Albania 'Sold Off' Parts of Butrint, Watchdog Says

Documents obtained by the Forum for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, a watchdog based in Tirana, show that 1,360 hectares of land inside the park were restored to property claimants in 2006.

The Forum says the restitution process was illegal and broke both international treaties and Albania laws that protect the Butrint archeological park, which UNESCO has designated a world heritage site.

“Butrint has been recognized as the UNESCO heritage site and was designated as a national park in 2000 and as such is protected by the Ramsar convention,” the watchdog group said on Wednesday.

“We condemn this act against our national heritage and ask the government of [Prime Minister] Edi Rama to annul this decision,” it added.

Dating back as far as the 10th century BC, Butrint was a Greek colony, a Roman city and a Byzantine bishopric before being deserted in the late Middle Ages, after which its magnificent buildings sank into the marshes.

Located on a bluff overlooking the Vivari canal, which connects Lake Butrint with the Ionian Sea, near Albania’s southern border with Greece, the city is one the most significant Classical archaeological sites in the Mediterranean.

From the end of the Second World War until the collapse of the Communist regime in 1991, all property in Albania was owned by the state, which confiscated it from its previous owners at the advent of the regime. 

After the fall of Communism, the government moved to return confiscated properties to former owners - but the process has often lacked transparency and been marred by corruption. 

The Heritage Forum suspects that the restitution process involving Butrint was also corrupt and has called on the prosecutor’s office to launch an...