Martin Henze
What do you think about the developments in Syria? Does this also have an impact on developments on the Balkan Peninsula?
It is the dramatic climax of a revolutionary reorganisation of the balance of power in the Middle East, which will also have a significant impact on Europe.
Just one year ago, on Putin’s birthday, 7 October 2023, the mullahs and their allies took Israel by surprise in close coordination with Moscow and Damascus.
More than a year later, the old power structure is in disarray. War was forced upon Israel. But the small country of Israel took up the challenge and defeated its enemies on several fronts so devastatingly that they collapsed completely.
With Assad, another link in the axis of evil has now collapsed; only Iran, Putin and the Balkans are still missing.
That will be the real end of the Putin administration.
You see, this process reminds me very much of the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan on 15 May 1988. One year later, this terrorist regime, the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union and its satellite Yugoslavia no longer existed.
Only one thing is different now: the Warsaw Pact countries have emancipated themselves since 1989 and developed into flourishing European countries.
The only thing missing was Russia; emancipation and development towards the EU has not taken place, but is now underway and this is also having an impact on the satellites: Vucic, Orban, Dodic and Rama.
Just as 1989 signalled the end of communism in Europe, Assad’s flight to Moscow marks the beginning of the decline of the anti-Western alliance in the Middle East, in North Korea and in Moscow.
In fact, the alliance Kim – Putin – Assad and Iran as well as the satellites in the Balkans: Vucic and Rama are facing the shambles of their decades-long policy.
With the attack on the free republic of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 by Putin and subsequently by North Korea and Iran and the relief attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 by Iran and its satellites, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank and arms deliveries from Syria, Moscow had begun to create a ring of fire around the West.
But Putin and the mullahs made the mistake of putting this deterrent power of the West to the test.
Anyone who starts a war against Israel and Ukraine, and thus against Europe and the USA, also runs the risk of losing it.
And Putin has been suffering one crushing defeat after another in Ukraine for two years. And Iran has been suffering one crushing defeat after another.
Hamas, which is dependent on him, has been completely destroyed and will lose Gaza as its centre of power.
Hezbollah has lost its entire military and political elite and a large part of its military capabilities.
And Syria, where Iran and Russia have invested around 70 billion euros since the start of the civil war according to internal Iranian opposition documents, is also lost to the mullahs and Putin.
The Russians and Iran are frantically fleeing Syria, as they did from Afghanistan in 1988.
The domino effect of the collapse of the Assad regime will inevitably mean the end of the order dominated by Iran and Putin in the Middle East and in Russia.
In the Middle East, there will be a regional order dominated by Israel and its partners Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. In Eastern Europe, the central power will be Ukraine, which will be part of NATO and the EU; after the fall of Putin, Russia would have the chance to become an associated partner of the EU.
The Balkans will be freed from the destabilising measures of Serbia and Russia.
This will also lead to the removal of the criminal autocratic Rama administration in Albania, the man will no longer have any supporters, even the mafia will drop him and the dam in the Balkans would be broken and all Balkan countries would have the unrestricted opportunity to join the EU.
In fact, many in the West are still struggling to grasp the epochal nature of last week’s development, which has been prepared by the Arabs, Israel and the USA for the past year.
Especially the left-wing forces in Europe, such as the German Chancellor Scholz, or the Putin-orientated parties, e.g. Le Pen in France, Afd and BSW in Germany, Orban in Hungary: Le Pen in France, Afd and BSW in Germany, Orban in Hungary, are all losing their ideological background, it is now becoming clear that negotiating and/or cooperating with Putin is of no use.
Reminder:
There was enormous pressure on the Israelis and Ukrainians to negotiate with the aggressors and war criminals, especially Blinken, in the USA, exerted pressure on Israel, he misjudged Netanyahu’s actions, incidentally similar to Albania, where he supported the autocrat Rama and Olaf Scholz in Berlin, who refused to supply Ukraine with the necessary long-range weapons to defend its territory, as the USA, France and the UK do.
