In an interview for KosovaPress, Krisafi said that at the time of the massacre he was in Geneva.

“Tahir Shabani, a prominent activist of the time, brought me some photos saying ‘look what happened’. I told Tahir, I know this because I have listened to the news, but, anyway, the photos were extremely touching. I called my government to get its authorization, according to the rule. Then, I called on the phone some of the heads of the international organizations headquartered in Geneva. Mary Robinson was United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Sadako Ogata was United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Brunson McKinley was Director General of the International Organization for Migration, and so on, and I asked them for meetings,” he recounts.

He said he insisted on meeting with all these leaders of international organizations, but it was strange how they were not as much concerned as Krisafi about the genocide in the village of Reçak.

“I had the impression that they sat loose on the event. They thought that these are things that happen; these are things that should not be amplified and so on and so forth. I told them, it is not a matter of amplification, it is a matter of the existence of an entire people. And it did not take long, the public became aware, the international community reached a consensus, namely, the Rambouillet meeting and then the bombing of Yugoslavia as responsible for what happened, what was happening here in Kosovo,” he told the KosovaPress.

Former Albanian ambassador to the UN Ksenofon Krisafi participated today in the scientific roundtable organized by the Intellectuals Forum on the topic “Serbian denials of crimes and genocide, destabilization for the Balkans”.

He emphasized that the Serbs have always been the aggressor, but simultaneously have adopted the mantle of victimhood.

“What has happened between the Albanians and the Serbs is almost unique. The Serbs have always been the aggressor, but simultaneously have adopted the mantle of victimhood. They have managed to manipulate the public in their favor with their skill and wickedness and put all responsibility for the conflicts to the Albanians, the innocent people. It is something that should not happen and when it’s a question of national issue we should put aside our differences and become one nation, with one purpose”, he said, among other things.

Located about 30 kilometers from Prishtina, the village of Reçak in the municipality of Shtime made a major turning point in the history of Kosovo about three decades ago.

The Serbian forces brutally killed 45 Albanian civilians on this day in 1999. The first to tell the world that a crime against humanity had been committed there was the then head of the OSCE Verification Mission in Kosovo William Walker. The serious incident in Reçak prompted an international reaction, with NATO deciding to attack Serbian military and police targets. /KosovaPress/p.s./

Prime Minister Edi Rama took to the social media on Friday to share Nesti’s story and journey from humble beginning to cultivation and production of the finest of wines that is now being exported to important markets, including Italy, Switzerland and the United States of America.

“This is an example for many other Albanians to follow and end the dilemma of whether to stay abroad or to ultimately return back home,” PM Rama wrote.

Nesti recalls that his father engaged in winemaking because of his passion.

“After migrating to Italy, we realized that quality wine and winemaking was actually something completely different from what we had imagined,” Nesti said.

“After 30 years of work experience in winemaking in Italy, I decided to return back home and cultivate my own land and work in our winery. Taking notice of tourism growth in Albania, we have realized that we have done the right thing by engaging in winemaking,” he added.

Nesti also noted that Perlat village has a winemaking tradition with over 450 ha of vineyards, underlining that this was also a reason for him to decide in order to preserve this tradition of producing quality wine.

“We export around 30% of our production to Italy. We have also established contacts with Switzerland and U.S,” he said, adding that with years of experience under his belt, he understood that true success hinged on unwavering commitment and sound business practices.

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Initially, their business started from nothing, in one of the rooms of their house, only 20 square meters, offering their dresses on rent.

The customers were increasing day by day and therefore they needed a more suitable space, a shop on rent.

The two sisters said that they initially opened the business to have their economic independence.

“We gradually realized that marketing is very important and we started with the first photo sets. But, our young age was a problem, as we were often rejected and forced to take mom or dad with us and they said it was their own business”, the girls said.

A few years later, their shop from a small fitting room of dresses for rent, turned into a workshop where they already created themselves and employed a staff of 20 people, while offering not only dresses, but also everyday clothes.

“We understood that in order to continue to be one step ahead of others, we you must be trained”, said the sisters.

