'There is no turning back': Attempt to suppress protest fuels anger in Tirana

At around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, all was quiet in front of the Prime Minister's Office. The police officers, many of them girls stationed on the steps or along the boulevard, seemed equally calm. The only noise came from their radios.

"Disperse them. There are forty of them... The one in blue is the organizer," the order rang out over the radio to the protesters, who were at that moment in front of the Ministry of Education on Durrës Street.

In less than 10 minutes, hundreds of citizens who were protesting in front of the Ministry of Education moved to "Skënderbej" Square and parallel streets, in an attempt to escape the tear gas, to then regroup in front of the Prime Minister's Office.

Here the lines grew. From the many streets leading to the boulevard, thousands of protesters, mostly young men and women, flocked to the square. Among the protesters were organized groups, dressed in a makeshift uniform, who led the march. Behind them, several thousand other citizens marched peacefully with calls for the resignation of the prime minister.

Saturday’s rally is part of a wave of anti-government protests that began peacefully on May 31 against a proposed tourist resort in the Zvërnec protected area. In October, the protests took a violent turn, with daily clashes between police and protesters. Fueled by a series of government scandals, the rising cost of living and dozens of other grievances, the protests have brought students, professionals and ordinary citizens together on the streets with the main demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.

At 3:05 p.m., citizens were still marching on the boulevard. At the head of the protest, in front of the Prime Minister’s Office, the usual clashes between several dozen protesters and police had already begun, but this did not seem to affect the rest of the crowd. However, 5-6 minutes later, thousands of peaceful protesters, who were hundreds of meters away from the point of the clash, were hit in the back with tear gas.

Within minutes, dozens of police forces and armored vehicles equipped with water cannons divided the protesters in half, surrounding a good part of them who were located between the large bridge over Lana and the Art Gallery. Caught “in a trap”, the protesters tried to resist by throwing stones in both directions, but the police covered the entire boulevard with tear gas. Dozens of such gas grenades were thrown in a few minutes, creating fog over the “Rinia” park and the boulevard next to it, while the protesters dispersed towards “Myslym Shyri” street, to Pedonale, to Unazë and to other connecting streets. The square was soon empty, as groups of police followed the protesters along several streets.

 Police cars spraying water on the boulevard. Photo: Xhemali Moku/ BIRN.
However, the protesters reorganized within 30 minutes. A group of about 200-300 people stood in front of the police at the entrance to the “Rinia” park. Thousands more gathered in “Skënderbej” square, in front of a police force blocking the exit to the boulevard. Here, the protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails, while the police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Wet from head to toe from water thrown by the police and with eyes red from gas, a 28-year-old woman told BIRN that resistance was the only solution.

"We're leaving today, we have no future. We're leaving here altogether, we're leaving Tirana today," she said, as she gathered herself in a gas-free area.

Most protesters share similar beliefs.

“I can say that there is no going back,” says a man who introduces himself as a lecturer at the Polytechnic University, who says that he joined the protest because of accumulated dissatisfaction. According to him, the fact that people are resisting the gas bombardment and returning to the protest is an indication that it is not stopping. However, the man does not give his name, because, like a good part of the protesters, he works in the administration.

"The administration is most dissatisfied with the prime minister," he says, adding that all the scandals that have occurred have made the public administration feel worse and worse, so he sees no other choice but to continue the protests.

A protester accompanying her says they returned to Albania together in 2013 after studying abroad, and are now in the square hoping that the country can change and they won't be forced to leave again. The woman, who says she studied piano, notes that the discontent is massive.

"If you look, there are people of different classes and ages, different physiognomies. It shows that this has affected a very large part of the population rather than one group," she said.

The fear of administration employees not being identified does not seem unfounded. A former employee of the Albanian Road Authority, ARRSH, says that she was fired from her job in July, after participating in the June protests. She says that she learned the reason for her dismissal through her friends within the institution and emphasizes that there is no meritocracy in the administration, but only “patronage”.

"I have currently been fired, even though I had the most complete and qualified CV at the ARRSH after a year and a half of work there. I sent a private message to the Prime Minister to inform him of the situation, and the Prime Minister could not give me a solution. He can no longer give Albania a solution," she says, while showing the unanswered message on her phone.

After 12 days of violent protests, she adds that citizens' anger has only grown.

 Protesters throw stones at police forces. Photo: Xhemali Moku/ BIRN.
“What I see is that the people are even more angry, because these reforms that we have been peacefully raising signs to prevent from being approved in Parliament, they have not listened to at all,” says the woman.

"The people will be, will continue to be in the streets for a long time. For a long time, peacefully or violently."

In Skanderbeg Square, amidst tear gas grenades sliding on the pavement and others being thrown over their heads, Ardi, a 19-year-old studying medicine in Budapest, says he came specifically for the protest, in the hope that the country can change. His friend who accompanies him to the protest holds his nose to protect himself from the gas, while he sees the change as linked only to the change of the political class.

"Why is this state controlled by people who don't want the best for this country? I'm 18 years old, he's been in power most of my life and he hasn't left us with any options except a new system," he says, as a new wave of gas covers the square.

As she removes her gas mask and goggles, Mishel, a Film Directing student at the Academy of Arts, says that the only reason she and hundreds of her peers have endured tear gas and violence for days on end is the hope that things will change.

"Hope. Hope that maybe, our small Albania with so much history and so many values ​​will succeed in becoming a state where all Albanians are happy. Hope is what keeps us here every day," says Mishel.

For him and other young people, the recent protests are the only hope in the face of a huge mass of dissatisfaction.

"All Albanian students suffer, sacrifice to do a bit of school and to gain knowledge. Knowledge should be free everywhere. Knowledge should be given everywhere, because it is what moves everyone forward," continues Mishel, as she describes an Albania where families barely make ends meet.

As evening falls over Tirana, the heavy smell of tear gas still lingers over the city's streets. The protest, meanwhile, continued for hours, with clashes in several other parts of the city. A balance of injuries was not yet public until after 8 p.m., while after dusk fell, the police repeated the pattern of attacking in the alleys, stopping and beating citizens. Reporter.al