The President of the Republic was awarded “the Citizen of Honour” title in a ceremony by the Mayor of Rosciano, Dr. Simone Palozo.

In his remarks, President Begaj praised  the Arberesh community in Villa Badessa for their efforts to preserve language, tradition and culture of their ancestors.

“The main square, the church, streets, the statue of the Arber leader, houses, cooking tradition and everything else best reflect your Arberi heritage and we are really grateful for that,” President Begaj said.

The Albanian head of state said that a good part of his meeting with the Italian President Mattarella focused on the Arberesh community, adding that Italian President deeply respects this community and that the two had agreed to jointly develop various projects to the benefit of the Arberesh community.

“Given the current conditions, we need to do a lot more to preserve the Arberesh language, unique religious traditions so that such values are passed to the future generations,” he said.

The head of state also expressed gratitude to the local authorities of the Abruzzo region for their efforts and assistance to the Albanian diaspora to best integrate into the Italian society.

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