Persistence, patriotism, the unconditional will to defend freedom, to assert oneself with all one’s might, reliable partners such as the UK, the USA and in particular Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania and the Baltic states and the willingness of Ukraine and Israel to escalate the war massively if necessary were and are the basic prerequisites for Syria and thus for Russia’s protective power in Syria to have collapsed and for Russia not to have occupied Ukraine to this day.
Pathological autocrats understand only one language, the massive language of the defence of freedom, not the rational language of diplomacy.
It is time to establish new rules in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
What do you think of Rama and his socialist comrades?
Nothing, socialists per se are not in a position to protect the freedom of people and their families so that they can live in dignity, as human history shows, and this can also be clearly seen in Albania at the moment.
Furthermore, the kleptocrats Rama, Veliaj and Balla are not socialists per se, no, they are the political leaders of a criminal executive that legitimises itself through rigged elections and yet calls itself socialist.
Rama is trying to portray himself as an integrator, as a great man of the Balkans. What goes through your mind when you see these people?
It actually makes you want to vomit. Because you can’t listen to all this any more, also because some of the Europeans don’t react, even though Europeans’ tax money is being embezzled in Albania. This is intellectual rubbish. You can’t take the speeches and propaganda of the Rama administration in Tirana seriously from the very first sentence. Behind closed doors, the international community laughs at the Albanian autocrat, who allegedly comes from Romania and is rumoured to be descended from gypsies.
Can you explain this in more detail?
Government corruption, drug logistics and money laundering are good examples.
So if I argue as Rama does, then all the corruption in Albania is organised by the opposition and partly by politicians from his party who are opponents of Rama.
So Rama and the others are the white knights, they have to work hard to restore the Albanian state, the rest in Albania are the thieves and actually little children.
Rama forgets to mention that he, Rama, has ruled the country autocratically for 12 years, that nothing happens without his knowledge and approval and that all the key positions in the state are occupied by his family and his comrades.
In crime theory, such behaviour is described as a typical, neurologically determined pattern of criminals who always like to shout: “Stop the thief”.
So in your eyes Albania has developed into an anti-democratic state?
Well, let’s be clear, Albania has degenerated into a NARCO state under the political leadership of Rama. You really can’t talk about development, you shouldn’t use euphemisms, the situation in Albania is too serious.
Under the 12-year-old socialist government, which feels legitimisedby rigged elections, all power in Albania is concentrated in the hands of an oligarchic group, Rama, and the regular elections are only a façade. Similar to Moscow and Myanmar, opposition leaders, MPs and local government officials face political persecution and imprisonment as well as direct threats and attacks on their lives, including those of their families.
Drug trafficking and organised crime, closely linked to Latin American drug cartels that have infiltrated many European countries, are using the Albanian economy and political landscape to launder money, revealing a disturbing nexus of state and criminal enterprises. Recent revelations by the Belgian authorities reveal alarming direct links between organised crime networks and the leadership of the Socialist Party and law enforcement agencies.
Leaked wiretap transcripts and documents show that criminal organisations and government officials are acting in a coordinated manner to place their people as MPs, interior ministers, judges, prosecutors, high-ranking police officers and senior officials and to manipulate elections in favour of the Socialist Party. This collusion has created an environment in which criminal networks buy votes, intimidate voters and systematically manipulate elections.
The illegitimate Rama government, in power since 2013, has failed to implement the outstanding OSCE/ODIHR recommendations calling for urgent measures to prevent vote-buying, voter intimidation and the misuse of state resources.
Rama has unilaterally changed the constitution and deprived the opposition parties of the right to form coalitions.
Important institutions, which should be impartial and guarantors of democracy and the rule of law, have to a large extent become powerful instruments of oppression of the Albanian people and especially the opposition in order to suppress their political opponents.
The recent cases of politically motivated arrests, detentions and prosecutions of opposition leaders, members of parliament and local government officials in Albania a few months before the parliamentary elections show that the Rama organisation clearly intends to perpetuate government criminality.
Just 5 months before the elections, all opposition leaders and their families are facing political persecution and imprisonment as well as direct threats and attacks on their lives.
