
Prime Minister Edi Rama has reacted to the statement of the Iranian Foreign Ministry regarding the protests that have been taking place in Albania for several days.
Through a long post on the social network X, Rama accuses the Iranian regime of cyberattacks on Albanian institutions and defends Albania's decision to grant asylum to Iranian citizens who, according to him, have fled political persecution.
"So, now suddenly you care about the Albanian people?" Rama writes at the beginning of his reaction, recalling that Albania has been the subject of a wide campaign of cyberattacks, which according to international investigations have been linked to actors supported by the Iranian regime.
The head of the Albanian government emphasizes that Tehran's hostility towards Tirana is not related to ideological or geopolitical issues, but to the fact that Albania has opened its doors to Iranian citizens seeking protection from persecution.
In his reaction, the Prime Minister stated that Albania has significantly strengthened its cyber defenses after previous attacks and that continued efforts to hit Albanian digital infrastructure have failed.
Rama's full reaction
Really? So now you suddenly care about the Albanian people? The same Albanian people whose institutions, public services, and digital infrastructure were the targets of a cyberterror campaign aimed at paralyzing an entire country, and which international investigations have traced back to actors connected to and supported by your regime.
We know these fingerprints very well. We know the methods. We know the threats. And we know that what has fueled your hostility towards Albania has never been Zionism, nor any other convenient slogan of your disgusting propaganda. It is your hostility towards freedom itself.
You cannot forgive Albania for what Albanians do: opening its doors to people fleeing persecution. You cannot forgive Albania for giving refuge to Iranian men and women, whom you tried to silence through intimidation, imprisonment, and death, simply because they dare to think differently, speak differently, or dream differently.
But we are Albanians. We do not abandon the people who knock on our door seeking protection from oppression. We did not do so when Jews fleeing Nazi persecution needed shelter. We became the only country in Europe with more Jews after World War II than before it. And we will not disappoint Iranians seeking safety from intimidation, persecution, or murder.
Nor will we succumb to your desperate and relentless cyber attacks. After your major attack, we built a resilient and state-of-the-art cyber shield that has made Albania much stronger and much better prepared to face your desperate cyber attacks that continue without success.
You are free to use the privileges of open societies to spread your false narratives, your shameless accusations, and your brutal threats. But, as we Albanians learned from fifty years of darkness under our atheocratic dictatorship, propaganda can hide the truth, distort the truth, and push the truth, but it can never bury the truth even under the weight of a medieval theocracy like yours.
Your regime can hack networks, imprison critics, censor voices, threaten opponents, harass neighbors, and create endless excuses for its failures. But it cannot escape reality forever.
Regimes built on fear, censorship, oppression, and the suppression of dissent may endure for a while, but history is merciless toward those who wage war against the freedom and prosperity of their people. The Iranian people deserve freedom. They deserve dignity. They deserve the right to speak without fear. And Albania will never apologize, never back down, and never be afraid to stand by these values.
So, continue to manipulate and deceive anyone in the colorful West who is willing to fall prey to your lies. But you will never make Albanians enemies of the peoples – be they Jews, Arabs or Americans. Because what they share, and what you fear, are the very things you have denied your nation for too long: High hopes, big dreams and the determination to live free, to seek peace and to build relentless prosperity.