Key facts
- Activists from Italy's Albanian diaspora and the Global Sumud Flotilla are sailing to Albania on August 20.
- The mission supports the 'Flamingo Revolution,' protesting luxury tourism developments along Albania's coast.
- Jared Kushner's investment firm is backing a luxury resort project on Sazan island.
- The protest highlights concerns about corruption and foreign investors influencing Albania's land and resources.
- The journey symbolically reverses the 1990s mass migration of Albanians to Italy.
- The boats used for the mission were previously damaged during attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Activists from Italy's Albanian diaspora and the Global Sumud Flotilla are embarking on a three-boat mission from Brindisi, Italy, to Albania on August 20 to support the 'Flamingo Revolution.' This protest movement challenges controversial luxury tourism developments, particularly those backed by Jared Kushner's investment firm, Affinity Partners, on protected land along Albania's southern coast, including a planned resort on the former military island of Sazan.
The mission, organized by the Italian-Albanian collective Mesdhe and the Albanian pro-Palestine collective Palestina e Lire, symbolically retraces the 1990s mass migration from Albania to Italy. Organizers state that the same corruption that drove many Albanians to leave their homeland decades ago is now responsible for selling off the country's coasts, islands, and future.
The 'Flamingo Revolution' specifically targets developments in the Narta lagoon, an ecologically sensitive area home to numerous migratory bird species, including flamingos. Activists view the struggle as connected to broader issues of land and resource control in the Mediterranean, drawing parallels with environmental protests in southern Italy and framing it as part of a global fight against dispossession, linking the Palestinian cause with the Albanian movement.
Clara Osma, an activist involved in organizing the mission, highlighted the historical memory of migration and the 'right to stay' as central motivations. The boats themselves carry symbolic weight, having been recovered and repaired after being damaged during Israeli attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla earlier in the year, representing international solidarity.