Balkans

How Rama built his power in Albania

From elections and party politics to local government, media and construction, Prime Minister Edi Rama’s hold on power now faces a new test.

In June of this year, a book setting out an ambitious vision for Albania’s physical transformation was published: The Albanian Files. Featuring a foreword by Prime Minister Edi Rama, the book brings together around 520 projects by 60 international architectural studios — from skyscrapers and luxury apartment buildings to hotels, resorts and developments proposed in coastal and environmentally sensitive areas. One of its contributors is Dutch architect Reinier de Graaf, a partner at the internationally renowned architecture firm OMA. In a deliberately provocative letter in the book, de Graaf suggests dispensing with elections altogether and having Rama continue as “president for life — maybe even King.”

The Mecca Pact And The Geopolitical Reconfiguration Of The Balkans – Analysis

Key Takeaways:

The 7 August 2026 Mecca Pact (Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan) treats an attack on one as an attack on all and adds exercises, intel, tech, and defence industry—building on the 2025 Saudi–Pakistan deal. The author calls it an emerging mix of Saudi money/energy, Turkish arms and NATO know-how, and Pakistani manpower plus a declared nuclear capability—not a second NATO. The three do not share one threat map (India vs Greece/Cyprus/Israel/Iran vs Gulf/Iran).
For Albania and Kosovo the point is Ankara’s “strategic depth”: the Balkans as a corridor from the Eastern Mediterranean to Central Europe, not a side story. Turkish aims (influence, markets, corridors, arms exports) overlap with Albanian aims (sovereignty, NATO/EU, holding off Serbia) but are not the same. Friendship and religion are not a security doctrine.
Prescription: keep Euro-Atlantic integration as the spine; treat Türkiye as a partner on drones, air defence, cyber, and training—not a substitute for the U.S., NATO, or the EU. Build an Albania–Kosovo defence ecosystem so the two republics produce security instead of only consuming it. Serbia will watch Turkish weight; interests, not “natural alliance,” should set the terms.

Albania, the voices of the Flamingo revolution

While the flamingos have given the Albanian protest its visual identity, drums and chants have given it a voice. In this report, we have collected some of the most well-known voices from the protests which have been going on uninterruptedly for almost three months now

Thaci Expects Acquittal As Hague Court’s War Crimes Verdict Nears

Key Takeaways:
Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci expects full acquittal on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges, with a verdict scheduled for September 16 at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.
Thaci and three other former KLA leaders deny individual and command responsibility for alleged crimes, including 102 murders, at detention facilities during and after the 1998–99 Kosovo War.
In a recent interview, Thaci criticized the prosecution’s evidence, the origins of the Dick Marty report that led to the court’s creation, and the denial of bail, while defending his earlier support for establishing the Specialist Chambers.
Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci said in an interview broadcast on Thursday evening that he anticipated being acquitted of all charges in the war crimes and crimes against humanity case against him and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA leaders at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

The verdict in the case against Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi is expected on September 16.

“I expect to be acquitted of every charge. I have nothing to add to the arguments of the defence team or to my final statement in the courtroom,” Thaci said in the written interview with the Pristina-based broadcaster RTV Dukagjini.

The four men are accused of individual and command responsibility for crimes committed against prisoners held at KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and in neighbouring Albania, including 102 murders. The crimes were allegedly committed during and just after the Kosovo War in 1998 and 1999.

All four defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Thaci said he did not regret supporting the creation of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers when he was in office, but said he had not expected the decision by Kosovo’s elected representatives to be “misused so brutally”.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was created specifically to try former members of the KLA. It is located in The Hague and staffed by international judges and prosecutors due to doubts about the Kosovo justice system’s ability to try former KLA fighters, many of whom are considered heroes in Kosovo.

In the interview, Thaci spoke about a 2010 report by former Swiss Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty, which alleged serious crimes including organ-trafficking by KLA-linked figures. The report ultimately led to the establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. Thaci claimed that its allegations were developed with the involvement of officials at the Council of Europe from Serbia and Russia – both of which oppose Kosovo’s independence.

“The freedom and the construction of Kosovo’s independence were unswallowable for Serbia and Russia. After failing to delegitimise it at the International Court of Justice [which ruled that Kosovo’s independence declaration did not violate international law], they turned to the Council of Europe. The aim was clear: to discredit the state of Kosovo,” he said.

Thaci also criticised the prosecution’s treatment of defence witnesses and evidence in his trial.

He accused prosecutors of giving greater weight to what he described as “fabricated testimony” originating from the time when Slobodan Milosevic was in power in Belgrade, and dismissing testimony from senior Western and international officials who were “the eyes and ears” in Kosovo.

“The prosecution is elevating evidence fabricated during the era of the Milosevic regime, and ignoring the testimony of senior officials from the US, NATO, Britain, the UN, the OSCE and other international institutions,” he said.

Thaci noted that the appearance of such international figures as defence witnesses demonstrated their concern about the proceedings.

“It is not easy for these personalities to sit in such a courtroom. I understood that they were seeing that something wrong was happening in this process. They felt a moral obligation to tell the truth,” he said.

Thaci declined to comment on the current Kosovo government’s approach to the Specialist Chambers.

Asked whether his rights had been violated during the proceedings, he replied that he considered the “process as a whole” to have involved violations.

He also criticised the decision not to release him on bail, saying that the arguments used against his release were based on “prejudices and hypotheses”. Thaci said several NATO member states had offered guarantees on his behalf and that he remained grateful to them.

During the trial, the prosecution attempted to prove that, as members of the KLA General Staff, they were responsible for lower-ranking fighters who committed crimes. The defence argued that the KLA did not have a proper army command structure, so the defendants did not have real authority over lower-ranking KLA fighters.

Thaci resigned as Kosovo’s president in November 2020 to face the charges and together with the other three men was sent to detention in The Hague, where they have been ever since. The trial started in April 2023.

During the trial, KLA veterans and their supporters have staged protests in Pristina, Tirana, Skopje, Strasbourg and The Hague, accusing the Specialist Chambers of bias.

In 2024, Thaci was also charged with obstruction of justice, alongside four others, including former Kosovo Justice Minister Hajredin Kuci. The trial for this case started in February, days after proceedings in the war crimes and crimes against humanity trial ended. Thaci and the four others accused of obstruction of justice – Kuci, Isni Kilaj, Bashkim Smakaj and Fadil Fazliu – have denied wrongdoing.

From exception to model: Albania as a laboratory for European migration policies

The Rama-Meloni agreement takes on a significance that goes far beyond the management of repatriations on behalf of the Italian state, and therefore of Europe. More than a simple bilateral agreement, the protocol has become a political and legal precedent, anticipating some of the rationales currently at the heart of the European debate on the externalisation of migration

Kosovo: Land, Demography & “Grey Economy”

Territory, people, and physical power (security forces like police and army) are the inevitable prerequisites for creating a state. The ethnic Albanians were, at the beginning, intruders into the autonomous province of South-West Serbia – Kosovo-Metochia (KosMet), who constituted a small minority there (in 1455, only 2%). The focal question became: How did they become the overwhelming majority today (95%+) at KosMet?

How Hungary’s Migration Model Became Europe’s New Norm

The European Union seeks to punish Hungary just as it admits it was right all along.

In a characteristic display of hypocrisy from Brussels, the very migration policies branded as xenophobic and “un-European” a decade ago are now reshaping the EU’s approach to border security. For over a decade, Hungary, under the leadership of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has faced relentless condemnation, legal battles, and staggering EU fines totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for its hardline stance against mass migration and forced migrant quotas.