A monument is not a party to the protest

On Saturday in Tirana, the entrances of ministries and City Hall caught fire, the windows of a bank and a mobile phone store were smashed, and a kiosk next to a bus stop was burned. According to Shqiptarja.com, the Puppet Theater was also set on fire. Culture Minister Blendi Gonxhja posted images of broken glass, wrecked doors and fire-damaged facades and said the damaged buildings include Category I and II monuments.

Gonxhja is right that protest is a democratic right, but that right does not justify destruction. A burned monument facade is not restored by a political decision; it is lost for generations to come, whoever wins today's argument. Last week, the “Lahuta e Malësisë” monument in Lezha was also damaged. This is becoming a pattern, not an accident.

But condemnation is not enough. The minister did not name the monuments affected and gave no estimate of the damage. Nor had a tally of the damage to businesses been made public by evening, even though on Oct. 21, at the Bank of Albania, it was reported that earlier protests had damaged 45 bank branches and 53 ATMs. Without a precise list, the damage easily becomes an argument for one side and a denial for the other.

The heaviest burden falls on people with no stake in politics: the kiosk owner, the store employees, the people waiting for the bus. Protest organizers cannot say the violence is not theirs if they do nothing to stop it. The government, for its part, cannot settle for posting footage on social media.

Our proposal: the Culture Ministry should publish, within a week, a list of the damaged monuments with an estimate of the damage and a restoration plan. Tirana City Hall and the police should open a public register of damage to private property, which would make both compensation and prosecution easier. And the organizers of every future rally should assign people responsible for the heritage buildings along the march route.