TIRANA, Sept 20 /ATA/ Renowned British and German filmmakers and journalists along with academic Lea Ypi, world-renowned through her book “Free”- “descened” -out of schedule – in the archive of former state security, a visit triggered by their contact with Albanian culture and history.
Organized by Joanne Ooi, founder of EA Festival, a well-known literary festival in the United Kingdom, they are a team of well-known writers, publicists and scholars who launched the Initiative “Freedom and Transformation”, which also closes the British Cultural Week (16-22 September) in Tirana.
Experts on topics from Balkan history and culture, human rights, migration, security issues, from politics to poetry, journalists, while visiting the ADSSH archive, took a deeper dive into Albania’s past, the dark mechanism of repression and the consequences during the rule of the dictatorial regime.
The Head of the Authority, Gentiana Sula, introduced them to the history of the former State Security activity, the documentation and the persecution of citizens during the period 1944-1991. Archive and scientific support specialists presented various types of documents, scientific publications, information and educational exhibitions.
Albania is known today through tourist catalogues, it has a totalitarian past that has left traces in the history and the mindset of our society. Change and the need to build a free and fair future comes only through the recognition of the past,
“Foreign visitors want to learn more about Albania, a country with an extremely rich culture, at that crossroads between West and East, where ideas often clashed tragically and where history lessons are sometimes absorbed with difficulty.” – says Lea Ypi, an Albanian, scholar of the world, pilgrim of freedom and transformation said.
/sm/
