search of metals to resell. "This is an area where 1.5 to two million tonnes of hazardous waste have been stored for over 35 years, polluting the water, air and soil," Beqir Kila, a prominent Albanian environmental activist and engineer, told AFP. Analyses carried out by various independent expert groups showed lead, nickel and chromium levels at least three times higher than European limits, he said. The Albania's environmental agency said the complex, only five kilometres (three miles) from the town of Elbasan, tops the list of "high-risk sites with a high potential for pollution from heavy metal waste such as ferronickel and ferrochrome, a legacy that continues to pollute the waters of the Shkumbin River" in a report in January. However, the authorities are not proposing any solutions, environmentalists warn. "Stored in the open air, at the mercy of atmospheric conditions, this waste undergoes changes and all the dangerous and toxic elements it contains seep into the soil and water," warned Kila showing his hands covered in black dust. For years, the area in Albania's fertile central valley has been haunted by reports of high rates of cancers and birth defects. "Lead emissions have caused brain failure, especially in children, but also genetic problems in cattle and poultry," Kila said. - 'Catastrophic pollution' - The steel plants have long insisted that they are following the rules, but neither they nor the Albanian government responded to AFP requests for comment. "We consider the pollution in the industrial zone of the former Elbasan steel complex to be catastrophic," said environmental expert Ahmet Mehmeti. Apart from problems from the old, ruined factories, many of which are in danger of collapse, there is also pollution from the new factories, he warned. Official figures on air pollution around Elbasan do not exist and air quality assessment is done by the factories themselves. The "hide-and-seek game with the authorities suits the companies perfectly", Mehmeti said, as they are interested in cost-cutting rather than in pollution levels. An AFP team witnessed a chimney spewing out black smoke at the site. But when a cameraman with a drone arrived, the smoke suddenly stopped. "The waste contains chromium, nickel, zinc... the emissions pass into the water, flowing into the nearby river, which is used to irrigate the soil and ends up with fruit and vegetables on our plate," Mehmeti said. Albania exports hazardous and non-hazardous waste that is not left on site since it is unable to treat it itself. Last July, a total of 102 containers filled with waste left Albania for Thailand, where they were to be recycled. But after a whistleblower reported that the waste was suspected of being toxic and had not been registered as such, it was turned back, and has been in Albania since November. "Albania has a law on the export of hazardous and non-hazardous waste, but the problem lies in the lack of control over procedures and documents," said environmental activist Lavdosh Ferruni. The public prosecutor's office in the port of Durres has opened an investigation with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) into the case. Meanwhile, the suspected toxic waste remains in Albania. bme/cbo/ljv/fg
BBC News
11-03-2025
- BBC News
Uncovering Albania's communist past
Forty years after the death of dictator Enver Hoxha, whose four-decade rule over Albania drove it into isolation and poverty, Qasa Alom explores how the country has changed. In the capital Tirana he learns how a monument to the late dictator has been repurposed and redesigned for a new generation. This video is from The Travel Show, the BBC's flagship travel programme.
The Independent
18-02-2025
- The Independent
These are the most beautiful destinations to visit in 2025
'Hell is other people' – so wrote Jean-Paul Sartre, who might have been less of a misanthrope had he spent less time in Paris, Europe 's most densely populated capital city, and headed instead for his country's quieter reaches; the tidal interzone of the Camargue, perhaps, or the salt pans of Occitania. Today, overtourism has become a problem in corners of the world where humans had barely set foot a century or two ago, let alone France; Antarctica 's filling up with cruise ships, and there are traffic jams on the summit of Everest. This isn't just terrible for the environment, but it's a surefire way to ruin a good holiday, so here are a few suggestions of lesser-visited destinations across the world which are just as captivating as their more popular counterparts. Soaring mountains, glorious beaches and a jewel box of islands glittering in the Ionian Sea – Greece is lovely in the spring, but its Balkan neighbour, Albania, promises all these treasures and more, with far fewer visitors and a greater diversity of natural landscapes packed into a smaller land area. Theth National Park in the north of the country is home to brilliant hiking and startling sights like the Blue Eye, an azure spring gathered in a deep hole in the limestone landscape. Nearby, the fantastically named Accursed Mountains form the Albanian stretch of the Dinaric Alps. This place of fearsome, jagged peaks, enclosing green glacial valleys alive with wildflowers in the spring, is surely worth visiting before word gets out and it becomes one of Europe's hottest hiking destinations. Elsewhere, the vibrant capital, Tirana, has the feel of a place making up for lost time. The city's diverse architecture reflects its cultural variety, its movement through fascist and communist dictatorships, and its subsequent opening up to the wider world since the 1990s. Eye-catching buildings include the Pyramid of Tirana, built as a museum