The opposition’s demonstrations of January 21 were followed by crashes with the police and arson. At 14:00, which was the official time of the beginning of the demonstration, the crowd was confronted with the group of police officers lined in front of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Firstly, the protesters used sticks and strong objects. The media cameras registered several people while removing the tiles of the boulevard; they wanted to use them to hit the police.

Because of the tense situation, police spread the crowd by using tear gas. This intervention was effective only for few minutes, and it served only to back the protesters for few minutes from the Prime Minister’s Office. But this did not stop violent acts. As a consequence, police and private cars were burned in the “Deshmoret e Kombit” Boulevard.

The protesters were gathered in five different places in Tirana, and then they marched toward the main boulevard. At the beginning, among them was even the leader of the opposition, Edi Rama, but nothing stopped them from crashing with the police.

After degenerating into violence, the demonstration continued even in the “Deshmoret e Kombit” Boulevard. Confidential sources close to the police inform that nearly 6 vehicles were destroyed near the Pyramid, and two of them were burned. It was learned that they were private vehicles, and only one of them belonged to the police forces.

Also, protesters tried several times to raid the shops in the area. Because of the tense situation, 4 police officers were sent to the military hospital because they were seriously wounded with bricks.

Until now, the opposition’s demonstration, which degenerated into crashes between civilians and police forces, has caused 3 dead and 47 wounded. The news was made public by Vice Director of the Military Hospital in Tirana. Zyber Veizaj from Gjirokastra, 60 years old, and another unidentified person, lost their lives because of the wounds.

“17 police officers and a civilian are wounded. Two of them have serious wounds in the head. Until now, two persons have lost their lives because they were wounded with guns. It will be the experts of forensics to determine the type of the gun. We sent them to the judiciary police, so they can determine the distance. From the wounds we can understand that they are small guns, with a small caliber, but the final verdict will be given by the forensic analyses,” said physician Sami Koceku.

Meanwhile, many private vehicles and businesses have been damaged because of the demonstration.
The US Embassy in Tirana, the head of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Tirana and OSCE Presence in Albania express their deepest remorse that Friday’s demonstration in Tirana was not a peaceful one and that it even led to victims. Violence and the use of force can not be justified and they should be avoided.

The internationals’ declaration said that “we make urgent call for peace and self-control from all parties. We ask them to avoid provocations. Albania is a democrat country; it aspires for membership and it has the necessary democratic institutions. As a consequence, we repeat our request to start constructive dialogue and to find a compromise in order to solve the existing political disagreements.”

President of the Republic Bamir Topi calls for peace and maturity! He called all political factors to calm the protesters and to guarantee the return of public order and the support of the police forces as soon as possible, in order to preserve order and to protect the governmental institutions and especially, the lives of citizens.

President Topi called the political factors to urgently return to dialogue and take their political responsibilities for preserving stability in the country. “Albania needs to cure its old wounds, and not create new ones,” said Topi’s declaration.