Albania's mission impossible: find a street address

TIRANA, Albania (AFP) - Sending a letter or finding a friend's house in Albania is not that simple as much of the country doesn't have street names thanks to petty bickering between intractable politicians.

"I live in a green building," explained one resident of the capital Tirana, whose street literally has no name.


Undeliverable mail sit at the post office headquarters in Tirana, Albania.

Another patient Tirana local describes his house as the one which "faces the bridge." For another, home is "that big brown building behind the bakery."

Some 40 percent of Albanians have no street address, according to at least one official.

"But what would happen if the bakery is closed, or its owner changes his line of business, or the brown facade turns into grey after long rains?" asked sociologist Mentor Kikia.

Servete Lohja, a doctor in a Tirana emergency hospital, said "most of the inhabitants of big Albanian towns don't know where they live."


An apartment building in Tirana sports a singular color scheme after it was repainted by the Tirana City Hall to make up for the lack of any street address

But what would happen if the bakery is closed, or its owner changes his line of business, or the brown facade turns into grey after long rains?" asked sociologist Mentor Kikia.

Servete Lohja, a doctor in a Tirana emergency hospital, said "most of the inhabitants of big Albanian towns don't know where they live."

"The districts have no names, and the buildings aren't numbered," she said.

"How can we talk of emergency aid if a person in need of urgent medical assistance loses time explaining where he or she lives?"

The government has recently adopted a bill calling for streets to be named as soon as possible but somehow the process has become mired in ideological disputes.

In the southern town of Gjirokastra, birth place of former Albanian communist strongman Enver Hoxha, the communists on the local council want to name the central square after him.

Right-wing councillors have opposed the plan and warned that if the square is named after Hoxha, a paranoid and xenophobic dictator, riots will break out in the streets.

In the central town of Lushnja, a recent council discussion about street names ended with a chair-fight which left three councillors injured.

"The battle started when the rightists demanded to name the main avenue in the town after a poet who is considered unworthy by the socialists," explained council employee Lulezim Rama, who had to call police to quell the brawl.

Calm-headed officials believe part of the problem is the fact that Albanian towns have received a large influx of migrants from the countryside in recent years and much of the new residential construction is completely illegal.

One consequence of the lack of street names is that it is almost impossible to organize a census, a key demand of Brussels as Albania negotiates entry into the European Union.

"How can anyone dream about Europe when they don't even know where they live?" asked Kikia.