Prof Dr Sali Berisha: Chairman of the DP and opposition leader, the DP is also a member of the European People’s Party, a sister party of the CDU Germany. He has been under political house arrest for nine months and is under investigation following a false report by the leader of the Socialist Party, Balla, and repeated orders from Rama. His house arrest violates the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
He is accused of politically motivated passive corruption more than 12 years ago in his function as Prime Minister. Although the offence has long been time-barred from a constitutional point of view, he is also under indemnity protection and the entire indictment was constructed on the basis of falsehoods and forged official documents and for which there is no criminal evidence, no violations of the law, no public damage and no signature from Berisha, nor has any witness testified against him. Nevertheless, he was imprisoned and only now, shortly before the parliamentary elections, was he released due to international pressure.
Ilir Meta: Former president, former prime minister, former speaker of parliament and current leader of the Freedom Party (the second largest opposition party). He was arrested on the street, brutally detained, beaten, detained by masked police officers who did not identify themselves and did not inform him of his rights. Again, there are no legal grounds. The same pattern as with Berisha.
Fatmir Mediu, Chairman of the Republican Party, former Minister of Defence – is being prosecuted, although the Albanian Supreme Court dismissed Medius’ complaint of “abuse of office” in 2009. The Albanian statute of limitations of 10 years in the Medius case expired in 2019. However, the public prosecutor’s office reopened the case due to a violation of the statute of limitations and double jeopardy. This no longer has anything to do with the rule of law. The same pattern as with Berisha.
Ervin Salianji, DP MP and deputy leader of the parliamentary group, was sentenced to one year in prison for making false statements and charged with making false statements that he never made. This no longer has anything to do with the rule of law. The same pattern as with Berisha.
Fredi Beleri, MEP, elected mayor of Himara, representative of the Greek minority – politically arrested and imprisoned, his family threatened. A blameless man from a good Albanian family. He was only released thanks to the intervention of the Greek Prime Minister and is now an MEP in Brussels.
The pattern of the police state is clear: opponents of the Rama administration are arrested for no reason, intimidated and their economic existence is attempted to be destroyed, they are arrested shortly before the upcoming parliamentary elections and their lawyers are massively beaten up on the streets by autocratic thugs, the press is intimidated.
Opponents of Rama within Rama’s own organisation are also arrested and charged, as in Moscow they are put in the “shop window”, according to the motto: “International community, we also charge pro-government actors”.
The main protagonists of the regime, the Rama, Balla, Veliaj and Basha families and their backroom players in Belgrade, are not being touched or are presumably trying to buy their way out through information about acquaintances and friends or through other gifts to the USA and the EU.
In the run-up to the 2025 parliamentary elections, the political situation has deteriorated significantly compared to 2013, when the Socialists won the elections and a change of power became possible.
The rampant corruption in the administration and the worrying links and influence of organised crime are worrying. The judiciary is being used as a political weapon in Albania, the judicial system no longer offers legal certainty, it is dysfunctional, which means that the legislature is also dysfunctional, and the Rama executive is dysfunctional due to corruption.
By normal standards, the justice system in Albania no longer functions. The dysfunctionality is also clearly visible in the rainy season, in the capital of corruption, in Tirana, led by Rama’s deputy Veliaj, millions from the USA and the EU have been invested in Tirana’s sewage system, what has happened? Tirana regularly floods when it rains.
However, the ground for electoral manipulation is also being prepared in other ways, reminiscent of the tactics of authoritarian regimes. The Venice Commission’s warning in 2015 that the judicial reform was in danger of being hijacked by the ruling party and causing chaos in the system seems to be coming true under Rama’s leadership.
The elections are manipulated by, among other things, arresting the entire opposition, giving money to Albanian pensioners and offering jobs.
Why is this argument still successful with so many people in Europe and in EU and US politics?
I’m sorry to have to say this, but one of the explanations is ignorance. There is hardly any in-depth knowledge about the Balkans, its history and the socialisation of its people, even in diplomatic circles; people hardly want to deal with it. They work with stereotypes because that is the easier way. On the other hand, many diplomats, press representatives, politicians and ambassadors are simply corrupt. In such NARCO states as Albania, there is a lot of black money, so people are bought for €500,000 / €2-3 million per person; we know this well from the Nigeria and Azerbaijan projects.
