The scheme now seems clear. The protest cannot be defeated with arguments and all that remains is to make it dirty. And for that, every possible Iranian candidate is needed.
Initially, they raised the stakes by hanging Israeli flags in the protest square, hoping that some unscrupulous, Iranian candidate, would give the government the alibi it was looking for. Nothing happened. The citizens had another problem, that of the government.
Chronologically, after the attempt failed, the much-anticipated incident with the Israeli flag at the embassy of this country occurred. Suddenly, from being directly responsible for the embassy’s security, the government took on the role of victim, leaving a very bad taste that was not due to the embarrassment of failing to protect an embassy, but to political gain from this incident with no connection to the focus of the protest.
Then they took Arben Kola’s statement. He spoke about the danger that the protest could be approached by people who want to sabotage it, divide it, give it a religious, national or foreign color. So, he spoke about the need to protect the protest from infiltration, not about the fact that the protest is infiltrated. He spoke about his fears and beliefs, as a man who has invested his emotions in the protest.
But, if we listen carefully, even in the dirty version, cut and edited by the media and the power dice, Kola did not mention Iran at all as an infiltration group. But the propaganda needed Iran. And when Iran does not appear in the sentence, they put it in the title.
Then came the case of Dritan Goxhaj. He read a statement and was immediately thrown into the mill of pro-Iran, anti-Israel, extremist profiling. The demands he read were not discussed. Goxhaj, his biography and individual positions at different times were discussed. Everything that could be used to produce the figure of the “recruit”.
This is no coincidence. Rama needs an Iranian in the square. Preferably Albanian. Preferably with a microphone. Preferably with a public face. Someone who can point to Washington and say: “See? This is not a civic protest. This is an Iranian hybrid operation.”
Because his battle is not only with us Albanians. We saw the fences that excluded us from our homeland, we understood the corruption at levels up to the Assembly, where laws were bent by the gravity of investments even where there should be red lines, we saw the violence of the private sector and the police that stood as decor. And when everything exploded more openly, we also saw the arrogance of power. We do not need Iranian algorithms for this. Rama’s battle is also with Washington itself. There he needs to explain that he is not the problem. That he has not lost the people and that he has not become a burden. He needs to convince them that he did not muddle the issue with Zvërnec, Kushner, the properties, the illegal permits and the international shame of this entire chapter. According to him, the problem is foreign hands.
And for this, he needs Iran as an alibi.
Iran is the perfect enemy for the American ear. There is a presumed conflict with Albania for the mujahedeen. There is a propaganda motive and it is at the same time an enemy of the US. When you say Iran, it sounds like a geopolitical danger. With Iran in the background, Rama no longer looks like a prime minister who has lost his footing, but like an American ally under a hybrid attack.
It’s just that you don’t need Tehran to understand why people revolt when a protected area is treated like a private plot. You don’t need Moscow to see the lack of transparency in how government deals are made. You don’t need some anti-Western network to understand what it means when protesters are dragged away by private forces in front of the police.
Rama, his cronies and the media are trying to put the protest back inside the Zvërnec box, to discuss the status of an area, the leverage of a project, the concerns of some environmentalists, some online accounts, some bots, some influencers who advertise creams. But the protest came out of Zvërnec when Rama bluntly said that as long as he is there, the project will be done. And how that project would be done, all that sugary halva that he has packaged in the thick pink book Albanian Files.
Now the protesters in the square and all the supporters on social media have agreed that the solution to many problems starts with the common denominator, which is the overthrow of Rama.
A protest with this re-qualification has motivated the government to seek protest leaders. Not for dialogue. For targeting.
A protest without a leader is difficult to criminalize. You have no one to buy, no one to blackmail, no one to declare an enemy, no one to hang around the neck of “connections with Iran”. That’s why Kola and Goxhaj are taken. Not because they are protests, but because they should be used as evidence against the protest.
In reality, they are active citizens within a much larger wave. They may have passion, they may make mistakes in communication tactics, they may not be perfect in their formulations. And in the end, they do not speak on behalf of everyone, but only of a group that helps the protest. They are neither organizers nor ideological leaders. The protest belongs to everyone and is not an ideological vetting office. A geopolitical certificate is not required in the square. Civic dignity is required in the square.
This is where the Blackbird report comes in, as a packaged, “professional” and exportable version of the same scheme. No longer just headlines about Kola or Goxhaj, but a document that aims to give the alibi the appearance of intelligence.
But even that report cannot save Rama, because it neither proves a cyber attack, nor does it prove that Iran organized the protest and that the Albanians came out because someone from abroad ordered them. That kind of report talks about online narratives, when one news item was circulated more, when another news item, etc. The report itself even admits that the basic complaints are real.
So, even the report that Rama tries to use as a life raft tells him that the sea that became the sea, and where Rama is drowning, is true.
Rama is in trouble because this time he thought it through badly. He dragged the Kushner/Trump issue into the Albanian mud of dubious properties, related to investigations of international drug trafficking, illegal permits and the lack of transparency, which is accompanied by government arrogance. He created a very big reputational problem for people close to the American president. For these people he comes out and shouts that it is not his fault, but the hybrid war.
But Americans are not stupid. They know the difference between a fabricated protest and a real one. They know the difference between an ally who is an asset and one who is becoming a burden.
Here is Rama’s real fear. Not so much of the flamingos, of Kola or of Goxhaj. Not even of Iran. The fear is that Washington may have begun to see him as someone who no longer gives guarantees. His ground among the people has slipped, his myth has fallen and no longer produces fear, but ridicule.
He also held an anti-rally and it seemed like a sham, with people brought in by list, by order, with 15 people per party leader. There were no people there, but an administration, and the latter is just an inventory of power.
Meanwhile, SPAK is touching on sensitive files. Issues of land, property, suspicious money, permits, decision-making and figures close to power. Balluk was also charged with an accusation that, given the age of the incident, seems to have been ready earlier, but now it has received the green light to crack it with serious procedures. The suspension of Berisha’s non-wife can also be read as a signal that Washington is making recalculations, perhaps even to ask Berisha to step aside and let the DP rebuild itself to be a possible candidate in a possible vacuum. All of this shows that Rama is likely no longer seen as a guarantee by allies and his political career could be cut short from the outside and justice could easily devour him from the inside.
That’s why he desperately needs Iran. Everything, just to throw it away this time and continue to stay there. And to see that pink book on Albania through to the end, to turn this country into a big house with architects and lobbyists in the living room, oligarchs and investors in the dining room, and a big money laundering machine in the basement. And the citizen should get out of the way, go and find another country to rent.
No, this cannot happen. Rama can ask for as many Iranians, Russians, Greeks, Serbs, anti-Americans, anti-Israelis, anti-nationals and algorithms as he wants. The essence will not change. If in the Albania that Rama is drawing, there are too many Albanians, we need to draw another Albania without Rama.
