Amid rapid and often ruthless development, Tirana is losing the last layers of its identity.
But not everyone is silent. In an old corner of the city, where Qemal Stafa, Hoxha Tahsin and Faik Ternova streets intersect, one family decided not to give up.
The Çoku family, determined to preserve the Tirana houses inherited from generation to generation, was faced with a plan by the Municipality of Tirana that would lead to the demolition of their homes to open a new road. A road that, according to documents, would directly serve the development of the properties of the Xoxa family, the wife of Mayor Veliaj.
Lindita Çoku, today lives in the United States of America, where she works as a doctor. She leads an association that works to promote the identity values of the capital, “Shoqnia Tirona Autoktone”.
Through a telephone conversation, Lindita tells us the story of her family and their properties in the area of Qemal Stafa Street since the period of King Zog, the persecution during the dictatorship, and the repossession of the properties after the fall of the regime.
"My father is the only one from the Çoku family who was born and raised there (in Qemal Stafa street) on our properties, because the rest were persecuted by the communist system, think how sacred and sublime it is for him to close his eyes in his own home", Lindita says.
But the Municipality of Tirana had other plans.
Working under the rug, Veliaj was preparing the necessary changes that would pave the way for the creation of a road in favor of his wife Ajola Xoxa's family and the construction of a terrace on her land. The project also included the demolition of old housing.
The Veliaj-Xoxa couple manipulated the municipality's decisions in their own interest
Ajola was the owner of a house with land near the Çoku family properties, inherited from her father, Arben Xoxa, which after 2019, the Xoxa family decided to develop with the construction of two 8-11-story buildings.
Lindita Çoku learned at the beginning of 2022 that a Detailed Local Plan (PDV) had been drafted by decision of the Mayor, which paved the way for the demolition of her old house and the construction on her land of a road that would serve the palace that would be built.
"To build the complex, three roads were needed, while the land Ajola had only had two," says Lindita Çoku, mentioning the streets "Faik Tërnova" and "Qemal Stafa". Lindita further adds that she was forced to do research work to discover "the tricks that were being used".
"Lying on paper that there was a road running along our houses, they came up with that plan that 'We will demolish your houses, because the road will be widened'..." says Lindita.
On paper, the municipality had created a street named “Hajdar Kërçiku”, which according to the documents connected “Hoxha Tasin” street with “Qemal Stafa” street, but in fact it was a dead end. In reality, the two sides of the main streets were connected only by “Faik Tërnova” street.
"Even today there is no road there, our houses have their entrance from Qemal Stafa and we also have a dead end which is Çoku Alley."", Lindita tells Citizens.
The municipality approved the PDV for the construction of the “Hajdar Kërçiku” road in 2022, part of the structural unit TR/7. It presented the construction of the new road as a need for the development of infrastructure and the connection of areas.
But Lindita says that in fact the decision was Veliaj's favoritism towards his wife and her family.
"Ajola and Veliaj's efforts have been since the first mandate [2015-2019], as soon as he took the second mandate [2019-2023], the movement [of interests] with architects began, we cut it short because we do not intend to demolish our houses," Lindita remembers.
She says that her family will maintain and preserve the tradition, aiming to leave a legacy for the city.
"Seeing our resistance, they began plans to annihilate us and build in their own interests.", adds Lindita.
In 2022-2023, the municipality issued three building permits in the Lindita neighborhood, which found that Mayor Veliaj had acted in violation of his powers to pave the way for the projects.
After these findings, she turned to the "Res Publica" center to file a lawsuit in the Administrative Court with the argument that the approval of the PDV had not respected legal procedures, as there was no clear urban planning basis.
She and “Res Publica” insisted that the approval of the PDV was made without proper public consultation and without a full analysis of its impact on the properties and lives of the citizens of the area.
On April 3, the Çoku family managed to win the case, overturning Mayor Veliaj's decision to build the "Hajdar Kërçiku" road to connect "Hoxha Tahsin" and "Qemal Stafa" roads.
The court argued that the PDV approved by the municipality, which provided for the construction of this road, is invalid. According to it, its opening was not justified given that the two main roads were connected by “Faik Tërnova” street, about 40 meters further on.
"Thanks to a highly professional law firm, we managed to win the trial with a spectacular result where the 5 bloodsuckers raised the green card in favor of the Çoku family and rejected the entire corrupt plan of Xoxa and Veliaj."", says Lindita.
