By ANDI BALLA
Albania’s Independence Day, Nov. 28, is this weekend. For most Albanians, it also doubles as Albanian Flag Day, because raising the Kastrioti flag back in 1912 symbolized the start of Albania’s independence.
After the fall of communism, Albanians in Albania were mostly jaded with the idea patriotism and hardly anyone used the Albanian flag at home, unless the national soccer team was playing, say, Greece. For Albanians outside the country pride in the flag was more common place.
Many of Albania’s citizens also love to fly foreign flags. It’s a free country. People are welcome to do so. However, Albanian officials — from the mayor of the smallest town to the prime minister — should make sure proper flag etiquette is observed in official settings.
Flying any flag in a domestic official setting other than the flag of Albania or an organization in which Albania belongs is a practice against the international etiquette of flags, and it hurts the value Albanians place on Albania.
For example, Albanians like America a lot. What’s not to like? It’s a great country that has been very kind to Albanians. It also has a beautiful flag that Albanians like to have around — too much.
What is the U.S. flag, at times larger than the Albanian one, doing on the desk of the mayor of some small town in rural Albania or next to an Albanian government official as he gives a press conference on domestic issues?
To make things worse, the U.S. flag is also misused in most Albanian political rallies. No sir. You can’t get political points by waiving the U.S. flag at election rallies when you don’t live by the values it stands for.
The same arguments could be made for any other country Albanians look up to – the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, etc.
At the end of the day, Albanians live in a small, sovereign country and insist on using foreign flags where they don’t belong.
Next step, let’s push the envelope a little further. The European Union flag is present even more than the American one. It too needs to go in the closet, at least until Albania becomes a fully-fledged EU member.
Like it or not, Albania is not an EU member. It might be in the next decade, but it is not now. So what is the EU flag doing next the double headed eagle in every single official event?
Yes, Albania is a potential candidate for membership in the European Union. It has been that for many years, although if it takes three words to get to the EU part, you know you got a long time to wait for membership. But, hey, at least Brussels has accepted an application to get rid of the “potential” part at an undetermined date.
Before you start writing a letter to the editor, I know Albania is a member of the Council of Europe, the less prestigious and more open-door European club that spans all the way east to the Caucuses and Vladivostok. The EU sort of stole the flag from the CoE, and they are virtually identical. One could argue that is why we are flying the EU stars.
But then let’s be clear about it, and educate the people that it is the CoE flag we are using officially not the EU one, and the CoE flag doesn’t come with visa-free travel or work permits for Portugal and Germany.
I know, 88 percent of Albanians really, really want to be EU members, and some even would move the whole of Albania next to Arizona if they could.
But for now, Albanians need to show a little more respect for themselves and their flag, and let that old, black double headed eagle fly alone — at least this weekend.
Happy Albanian Flag Day!
