Two pictures of the Albanian world - Edi Rama and Albin Kurti (4): Origin, creation, and activity of the "Tirana Group"

Writing for Kosovo Online: Dragan Bisenic, journalist

"Tirana Group" is the collective name used to describe the vocal activists of the "Self-Determination" Movement from Albania. The President of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Lumir Abdixhiku is in a sense the "godfather" of this group. Hysamedin Feraj called him a "little schizophrenic" because of that.

"I just realized that the little schizophrenic, Lumir, does not know how to be the president in the third phase of the LDK. If you think - after the face of the LDK, Rugova, comes the shame of LDK, Mustafa. Poor Lumir doesn't know if he has a face or not. Waiting like that, for time to pass, he invented the group of Tirana," he wrote a status which was shared by Hysamedin Feraj, Kurti's adviser.

The group avoids presenting itself in that way, but gained a strong public profile in the controversy that took place in February of this year after Abdixhiku called on the security authorities of Kosovo to review the activities of this group in which "there is a tendency to act against Kosovo". Abdixhiku assessed that the "Tirana group within "Self-Determination" has positions that were against the strategic interests of Kosovo". Those views also became government decisions. They were attacking American officials and NATO, Abdixhiku said on Kosovo television. This caused an avalanche of comments and attacks on Abdixhiku by the members of this group.

The group was formally created in March 2019, when a request for registration of the "Self-Determination" Center as a citizens' association was submitted to the court in Tirana. The board members of this organization were - Enis Sulstarova, Liburn Aliu, Hysamedin Feraj, Elvis Hoxha, Dejona Mihali, Sami Kurteshi, Arber Zaimi, and Gerta Demiraj, and the president is Boyken Abazi. At the same time, they are also the founders, among whom is the current president of the Kosovo Assembly, Glauk Konjufca. All of them are citizens of Albania.

In 2018, this group played a decisive role in keeping Kurti at the head of the party, when there was a split in it and he had to resign from his post. Before the split, seven members of the then leadership requested an extraordinary meeting, following an insult reported by Aida Derguti to the leader Albin Kurti.

Among these seven people were: Dejona Mihali, Boyken Abazi, Nazlie Bala, Xhelal Svecla, Ismail Kurteshi, Fatmire Kollcaku, and Elvis Hoxha. It is believed that Mihali was the most powerful figure in that group, who then organized Kurti's return to the post of party president, denouncing as undemocratic the outgoing group's demand that Kurti not run for president.

Since the beginning of the year, this group has been very active in the defense of Albin Kurti and attacks on the creation of the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities. In a way, the group is Kurti's "praetorian guard", in whose deliberations the envoys Gabriel Escobar and Miroslav Lajcak, as well as the Kosovo opposition, were not spared.

The "Tirana group" is continuously involved in public discussions, and especially radicalizes its performances when Kurti is under domestic or international pressure. Two years ago, they harshly criticized Richard Grenell, the emissary of former President Trump, and now Escobar and Lajcak, but occasionally Borrell, who are seen as people who put pressure on Kurti.

The most active, with the most radical vocabulary, is Elvis Hoxha, who is officially Kurti's advisor. He also brought the issue of the CSM to North Macedonia after he published a map of municipalities with an Albanian majority, which he explained was becoming relevant because of Escobar's proposals. This group mercilessly attacks the CSM but has no fear of America or American officials. Dealing with Abdixhiku, Elvis Hoxha likes to make fun of the Americans as well.

Lumir Abdixhiku invites us to think about two things:

"1. Or, just to satisfy the Americans, the Assembly ratifies the Community, and then the Constituent Assembly annuls it - this is the case when Abdixhiku is playing with the Americans;

2. Or, to please the Americans, the Assembly ratifies it, and to the surprise of all the Albanians, the Constitution makes the Community valid, even though it speaks of a superior ethnic group in a multi-ethnic republic - this is the case when Abdixhiku, just like Isa (Mustafa), plays with Kosovo," Hoxha commented.
The opposition's visits to Washington are a real treat for its ridicule.

"The opposition often goes to Washington, of course, to tell the administration that the Community is threatening its dear ally, the state of Kosovo. But I don't know why he doesn't achieve his goal, with all that diplomatic skill he has," Feraj wrote. He also wrote a long article against Escobar in which he attributes responsibility for the return of "latent conflicts" because he "called on ethnic groups to create ethnic associations in Kosovo, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro and wherever they are." 

