TIRANA, Dec 8 /ATA/ – Albania marks the National Youth Day on Thursday, December 8, a day that commemorates the student and youth demonstrations of December 1990 that terminated half-a-century of dictatorship in 1990.
Since 2009, with a decision taken by the Albanian Parliament, December 8th is commemorated as a national holiday in honor of all students involved in the events of December 1990 and all Albanian youth.
On December 8, 1990, students and university lecturers in Tirana started to protest against the communist system, and the movement rapidly lead to more massive protests and quickly to regime change.
Under the popular slogans used at the time: “We want an Albania like Europe,” students called for establishment of the Western values, the rule of law, Albania’s integration into Europe and political pluralism as the foundations of a free and democratic society.
Albanians had endured a harsh communist dictatorship for almost half-a-century that had presided over one of the poorest and most isolated countries in Europe, if not the world and the Youth Movement in 1990 was the only peaceful movement to change Albania’s history.
December 8 was declared National Youth Day in 2009 and has been commemorated ever since as marking a new start in the country’s history.
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