Dear Editor,
It is with great pleasure that I have seen in the recent years several articles in your distinguished magazine on Albania, its archaeology and its heritage. They have been important in representing a wide avenue of communication of the small Albanian archaeological community with the wider world, they have expressed and shared most of our troubles and difficulties in cooping with a changing society, with a transforming reality and with the reassessment of the social role of the discipline. Communication hasn’t been the strongest point of this community in the past, and it still isn’t today, even if things are in the process of change. This might be probably one of the reasons why your readers have typically heard and seen an outsider’s view of Albania and its cultural heritage. The last letter that you have received from Albania, however, left me and my colleagues with a rather bitter taste for many reasons that I would try to explain here. This is not simply an instinctive reaction, but rather a reflection on the human and professional relationships in what I consider to be a neocolonialist setting, particularly because the letter you received was sent by someone who has been welcome for more than a decade in the country.
The letter touches upon several important issues that are central, I believe, to the protection of the historical center of Gjirokast철- a World Heritage Site since 2005. It contains many inaccuracies, however, some of them of historical character, others more conceptual. The historical inaccuracies include statements of the kind that place the foundation of Antigoneia and the reign of king Pyrrhus of Epirus in the 4th instead of the 3rd century B.C.; considering the Angonate House as a construction of the 20th century, when there is a certain date for its construction in 1881; or giving a general consideration of the bazaar of Gjirokast철as an 18th century feature, when it developed one century earlier.
More disturbing, however, appear some other inconsistent statements and unpleasant deformation of reality in the World Heritage Site. The author claims to have first visited Gjirokast철in 1994 and has had the impression of a “well-preserved 19th century Ottoman town”. Throughout the letter is made frequent and superficial use of terms such as “Ottoman town”, “Ottoman mansion”, “Ottoman treasure”, “Ottoman bazaar”. I have not understood quite why, since he is referring to a town, mansions and architecture that takes a specific form here and is made by identified Albanian craftsman. We are also informed that, recently, the author comes more frequently in town to advice an NGO (Gjirokastra Conservation and Development Organization) which since 2001 is trying to raise funds to save the silver city! He rightly considers as critical the state of preservation of several houses in the historical center of Gjirokast철and points at its abandonment by small businesses, shops and other economic activities and their move to the lower city as one of the main problems. Throughout the letter, however, the reader gets the wrong impression that the NGO advised by the author of the letter is at the center of most of the conservation efforts that are recently renewed in the town. Many other deformed facts are given, such as the NGO advised by the author has mapped Gjirokastra’s historic structures, has finished the first complete plan of the Castle, is ‘supervising work in the 18th-century Ottoman bazaar’, ‘hopes to reopen the Communist-era fallout shelter’, among others. Whoever works in Gjirokast철knows very well this is untrue. It is enough to have a look at the web-site of UNESCO Office in Venice to find out that it is UNESCO with funds accorded by the Albanian Government, that is working closely with the Institute for Cultural Monuments and its local structures to conserve the World Heritage Site and supervise many projects and activities.