After many challenges, the two sisters managed to create their own line and realize the clothes created by themselves.

Now, the two sisters’ business market has crossed borders to reach Dubai, where handicrafts are highly preferred.

“The biggest desire is to be confirmed as an international brand, while they are building their website for online shopping”, they said. /p.s./

“Spanish version of the renowned magazine Elle has most recently dedicated an article on Albania as one of the top European destinations for the Spanish visitors during 2024, focusing mainly on Vlora mountainous landscape and turquoise water beaches, the Narta Lagoon, Zvernec Island, cultural tourism and culinary,  featuring tender lamb baked with rice in a spiced yogurt sauce.”

PM Rama said that “number of Spanish visitors to Albania rose 93% year-on-year in 2023.”

“This coastal city has been hailed as the European Maldives and is a top destination in 2024. Vlora is the perfect place to go on vacation to the beach, as it has been named by the Booking.com as the European Maldives, but with flight lasting just a few hours and much cheaper. Vlora, a small city located in the southwest of Albania and only 135 km from the capital, Tirana, which can be a good day trip if you want to change the beach routine, and the starting point of the Albanian Riviera, halfway path between the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea,” Elle España magazine said in its article written by Begona Alonso.

The article also describes some of Vlora’s main attractions, saying: “With blue waters, impressive mountains and accessible to all, it has some of the most beautiful beaches in Europe, thus becoming the continental Maldives.”

“Some of the most beautiful destinations in Vlora, treasures of the Albanian Riviera are: The Karaburun peninsula, the largest in Albania; Sazan Island; the ancient park of Orik, the archaeological park of Amantia, as well as beautiful coastal villages and unexplored caves in the Ionian Sea, the Porto Palermo fortress in Himarë,” Elle España said.

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The Minister of Tourism and Environment Mirela Kumbaro shared the story on the social media, saying that as many as 5.1 foreign tourists have visited Albania this year as the country has made its way to the map of main tourist destinations in the Mediterranean.

“Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made a surprise visit to Albania this week, joining thousands of summer holidaymakers who have chosen the Balkan country over Italy’s soaring prices and extreme weather. Meloni opted for a low-cost route, taking a ferry from the southern Italian region of Puglia where she was on holiday with her family to the Albanian port of Vlorë,” Financial Times said in its story.

According to the Financial Times, Albania is now enjoying an economic revival in part due to a tourism boom.

“One of Europe’s poorest countries, Albania has struggled for decades to shake off a reputation for corruption and organised crime that drove hundreds of thousands of Albanians to emigrate. But it is now enjoying an economic revival in part due to a tourism boom,” the leading British daily business newspaper said.

The Financial Times also notes that airline passengers to Albania more than doubled in June due to opening of low-cost routes to Albanian airports.

“Attracted by its Mediterranean beaches at competitive prices, airline passengers to Albania more than doubled in June compared with the same period a year earlier, according to ACI Europe, an association of airport operators. The opening of low-cost routes to Albanian airports contributed to that jump, ACI said,” the article reads.

Financial Times said that as prices have soared in Italy, international tourists have been lured by lower Albanian costs on everything from hotel accommodation to restaurants and sunbeds.

“Germany’s federal statistics agency recently found the price of restaurants and hotels in Albania were 56 per cent below those of Germany — making it the cheapest holiday destination in Europe,” the newspaper said.

The Financial Times story notes that traditional media outlets in Italy and elsewhere have also branded Albania as the “it” destination, lauding its ivory sand beaches as the Caribbean of Europe.

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The government head shared a feature story about Albania’s tourism boom by the Croatian free-to-air television network RTL.

“Bombastic success of Albania’s tourism is making the headlines, this time on the media of a country that is a superstar of tourism, namely Croatia, with the RTL TV network providing unexpected special coverage of surprising Albania that is increasingly attracting attention of the international media,” PM Rama said.

“Most recently, everyone is speaking about the Maldives of Europe, Albania, with marvellous turquoise waters and normal affordable prices,” the Croatian RTL TV said in its story, adding that visitors to Albania would pay half of what would cost them if on vacation elsewhere.

