Demonstrators protest against the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons in Albania, in front of the U.S. embassy in Tirana on Tuesday. Arben Celi/Reuters

The prospect of Syria's chemical weapons being dismantled in Albania triggered protests in the capital city Tirana on Tuesday, exposing a rare dent in the NATO member's loyalty to the United States.

Hundreds protested in front of the U.S. embassy in the Adriatic republic, chanting "Albania is ours" and holding banners that read "Yes, we can say 'No.'"

Several international media reports have named Albania as a potential destination for the weapons, which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has pledged to get rid of as he seeks to turn the tide of international opinion in a more than two-year civil war.

Albanians have long felt a debt of gratitude to Washington over events stretching from the end of World War I – when then-President Woodrow Wilson saved the country from being dismembered by its neighbors – through the U.S.-led NATO bombing of then-Yugoslavia in 1999 to halt the killing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.