The brothers Durim and Andi Gjoka returned from Greece in 1998 to invest their savings in Albania. They set up a flower and tree business near Thumana, the axis that served as a national road until a few weeks ago.
"With the drop of a pencil, the government blocks our main road and access to connect to the new highway"- shows Durim Gjoka for Citizens.
When the highway was built, their business was split in half, leaving the greenhouses on one side and the flower shop on the other side of the road. The only underpass that connects the two parts of the business is only 3.4 meters, which prevents the passage of large vehicles for transporting trees.
"In order for us to load a trailer, I have to unload the materials twice, because big cars don't fit here. It takes at least one day, all day, with 10-12 workers to load a trailer. At a time when the trailer came to its place, it was loaded for half a day and we finished the work, and the plant had no damage"- he explains to Citizens.
The business of the Gjoka brothers is located just a few meters from the roundabout of the old highway, which for a month has turned into a road to nowhere. Ironically, the new highway has cut in the middle of an existing roundabout, which was built with the intention of connecting the road with the new axis that would follow.
The 80 inhabitants of Kruja and its surroundings now have two options, either to return to Kashar or to cross a secondary alley that leads to Thumana.
"It has become hell, all the cars in Albania pass here, this is a neighborhood road, a road where we cannot take children out on the street" - says Artur Lame.
Arturi lives by the side of the old secondary road. The closure of the road has turned his yard into an improvised international axis, where heavy tonnage cars pass every day and accidents are caused.
But in addition to the poor infrastructure, this secondary road does not offer even the minimum signage, putting drivers all the time in a dilemma as to which side they should take to reach certain destinations.
This problem has assigned a new task to Edi Farruk, who serves as a hojja in the mosque of Thumana.
"During the day when I'm at the mosque, I stay here to show people where I'm headed, because they enter and every road they see seems to connect to the highway, I pull out the GPS, but in reality all the roads are closed, or let the state come, let it come and sell a sign"- says Edi Farruku.
To help the citizens, he has drawn on the wall of the Mosque orientation writings for the directions of Shkodër, Kosovo, Morinë.
Protests and police violence
The eighth consecutive protest of the residents of Thumana was announced on Monday. For weeks, in a form of revolt, they overcame the police cordons and blocked the traffic of vehicles on the new highway for an hour or more. Their only requirement is road access.
"My side shield fell like this and I was bleeding, the cameras are complete and at that moment the police fence was opened, when they hit me"- Patience shows.
In some protests, the eagle forces have not hesitated to use tear gas, eye spray, etc., to disperse the crowds. The residents say that they will not stop the protests until they have an alternative route.
"We will continue the protests, let's go to jail because they put us in jail, they took our livelihood, businesses are bankrupting us, youth is running away from us, we are in jail. What else are we waiting for?"- says Durim Gjoka.
He cannot hide the disappointment of isolation, not only physical but also economic.
"Every country in the world, every business is given favors, not destruction. Here they have given us destruction, they have not given us any favors, they have penalized us in all directions, such as from the land, the property they have taken from us, as from the businesses...."- Patience ends.
This highway will be accessed against a payment of 270 ALL for each vehicle. The contract between the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy and the companies "Gener 2 sh.pk" provides for a 35-year concession. While the project cost about 267 million euros, the financing of the axis was done by the concessionaire, which plans to collect at least 1.3 billion euros in basic income for 35 years.
He completed his master's studies in the department of Journalism and Communication Sciences at the University of Tirana. She has been reporting for more than four years in Citizens.al on issues of culture, urban development, feminism, etc. She is also a contributor to other local and foreign online media, and has worked in the editing of various materials. She is the author of the podcast "Pezull" on Citizens.al and is engaged as a coordinator of projects related to the empowerment of young journalists and migration issues.
