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Democratic MP, Ina Zhupa, reacted to Prime Minister Edi Rama's positions on the TID project in Durrës.
Zhupa stated that the arguments presented by Rama do not hold up and that the initiative does not guarantee the protection of the city's cultural heritage.
The democrat further explained that the law on cultural heritage, to which Rama refers as the legal basis for the intervention, was drafted and funded in 2016 by the Albanian American Development Foundation.
According to her, the foundation itself has stated that it has spent about 190 thousand dollars on the preparation of this law. She argued that a law sponsored by the entity that currently benefits from the project cannot be used as a legal obligation to justify the implementation of the TID.
The MP added that the planned interventions are not limited to the area around the Durrës Amphitheater, but also affect historic homes outside its perimeter. She stated that some properties with regular documentation, located in conservation areas, are being treated as informal constructions.
Zhupa stressed that the project was drafted without detailed verifications on the ground and that the experts engaged worked on cartographic data, classifying existing buildings as additions and considering preserved buildings as problematic. She described the project as selective and clientelistic and demanded its immediate suspension.
According to her, institutions should draft a plan that preserves the historical landscape of Durrës and serves the process for inclusion on the UNESCO list, while respecting the criteria for the protection of identity values.
"NONE of Edi Rama's claims about the TID project are true or true. The project is clientelist and does not serve the protection of Durrës' heritage and identity.
First, the law on cultural heritage that Rama refers to as the obligation to carry out the TID derives from, was drafted and sponsored by the AADF itself, it was drafted in agreement with Kunbaro on July 19, 2016. The AADF itself has even stated that it spent about 190 thousand dollars on its preparation. Therefore, a law made by the very entity that today benefits from the project cannot be used as a reason for “legal obligation” to justify the necessity of the TID project. Such a law, contestable and essentially unconstitutional, does not constitute sufficient reason.
Secondly, when Rama states that “the state is intervening against degradation or informal constructions in cultural heritage areas”, the facts on the ground show the opposite. In Durrës, historic dwellings with identified owners, in conservation and informal areas, are being treated the same as if they were unauthorized constructions. This is not a fight against informality, but a violation of heritage and legal property.
Third, it is not about properties within the amphitheater or its immediate perimeter, which can be expropriated at a fair market price in the public interest. It is about properties far away from the amphitheater, up to the area of the “Jani Kukuzeli” school, which have nothing to do with highlighting the monument.
The TID project was designed without real measurements and verifications on the ground. The so-called "Italian experts" hired by the AADF worked on Google Maps, considering regular housing as "additions" and treating preserved buildings as "image damage", just because new ones were not built.
This project is selective and clientelistic in nature. It is not a plan for public or national interest. If it were, the historic homes would be preserved and restored, not destroyed.
Suspend the project and make it a project that can actually serve the UNESCO dossier because one of the essential criteria is the preservation of the historical landscape and not violating identity values. UNESCO does not support the demolition and re-creation of cities with green spaces but the restoration of historical values. Cultural heritage is not protected by erasing it, but by preserving it", says Zhupa.
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