By ALBA à‡ELA
Last year, I attended a conference in Munich with a small group of us from Albania. We were invited to talk about the challenges of our country. Our international peers and colleagues made a point of starting up the discussion with how much Albanian gangs are still present and wreak havoc in streets of Hanover or Hamburg. When it was time for the coffee break a friend of mine, rather well known for his humor, said: ‘Well don’t leave your stuff unattended now! With all the Albanians around here…’
Small countries cannot afford bad image. Albania knows. Plagued for many years by international media approach that focuses on the criminals- the thieves in Greece, the human traffickers in Italy and Belgium, the drugs distributors in Zurich and London,- Albanians have struggled to let Europe know and understand that we are just like the rest of the world, with our load of rotten apples hence similar to every country otherwise.
Some of this is well-deserved, we know. Some of it is plain wrong, it is made of lies and fabrications, oversimplifications and confusions. Most of it is the product of bad or absent research, bad or rogue journalism, some of it is dangerous and intentional.
The new campaign to denigrate Albania has started on a new tune: Islamic radicalism, terror threats, jihadi recruiters, the whole symphony is playing. Italian television channels and British tabloidsjoining hands for a freak show portraying Albania as a source of threat to the rest of Europe. No evidence, no investigation, a poor collection of out-of-context images and old stories which no one bothers to update and validate.
So many facts need to be set straight:
First of all the phenomenon of Islamic radicalization and foreign fighters is present in Albania. That much is true. However, as the Executive Director of the Albanian Institute for International Studies, Albert Rakipi explains,the threat is not an Albanian phenomenon. ‘The threat phenomenon feeds off radicalized individuals in the western countries as well which pose the greatest risk to those countries internally,’ – Rakipi says. ‘Albania as a NATO member state has all the security and all the challenges that other NATO countries have and does not need to be singled out as a threat source when in fact the issue in Albania is rather limited.’
AIIS has issued last month a comprehensive country report in which the number of foreign fighters is set at an approximate 100-150 individuals, higher but still close to official estimates. This figure is more than a stone throw way from the claims in the Italian reports that place the number paradoxically at ten times higher. Report author Enri Hide, a professor of security studies and passionate researcher of the issue for Albania, furthermore negates the particular claims of this specific article by saying that “ except for sporadic and unproved media speculations there is no evidence to prove that there is an issue here of extremist groups collaborating with Albanian criminal groups.”
Hide points out interestingly that one of the study findings is that the issue of radicalism in Albania may be used by foreign actors such as states or groups to tarnish the country’s image. “In the study we highlight the potential risk that radicalism issue might be used and misused by outside actors whose interest do not match with those of Albania, in rode to label Albanians as extremists and terrorists or to place our efforts for European integration in a particular religious frame,” Hide concludes.
The notion that the country is at complete chaos, with no executive measures to keep the problems at bay is also a fabrication at large. The Albanian government has taken the necessary measures and produced the right strategy to combat violent extremism at home. It has been commended by important powerful allies for doing so. Despite the fact that more needs to be done and that careful behavior is in order for the long term, there is no question that Albania does not pose an imminent threat to its neighbors on this issue. To claim so is to serve a negative shameful propaganda commissioned by who knows whom and why.
The religious harmony and co-existence in Albania with all the vulnerabilities it may have is a true asset to be protected and promoted at the same time. It is a powerful alternative to the conflict and violence that has entire parts of the world in its grip.
Moreover, there exists various interpretations and analysis of the phenomenon of radicalization which present accurate and well-thought accounts of what is happening in Albania contextualizing it properly with the global framework. For example, the influential Italian expert Paolo Quercia, Director of the Center for Near Abroad Security Studies (CeNASS) claims that radicalization of foreign fighters from the Western Balkans and from Albania happens in the western European countries due to the failure of integration or increased contact with individuals from countries form North Africa and the Middle East.
Albanian governments have spent and are spending considerable amounts of money to promote the image of Albania. It is obvious that they need to act smarter. Advertorials about economy and tourism will fall flat if they appear in the midst of a debate about security challenges. This creates just a cacophony of voices where the key messages are being lost and attempts to yield positive results for the country become futile.
The responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the entire corpus of diplomats that Albania engages abroad in this regard cannot be overrated: not only to promptly react but to carefully try to preempt this kind of ‘unpleasant surprises.’ Having the limited resources and outreach mechanism of a small country, the MFA needs to use its potential strategically, choosing priorities with caution and according to relevance. Its partnership should be extended and consolidated to national media so that the later takes up an active role in presenting countering facts to fictional reports. In an online world their voice can reverberate through the help of diaspora even more strongly. Steps such as the public letter issued by the Minister of Interior in response to the articles are a good example in this regard.
The state institutions also need to include and engage more allies in this fight. Serious existing research done by civil society organizations and think tanks needs to be promoted as a healthy counter narrative to poisonous media coverage of no quality. Coming from an independent sectors such as academia or civil society these research findings also have more legitimacy and impact since they aren’t perceived as simple advertising rather for what they really are, the work of experts.
Albania does not deserve these recent defamation campaigns. However, for the fight against them to succeed it needs to be smarter and more inclusive.
