Evacuated Afghan artists paint a mural in Albania’s capital

By LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A group of Afghan artists evacuated after the Taliban seized power in their homeland have painted a mural in Albania’s capital to thank their host country, and are urging the world not to forget their brethren back home. The mural was painted Thursday by members of Artlords, an Afghan organization of volunteer artists, on a building in central Tirana, where scores of such works have been painted in recent years. “Thank you, Albania! We shall not forget,” it wrote in Albanian, and “My homeland, tired of persecution,” in Afghanistan’s Pashto. The work near central Skanderbeg Square showed a map of Albania composed of many sections, in a reference to Afghanistan’s multiethnic character, and an Afghan man working.