She further adds that in September 2024 she sued the mayor in SPAK, and that there are also other legal processes related to Xoxa and Veliaj.
The court's decision in favor of the Çoku family also proved that the construction of the "Hajdar Kërciku" road was undertaken under conditions of conflict of interest, as a result of Veliaj's family ties with the property owners.
"Our case has opened a new chapter for the community and the capital, if we lose the roots of identity as individuals and as a community we will lose Albania, we see in the big picture, not just the bricks, mortar and adobe."", says Lindita.
Construction permits, SPAK and Valmir Xoxa file
The area between "Hoxha Tahsin", "Faik Tërnova" and "Qemal Stafa" streets was granted three building permits between 2022-2023. They were granted within 6 months by the mayor of the municipality, Erion Veliaj.
On October 19, 2022, the municipality approved the permit for the 10-story building with two underground parking floors for the company “A&G Construction” of Gentian Bruzja and Florjan Sula. The project was conceived by the studio Atelier 4 of Altin Premti and brothers Olsi, Andi and Alban Efthimi.
On December 27, 2022, the municipality approved the construction permit for another 10-story building, but with three floors of underground parking, for the company "Tirana-1 Konstruksion" of entrepreneurs Arben Dibra and Luigj Paloka. The project was designed by Studioarch4 of Lorin Çekrezi and Rezart Struga.
Both permits were for residential and service facilities with orientation and connection to the "Qemal Stafa" street.
About four months later, on April 25, 2023, the municipality approved the third permit in the same area.
This time for an 8-story building with an underground parking floor for entrepreneur Artan Dumi and the company “Gramozi Ndërtim Projektim” of Idajet Alush and Genci Hadaj. This project was also conceived by the Atelier 4 studio of Premtit and the Efthimi brothers, but had an exit from “Faik Tërnova” street.
SPAK investigations revealed that prior to the approval of these permits, there were suspicious transactions between Mayor Veliaj's wife and a relative of hers.
In 2019, Ajola Xoxa inherited from her father, Agron Xoxa, parts of two 147 m houses.2 and 130 m2 and a total plot area of 915 m2 (Properties 3/173; 3/197 ZK 8150). These properties were behind the existing building where Lindita Çoku's "Shoqnia Tirona Autoktone" association currently has its offices.
In 2020, Ajola sold these properties to her cousin Valmir Xoxa, a musician in the Tirana Municipality brass band, for a value of around 140 thousand euros.
The prosecution suspects that this transaction was fictitious since Valmir Xoxa did not have sufficient income to commit such a crime in savings, while he also appears to be the beneficiary of a soft loan from the Tirana municipality.
Moreover, Valmir Xoxa has changed his version of the testimony several times in front of prosecutors. He has not shown accurate knowledge of who the builders of the building were, the agreement with them, and the concrete benefits he would have from the investment: an apartment, a shop, and a parking lot.
After 2020, the municipality, led by Ajola's husband, Erion Veliaj, has acted by started drafting of the PDV of the area (TR/7) and then in 2021 has approvedIn February 2022 the PDV was corrected and published with the map The PDV has added the "Hajdar Kërçiku" street.
According to the Administrative Court's decision, the road that provides access to Xoxa's former property adds value to the investment for the palaces and was granted by Veliaj, in addition to a conflict of interest, also in violation of competences since the approval of the construction of new roads falls under the jurisdiction of the National Territorial Council and not the Municipality.
SPAK accuses Veliaj and his wife for corruption, money laundering and false declaration of assets. The prosecution suspects that they benefited from hundreds of thousands of euros from a corrupt scheme of circulating public funds through Xoxa's NGOs.
Veliaj has denied the accusations, calling them a political attack by his opponents.
Read also:
- The charges that led to Erion Veliaj's arrest
- The Veliaj File: Investigations, Accusations and Facts
- Appeal leaves Mayor Erion Veliaj in prison
He completed master's studies in Investigative Journalism at the Department of Journalism at the University of Tirana. She has been working as a journalist for five years, where she previously covered issues of politics and parliamentary activity, in print and online media. She is currently a journalist at Citizens.al, where she covers various social issues related to the transparency of institutions. At Citizens.al, she leads the podcast "The Unheard" and is engaged as a manager of projects related to the support of investigative journalism.
