Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama accused Iran of using disinformation and political manipulation to promote the “Flamingo Revolution,” the protest movement calling for Rama’s government to scuttle a $1.6 billion luxury resort project spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump.
Rama told reporters on June 5 that protests against the planned resort have mutated from environmentalism into a political assault on himself and President Trump at the urging of Iran, which he accused of waging a “hybrid war” of disinformation against the project.
“Behind the protest are the Iranians, who have been involved in attacks against Albania on other occasions as well,” he said.
“They are a part of it because there is no one else that is interested in fueling the narrative of antisemitism based on an incredible and despicable fake news,” he continued.
The prime minister was referring to criticisms that vicious anti-Semitic rhetoric has crept into protests against the Sazan Island Resort, whose investors include President Trump’s Jewish son-in-law. Defenders of the protest movement claim the anti-Semitic remarks were the work of individual miscreants, or false-flag operatives seeking to discredit their movement.
Rama also said Iran was promoting paranoid theories that the true reason for Kushner’s resort investment was to relocate the Palestinians from Gaza and strand them in Albania.
“We are working on the files of the flamingoes, and we will show you how much deepfake, how much disinformation and how much fabrication or engineering is being done to the information from the sources that are using and multiplying it,” Rama said, promising to investigate the origins of disinformation and edited videos being fed into the protest movement, which adopted the flamingo as its symbol because they are one of the bird species that lives on Sazan Island.
Rama said he was not accusing Iran of creating the Flamingo Revolution out of thin air, but he said Tehran “immediately jumped into the story” when it saw an opportunity to destabilize a government allied to the United States.
Iran responded angrily to Rama’s accusations, taunting the Albanian PM by posting videos of the large street protests in Tirana and accusing Rama of looking for excuses to deflect criticism.
“It would be wiser to show some respect for the intelligence and judgment of your own people, as a nation of rich culture and proud history. They are perceptive enough to distinguish truth from falsehood,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Tuesday.
“If you choose to sell your national sovereignty, that is your decision. You do not owe us an explanation. But when confronted by the outrage and criticism of your own public, please do not use others as a convenient scapegoat to evade accountability,” he jeered.
Rama seemed to relish the confrontation with Iran, pointing out that Baqaei’s rhetoric went a long way toward proving his point about the animosity of the Iranian regime.
“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!” Rama exclaimed on social media.
“Thank you anyway for your concern about the intelligence of the Albanian people,” he sneered at Baqaei. “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.”
“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?” he asked.
He pressed:
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.
Rama said that whatever differences Albanians might have with each other, “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,” he told Baqaei.
In another broadside against Tehran, Rama recalled Iran’s 2022 campaign of cyber-espionage against Albania – a destructive rampage that began in July 2022 after more than a year of planning and persisted in waves through the rest of the year.
“So now you suddenly care about the Albanian people?” Rama sarcastically asked Iran. “The same Albanian people whose institutions, public services and digital infrastructure were the target of a cyberterror campaign that aimed to cripple an entire country, and which international investigations have traced back to actors linked to and supported by your regime.”
“Your regime can hack networks, imprison critics, censor voices, threaten opponents, bully neighbours and manufacture endless excuses for its failures. But it cannot escape reality forever,” he taunted.
The protests against the Sazan Island Resort have unquestionably grown far beyond environmental concerns, which Rama’s government insists have been properly addressed. On Friday, Middle East Eye saw protesters blocking traffic, selling themed merchandise, and chanting slogans like “Edi Rama is finished.”
“I don’t think this is a question of protected areas or the environment anymore,” one protester said. “People feel like decisions are not taken for the people, but for investors. And that’s why they are furious.”
“Even if it was another billionaire, we would still be here. Because the real problem is the principle of selling the country,” said another.
Some demonstrators said they found both Rama and the leading opposition party equally unacceptable and corrupt, and they insisted they were not making childish and unrealistic threats when they talked about leaving the country if the Flamingo Revolution does not bring the existing political structure down.
“We know that they are working together. We want them gone from our politics. We want new people and new faces,” said a student demonstrator.
“Many of the people here are Gen Z and Millennials. You can feel that they’re here to fix everything – or else we’re all leaving Albania,” she added.
On Wednesday, the European Commission pressed Rama’s government to “act without delay” and pause the Sazan Island project until it can pass additional environmental scrutiny in line with European Union regulations. Albanian Environment Minister Sofjan Jaupaj said that construction would be suspended until a new environmental impact study is completed, but the flamingo protests continued.