What is an exiled Iranian opposition group doing in Albania?

"The MEK is an Islamic political opposition group with socialist tendencies. Founded in Iran in 1965, it took up arms against the ruling Pahlavi dynasty, waging bombing campaigns against the shah's government and US targets in the 1970s and supporting Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1978/1979 Islamic Revolution. Shortly after the revolution, however, the MEK fell out with the new rulers in Tehran and was banned in the country. It then went into exile, continuing its opposition activities from abroad."

"The MEK later moved to Iraq, from where it ran military operations against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war something many in Iran resent to this day. The US Department of State designated the MEK a terrorist organization in 1997, but removed it from its list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2012. The group was the first to publicly reveal in 2002 that Iran had a secret uranium-enrichment program. After the ousting of Saddam Hussein, it was expelled from Iraq."

"For Andreas Krieg, Middle East expert and senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King's College London, the current wave of protests in Iran "looks less like a single 'event' than a rolling convergence of long-running grievances that finally synchronized." "It began with an acute economic shock currency collapse and inflation translating into immediate price spikes, shortages, and commercial paralysis and then rapidly poli"

A fortified camp in Manze, near Tirana, houses about 3,000 members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). Founded in 1965 with Islamic and socialist tendencies, the MEK waged armed campaigns against the Pahlavi dynasty and US targets in the 1970s and supported Khomeini before splitting with the Islamic Republic and going into exile. The group later operated from Iraq against Iran during the Iran–Iraq war. The US designated the MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997 and removed that designation in 2012. The MEK revealed Iran's secret uranium-enrichment program in 2002 and was expelled from Iraq after Saddam Hussein's ousting. Recent protests in Iran reflect a rolling convergence of long-running grievances triggered by an acute economic shock.

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