“It is not neither Greece, nor Spain, nor Hawaii or Thailand. This is the Maldives of Europe. Surprised tourists suddenly discover Albania. You will travel for free on the roads of Albania because no road tolls are levied,” the RTL said in its story.

RTL interviewed a holidaymaker, who said that accommodation and even parking prices are lower than in Croatia or anywhere else.

“One week accommodation for two would cost 2000 to 3000 euros, whereas transport, accommodation and everything else would cost around 1000 euros for one week in Albania. Even less than that,” she said.

Citing the findings of a Croatian tourist and travel agency, RTL said that one week holidays in Albania would cost only 850 euros.

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Written by the author Tennessee Williams, “Orfeu in Infern” is put on stage as an absolute premiere of the National Theater directed by Nastazja Domaradzka.

The show was performed by actors Dritan Boriçi, Flaura Kureta, Era Çaushi, Adelina Muça, Igli Zarka, Olta Daku, Ema Andrea, Neritan Liçaj, Genti Deçka, Besmir Bitraku and Lulzim Zeqja. The translator of the work is Artur Lena, stage designer and costume designer Laedia Hajdari, composer Rona Kastrioti.

A stranger arrives in a small town torn apart by history and rumors. In a city where freedom is just a memory and change is but a concept. Can love exist in a place that is overrun by pain and hatred? Can art really save us from pain and hatred?

This play is a poetic, raw and hard-hitting account of love in the 1950s by the great playwright Tennessee Williams.

The work will be shown to the public tonight and on April 8 and 9 at 19:00 on the stage of the ArTurbina./p.s./

“The decision to declare the independence of Kosovo was the right one,” PM Rama told the German newspaper.

Following is the full story by Der Spiegel.

“Putin says: Kosovo, Kosovo, Kosovo”

“Russia is fuelling the conflict in the Balkans and endangering its fragile peace. Prime Minister Edi Rama explains what can help against distrust and hatred- and what Angela Merkel has to do with it.”

The Prime Minister welcomes his guests barefoot. Edi Rama is a tall man with a forehead scar and deep-set eyes. Wearing black shorts, a white Adidas and no shoes, Rama was sitting together with his wife Linda in the garden of a beach house.

The villa is built in the sixties near the idyllic coastal village of Dhërmi, nestled among pine trees. The state has them once built for the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha. Policemen guard in the front door. The most powerful man in Albania is on vacation.

“You don’t disturb me,” Linda Rama tells to the SPIEGEL reporters, as she wears a white cotton shirt and a peaked cap over the black curly hair. In her husband’s position there is no real vacation. Albanian citizens elected Edi Rama by a large majority as their Prime Minister for first time eleven years ago.

As mayor of the capital Tirana, Rama painted colourfully the city’s streets and embarked on a fight against the corrupt justice system. Critics now claim that Rama himself maintains contacts with the mafia, something he strongly rejects.

And corruption is far from Albania’s only problem. The war in Ukraine, only about a thousand kilometers away, has just opened up old wounds in the region. The big powers are again tugging the most fragile Western Balkans. In the past few months, the situation has once again intensified between Serbia and Kosovo, with Albania is closely connected. At stake is no less than peace in the Balkans.

Just like Ukraine, Serbia threatens to become a cause for dispute between Russia and the West: the country wants to join the EU, but can’t also break with ally Russia.

While Putin is turning off the gas tap in Europe, Russia is supplying Belgrade with particularly cheap energy and with guns. The price for this is loyalty, a requirement that Serbia almost torn.

“Nobody can destroy our relations with Serbia,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said recently, after his planned visit to Belgrade was cancelled at short notice due to denied over flight rights. It sounded like a threat. Russia is not concealing its desire to curb U.S. influence in the Western Balkans.

Behind Rama, the turquoise sea water sparkles, while skeletons of the half-finished luxury hotels rise on the hills of the Dhërmi Bay. Several five-star hotels will soon open here. It is difficult to imagine that just two decades ago Albania faced a civil war. After the collapse of the communist system, the country fought with gangs, militias and local vigilantes. Today the young state relies on the tourism industry.

