The anniversary’s celebrations and symbols
The celebrations of this 100th anniversary of independence have, naturally, raised many delicate and debatable issues, which were then set in stone and turned into historical ironies.
It was ironic that, on this very special anniversary, Albania filled up with Chinese-made flags on which the eagle was distorted. The national symbol, the flag, was directly debased, and nobody noticed even when one was placed beside the monument to Gjergj Kastrioti in the centre of Albania’s capital, Tirana.
The irony continued when King Zog’s remains were returned to Albania. His reburial ceremony took place on 17 November, the same date on which Tirana had been liberated 68 years earlier, in 1944. And so there was no “room” to commemorate the national liberation struggle of the capital, Tirana.
To honour this historical figure, Ahmet Zogu is to be cast in bronze at the start of the boulevard that bears his name, Zog I Boulevard, in Franc Nopça Square by the railway station. So far, nothing to remark on. But if we walk towards the centre along this boulevard, just 650 m, we encounter the bronze of an opponent of Zog: the already inaugurated monument to Hasan Prishtina.
After 9 years in exile, the distinguished patriot, on 13 August 1933, was killed in Thessaloniki by Ibrahim Çelo, a supporter of Zog’s regime. Today, 79 years later, his monument stands beside the National Museum, on the edge of the boulevard bearing the name of the man who wished him dead, Ahmet Zogu.
Another irony was “called for” in Tirana’s Municipal Council, when a proposal was made to rename Avni Rustemi Square, near the New Bazaar, as Çamëria Square.
The historical irony continued with the inauguration of the statue of former President Woodrow Wilson, a defender of the Albanian cause, in Blloku. In precisely the place where the communist regime once had its seat, a regime that not only broke off relations with the United States but persistently opposed every American policy for 45 years. 
The exhibition of Skanderbeg’s weapons
The next irony was the arrival in Albania of Skanderbeg’s weapons, except the sword’s scabbard, along with his engraving and codex. On 19 November they went on display in the Medieval Pavilion of the National Museum in Tirana. Skanderbeg, who organised the Albanians of the fifteenth century to fight the Turks, would, if he were alive, see total disorganisation today simply to SEE his weapons.
Many who went to see them and feel a closer connection to him were met with poor organisation and amateurish preparations by the cultural heritage authorities.
OK. Fair enough, there were a lot of people, but… Beside the glass case displaying Kastrioti’s weapons stood police officers, rather than guides or historians.
People left just as they had entered, without learning anything more.
You could hear people asking how much the helmet weighed or how long the sword was. Someone else asked about the inscription Inperatore, or when and by whom the helmet had been “given” to Skanderbeg. They all left with the same questions. 
Nobody at the Museum had “thought” even to stick an A4 sheet on the wall with “two or three” pieces of general information. The height of it was when a foreign visitor from Dubai asked a Museum employee for more information, and she was explaining… that he should leave! (Neither she nor any of the other Museum staff there spoke English!).
(To use this year’s phrase) AS PART OF THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE… we are celebrating “haphazardly”, perhaps as we usually do, and the irony here is that our state, in time for its 100th anniversary, is rotten with debt!
* This article was reviewed and corrected on 8 October 2026.