Albania is today facing its greatest territorial threat since 1913. Not from war, nor from international pressure, but from within: from a weak, trapped government that seeks political salvation from our southern neighbor, who now, after the annulled 2009 agreement, has clear "bargains".

Si Did we get this far?

Albania was built on an original weakness, which we have never openly admitted: our borders were not won by war, but were determined by foreigners. The Conference of Ambassadors in 1920 with its unjust decisions and their subsequent consequences left us a politically truncated and defenseless state. This explains why even today foreign embassies in Tirana have an unusual influence on Albanian political life: because our borders are the product of foreign diplomacy, not of our state power. The assistants to the birth of the Albanian state were ambassadors, gathered at a conference.

In addition to saving all the Jews, Albania is also a unique case in World War II for something else: while the entire continent was losing territory, the Albanian lands were administratively united, creating for the first time an ethnic reality closer to the truth, and this during the occupation and under the administration of the occupiers. So not only have we not been able to preserve our lands, despite centuries of efforts, but even when what was added to us was added to us, it was added to us by the occupier, in 1939 by fascist Italy and in 1943 by Nazi Germany.

As a result of this geopolitical phenomenon, as rare as it is serious, we are the only nation in the world that has 100% of its land border surrounded by an indigenous Albanian population: in Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Greece. Even the border of our border is an indigenous Albanian people, in three cases – Novi Pazar, Kuršumlija and the Preševo ​​Valley, all three of these in Serbia. And this layering of border lines and the interconnection between them is a sincere reflection of the difficulties and drama that our people have been forced to face – just like the rings of a cut tree trunk and its knots, which indicate the age and climate in which that tree grew.

It is often said that "history/fate" willed that we never disappear. But this statement sounds a bit abstract and vague. The history of our survival, at least in the 20th century, has a name: the USA, which happened to be on our side twice, in the two most critical cases:

1. The year 1920, when President Wilson presented the 14 points at the Conference of Ambassadors, according to which borders could not be determined, based on the policies of the Great Powers, recognizing Albania's right to self-determination; and

2. The year 1999, when the US intervened militarily in Kosovo, together with NATO forces, to stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Albanian people, despite major legal, diplomatic, political and military opposition, and as a result, perpetrators also became in fact and in law of its independence.

The bad ones of yourself

Albania, unfortunately, has not lacked anysometimes leaders willing to cripple sovereignty and change borders whenever their chairs are put at risk.

On December 16 in Athens, an agreement is expected to be signed between Albania and Greece, the content of which still remains a mystery. The only signals about its content come from the media of the neighboring country, according to which, this agreement also includes the maritime agreement. It is said that we lose about 40 square kilometers of sea, an economic zone rich in natural resources, gas and oil (it is a great misfortune to use the word “talked about” for such important issues). If we lose this maritime space, Albania risks much more than 40 km of sea. In addition to losing rights over the continental shelf, we lose the exclusive economic zone and all rights over natural resources, marine and underground, in the Ionian – one of the most important energy spaces in the region. This agreement not only deprives Albania of the role it currently has in the Adriatic-Ionian corridor, but also breaks the international credibility of the Albanian state, putting the country in the category of states that are unable to protect their borders. In short, once again unable to protect our borders also because of corrupt political leaders.

The most serious consequence of this agreement is the creation of an irreversible legal precedent. A wrong signature today cannot be corrected tomorrow – neither by future governments, nor by the courts, nor by internationals, except at very high cost. I even remember an old man in Kosovo, who was buying an apartment in Mitrovica and said to me: “We Albanians are taught to buy our lands two or three times.". This happens because the Albanian state, for its citizens, is not a guarantor neither by law, nor by rifle, nor by heart – completely disarmed. This is not a metaphor, it is reality. Today's administration is neither national nor professional. It produces documents and geopolitical realities to cover its weaknesses, not to protect the interests of the country. Currently, corruption in Albania is not an individual mistake, but a functional infrastructure of the state at an industrial level. Sovereignty is being eroded by demographic depletion, by the legal weakness of institutions and by a multi-level demilitarization, which has left strategic areas uncovered.

From rain to hail: 1920-2025

The Albanian government, in 2024, regarding the sea issue, hired a private British company called OMNIS as a consultant for the agreement in question, which is expected to be approved on December 16, 2025. This private foreign company has placed itself at the heart of the process, drafting documents that belong to it and that have as their object and subject only the interests of the Albanian state and its citizens. No serious state would allow this, much less willingly include it and pay for it with a pretty hefty price: 3 million euros. No nation that values ​​itself delegates the issue of territory to a private firm, also due to the personal and ideological-political ties of the company owner (Tony Blair's wife) with the Albanian Prime Minister.

At the 1920 conference, ambassadors did indeed decide, but in principle the ambassador is the highest representative of a state abroad, carries out political mediation, promotes strategic relations and has full responsibility before the law, as he is considered the commander on the front line of diplomatic 'trenches'. Now, after 105 years, who and What does the company OMNIS represent?? This company, from the characteristics of the factors that influenced the decision-making in 1920, does not have even the most basic characteristic: that of responsibility to its own state, Britain. This company was selected without a regular procedure, as provided for by Albanian law. To add insult to injury, we have analysts who may say that it is a "strategic corner", but the truth is simple: OMNIS at the end of the day protects its financial interests and treats Albanian national interests as a commodity for sale. It is not a guarantor, it is not an official ally, it is not a shield, but it is a company that operates for a fee, where the Albanian state is weak. And Albania today is precisely at this point - in the position of a state that does not exist and that seeks to be replaced by actors who are not responsible to anyone.

In this situation, what should be done is no longer a matter of party or rhetoric. Every foreign company, including OMNIS, must leave the process. Territory is not a consultancy project nor a service procurement. It is the foundation of a state and cannot be treated as a technical file or a private product. The agreement is a matter of national and state survival. The signing process must be stopped immediately, because Albania has neither standardized baselines, nor an official nautical chart, nor a unified team. negotiator, nor the capacity to legally confront in international courts. Continuing negotiations under these conditions at the ministerial level just because you have a minister is like going to war with a rifle but deliberately forgetting the bullets at home.

At best, this is an act of national irresponsibility, and in the worst case scenario, we can list several types of betrayals.

Every document, map, draft, analysis or report must be made public. Transparency is not a luxury; it is a means of survival. Documents that are good for Albanian interests do not have to be hidden from Albanians. Those that are hidden usually smell of betrayal. In addition, Albania must urgently build a National Task Force with maritime law lawyers, maritime geographers, NATO experts and security analysts. No militants, no party people, no brokers – only professionals. An important factor is also the activation of the diaspora and all Albanian experts abroad: academics, retired military personnel, diplomats, professionals in strategic fields and friendly foreign specialists, coming from true partner states, which have experience in this field. In the end, the state must formulate a clear, unquestionable, unequivocal and transparent narrative towards its people, as a legal and moral obligation.

To stop this disaster, we Albanians must react in all possible and efficient ways and forms. The reaction must be daily, articulated and sustainable, because a weakened state cannot protect territories, and neither can a captured government protect them, much less foreign companies, which only protect their finances.

We are entering a moment that will be written in history either as the day when Albania defended its right, or as the day when it lost forever an important part of its maritime territory. The decision is not only the government's. The decision is primarily the people's, who allow or not to take their territory. When the government puts national interests on the market, the only solution remains the overthrow of the government by referendum or through the reading, understanding and implementation of what is contained in the Second Amendment of the American Constitution.

"Those people who sleep don't even deserve to wake up."

-People-