Sazan Island: From Cold War Military Secret to a $1.4 Billion Deal with Kushner's Firm

Sazan Island sits at the entrance to Vlora Bay on Albania's Adriatic coast, a few kilometres from the tip of the Karaburun Peninsula. For most of its recent history, ordinary Albanians could not go there. The communist regime of Enver Hoxha used Sazan as a naval and military base — submarines were serviced there, bunkers were built, and the island was off-limits to all civilians for decades. After communism, Sazan remained closed. Now, it is the subject of a $1.4 billion deal with Jared Kushner's investment firm — and the questions about that deal are serious enough to stop it being treated as normal.

A PLACE OF HISTORY

Sazan has archaeological significance predating its modern military use: ancient navigators knew the island as a landmark on the Adriatic crossing. In the 20th century, the island became central to Albania's strategic military posture, particularly during the Cold War period when Albania briefly aligned with the Soviet Union and later with China before closing itself off entirely. The island was used as a naval base, with submarine facilities, military infrastructure and controlled waters around it. When communism fell, that military past left physical traces — tunnels, structures, coastal installations — and, critically, unexploded ordnance (UXO) that has never been fully documented or cleared.

UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE: THE SAFETY QUESTION

Sazan Island still contains unexploded ordnance from its decades of military use. This is not a rumour or speculation — it is a documented fact referenced in the Save Albania evidence library and acknowledged in public-interest reporting. Building a luxury resort — with workers, guests, infrastructure and seabed development — on land containing uncleared military ordnance is not simply an environmental concern. It is a safety concern of the highest order. No public safety plan for ordnance clearance has been released. No demining programme has been publicly confirmed. The AIDA strategic investor decision for Sazan Island is in the Save Albania evidence library, but it does not contain the ordnance management plan that any responsible developer would need to publish.

PART OF A MARINE NATIONAL PARK

Sazan Island sits within the Karaburun-Sazan Marine National Park — Albania's only national marine park. The surrounding waters contain documented marine biodiversity: coralligenous formations, sea caves, deep rocky coastal habitat, and freshwater springs entering the sea. The Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world's most endangered marine mammals, uses these waters. The Karaburun peninsula alongside Sazan is itself a protected landscape. Building a luxury resort — with a marina, hotel complex, villas and the associated boat traffic, lighting, noise, waste and water pollution — inside a national marine park requires an exceptional level of environmental justification. That justification has not been published.

HOW THE DEAL WAS DONE

The deal was structured through Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC, linked to Kushner's Affinity Partners fund. Strategic investor status was granted by the Albanian government. The formal decision — AIDA KIS Decision 23/2024 — is available in the Save Albania evidence library. But the decision itself does not contain: the lease terms; the environmental impact assessment; the marine survey; the ordnance clearance plan; the public consultation records; the full project conditions. These are the documents that matter. Their absence from the public record is why the deal cannot be properly evaluated, challenged or approved by Albanian citizens.

THE GEOPOLITICAL QUESTION

Sazan Island is not only ecologically and historically sensitive. It is geopolitically sensitive. It sits at the entrance to Vlora Bay — one of the most strategically important natural harbours on the eastern Adriatic. During the Cold War, control of Sazan was a serious military consideration for NATO and the Soviet bloc. Today, with Albania a NATO member, the question of who controls the island and on what terms matters for alliance obligations, basing rights, and strategic planning. Handing the island to a private American investment firm under a tourism deal, while the island still contains military infrastructure and unexploded ordnance, raises questions about the defence dimension of the deal that have not been publicly addressed.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN BEFORE ANY DEVELOPMENT

Before any development can legitimately proceed on Sazan Island, the following documents need to be published and independently reviewed: the full lease or land-transfer agreement and its terms; a complete environmental impact assessment for the marine park context; a marine biodiversity survey; a full UXO survey and clearance plan; a public consultation record showing that Albanian citizens, the military, environmental organisations and affected communities were consulted; and a formal assessment of the project's compatibility with Karaburun-Sazan Marine National Park management obligations. None of these documents have been published. In their absence, the deal remains a secret agreement made behind closed doors — and Sazan Island remains the most visible symbol of what happens when a government stops asking permission from the people it governs.