As per report on a barren hillside in northern Albania lies a portal to the country's communist past where a massive steel door creaks open to reveal a hidden former air base burrowed into the heart of the mountain. It is made up of 600 metres (1,980 feet) of tunnels that once teemed with military life, the secret Gjader air base is now a depot for dozens of hulking communist era MiG jets collecting dust in the darkness.
Furthermore three decades after shedding communism, Albanian authorities are still trying to sell off the Soviet and Chinese made aircraft, of which there are dozens more in another nearby air base. The military's Chief of Defense Bardhyl Kollcaku said "Aligning our equipment and our weapons to the NATO standards" is part of Albania's "new chapter" with the Alliance, which it joined in 2009”.
Reportedly after opening up the dark and damp tunnels to AFP, the base's current commander Fatmir Danaj admits the old planes evoke an unexpected nostalgia. Presently the Albanian Airforce has only a small fleet of helicopters and its air space is protected by NATO and apparently in a sign of the changing times, the first NATO base in the Balkan region will be built in Albania's Kucova, once known as "Stalin City" as a symbol of friendship at that time between Albania and the Soviet Union.
