The threads connecting Tirana and Ankara across at least three multi-million-euro projects
The conflict between the shareholders of Vlora International Airport, Behgjet Pacolli and Valon Ademi, is exposing a network of figures and interests that go far beyond the two Kosovar businessmen, stretching across Albania and Turkey. Since the scandal broke, the story of Vlora Airport is increasingly taking shape as a knot where business and politics intersect between Tirana and Ankara.
At the same time, SPAK’s investigations into another major public infrastructure project — the Llogara Tunnel — lead to the same character constellation and the same political-economic links.
VLORA AIRPORT
Behgjet Pacolli publicly stated in his interview with Blendi Fevziu that he entered the Vlora Airport project through a Turkish businessman, a close associate of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Pacolli said that a man named Hysen had called him proposing to jointly build the airport.
“I received a phone call from someone in Turkey whom I had known in Kazakhstan years earlier — someone called Hysen. He told me he had received a call from the Turkish Presidency to travel to Albania with two tasks: first, to build a hospital, and second, that there was an airport there which we could co-finance.”
Shortly after, Pacolli formed a consortium with YDA Group to build the Vlora Airport, initially valued at €104 million. The current cost, according to Pacolli, has reached €140 million.
But who is behind YDA Group, and why did a Turkish company have to be inserted into a project of such strategic importance?
VLORA AIRPORT – ERDOGAN – YDA GROUP
The concession for Vlora Airport was awarded in April 2021. One year later, YDA Group withdrew and sold its 47% share to Pacolli. The sale was registered at the QKB for just €4,450. In reality, Pacolli said he paid the Turkish partners €3 million.
He also said that when he went to Balluku’s office — invited by the same Turkish businessman Hysen (YDA’s head is named Hüseyin Arslan) — everything seemed pre-arranged, exactly as Hysen had told him it had been coordinated from the Turkish Presidency.
YDA Group is led by Hüseyin Arslan, who has close ties to President Erdogan and the ruling AKP. Arslan’s sister is married to the uncle of one of AKP’s founders. He publicly praised Erdogan after the 2016 coup attempt and received an award from Erdogan in 2018. YDA Group is known for winning numerous state tenders in Turkey, including major PPP infrastructure projects.
This raises the question:
Were the construction of the “Memorial” Hospital in Fier and the Vlora Airport also products of Erdogan’s political favoritism and the personal alliance between Erdogan and Rama?
LLOGARA TUNNEL – ERDOGAN – ASL İNŞAAT
One year before Vlora Airport, the Albanian government awarded the concession for the Llogara Tunnel — an even more expensive project.
The winners in 2020 were Turkish companies Intekar Yapi and ASL İnşaat.
In 2018, the Albanian Road Authority had opened the tender at around €102 million. In December that year, the Albanian company Gjoka Konstruksion won with a bid of €140 million including VAT. But in early 2019, the government cancelled the procedure, citing the need for “technical project review and reassessment of costs.”
Intekar & ASL won the new tender with a €172 million offer. After winning, they subcontracted the entire project back to Gjoka for €140 million, pocketing an immediate €32 million profit — without bringing a single machine to Albania.
According to Arben Ahmetaj, not a single piece of equipment was ever transported to Albania by the Turkish companies.
Officially, the cancellation was justified with “new geological studies,” but political and business circles widely believed the decision was made under political pressure to hand the project to Turkish companies close to Erdogan.
ASL İnşaat is owned by Abdulkadir Kart, former AKP MP from Rize — Erdogan’s home region — and a long-time close friend of Erdogan. Erdogan was even the best man at Kart’s son’s wedding in 2017.
As the Llogara Tunnel scandal grows, more voices in Turkey are also questioning whether Erdogan personally pushed for the tender to be awarded to his ally’s company.
