by Naim Flamuri. Translation Petrit Latifi

Summary

This text addresses the structural decline of Ana e Malit, a region that covers nearly half of the Municipality of Ulqin’s territory yet receives only a marginal share of its budget. The problem is not ethnic identity, political symbolism, or administrative borders, but survival. Massive depopulation, economic paralysis, and institutional neglect have transformed Ana e Malit into a transit zone rather than a living community. While proposals for municipal status have been raised as a solution, the text argues that administrative reform alone cannot reverse decline without people, production, and economic life. The real crisis is not territorial but demographic: Ana e Malit is losing generations, not land. Without urgent action to restore population, work, and economic activity, decentralization risks becoming an empty gesture—maps without life, institutions without citizens, and promises without a future.

Ana e Malit: territory without people, land without life, 45% territory of the Municipality of Ulqin, gives only 2% budget, the bitter reality of Ana e Malit.

Let’s say it without twists and without masks: this issue is not about ethnicity, it is not about identities, flags or political folklore, but about a dry, cold and brutal reality – survival. The example of Tuzi is before everyone’s eyes, it became a municipality, it developed, it became stronger, it grew economically and institutionally, no one shrank, no one disappeared, no one became poor.

Even Ulqin would not shrink if Ana e Malit were a municipality, Ulqin is shrinking from depopulation, from flight, from emptiness, not from decentralization. But politics likes to play with borders on paper, because it is easier than facing the emptiness on the ground. Today, the Municipality of Ulqin has a budget of around 25 million euros, while Ana e Mali, which covers around 45 percent of the territory, receives only around 2 percent of the budget, somewhere around 450,000 euros.

Look at the surprise: in the Ulqin municipality building, around 85% of its employees are originally from Ana e Mali. This is not mismanagement, this is mockery. This is not a technical error, this is structured injustice. This is political mathematics of subjugation. Territory yes, money no. Land yes, investment no. Votes yes, development no.

The real problem of Ana e Mali is not the administrative status, the real problem is the flight. Massive flight, continuous flight, flight without return. Today, Ana e Mali barely counts around 7,000 inhabitants, and even they are on the move. Initially, they fled to the city of Ulqin, to Kodra, Gjerana, Shtoj, Fushë Ulqin, Pinjesh, and then they fled further afield, to the USA, to Europe, to Australia.

Many of them never return. They return for weddings, for funerals, or not even for those. The houses are closed, the yards are silent, the windows are darkened. This is not a statistic, this is a demographic drama. Today, Ana e Malit has no real production, no functional greenhouses, no factories, no serious livestock, no organized agriculture.

The lands have been left fallow, the fields have turned into wild grass, the economy is in a coma. And then we wonder why there is no development. There is no development without people. There is no development without jobs. There is no development without an economy. There are only promises, there are only speeches, there are only photos for social networks.

Let’s say this without gloves: today, Ana e Malit has become a transit route. From Shkodra to Montenegro. A passage, not a destination. Cars pass, buses pass, trucks pass, life passes. No one stops, no one invests, no one builds, because they see no market, no people, no life. And an area without life attracts neither capital, nor vision, nor future. In this reality, on December 1, 2022, the late Skender Duraku came out and spoke. Clearly, directly, without fear.

He said that Ana e Malit should become a separate municipality, centered in Katërkoll. A fair idea, an honest idea, an idea with a vision. But today we must have the courage to tell the whole truth: this idea is a chance on paper, but difficult to realize on the ground, not because Ana e Malit has no territory, but because Ana e Malit is remaining without a population. And a municipality without people does not have one. There is only a sign at the entrance and silence inside.

Skender Duraku saw the danger early. Politics ignored it. The population is paying for it. This is the tragedy. Not the status, not the borders, but the emptiness. The Mountain Side is not losing land, it is losing generations. And while we talk about municipalities, people are leaving, lands are drying up, houses are being closed. This is not politics, this is strategic failure.

If we continue to talk only about administrative division, without talking about the return of people, about the revival of the economy, about production, about agriculture, about work, about stopping the exodus, then we are deceiving ourselves. We are making theater, not solutions. The Mountain Side does not need more promises, it needs life.

Because territory without people is just a map. And maps do not produce, do not raise children, do not build a future. Skender Duraku spoke on time. We are late. And every year of delay, the Mountain Side becomes emptier, more silent, more tired. This is no longer an alarm. This is a siren.