How does Ivanka Trump expect to pass this off as a spontaneous holiday discovery?
Ivanka and Jared stumbled upon an island they wanted to buy. Ivanka claims. A strategic military island that superpowers have fought to control for millennia. What is this really about?
So let me get this straight. I see a viral clip where Ivanka Trump describes how she and Jared Kushner were boating along the Albanian coast. They spot an island. Hike to the top barefoot. Become enthralled by the view.
And decide to develop the site into a luxury resort.
Just as one does.
At first, I think this seems simple enough to understand.
But then I start reading. And as is often the case these days, it turns out that nothing is simple.
For starters, there is the island. It’s called Sazan. Then there are the flamingos that are supposed to be endangered by ”the development project”.
Then it turns out the flamingos aren’t even on the island.
Then it’s about protected natural areas. About protests. Legislative amendments, corruption allegations and Saudi capital.
Then, suddenly, the island is an uninhabited military outpost? Which for millennia has been coveted by superpowers? Which the Soviets used during the Cold War?
With thousands of tunnels, weapons depots and submarine bases? And nuclear shelters?
So, my confusion is apparently not just mine. It seems to be built into the deal itself.
It turns out the project also concerns the mainland near protected wetlands. These function as carbon sinks and that is actually where the flamingos are. Where they have already started clearing land.
Which also threatens plants and migratory birds and monk seals and sea turtles. And that is why protests have exploded.
Albania’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama, defends the project. He wants the major capital. He claims the protests are actually created by Iranian hackers from Tehran.
Albania says the land the Trump family wants is private. Others say it is not.
The EU has warned that the deal goes against environmental regulations. Albania’s anti-corruption agency has opened an investigation.
And the money to buy all this doesn’t seem to be just money. Kushner’s company has received an injection of two billion dollars from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Later, it was topped up with more from Doha and Abu Dhabi.
Not even the water seems to be just water. A gas pipeline runs under the sea surface, and another energy project is being planned.
And the company doesn’t seem to be just a company. On TikTok, detectives are collaborating, putting together puzzles and chasing shell companies to Amsterdam and following the money in unexpected directions.
An Israeli company has appeared. And that company owns firms that the UN accuses of doing business in illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
At some point, I realise I’m sitting and watching yet another small TikTok account where someone is explaining the strategic importance of the Strait of Otranto to the Mediterranean, and honestly, I don’t really know how I ended up there.
The more I read, the less sure I am about what story I am trying to understand.
Is it an environmental conflict? A real estate deal? A story about Albania’s economic development? A story about global capital? Geopolitics? Security? Energy?
Or is it all at the same time?
And I think: How does Ivanka Trump expect to pass this off as a spontaneous holiday discovery?
What is it that is actually being bought?
What are they intending to use it for?
I end up here quite often. It starts with something that seems simple. I pull a thread, and suddenly I’m sitting there in the dawn light with fifteen tabs open.
It’s a strange feeling. The more information I find, the harder it becomes to understand what is actually happening.
The more I read about the world, the less I understand about the world.
There is also something else here that makes me uncomfortable. I notice that I increasingly assume that there is something more behind the story.
Motives that are not stated. Interests that are not visible. Strategies that are not formulated.
I don’t trust what I read anymore. Am I being conspiratorial?
Have I started expecting that people, companies and governments only tell a part of the story?
Or have I just learned to trust that strange feeling when something doesn’t add up?
That there is a gap somewhere. A pattern I cannot yet see but that I strongly feel.
All those twists of truth. All the versions of reality that compete with one another.
Perhaps it has done something fundamental to me. That I have started reading the world as if there is always a layer behind the visible, and that it has made me vigilant.
I think that is what fascinates me about Sazan Island. Not just all the different stories, but what happens to me while I try to understand them.
In Kafka’s The Trial, there is the line: ”It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.”
Facts: Potential for dual-use
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump want to develop a resort project on Sazan Island and along the Narta/Zvërnec coast. Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, has simultaneously received capital from several Gulf states.
Military island. Sazan is Albania’s largest island, situated opposite Italy. For a long time, it was a closed military zone. During the Cold War, the island was used by the Soviet Union.
Location. The island is located at the entrance to the Vlora Bay, near the Strait of Otranto, which connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea. The TAP gas pipeline runs through this corridor. An underwater project for green electricity is also being planned. This gives the area real value for tourism, maritime surveillance, logistics, and the protection of energy corridors.
Dual-use: It is conceivable that the project could be seen as dual-use. As a resort, marina, and luxury accommodation, but perhaps also as infrastructure linked to electricity, water, security, maritime transport, and surveillance.
The decision. In 2024, Albania changed the law on protected areas in a way that opened up for larger tourist projects in sensitive areas. Weeks later, Kushner’s plans were submitted. In January 2025, the Kushner company received strategic investor status for a 45-hectare project on Sazan, worth 1.4 billion euros.
The protection. Sazan’s surrounding sea surface is partly included in the Karaburun-Sazan National Park, but Albania’s nature conservation authority says the island’s land surface is not a protected area. The island contains two natural monuments.
EU. The EU Commission has warned Albania that the project and the changes to protected areas must comply with EU environmental standards. The issue is sensitive because Albania is an EU candidate country.
Protests. Land clearing has already begun on the mainland part. This has triggered extensive protests against the project, with criticism regarding environmental impact, lack of transparency, and how public and protected coastal environments are opened up for private luxury projects.
Source: Independent, National Geopgraphic, AP, Reuters, Reuters, Politico, Reuters, Retuers, Sazans förvaltningsplan, UNDP, EU-kommissionen, Reuters, Reuters, Guardian, BBC, TAP, Reuters
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