Former military facility to turn into totalitarian park

TIRANA, March 1 – A former military facility in Surrel village outside Tirana will be turned into a totalitarian park featuring communist reality during Albania’s almost 50 years of harsh dictatorship and propaganda. Monuments featuring Soviet Union leaders like Lenin and Stalin and Russian propaganda Marxist-Leninist literature will be put on display along with the Albanian communist heritage and leaders.
Five draft ideas to turn the abandoned military facility into a tourist destination have already been introduced to the Culture Ministry which is examining them in cooperation with the National Library and the National Art Gallery officials.
“We are thinking of not only adding a new tourist attraction but also serving the national memory which is essential for the younger generation often not well-informed on the terror and the negative attitudes that regime produced,” says Culture Minister Ferdinand Xhaferaj.
The museum will house a considerable part of collections which are a burden to the National Library’s limited facilities and several monumental artworks of the Gallery of Arts. The museum’s establishment is estimated to cost between 1.2 to 2.2 million euros based on the project that will be selected.