TIRANA, June 10 /ATA/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama on Wednesday criticised Iran after the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baqaei, shared a video of an ongoing protest in Tirana against a planned tourism development project in the Zvërnec area of southern Albania.
In a post on social media, Rama said Iranian authorities had effectively aligned themselves with the protest movement, which he claimed had evolved beyond environmental concerns into a campaign aimed at toppling the government.
“Even the government of Tehran’s ayatollahs is officially joining the protest, even with slogans in Albanian just like those who turned it from an environmental protest into a protest for the overthrow of the government! Attached is my reply also on behalf of those protesters who are still there to protect nature, not to turn Albania into a playground for the whims of all sorts of powers, from the Iranian medievalists who want to burn this exemplary oasis of interfaith tolerance and excellent relations whether with Israel, or with Arab countries or Türkiye, to all sorts of groups and international media along with all sorts of individuals from all sorts of countries, who these days are unleashing their fury with Trump by flooding social networks with all sorts of half-truths, which are inflated and inflated until they become the biggest lies!” Rama wrote.
The government head added that “Albania is far too small to fall into this big trap, from which we risk returning on our own feet to the point where no foreign investor will come near us anymore, while tourism lags far behind compared to our competitors, condemning us to stay in the second category for who knows how many more years.”
Full statement by Prime Minister Edi Rama on X:
Oh dear, you people are really shameless!
Thank you anyway for your concern about the intelligence of the Albanian people.
It would be far more convincing if it came from representatives of a regime that does not routinely hammer its own citizens through censorship, intimidation, internet shutdowns, and the suppression of dissent.
As for sovereignty, Albania does not take lessons on sovereignty from a government whose operatives were caught carrying out cyberattacks against Albanian public services and institutions, leading Albania to sever diplomatic relations with Iran.
You quote Albanian protesters chanting in the streets. Good. That is called democracy. In Albania people are free to protest against their government, criticize their Prime Minister, demand justice, and call for elections without fear of imprisonment.
Can the same be said for the people you claim to speak for?
And it is particularly telling that you have suddenly discovered such a profound concern for protesters in Tirana while the blood of tens of thousands of your own people stains the conscience of your regime, while countless others continue to suffer persecution, repression, and imprisonment, and while dozens of millions remain trapped in conditions that belong more to the Middle Ages than to the twenty-first century.
The Albanian people are indeed intelligent enough to distinguish truth from falsehood. That is precisely why they can tell the difference between a democratic argument and propaganda. Your bots, your fake profiles, and your deepfake videos may add to the general digital confusion the venom of your hateful regime, but they will get nowhere, because whatever our differences might be among Albanians, we are all clear and united in the view that any type of regime that keeps its own people in darkness and poverty is the enemy of our way of living, disguised as concern. And yours is the worst, a terrorist state by definition.
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