Manza (Albania) (AFP) – In a gleaming compound built from scratch on an Albanian hillside, thousands of Iranians dedicate their waking hours to toppling the regime in Tehran 3,000 kilometres away.

They believe the end of their exile is near.

“I think this year will be very decisive,” says Zohreh Akhiani, the 56-year-old mayor of “Ashraf 3”, a mini-city of some 2,800 exiled Iranians from the opposition movement the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).

The dissidents hope an onslaught of crises in their homeland will aid their cause, from increasingly harsh US sanctions to recent anti-government protests and the new coronavirus, which has infected top officials.

Even if toppling Tehran is an uphill battle, unrelenting optimism fuels work in the central Albanian compound, the entrance of which is marked by a triumphal arch and metal gates.

“Victory is ours! The future is ours,” is inscribed on the arch’s pillars.

The PMOI settled in their unlikely home in Albania, a poor Balkan state in southeast Europe, under a UN and US-backed deal in 2013 after their camp in Iraq was bombed.

On farmland outside the capital Tirana, the group has built a sprawling complex with remarkable speed. The undisclosed cost of construction was funded by the diaspora and members themselves, the group says.

Ashraf 3 is a world unto itself, with residential homes, a sports hall, health clinics, shops and a large museum focussed on scenes of alleged Iranian torture tactics.

Some hallmarks of normal life are missing however.

Children are barred because “resistance fighters” must devote their energy to the struggle, a rule that has fed PMOI’s reputation as cultish.

Men and women mingle in work and daily activities, but sleep in separate quarters.

“For the freedom of our people, for the difficult struggle we had all these years, naturally we have to suspend our personal lives,” explained Akhiani, who has a daughter in Sweden.

The only reminder that the compound is on Albanian soil meanwhile, is a handful of local gardeners who keep the grounds tidy.