Nothing to Do With Protest

The Newsroom

Article 47 of the Albanian Constitution guarantees the freedom of peaceful assembly, without arms. Article 11 of the European Convention protects the same thing, in the same words: peaceful. What follows is a list of acts recorded in Tirana on 13 and 14 October 2026 by the State Police and by the Shqiptarja and Report TV live files. None of them is covered by either article.

Tuesday, 13 October

The Ministry of Education stoned and attacked with molotov cocktails over roughly nine hours.

The Municipality of Tirana attacked.

The stalls of Pazari i Ri set alight; their owners filmed trying to put the fires out.

The branch of a financial institution at the entrance of Rruga e Durrësit burned.

Private businesses damaged along the route.

A protester climbed an electricity pole and smashed the security cameras on it.

Rubbish bins set on fire outside the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office; more on Rruga Bardhyl; advertising stands set alight.

The flag of the Holy See torn from the Apostolic Nunciature and left on the pavement; condemned by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs on Wednesday morning as a breach of the inviolability of diplomatic premises under Article 22 of the Vienna Convention.

Police officers hit with stones and molotov cocktails, by the State Police account.

Sixteen arrested, forty-nine under criminal investigation, six still in hospital on Wednesday morning, one a nineteen-year-old in surgery.

Wednesday, 14 October

11:49: masked men pull up pavement railings laid that morning to replace those torn out on Tuesday, pile them at the Ministry of Education, and begin stoning the building.

11:57: the Ministry’s door forced with railings.

12:11: attempts to climb the Ministry’s perimeter wall.

12:14: railings laid across the road as a barricade against the police water cannon.

12:24: an advertising hoarding on Rruga e Durrësit set on fire; bins dragged into the road and set alight.

12:28: journalists covering the protest stoned.

12:46: the State Police appeal: stop the violence, distance yourselves from the masked men, attacks on officers are unacceptable and punishable by law.

12:51 to 12:59: stones and molotov cocktails thrown at police officers; a molotov thrown at the Ministry after the crowd regroups.

13:11: fireworks fired at the police line and at the Ministry; the water cannon vehicle stoned.

13:35: masks and gloves distributed to the crowd from red bags, on camera.

13:55: a Democratic Party deputy surrounded, doused with water and bottles, and driven off.

13:59: street lights torn out.

14:14: a bank on Rruga e Durrësit kicked in, windows smashed.

14:37: a molotov sets fire to an office on the first floor of the Ministry of Education.

14:42: the bank set on fire; the business next to it damaged; police put the fire out with extinguishers.

14:47: benches, railings and bins used to build a blockade at the police cordon under continued stoning.

15:00: a masked man fires stones at the police line with a slingshot.

As of 15:01 on Wednesday: eleven detained, five injured.

The list does not include the chants, the boycotts of lectures, the marches between faculties, the burned bins outside a secondary school, the blocked roads or the hoses of the water cannon. Those are the protest, or the response to it. The list is what was done alongside the protest by people who covered their faces to do it, and every item on it is a criminal offence in any member state of the European Union.

Freedom of assembly protects the right to stand in front of the Ministry of Education and demand a prime minister’s resignation. It does not protect the molotov that set the first floor on fire, and no statement that treats the two as one thing has described what happened in Tirana.