Intolerable is also the cynic way in which the author describes the conservation efforts made by our colleagues of the previous generation during the socialist period (before 1990s). Beyond any serious reflection they are considered by the author of the letter as a group of communists that inaccurately “restored” the town ‘creating what they imagined to be a suitable setting for Hoxha’s apotheosis’. They are accused without any argument and by a person that shows to know very little on the theory and practice of conservation, of reinventing the historical center of Gjirokast첮 As former director of the Albanian Institute of Cultural Monuments (that the author refers to as the ‘State Institute OF WHAT’) I have had the rare opportunity to appreciate the progressive, professional and serious approach of my older colleagues for legally protecting the historical center of Gjirokast철as early as 1961 and producing an impressively effective management plan. The active and large scale conservation activity in the town has been strongly based on the principles of the 1964 Venice Charter on conservation, with special attention dedicated to issues such as evaluating different phases of construction of the property, authenticity, careful selection of conservation materials, integration of historical monuments in the modern life, and particularly, the continuous maintenance as the best conservation procedure, following the categorization of monuments and the management plan. It was this very approach, among other factors, that assured good preservation of the historical center that the author has experienced shortly after the fall of the Communist Government. Between his first visit in 1994 and the moment that he decided to write the letter, the author only marginally remembers that the Historical Center of Gjirokast철is inscribed on the World Heritage List by the World Heritage Committee in 2005. On this occasion, specialized institutions of UNESCO and international bodies such as ICOMOS have carefully analyzed what was proposed by Albanian specialists to represent the demonstrated Outstanding Universal Value of the property. Not only this, but whoever knows even something on the criteria for inscription in the World Heritage List, understands that a detailed discussion of Authenticity and Integrity of the property, has been adopted as a standard procedure by the WHC. What about the reinvented city that the ‘communist restorers’ created as ‘a suitable setting for Hoxha’s apotheosis’?! Is this communist reinvention inscribed on the World Heritage List?! I am sure no one can believe the author of the letter in this. It is simply untrue and absurd!
The author shows also one old and one recent picture of one of the most interesting mansions of Gjirokast철(the Angonate House), to illustrate the misdoing of the ‘communist restorers’ and the efforts to repair it. The reader is left to assume that this is also a contribution of the NGO advised by him. This is embarrassingly untrue! He has understood nothing of the early conservation and the philosophy of the current project! As director of the Institute of Monuments at the time of formulation of this project, I have worked with my colleagues and our UNESCO partners as well as Gjirokast철Municipality on totally different principles that is probably not the place to elaborate here. The UNESCO Office in Venice and the Albanian Institute of Monuments are the only institutions supervising this specific conservation project and all others everywhere in Gjirokast첮 Certainly not the NGO advised by the author of the letter. At some point, we are also told that the manager of the GCDO (the NGO advised by the author) complains to her advisor on the slow bureaucracy of getting projects approved. The Institute of Monuments, as the responsible body for approving all projects of intervention in the historical center, has always been a responsible partner, but has the responsibility of assuring professional standards for all projects. I am not entering here in the discussion of the professional standards of those projects of the GCDO that I have personally evaluated, but the professionalism of its mentor/advisor expressed in his letter are an illustration. State institutions have continuously tried to make the point with this organization that at least a small part of the funding they receive (for saving the silver city) should go in real conservation projects. If this would have happened in the recent years as it has in 2001-2002, Gjirokastra would have had fewer problems now.
Why all these false statements?! To whom are these directed? Do these represent a publicity for Albania and its heritage, or simply for the ‘gigantic efforts’ of the NGO advised by the author to ‘save the silver city’? Is this directed just to the donor, or to other potential donors? Why provide fake things for them? Why dishonest stories are told about the local institutions and professionals? Blaming them might help the NGO look good and more attractive funding wise, even if totally non-professional? Is someone trying to sell fake products to attract more funding for more fake products and more funding? Haven’t we learned the lesson of few months ago that the selling of fake financial products produces a global crisis? The modest cultural heritage sector is probably not able to provoke a global financial crisis, but there is a moral crisis that requires our attention. Is there within our professional community a marginal group that is ‘specializing’ in producing fake things for the donors and these fake products have always as background a place, or a country in difficulty? I suspect that at least in this case the answer is “yes”. It is time for us to reflect on these issues and refuse all these practices that appear as unacceptable forms of neo-colonialism.
With all the best wishes,
Lorenc Bejko
Professor of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management
Department of History
University of Tirana
P.S. The NGO advised by the author of the letter has distributed the published text in “Archaeology Magazine” with an Albanian version for those who can not read English here. Almost all the points I have discussed above, however, are very carefully taken off the Albanian text. I only found this out after I had finished writing my letter and frankly, my imagination never went this far!
