Overview
- Videos showing excavators, fences and preparatory works on the Vjosa‑Narta coast and Sazan island have sparked nightly mass protests in Tirana and local demonstrations in Zvernec, with clashes reported between protesters and private security.
- Albania’s special anti‑corruption prosecutor (SPAK) has opened a formal investigation into changes to the area’s protection status and alleged bypassing of procurement and land‑ownership rules.
- Reporting links the project to Jared Kushner’s investment network and to Qatari partners Moutaz and Ramez Al‑Khayyat, and Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC was given ‘strategic investor’ status by the government in late 2024 to speed approvals.
- Environmental groups warn the plan would intrude on Vjosa‑Narta, a protected coastal corridor home to flamingos, seals and sea‑turtle nesting sites, while Sazan is an undeveloped former military island that lacks infrastructure and formal impact studies.
- The government defends the investment as transformative for Albanian tourism and says the project is not finalized, but opaque company structures, unsettled post‑communist land titles and growing street mobilization pose political and legal risks that could reshape the deal.