Protests Erupt in Albania Over Kushner-Linked $4.6 Billion Coastal Resort in Nature Reserve

Police fired water cannon and clashed with protesters on Wednesday in Tirana during the latest demonstration against a luxury coastal development linked to Jared Kushner. The project includes hotels, apartments, villas and a marina on the Narta Lagoon wildlife reserve and a smaller resort on the uninhabited island of Sazan, a former communist-era military base.

An investment firm linked to Kushner has been granted special investor status by Albanian authorities.

Excavators and other heavy machinery have entered the area since late May, opening access routes, digging into the sand, clearing land among pine trees and installing fencing. Video showed an activist being dragged by a private security guard while demonstrating at the site. Protesters carried cardboard cut-outs of pink flamingos, one of the protected migratory bird species, at rallies in Tirana.

Environmental groups from Albania and elsewhere in Europe condemned the work, with one prominent local group charging that long-protected habitats are being irreversibly destroyed. The development is planned within a nature reserve and one of Albania’s most valuable biodiversity areas, a key stopover for migratory birds along the Adriatic coast.

Albania has 450 kilometers (280 miles) of coast that remained largely underdeveloped during decades of harsh communist rule.

Albania’s state anti-corruption agency has confirmed it opened an investigation related to the project but has not disclosed details. The government says the land earmarked for the project is privately owned, though competing claims have emerged questioning the privatization. 6 billion).