AIR ALBANIA – SINAN IDRIZI – THE “ISMAILI” PLANE USED BY RAMA – ERDOGAN
Two years before the Llogara Tunnel tender, another Turkish company tied to Erdogan appeared in Albania. In May 2018, Air Albania was founded as a partnership between:
- Turkish Airlines – 49%
- MDN Investment of the controversial businessman Sinan Idrizi – 41%
- Albcontrol (Albanian state) – 10%
During the Rinas ceremony, Rama and Erdogan unveiled the “Ismaili” Airbus A319, formerly a Turkish government aircraft, which was transferred to Air Albania in December 2018 and began operating charter flights in early 2019.
The Erdogan-controlled structure of Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines is not a normal commercial airline. It is a foreign policy instrument directly controlled by Erdogan through the Turkey Wealth Fund. Erdogan personally appoints the leadership. The airline’s global expansion into strategic regions — including the Balkans — is widely recognized as part of Turkey’s geopolitical influence strategy.
Ilker Aycı, CEO from 2015 to 2022, was Erdogan’s former personal advisor. He was replaced by another figure close to AKP.
Turkish Airlines is co-shareholder in several politically controlled ventures, including Air Albania.
Rama’s 150+ flights with “Ismaili”
Rama has used the “Ismaili” aircraft in over 150 international flights. The model — an Airbus A319-132 — is worth roughly €30 million.
Opposition estimates show that until 2023, when the flight manifests were leaked by Iranian hackers, Rama had already accumulated €22 million in charter costs. After that, another year and a half of flights could push the total above €30 million — a number surprisingly close to the amount pocketed by Turkish companies from Vlora Airport and Llogara Tunnel.
Neither the Albanian government nor Air Albania has published the usage contract, cost breakdown, or financial agreements. Transparency requests have been refused. Air Albania has also failed to publish financial statements for five consecutive years, in clear violation of Albanian law.
The Idrizi–Rama–Erdogan triangle
Sinan Idrizi claimed he has known Erdogan for 25 years and says he created MDN Investment at the request of the Albanian government.
Idrizi has appeared in both official and informal meetings involving Erdogan and Rama. During Erdogan’s 2022 visit to Albania, Idrizi was photographed among the inner-circle guests.
He also appeared with Rama in Madrid during a meeting with Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez — though Rama removed Idrizi from the photos he posted online.
Idrizi appears linked to several other controversial concessions, including the fuel marking concession, involving Turkish businesswoman and honorary Albanian consul Nerve Korkmaz, reportedly close to Idrizi.
Turkish businessman Adnan Polat, owner of Galatasaray, has accused Idrizi of defrauding him of €3.5 million and stated in a legal filing that they discussed the matter directly with Edi Rama, who gave his approval for the concession.
Polat appears to be the only Turkish businessman who did not benefit from the Albania–Turkey network.
The emerging picture
The Vlora Airport deal, the Llogara Tunnel contract, the Air Albania partnership, and the “Ismaili” aircraft form a chain of interconnected interests linking Tirana, Vlora, and Ankara. At the center of these links stand two names:
Edi Rama & Recep Tayyip Erdogan
—with Sinan Idrizi as the strategic intermediary.
Others — Pacolli, Hysen, Ademi, Gjoka, Balluku, etc. — appear as “useful idiots” facilitating the flow of millions of euros from Albania to Turkey.
FACTS
- Behgjet Pacolli paid around €3 million to buy the shares of YDA Group’s Turkish partners — a company closely tied to Erdogan.
- ASL İnşaat, winner of the Llogara Tunnel tender, owned by an AKP politician and Erdogan ally, earned €32 million without performing any actual work or bringing machinery to Albania.
- Air Albania, created in 2018, provided the “Ismaili” plane used for Rama’s trips, costing an estimated €22–30 million.
- The €35 million transferred to Turkey through the Vlora and Llogara projects roughly matches the estimated cost of Rama’s flights — raising suspicion of an indirect repayment scheme, where publicly funded contracts in Albania compensate Erdogan-linked companies.
Neither the Albanian government nor Air Albania has released the relevant financial documents. This concealment makes the entire network a legitimate subject for SPAK investigation — potentially requiring cooperation with Turkish authorities, as the scandal could be much larger on the Turkish side.
