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Tirana: 'People were ... no longer apathetic' (Photo: lassi.kurkijarvi)

Feature

The slow path to building civil society in Albania

by Erjona Rusi, Tirana, Podgorica and Amsterdam,
Tirana: 'People were ... no longer apathetic' (Photo: lassi.kurkijarvi)

The deal to decommission Syria’s chemical weapons did not calm its civil war, but it brought gas masks and a new civic spirit onto the streets of Albania.

The small Balkan country was recently named as a possible destination for the banned munitions, which have to be removed from Syria this year.

United in their opposition to the plan, thousands of Albanians - middle-class families, students, hipsters and conservative Muslims - came together in the capital, Tirana.

Their pr...

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