In his remarks at the gathering at the Porto Palace Hotel in Thessaloniki, as part of his “Proud for Albania” tour, aimed at engaging the diaspora ahead of Albania’s upcoming elections, the Socialist leader said that “the ideal Europe without borders was a reality in the daily lives of ordinary people in Thessaloniki, long before the Europe of treaties and the Brussels-governed European Union took shape.”

“Where better than anywhere else than here in Thessaloniki the past can be understood with an eye to the future” the Premier said, describing the Greek city as a “living mosaic of diverse identities and a place that interlaces various destinies, cultures and identities, including Albanians, Jews, Turks, and Greeks, with Albanians playing an undeniable role over the centuries.”

Rama added that Albanians have contributed to Thessaloniki’s cultural and social fabric over centuries, whether as soldiers, traders, or intellectuals.

“The spirit of freedom and tolerance and coexistence in an unwritten legal order of multi-ethnic community was embodied here naturally in Thessaloniki long before it turned into a criterion of multinational belonging under the EU’s many-starred flag,” PM Rama stated.

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The minister wrote in a post in social media that the Mosque of Gjin Aleksi is a rare object, evidence of the religious coexistence of Albanians.

“Built on the ruins of a Byzantine monastery, this pearl of architecture, with rare values of our cultural heritage, has in its courtyard a mosque, a church and a tekke, as the most vivid evidence of the cultural and religious coexistence of Albanians “, wrote Kushi.

The Church of Gjin Aleksi is a monument of cultural heritage in the village of Rusan-Delvina. This historical mosque was built in the 15th century. This cultural monument is of the “Architecture” type and received the status in 1963. /k.s/r.e/p.s./