Albania is smaller than Brandenburg, and with just 2.8 million inhabitants live here, less than Berlin’s population. However, the tiny Western Balkan country is strategic to defence and significant to counter Moscow’s possible disruptive manoeuvres. A NATO member since 2009, and aspiring to EU, Tirana acts as a kind counterweight to Serbia.

Just before the attack on the Ukraine, NATO had just started the reconstruction and expansion of an old airfield in southern Albania to transform it into an air base for the Alliance. Rama’s government has also offered the transatlantic alliance to build a future NATO naval base near the port city of Durres. If clashes between the Serbs and for the Albanians were to erupt in the future, in Kosovo north for example, Tirana would probably play a central role.

The people in the region are split between Putin opponents and Putin supporters, Rama explains. And he believes: “Russia would be delighted if something was to move towards conflict in the Balkans.”

“A good 80 percent of the Orthodox Serbs think positively about how Putin is demonstrating his force to the West in Ukraine, if we can put it that way,” Prime Minister Rama said. The recent fresh tensions in the Balkans run quite exactly along the old Soviet and the Western lines of influence.

In Albania, only 0.7% of the respondents agree with Putin’s actions, according to a survey conducted by his government.

Rama thinks that sympathies for Moscow are strong in Serbia, even “much stronger” among a majority of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serbs-dominated Republika Srpska.

In Montenegro, there is a huge gap between the Montenegrins and Serbs. “We should be aware that this influence can turn into something terrible.”

Even 23 years after deployment of NATO troops in Kosovo, the country is guarded by the Western military alliance. In 2008 Kosovo finally declared its independence.

The dispute with Serbia has never politically solved to date.

NATO launched an air campaign to stop the murder of thousands and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Albanians back in 1999.

Almost a hundred countries have now recognized Kosovo. However Russia, China and also some EU member states, including Spain and Greece, haven’t recognized the country.

One can also say the NATO-led mission in Kosovo serves Putin as a kind of an excuse for its aggressive annexation policies in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Abkhazia and Georgia.

It was probably the beginning of today’s crisis. Can the catastrophe of the Yugoslav wars be repeated?

Rama replies by making a counter question: “Have you heard how often Putin mentions Kosovo in his speeches?”

He keeps saying: “Kosovo, Kosovo, Kosovo!” The Kremlin chief is unerringly stirring “the most painful of all unsolved problems” in the Balkans and doing everything to set a new fuse.

Rama sees his own country firmly anchored in the West. Unlike few politicians in the region he has caught the world of different Interests and cultivates the international relations and contacts from Riyadh to Istanbul, Paris and Washington.

“ When Hillary Clinton called me  a year ago and asked to take in a few thousand undocumented Afghan refugees, my answer was a flat ‘yes’,” Rama said.

Because of his support in the 1999 Kosovo war, Rama would never turn down a request from the Clintons.

In the turn of the century, the lecturer at Tirana’s art academy and son of a well-known sculptor affiliated with the democracy movement, at that time there weren’t many like him: good athlete, free artist, inspirational speaker.

But in Rama’s fight for Kosovo’s recognition, Albanian nationalist tones are sometimes mixed up.

Again and again he presides joint sessions of the governments in Prishtina and Tirana, provoking Belgrade’s fears about establishment of a “Greater Albania”.

Rama grew up in an isolated country. For decades, Albania was considered the North Korea of Europe.

Also from this experience out, the 58-year-old tries a difficult balancing act: He wants to integrate the Western Balkans internationally and secure Kosovo as an independent state, but at the same time heal phantom pains of Serbia.

“The decision to declare Kosovo’s independence was the right one!” Rama states and stretches his hands in the warm summer air.

After all, there is now a “peace and reconciliation process”, even if it is one now it’s been a long time.

