Citizen Adams joins a Balkan nation
Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams at a reception celebrating Albanian culture at Gracie Mansion in June 2025. Credit: NY Mayoral Photography Office/Jusin Persaud
As recently as the early 1990s, the notion of a former New York City mayor becoming an honorary citizen of Albania would have been unimaginable. Back then the Balkan country, which had been known as the world's most isolated, was still emerging from a long tyranny under the late Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha.
But for reasons that include changes in Europe, global trade and political idiosyncrasies, the smooth and transactional Eric Adams ended up this month accepting citizenship and a passport from Albania's president, Bajram Begaj.
In October, as his time at City Hall dwindled, Adams traveled to Albania where he issued effusive praise for the nation, setting the honorary certification of his extra nationality in motion.
He was said to meet with business and tech leaders, tour manufacturing facilities, and discuss economic activity and tourism to the city.
Months after voters privatized Adams at the polls, what does it mean?
Business, probably. "The economics were good. There was economic opportunity there," said one of his many former allies. How so? The source pointed to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's post-9/11 foreign consulting on security and policing as an example of what big-city mayors can do for a second act.
Adams' penchant for foreign travel as mayor and previously as Brooklyn borough president, to such places as Senegal, Turkey and Cuba, attracted attention — and in one instance, prosecution.
In September 2024 he was federally charged with allegedly accepting over $100,000 in illegal luxury travel perks and campaign contributions from Turkish officials and businesses. As a city official he allegedly intervened to speed up safety inspections for a new Turkish consulate.
President Donald Trump, in office for his second term, prodded the Justice Department one year ago to drop the case against Adams, reportedly in exchange for the mayor agreeing to cooperate with deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Adams was off the hook. So when last fall's trip to Albania was revealed, news media asked for details. Officials at City Hall said the city would cover air travel for the mayor and an aide and costs of the mayor's security detail, with Albanian government providing his lodging and ground transportation.
Adams' personal ties to that nation are said to have grown out of contacts and relationships he developed in New York City, which has an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Albanian Americans. Over the long term their communities have grown and generally prospered regionwide.
Albania's history, and its expatriates, have touched Long Island over the years. The nation's leader King Zog bought the Knollwood Estate in 1951. He'd ruled Albania from 1925 to 1939, forced to flee with his family after Italian forces invaded. But Zog, who was born Ahmet Muhtar Bej Zogolli, never settled into the estate. For many years its ruins in the Muttontown Preserve have been a curiosity, visited by tourists and locals.
In July 1999, three brothers in their 20s with Long Island roots — Agron, Mehmet and Ylli Bytyqi — were captured and later executed by the Serbian police amid armed conflict over ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo. A fourth brother, Ilir Bytyqi, appeared with Rep. Nick LaLota in 2023 at the family's Hampton Bays home backing a resolution to bring those responsible for the killings to justice.
Just a reminder that in the bigger sweep of world history, the dealings of one private citizen, Eric Adams, as curious as they are, will likely become a relatively mild footnote.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