How do you rate Sali Berisha, the leader of the pro-Western Albanian opposition, and how great is the danger that he will also take an authoritarian turn?
The danger is low. Berisha also has authoritarian tendencies, but nobody can become a politician without such tendencies, that is a normal human condition.
Firstly, I would say that he is a democrat, a patriot, a very experienced and pro-Western politician, a family man. He has freed Albania from the shackles of a terrible dictatorship. An excellent friend of the USA and Europe, especially Germany.
Secondly, Berisha is 80 years old, he will organise the integration of Albania very well and quickly, just as he did with NATO membership, the development of the Albanian rule of law and democracy, the entire integration into the West, the TAP project and the start of talks with the EU in 2014. Afterwards and in parallel, there will be many young Albanians in the Albanian opposition who are very well educated and can then take over the “sceptre” at some point.
Thirdly, Albania has no alternative to Sali Berisha. There is no one who has this experience and is internationally networked and enjoys the same level of international trust.
So the risk is minimal, we can deal with it and we can only advise the Albanians to stop discussing and talking now, but to work together and pull in the same direction. After integration into the EU, they are welcome to argue politically again. But only afterwards, please.
Serbian anti-Western propaganda from Belgrade, Moscow, the Vucic-Rama axis and their security services forged many documents and certificates, manipulated witnesses, financed journalists and politicians in order to discredit the man who liberated Albania from the depths of communism in 1991.
Today we call this hybrid warfare. It began after the end of the Balkan wars in the early 2000s and intensified in the period that followed when Putin came to power and Yeltsin was deposed. The KGB officer Putin, “once a KGB officer, always a KGB officer”, already had the gradual restoration of the Soviet Union as his goal in the 2000s, similar to Vučić, who wanted to restore Yugoslavia.
In the 1990s, both protagonists had to experience the transformation of their communist states and both had to realise that in order to wage war against the West, they had to proceed in several stages, first destabilising the West by dividing societies and spreading disinformation and then, step by step, launching smaller, regional wars combined with relief attacks in the Middle East and Africa.
Berisha was one of the main targets of Serbian aggression in the Balkans over the last 20 years. I am deeply impressed by the way he stood up to it, a true patriot and fighter.
Berisha now seems to be pursuing a very clever strategy. He knows that at the age of 80 he only has a limited lifespan left and that it is his task, his patriotic duty, to lead Albania and thus the Balkans back into the circle of civil societies, i.e. into the EU, as he did in 1991.
He has charisma, he knows the culture and the people of the Balkans, he knows communism and capitalism, he is a man of differentiated thinking and the father of a large family.
He offers all Albanians to lay down their verbal weapons and join the civilisational freedom movement against socialism and the corrupt Rama government for EU accession.
At our last meeting at the end of September 2024 in his private flat, where he had been detained for over 9 months by the autocrat Rama for no reason, he said:
“I am Albanian, I am not fighting against Albania, I am not fighting against the Western world. I am fighting for freedom, for the future of Albania and not for myself.”
Can there ever be a peaceful transition in Albania?
Yes, it just has to be intentional.
You see, a democracy can only exist per se if there is a change of government from time to time.
Around 1.8 million Albanians live in Albania, 3-4 million Albanians live abroad, most of whom fled because of Rama.
All these Albanians have different perspectives, but what unites them is their Albanian DNA.
The Albanian national symbol is the double-headed eagle with 25 feathers, the 25 feathers stand for the 25 years in which Skanderbergfought against the Turks and for the 25 battles he fought. The double-headed eagle is the symbol of all ethnic Albanians in East and West, an ancient symbol of the integration of all Albanians under one flag.
Albania is an amazing country, very different religions, family groups with their own subgroups exist, somehow everyone in this small population is related to each other or went to school together.
And everyone in Albania and abroad is interested in what is happening in Albania.