After his election to office in 2013, Rama travelled to Belgrade in the first visit by a Tirana government head in 68 years. But, when he asked the Serbian government at the press conference to recognize Kosovo, his Serbian counterpart Vučić took him aside, telling him that his personnel were demanding to throw “the arrogant guest” out.

According to Rama he replied to Vučić that they were just officials, but he was smarter and therefore the head of government.

“Recently, however, there are some encouraging developments in the Balkans too. So I want Serbia, Albania and Montenegro build a  kind of mini-Schengen area to trade better.

The “Open Balkan” project unites him with his “dearest enemy “Aleksandar Vučic. The promised freedom of movement between the countries is a small sensation.

Towards the end of the visit, Rama still wants say that all this was actually an idea of Angela Merkel. Through here, he and Serbia’s Vučić found a stable working relationship, “despite our history of pain and bloodshed.”

“In 2014, the then German Chancellor invited the six heads of government of the Western Balkans to what she called ‘the Berlin Process’.  She told us we were Europeans, although not yet members of the European Union. “

For the first time in the history of the Balkans, top politicians sat together at a table once a year – Rama says – always in a different European city; London, Paris, Trieste, Vienna.

“Until the day she left politics, Merkel was present every time in person. That changed everything,” the Albanian Prime Minister says.

At these meetings, the six leaders of the Balkan countries agreed not to agree, but they all shared a common will to turn the tide of history,” PM Rama concluded.

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TIRANA, Sept  4 /ATA/ – Two young Albanian girls share their emotional stories of survival as their dreams of decent education drove them to follow a path to freedom feeling their homeland to arrive in Albania, where hospitality has been inherited as an unwritten law by our ancestors.

Prime Minister Edi Rama posted Saturday the story of Hamasa Zeerak and Nikbakht Iqbalzada, two young Afghan girls, American University of Afghanistan students, who fled their country fearing for their lives after the Taleban regime takeover.

Already accommodated in the coastal town of Shëngjin, north-western Albania, the two share their stories of survival and a new life through tough decisions and big dreams.

“It was the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life, because I couldn’t think I would leave my country one day, but the fragile situation that happened in Afghanistan, in my country, made me face just one option; to leave my country in order to be safe and continue my life,” Hamasa Zeerak said, adding: “It was really a stressful moment, because I was a girl with hopes and dreams to get education and graduate from university.”

“I was about to start the fifth semester at the American University of Afghanistan, but that situation didn’t happen, as everything was destroyed. I was really distressed that my country was destroyed just overnight, because everything happened so fast. For me education is just a way to open the doors towards achieving your goals and having a bright future.

Nikbakht Iqbalzada, another student now provided shelter in Albania, said leaving her homeland was for her the hardest thing to do throughout her 20 years of life.

“Because leaving the country was not an option for us. It was never a choice. We never imagined that our country or all the things we had done in 20 years of our lives, we tried our best to get an education and prepare ourselves to serve the nation and the whole generation, but everything was destroyed overnight. Therefore, I am really thankful and grateful to the Albanian government and the government of Qatar, because they treated us with dignity, with respect and they welcomed us with all the respect and love they could,” she said.

Asked whether she believed the Taleban regime statements and pledges that they would allow the girls’ education in Afghanistan, Iqbalzada said it is not a decision they can make it right now, because Taleban tell something different in the public, on Twitter and the news, yet they actually act completely different in practice on the ground.

“What we now hear from the people on the ground is that they don’t allow seventh grade girls to go to school. Girls can attend school only under the grade six. They fear people with knowledge, because if people have knowledge and they receive an education, then they would know what is right and what is wrong. So, their plan is to keep people in dark,“ Nikbakht said.

The two shared the story how they ended up as American University of Afghanistan students and the way they came across “Yalda Hakim” foundation run by leading BBC journalist.

“Actually, I and Nikbakht, before enrolling the American University of Afghanistan, we attended supplementary English language and computer courses and as we are about to enter the university degree programme, fortunately Yalda Hakim announced her scholarships. We applied for them, and we were both eligible, we were interviewed and we succeeded in earning a scholarship and I am really thankful of her, because when I was granted the scholarship, my life suddenly changed. This is because I was facing financial troubles and I am sure I wouldn’t afford continuing university without Mrs. Yalda Hakim,” Zeerak said.

