– Gjon Bruçi –
In a statement on visual media, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edit Harxhi, continuing her revolt against the political, economic and social crisis engulfing the country, expressed her disappointment at the lack of reaction from Albanian citizens. Many politicians and intellectuals from both sides of the political spectrum join her in this chorus. It is precisely to these individuals that I will attempt to provide a modest answer.
After the departure from life of the great Albanian, Enver Hoxha, due to the “merit” of the chameleon Ramiz Alia, our Albania began its downward spiral, which at the end of 1990, was “crowned” with a great overturning. During this dark five-year period (1985-1990), many intellectuals and ordinary citizens were engulfed by an inexplicable anguish over the foggy state in which the country was “swimming.” However, ensnared by petty problems and numbed by a semi-century of peaceful life, our brains were dulled, our eyes were clouded, and we failed to understand and see the “Wooden Horse” approaching us. Almost alone was the communist poet Hysni Milloshi, who emerged from the lethargic sleep that had enveloped the rest of us and gave the call. An historic, artistic and militant call, as was his powerful poem “Homeland.”
But as the people express, now “the iron had taken the reins.” Thanks to the Goebbelsian propaganda of the Albanian Arturo Ui, alias “Berisha,” and the neo-fascist squads accompanying him, supported by American Ryersons, over a hundred thousand citizens gathered in the “Skanderbeg” square of the capital, awaiting the Secretary of the USA, Baker, as if Christ himself had descended to the earthly cave. The only lasting results of this unprecedented anticipation were the slogans “America” and “Europe,” which continue even today, 33 years later.
In these 33 years, called the “democratic transition,” we had several “peak points,” where not only the existence of the Albanian state was questioned, but also the lives of the people of the Republic, under the name of Albania, were put into question. These “peak points” were: the massive beatings of citizens by the “democratic” state police in 1996; the great and unforgettable chaos of 1997, which risked civil war and sent around 4,000 Albanians to their graves; the coup of ’98 that left us almost stateless; the “Gërdec atomic bomb,” which burned 26 citizens to ashes and injured hundreds more, to close the cycle of “scandals” with the murders of January 21, 2011. At the end of this calvary with tragic events, accompanied by other smaller episodes, the Albanians found themselves again with two famous slogans in hand: “America” and “Europe,” without reaching either of them.
In all these “events,” the participating soldiers were from the ranks of ordinary citizens, who ran with the hope that the problems would be resolved and the promised “democracy” would flourish in their homes. But this did not happen, and it is not happening. The return to power of Arturo-Berisha was a great disappointment for the majority of citizens who had finally had enough of the “lethargy” of nazi-style governance. But, because our “Arturo” returned to power with the blessings of America and Europe, citizens accepted to keep a glimmer of hope for the future, believing that it would change. It was precisely the case of Gërdec, and especially the massacre of January 21, that mass citizens abandoned even that faint hope that remained, and chose the only path left, that of leaving the country.
2013 was the year that restored hope and halted the exodus. The “left” Socialists came to power, which, besides the surname well known by the citizens, added the denomination “Renaissance,” a magical word that brought back our great and glorious Renaissance figures. In the first two mandates, despite not fulfilling promises, citizens patiently followed the Renaissance, often forgiving its shortcomings. But the SP-Renaissance entered the third mandate without realizing the promises of the first mandate, so citizens doubted and quickly realized that the “Renaissance” and the “renaissance men” of Rama were simply a re-decline. Decline of the country in all fields of political, economic, social and cultural life. To return to Arturo Ui again? It was impossible, so one prepared their bags and crossed the sea, as once in the time of Zogist rule. In Albania, only the elderly remain to preserve the abandoned lands from the youth and to fill at least a quarter of the ballot boxes, which proceed normally, even though the voters are dwindling.
In conclusion, I would tell former Deputy Foreign Minister Haxhi that the non-reaction of citizens has two objective reasons: We all know that the overwhelming majority of Albanian citizens are a permanent contingent of the socialist left. For this reason, they could not turn to the right, especially since its leaders with the chief Berisha had already been tested twice. This right has long been out of the game and there is no hope of it becoming an alternative for Albanians, who barely have two pennies to rub together. But another reason lies in between: The real characters, who alternate government teams, are not the citizens and their votes, but the “chart” drafted for the Albanian neo-colony by the Euro-Atlantic Chancelleries. The Prime Ministers of our country are actually governors, or more precisely “pashas” appointed by the “High Porte,” as was the case under the rule of the Sultans of Eurasia.
The same disappointment has also occurred with the Albanians beyond the Drin River. The “elders” of Europe, but also of the USA, have changed their pilgrims, but not their intentions. Twenty-five years since the day of liberation, where the contribution of foreigners was determinant, and 16 years since the Declaration of Independence, the Republic of Kosova still wanders through the Euro-Atlantic chancelleries, seeking its formal recognition unsuccessfully. The Kosovar Albanian did not think that after liberation, foreigners would force them to go to meetings and negotiations precisely with those who had oppressed, dismembered, denigrated, shamed, exploited, raped and deported them for almost two centuries. The disappointment of Kosovar Albanians doubled when right after gaining freedom, the map of their country became chaotic, with Serbian enclaves aiming today to gain association, and tomorrow autonomy or separation from Kosova. But the greatest disappointment they experienced when they saw that “Mother” Albania had fallen into disgrace. Albania had kept the spirit of the nation and the aspiration for national reunification burning. But after the death of the “Man of the Soil,” Enver Hoxha, “Mother” Albania was running “naked with hands in pockets” towards the EU, a run that even now, after three and a half decades, has not stopped. But even formally, today’s “democratic” Albania is not fulfilling its role as a master of its own lands in Kosova and throughout the Balkans. While the Albanian Republic of Kosova, with the heroic government of Albin Kurti, stands with unwavering courage against the manoeuvres of foreigners and their Serbian-Slavic “kanakas,” the rulers of Tirana run all the way to “Abu Dhabi” to promote tourism, the only asset spared by nature which has survived destruction. And as if this were not enough, these rulers, but also intellectuals, and even KLA fighters, who swore for the reunification of Albanian lands, sanctioned in the “oath” of fighters, after the war, transferred it to “when accepted into the EU!”
Once again for politicians, intellectuals and deceivers: Albanian citizens have reacted tens and hundreds of times against injustice, oppression and feudal, monarchist and capitalist exploitation, just as they have reacted with uninterrupted wars against foreign invaders for national freedom and independence. These last two Albanians achieved through the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War and enjoyed them for 45 glorious years of socialism. In these three and a half decades of “bourgeois democracy,” they were struck by the vilest betrayal of their history, which has bent them almost to collapse.
But the Albanian people cannot be broken. Unfortunately, at these moments, the country lacks true leaders, but the people will know how to bring forth their leader and will explode. The people are not like river waters that with the first rain murmur the rocks, but are rather like rivers rushing forcefully into the sea, sweeping it until it bursts. “And then,” Enver Hoxha had called out in the speech about possible Greek provocations, “accounts will be settled!” And the people have accounts with the traitors who brought the country to this miserable day, but also with neighbours and foreigners who, just like in centuries past, want to use our country as a pawn in their geostrategic games.
(Translated from the Albanian original and first published in “Gazeta SOT” on April 25, 2024)
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