Bathore is an area just outside
Tirana
Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...
, the capital of
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
. It is part of the municipality
Kamëz
Kamëz ( sq-definite, Kamza) is a municipality in Tirana County, Albania. It was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Kamëz and Paskuqan, that became municipal units. The seat of the municipality ...
.
The area, comprising approximately was a collective farm run by the state under communism.
Bathore was
squatted
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
in the early 1990s by migrants from the mountainous north. They had no electricity or water, and were funded by money sent from relatives abroad. They built permanent housing in the hope that this would make an eviction harder for the authorities.
The authorities attempted to evict the settlement in 1995, but the squatters fought back and took the deputy prime minister
Tritan Shehu
Tritan Shehu is a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Albania for the Democratic Party of Albania. He was minister of foreign affairs from July 11, 1996 to April 12, 1997, minister of health A health minister is the member of a country's go ...
hostage.
By 2000, 60 per cent of new inhabitants bought their land from previous squatters, 20 per cent squatted, 6 per cent were given land by the authorities, 2 per cent bought from pre-independence owners and 10 per cent used other methods. The residents promoted
slum upgrading
Slum upgrading is an integrated approach that aims to turn around downward trends in an area. These downward trends can be legal (land tenure), physical (infrastructure), social (crime or education, for example) or economic." The main objective of ...
and requested infrastructure.
Three years later, the 40,000 squatters were tired of waiting on government promises and announced they would march on the capital Tirana. The government quickly acceded to nine out of their ten demands.
Bathore has become a middle class suburb of Tirana, connected to all utilities.
References
External links
Aid Convoy– One of the organisations working in Bathore
Map showing Bathore
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bathore
Populated places in Kamëz
Villages in Tirana County
Squatting