TIRANA, Jan.21 /ATA/- Today marks 10 years since the tragedy of January 21 and the government of the Republic of Albania has decided to award the high title of “Martyr of the Fatherland” to the four martyrs of the peaceful protest of January 21, 2011, the Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama said at the today’s memorial ceremony of January 21, 2011, where Aleks Nika, Ziver Veizi, Hekuran Deda and Faik Myrtaj were shot dead by the Republic Guard.
“Today is the day to make a reflection after the 10- year period journey in an effort to jointly understand how that tragic event and the death of four innocents have impacted our new history, in two fundamental directions. On the one hand, in terms of the government’s relationship with the protest, and on the other hand, in terms of the transformation of the justice system,” the Prime Minister Rama said.
“If we look at the first aspect, today we have all the reasons to bow down and show great gratitude before the memory of these 4 martyrs, whose death put a red line and clearly legible to all, led to insurmountable force of the state in relation to freedom and the right to protest,” the Prime Minister Rama said.
“I am sincerely proud of being part of that effort at another and extremely difficult time, taking on the great responsibility of governing the country. We have been the embodiment of an unwavering willingness to guarantee all and always freedom and the right to protest,” the Prime Minister Rama said.
“In many times more dramatic situations from the point of view of threatening the power of protest beyond the framework set by the Constitution and the law on the right to protest we have guaranteed a proportional response by ensuring in any case that in the first place, the life of the protester not to be questioned in any way and the dignity of the protest which is the dignity of society not to be violated in the name of protecting the space beyond the fence, despite the repetitive excesses that the whole of society has directly faced following the progress of the protests,” the premier Rama added.
According to the Prime Minister Rama, if protest is an indisputable right, the right is not always with those who protest, but in all cases the maximum appreciation and guarantee of this indisputable right is an inalienable duty of those who govern.
“There is no comparison if we consider the January 21st event as the culmination of the degradation of power in a parable of the example of force and not the force of example. I am aware that every time we talk about January 21st many troubled minds by the memory of that tragedy which for the sake of truth was the result of a barbarism incompatible with the continent where we live, immediately raise the concern by telling a truth justice has not been done regarding the January 21st tragedy,” the premier Rama underlined.
“Parliament does not hold trials or issue court decisions. The government does not play the role of the Prosecution, and neither the Minister of Justice nor the Prime Minister can file criminal charges to submit them to the party court. It is up to judicial power, one of the 3 constitutional powers in a democratic system and completely independent, both from the legislative power and the executive power,” the Prime Minister Rama said. //a.i/
