Albin Kurti at the Tirana protests: Fake images targeted Kosovo’s Prime Minister
Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, was portrayed as a participant and leader of youth protests in Albania through posts in the media and on social networks. While one image placed him at a protest in Tirana, the Government of Kosovo published announcements about his activities in Pristina, and the Vetëvendosje Movement denied having called for participation in the demonstrations.
Illustrative graphic featuring social media posts. Prepared by Media Amfora.
During the student and youth protests in Albania, the name of Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, was linked to the gatherings in Tirana through media reports and social media posts claiming that he had attended the protest or taken charge of it.
“Albin Kurti joins young people at the protest in Albania,” read an Instagram post by “Apollon TV”, a local television station in Fier.
According to an official announcement by the Government of Kosovo, on 24 October Kurti received a delegation from FC Dardania Basel, a football club founded by the Albanian diaspora in Switzerland, in Pristina.
The “Resilience Observatory” – part of Amfora – verified that the image had been generated using Artificial Intelligence, placing Kurti in the middle of the purported protest, surrounded by young people, with the monument to the national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg in the background.
To make it appear more credible, the poster featured the Klan Television logo and the captions “Live – Tirana” and “Breaking News”, alongside the text: “Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, was seen today in Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, where he joined a protest by young Albanians demanding greater justice, employment and a better future.”
The poster also included a fabricated quotation attributed to Kurti in the context of the Tirana protest, presenting him as saying: “Young people are our greatest strength; together we can change this country.”
On the same day, Prime Minister Kurti also published an address to residents of Preševo, Bujanovac and Medveđa concerning the elections and their participation in voting. The official announcements contradict claims that Kurti attended the Tirana protest.
Claims linking Kosovo’s Prime Minister to the protests in Albania also appeared in other social media posts.
Claims about Albin Kurti’s connection to the protests in Albania had begun circulating earlier. Ahead of the nationwide protest on 24 October, Kosovo’s Prime Minister had been mentioned in publications attributing to him a role in leading the demonstrations.
On 19 October, “Gazeta Tema” published an article headlined “Albin Kurti takes command of the protests in Albania, speaks on behalf of students”.
The article referred to statements by the Speaker of Kosovo’s Assembly, Albulena Haxhiu, who had called on the Albanian institutions to listen to the protesters’ demands.
“It is very important that the protesters’ demands are heard by the institutions,” Haxhiu said on 19 October, calling on the Albanian institutions to address the students’ demands.
She also called for an end to violence by both protesters and the police. Asked about the possible involvement of Vetëvendosje supporters in the protests, Haxhiu denied that the party had organised participation.
“As regards participation, I must emphasise that Vetëvendosje has never issued a call to support the protests. That is not Vetëvendosje’s role,” she said.
Haxhiu added that the party could not be held responsible if its supporters decided to attend the demonstrations individually.
Contrary to the headline, which stated that Albin Kurti had taken charge of the protests in Albania and was speaking on behalf of the students, the article contained no statement from him or evidence supporting that claim. It referred only to statements by Albulena Haxhiu, who called on the Albanian institutions to listen to the protesters.
These narratives had been preceded by an incident on 16 October. Vox News published a report on Instagram about two young men from Pristina being taken into police custody during the protest in Tirana. Citing Top Channel, the post attributed to one of the young men a statement that he was a supporter of Albin Kurti and wanted a government in Albania more closely aligned with Vetëvendosje’s policies. The same description also included the young man’s denial that he had committed any acts of violence.
“Albin Kurti supporters in Tirana to overthrow Edi Rama, detained Kosovar’s testimony emerges: Albania wants the Serb, it needs another government supporting our Prime Minister (Document),” read the headline of a Newsbomb Albania article published on 16 October. The publication linked this headline to testimony attributed to a detained Kosovar national. The wording placed support for Kurti at the centre of the story and quoted the testimony, stating that the editorial team had examined a document from the Judicial Police at Police Station No. 1 in Tirana.
“For this reason, I came to overthrow the Albanian government, with the aim of establishing another government that supports the policies of the Vetëvendosje Movement and Albin Kurti,” read part of the testimony reportedly recorded in the official statement.
The student and youth protests in Albania began on 13 October, with demands for improvements in educational conditions and opposition to corruption. Over the following days, they spread to several cities and were accompanied by a central demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
The publications examined linked Albin Kurti’s name to these protests in various ways, but provided no evidence that he had personally attended, organised or led the demonstrations in Albania.