But what are their biggest dreams for the future?

“My biggest dream is to get education, support myself and my family and my whole society. It is my dream that my country be peaceful one day so that we safely return back home and support the future generations. It is my dream that my country becomes peaceful one day,” Zeerak said.

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If there is someone who knows about hard work and determination, it’s 2nd Lt. Valdeta Mehanja, a pilot with the 1-131st Aviation Regiment.

Mehanja, an Albanian born in Kosovo and a U.S. citizen, never thought she would get to see Albania.

“I have never visited Albania before. It’s an incredible feeling to be here, as a pilot, in uniform and in the U.S. military,” she said.

“I would have never gotten this opportunity to fly around Albania if it wasn’t for the military. I would have never gotten this opportunity to fly around Albania if it wasn’t for the U.S. military,” Valdeta added. “I would have never gotten this opportunity to fly around Albania if it wasn’t for the military. To be able to experience this just made me so happy.”

Mehanja says this mission feels like “completing a circle.” She grew up poor and her family became refugees of war, leaving behind what little they owned to survive violent conflict. Years later, as a contractor for the Department of Defense, her convoy traveling to Bagdad was ambushed by improvised explosive devices and gunfire.

“I thought that was it,” she said. However, she was saved by American pilots, and she knew that was what she wanted to do,” she told an interview.

“It made me want to join aviation. I knew I had a bigger mission. I couldn’t just be a regular person and not give back,” the military woman said.

Since then Mehanja has achieved that goal and became a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot for the U.S. Army. She felt the circle would soon be complete when she heard the 1-131st was going to Albania to participate in DEFENDER-Europe 21.

“I was so excited. I couldn’t believe that the Guard unit I joined was going to Albania,” she said. “I didn’t realize how beautiful this country really is until I got to fly around the mountains. I don’t think I could have visited Albania in a better way.”

“Mehanja feels strongly about Defender 21, which is her first mission flying outside the U.S.

“Defender 21 is a sign of alliance,” she said. “Even during a pandemic, we are able to show how we can quickly move to another county and work with other militaries and build partnerships.”

Since arriving in Albania, Mehanja has flown missions and served as an interpreter and cultural adviser to the Americans and Albanians working together.

She says she has been happy to take on the extra tasks.

“If we work together, we will be stronger together,” she explained. “I think to keep that partnership and continuing missions and training together will open up a whole other window to experience other cultures.”

Outside these duties, Mehanja has become somewhat of a celebrity. She’s met with hundreds of locals, been interviewed by numerous news outlets, met U.S. Ambassador Yuri Kim, and shook hands with Albanian President Ilir Meta.

“It meant so much that they’re acknowledging how difficult my journey was and that they’re proud I’m here and working together with them,” she said. “It was a very special moment for me, and I’ll never forget it. I’ll cherish it for the rest of my life.”

Mehanja’s family is incredibly proud of her and shocked at how things turned out in Albania.

“It is a huge deal,” she exclaimed, “I don’t think my mom, who was not allowed to go to school, would have ever thought that her daughter would be shaking hands with an Albanian president. My family is just so proud that I was able to come here as a U.S. military pilot and work with the Albanians and that I get to help.”

Despite all of this, she remains humble and hopes her story can inspire others and help build friendships between her nations.

“Anything is possible if you work hard for it. Just when you think you can’t accomplish something because the journey is too tough, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible and that it’ll never happen,” she said. “I was able to do this despite the odds against me. Anyone can do it, too. I’m hoping everyone will be inspired to succeed in their goals.”

Mehanja doesn’t believe she would be as successful without the 1-131st Aviation Regiment and the Alabama National Guard.

“I seriously have the best unit. I have the best commander. I have been so incredibly lucky. They have allowed me to have this experience, to be a part of this. It was God’s work and everyone here that made this possible, and I want to thank them,” Valdeta said.

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