The idea that the enemy of your enemy is your friend does not work in Albania. In the Balkans, and especially in Albania, there is sometimes what we call “frenemy”: You are both a friend and an enemy.
This has something to do with the communist past, but also with the long oppression of Albania by the Turks.
“Frenemy” was something like the Albanian survival mode. But this principle never applied to families.
What future scenarios do you see for Albania?
I only see two scenarios: The first I call the “NARCO State of Rama”. A state in which everyone fights everyone else, initiated by the administration to ensure that the Rama family remains in power. The end result is an extensive mass exodus to Europe and the USA. Since Rama came to power in 2013, who has since felt legitimisedby rigged elections, 46% of the Albanian population, i.e. around 1.4 million inhabitants, have already fled, and the Albanian state has degenerated into a state of criminals in the middle of Europe. If the elections are rigged again in 2025, which is already happening, then a civil war and a mass exodus cannot be ruled out.
The second scenario is a democratic, parliamentary constitutional state, whose economic basis is the social market economy. Which is part of the pan-Albanian community and a member of the EU. That must be the way forward.
How would the situation in Albania affect the Balkan Peninsula and the neighbouring countries of Greece and Bulgaria?
Over the past three decades, there has been an extreme and a moderate camp on the Albanian peninsula.
One camp was the Russian-Serbian “axis of evil”, the camp of the anti-Albanians: Putin/Lavrov, Vucic/Rama and Dodic.
The other, moderate camp consisted of the moderate, liberal democracies:
Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as the Albanian and Serbian opposition.
Today, especially after the results in Syria and Ukraine, the moderate forces have a great opportunity to shape the Albanian peninsula and integrate it into the EU.
Now, in 2025, it is time to establish new rules in the Balkans based on a compromise between the divided societies, to which Europe and the USA must also make a massive contribution, for example by stopping all support for the autocrats in the Balkans.
Rama and his oligarchic structures are to be ostracised as persona non grata.
The process of restructuring the Balkans must be led by the pro-Western civil societies / the oppressed opposition, otherwise it will not work and that should then also enable the return of the millions of Albanians who have fled.
Only then will there be peace in the Balkans and stability for the whole of Europe.
What is necessary for this?
Well, in Albania, for example, Rama has established a de facto one-party state through rigged elections.
Nothing works in Albania anymore except the theft of Albanian taxes and international aid money by the autocratic Rama executive. Incidentally, the Rama executive is internationally recognised as one of the most corrupt executives in the world.
In this respect, it is now a central demand to initiate a transitional government and to oblige this transitional government to fulfil certain criteria:
Protection of minorities, release of all political prisoners, including all representatives of the opposition, including the unjustly imprisoned former President Ilir Meta, Berisha as leader of the Albanian opposition is the direct negotiator and contact person for the administration, renunciation of acts of revenge and immediate organisation of democratic elections under international supervision.
If the sole ruler Rama, who has not been legitimised by democratic elections, does not step down voluntarily, then the Albanian sovereign, i.e. the people, would probably have to invoke its right to self-defence under international law in view of the dysfunctional legal system and call on the Rama government to resign and, if necessary, depose it as a last democratic resort so that democratic and non-rigged elections can be held in Albania.
So a development like in 1992?
That’s right.
Look at what happened in Syria or Ukraine. In Albania there is de facto no elected government, this group legitimises itself through rigged elections and has de facto plundered Albania, Albania also endangers the security of Europe and the health of European citizens through the exponential growth of drug logistics and money laundering in Albania.
What the Rama, Ball and Veliaj group has done is de facto a constitutional coup, the establishment of the dysfunctionality of the rule of law and the attempt to neutralise the entire Albanian opposition and exploit the Albanian state.
In this respect, this Rama group probably leaves the people no other chance to make use of their constitutional right to self-defence, as all constitutional instruments in Albania will fail unless someone finally wakes up.
Rama and his comrades should leave the country immediately. Vucic or Putin will surely grant them asylum or another mafia state in this world. Their time is up, there can be no more talks with them and the Albanians want a future for their families and not a Serbian-Russian kleptocracy in the Balkans. However, they must return the stolen capital to the Albanian state.
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