to dictator Enver Hoxha; the monumental Namazgah Mosque, the largest in the Balkans; and the House of Leaves, an espionage museum housed in a former Gestapo and communist secret police surveillance centre. Where Tirana really comes to life, though, is its contemporary cultural scene. Modern art museum Bunk'Art is a vibrant symbol of reinvention housed in a converted Cold War bunker, while upmarket Blloku – once out of bounds to everyone but the communist elite – has been reborn as a buzzing district of restaurants and trendy bars. Oman Understated, tasteful and home to exquisitely beautiful desert, coast and mountain scenery, it's something of a mystery why Oman continues to fly under the radar of tourists visiting the Middle East. While the gauche Gulf hotspots of Dubai and Abu Dhabi draw travellers like moths to a flame with their glitzy shopping malls and outsized construction projects, traditional Oman has taken a different approach. Skyscrapers are banned and new buildings follow a lovely neo-Islamic style – all clean lines, crenelations and three-pointed arches – prime examples being the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque and Royal Opera House, both highlights of the low-key capital, Muscat. Linger in Muscat to admire the architecture and experience the pleasingly ramshackle old harbour and gold souk of Muttrah, before escaping for the countryside. The green mountains of Jebel Akhdar spill over with pink Damask rose blossoms in the spring, while the rocky landscapes of Jebel Shams are home to Wadi Ghul, the 'Grand Canyon of Arabia', where Egyptian vultures soar above abandoned mudbrick villages and glittering date plantations. Most remarkable of all is the Musandam Peninsula, an exclave of Oman separated from the rest of the country by 100km of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Here, fjord-like inlets called khors ripple the rocky coastline, making for truly stunning boat trips onboard a traditional wooden dhow. Bali, Indonesia's Island of the Gods, has been desecrated by overtourism to such an extent that the Indonesian government announced a moratorium on new hotels in parts of the island last September. Unsurprisingly for a nation of 17,000 islands, Indonesia offers plenty of alternatives and none are more fascinating than Sulawesi, whose southern capital, Makassar, is a 90-minute flight from Bali. The eleventh-largest island in the world, Sulawesi is home to thousands of miles of coastline which include postcard-perfect beaches to rival their Balinese counterparts, all with a fraction of the visitors. Tanjung Bira beach in South Sulawesi is an almost laughably perfect tropical idyll – bone-white sand, swaying palms, you know the brief – while North Sulawesi offers some of Indonesia's best diving at Bunaken, a marine wonderland of technicolour coral gardens, colourful nudibranchs and some 2,000 species of fish. Partly due to its extremely mountainous topography, Sulawesi resembles a cultural patchwork, with the heavy colonial influence evident on the coast – Makassar's Dutch-built Fort Rotterdam and City Hall, for instance – giving way to distinctive ethnic groups in the mountainous interior. The highlands of Tana Toraja, for instance, are home to the Torajan people, whose culture reflects a fascinating mixture of colonial Catholicism and indigenous animist religion. The Toraja are famed for their elaborate death rituals, with their funerals resembling multi-day festivals: hundreds of pigs and buffalo are sacrificed (and barbecued), palm wine flows freely and the air is fragrant with the perfume of a thousand crackling clove cigarettes. It's a great honour in Torajan society to have as many attendees at your funeral as possible, so tourists are welcome to join any of the funerary parties which happen to be taking place nearby. Admission is free, barring a small gift for the bereaved family – a bottle of palm wine, or a brick of cigarettes – and you'll have to pay a guide in the Torajan capital of Rantepao to take you there. You'll likely spot the Torajans' impressive rock-cut tombs and the giant wooden effigies of the dead, known as tau-tau, which stand guard over them, gazing over the spectacular Torajan landscape of rice paddies, karst mountains and plodding water buffalo. Zimbabwe An African safari occupies pole position on many a traveller's bucket list, but some of the continent's biggest tourist draws, such as Kenya 's Masai Mara and Tanzania 's Serengeti, are beginning to suffer the effects of overtourism. For a quieter alternative, consider Zimbabwe, which offers fantastic wildlife-spotting opportunities with less of the overcrowding problems of the continent's busier nature reserves. Hwange National Park in the country's northwest is the largest nature reserve in Zimbabwe and one of the biggest in Africa, at 14,600 sq km. It's teeming with wildlife, including the Big Five so sought after by safari-goers – lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and buffalo. There's also the small matter of the Victoria Falls, less than two hours' drive to the north. While not exactly a hidden gem – it's one of the largest waterfalls in the world – this magnificent cascade is a must-visit while in the area, and the Zimbabwean side has significantly more viewpoints than across the border in Zambia. Most Zimbabwean adventures will begin and end their journey in the capital, Harare, where it's worth lingering to explore the wide avenues lined with jacaranda trees, the National Gallery, showcasing photography, sculpture and paintings from Zimbabwe and beyond, and the National Archives, a fascinating and often harrowing showcase of the country's colonial-era history.
