TIRANA, March 6/ATA/- Italy has certainly been the guardian angel of Albania, both when it comes to talking about Albania in the international headquarters in Brussels in particular, and when it comes to helping Albania, the Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama said today during his attendance at the ceremony organized in Bari, Italy, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the beginning of Albanian emigration to Apulia, at the Apulia Regional Council, alongside Italian Foreign Minister, friend Luigi di Maio and Chairman of the Council, Michele Emiliano.
“It seems like a story that happened thousands of years ago, but in 30 years many things have changed. Many things have changed because we came from far, far away and the changes in Albania have been extraordinary. But what makes all these years incredible is the change related to the Albanians who fled the country using those ships and that today they are an integral part of this society,” the Prime Minister Rama said.
In his remarks the Prime Minister Rama emphasized that, “there are almost half a million Albanians, and almost 50 thousand Albanians who run small and medium enterprises, thousands of students and finally for many years they are no longer seen as suspicious people.”
“At that time we suffered greatly from the idea of being considered as suspicious. I will never forget news, a journalist reported a murder which took place and he said: ‘there is no trace of the killer but it is very likely that an Albanian did it’. It was a stigma that made us suffer a lot. This is part of the past of course, during which an extraordinary story of hospitality, integration has happened, in a country that for the first time was a destination, an arrival point for others and a starting point for somewhere else. It was probably the first major exercise of solidarity towards refugees by Italian side in the face of these shores where there were hundreds of thousands of despairing people who did not resemble at all what people were used to seeing, because they looked like aliens,” the premier Rama said.
“There is also the history of relations between Albania and Italy, a history that is characterized by great solidarity by Italy. In the darkest moments, Italy has always by Albania’s side,” the Prime Minister Rama said.
“I remember those horrible moments in 1997 when everything exploded because of the financial pyramids and the country came close to the brink of death with many deaths and injuries. There was no more state, no more law, the roads were in the hands of the people who formed their gangs. And Italy arrived with a major military operation, but also providing direct assistance. Romano Prodi was the initiator who created the idea of this arrival. It was not the arrival of a military force to restore order, but the arrival in a friendly country to help us get out of this situation, providing all aids in the broadest sense,” the premier Rama said.
“Not long ago I received a message from the person in charge of the VIP area of Tirana International Airport. An urgent message and I thought there was a bomb or fire at the airport. I pick up the phone and he told me there was an emergency never seen before. There was a VIP who did not want to enter Tirana, a VIP accompanied by police, journalists, who refused to enter, leave the VIP area and leave the airport to enter Tirana as he requested to be accompanied by armored vehicles, by armed men. I will not tell you his name, but I am telling you that he is an important politician of an important country, a Muslim of the left wing. -Tell the gentleman that we do not offer a service to enter Kandahar. He can go back, he is not in that Gaza Strip, -this is what I said,” the premier Rama said.
“We will always be grateful to Italy, to those who have have led Italian governments, regardless of political colors and those internal psycho-revenge in Italy, because they have always been the ones who have said openly, clearly what we would have said if we would have been there, instead. Italy is our lawyer in all the halls where Albania has been part of the accusation and we are really grateful to you,” the Prime Minister Rama said. //a.i/