Kosovo and Albanian media consider Dejona Mihali to be the backbone of this group. It is known that Mihali (42) was born in Tirana and that she studied at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Philosophy-Sociology. She maintains a very inconspicuous public profile and not even the public of Kosovo knows much about her function in "Self-Determination". She doesn't even have a biography on the "Self-Determination" website, like other high-ranking officials. Only the position of "coordinator of the work of the board" was written for her.

Mihali was not seen in any public activity in Kosovo, and she was not given any public office in either the first or the second Kurti's government. Also, Mihali was not among the candidates for deputies in the elections on April 25, 2021, in Albania. She was never a candidate for any public office even in Kosovo, unlike her colleagues Hysamedin Feraj and Elvis Hoxha. Dejona Mihali remained in the shadows. She was banned from entering Kosovo in 2016.

Albin Kurti himself maintains a mysterious attitude and reveals almost nothing about her. When he was recently confronted with Ganimete Musliu's question in the Assembly of Kosovo about the visit to Albania, in which the still enigmatic figure Dejona Mihali also participated, Kurti did not clarify anything.

"Dejona Mihali is my colleague for many years, she made a great contribution in the role of head of expert committees in the Assembly in coordination with the parliamentary group," Kurti said.

"Self-determination" takes a determined course towards adopting the modern achievements of Western liberal democracy. This framework includes the absolute rejection of religious content from the party's ideology, as well as the affirmation of same-sex marriages, that is, "same-sex cohabitation", as it is officially called in the political vocabulary of "Self-determination".

The most powerful person in the "Tirana Group", Dejona Mihali, is in charge of implementing the party line, which is why she is called "Kadri Veseli (former head of the Kosovo Intelligence Service) in 'Self-Determination'". This was confirmed by the representative of "Self-Determination", Haki Abazi, who stated that she controlled the parliamentary group of this party in the Kosovo Assembly. In addition, it is claimed that she is the perpetrator of party purges in which candidates for the presidents of this party's board either resign or do not receive the support of the party's electoral bodies, as happened in Kosovska Mitrovica, Urosevac, Lipljan, Prizren, Vitina and Podujevo, and the main reason given was the attitude towards same-sex cohabitation.

The former chief negotiator in the dialogue process between Belgrade and Pristina, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Skender Hyseni, criticized the so-called "Tirana Group" in the "Self-Determination" Movement, emphasizing that this group dictates the ruling policy in Kosovo. Hyseni stated that for a long time the so-called "Tirana group" in addition to the policy of "Self-Determination" also dictated the ruling policy in Kosovo.

"Creating and establishing an anti-American and anti-Western policy seems to be the mission of this 'group' that aims to put Kosovo in confrontational relations with the US and the EU. Something that started sometime in 2015 seems to be firmly consolidated in the 'Self-Determination' party policy and the government Albin Kurti," Hyseni explains. He adds in the announcement that it is the duty of the opposition political forces in Kosovo not to remain indifferent to the "efforts and policies of that group".

He says that in 2016, three exponents of that "group" were deported from Kosovo for violating the Law on Residence in Kosovo.

"In 2016, three exponents of this 'group' were deported from Kosovo by the decision of the Directorate of Migration and Foreigners, because they violated the Law on Residence in Kosovo. At that time, I was the Minister of the Interior. The Directorate of Migration and Foreigners was doing its job in accordance with the laws in force, without any political interference. However, a little later 'Self-Determination' stated that it was 'political deportation' and they organized a shameful attack on me on July 22, 2016. While I was driving in a private car they threw paint on the windshield. As a result, my vehicle collided with two other vehicles. A few hours later, 'Self-Determination' claimed responsibility for the attack on me. Yet, surprisingly, no legal action was taken against 'Self-Determination', even though the attack led to people's lives being in danger," Hyseni said.

He notes that there was no reaction or condemnation of the attack on the Minister of Internal Affairs, not even from a single member of the Assembly of Kosovo, and that the only one who condemned the attack was the former president of the LDK, Isa Mustafa.

Hyseni explains that he told this to emphasize that the public would know what he was dealing with. "Evil comes and grows only if its path is not interrupted in time, or as Nelson Mandela said, 'fools multiply when wise men are silent,'" Hyseni concluded.

Tomorrow: Encouraging the disintegration of Kosovo unity, creating disobedience, and losing friends