My name doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am one of thousands of young Albanians who went out into the streets of Tirana with nothing in our hands but our voices. We asked for a future in our own country. What we received in return was batons, tear gas, and handcuffs.
I am writing this because we need you to know what is happening here, right now, while the world is busy looking elsewhere.
What is happening to us
In recent days, the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama has answered peaceful student protests with a level of force that many of us never imagined we would see in a country that calls itself a candidate for European Union membership.
More than 2,000 students and high school pupils have been arrested. Some of them are teenagers. Kids who should be in classrooms, preparing for exams, are now being held by police for the “crime” of standing in the street and asking to be heard.
More than 5 students are in critical condition, in a coma. Their families are sitting in hospital corridors right now, not knowing if their sons and daughters will wake up.
More than 70 students have been severely beaten and are in hospital. Broken bones. Head injuries. Young people who will carry these scars, visible and invisible, for the rest of their lives.
How the state has responded
We have watched things that no democratic government should ever do to its own young people:
- Police have used stun grenades and rubber bullets against crowds of students.
- RENEA, Albania’s special anti-terror unit, has been deployed against protesters. Anti-terror forces, against students.
- There have been attempts to run protesters over with vehicles.
- Tear gas canisters that were expired, or carried no labels at all, have been fired at us. We don’t even know what we are breathing.
- More than 17 journalists have been targeted while trying to report the truth.
- The capital has been turned into a city under siege. Ordinary citizens can no longer move freely. Anyone caught walking in the wrong place at the wrong time risks being arrested.
- Civilians armed with baseball bats have been brought in to beat protesters, people with no uniform, no accountability, no name.
- More than 30% of the officers making arrests wear no identification number. We cannot know who hit us, and that is exactly the point.
- Young women are being arrested without any female officers present, a basic safeguard that is being ignored.
Who we are
We are not criminals. We are not a threat. We are students. We are the generation that was told to believe in Europe, in democracy, in the rule of law. We believed it. That’s why we went out.
Most of us have watched our friends, cousins, and siblings leave Albania because they saw no future here. We stayed. We wanted to fight for this country instead of leaving it. And this is how we are being treated.
What we are asking of you
We are not asking anyone to take sides in Albanian politics. We are asking you to stand on the side of basic human rights, the same rights you defend everywhere else in the world.
To the European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Commission: Albania is negotiating to join you. Please make it clear that a government that beats and jails its students cannot be treated as business as usual. Ask the hard questions. Send observers. Speak publicly.
To the OSCE and the Council of Europe: Please monitor what is happening on our streets, in police stations, and in detention. Document it before the evidence disappears.
To the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on freedom of assembly, on torture, and on freedom of expression: we need your attention.
To the embassies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and all EU member states in Tirana: your voice carries weight here. Please use it.
To Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the European Federation of Journalists: please investigate, especially the attacks on journalists and the treatment of minors in custody.
To students and young people across Europe and the world: share this. Talk about it. Stand with us. If this can happen here, on Europe’s doorstep, it can happen anywhere.
Our demands are simple
- Release the students and pupils who were detained for peacefully protesting.
- Stop the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators.
- Hold an independent investigation into police abuse, the use of unidentified officers, and the armed civilians.
- Guarantee the safety of journalists.
- Respect the right of Albanian citizens to gather and speak freely.
Please don’t look away
Somewhere in a hospital in Tirana tonight, a mother is holding the hand of her child who hasn’t opened their eyes in days. Somewhere in a police cell, a 17-year-old is wondering if anyone outside even knows where they are.
We know. And now, so do you.
Silence is what they are counting on. Please don’t give it to them.
With hope, from the students of Albania 🇦🇱
#StandWithAlbanianStudents #FreeAlbanianStudents #Albania #HumanRights