TIRANA, May 20 – Internationally renowned Albanian author Ismail Kadare was honoured this week with a flag ceremony at the United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC.
U.S. congressman Eliot Engel, a strong supporter of the Albanian cause, who lobbied for the flag ceremony, handed the U.S. flag flown in honour of Kadare to Vehbi Bajrami, the publisher of the Illyria Albanian-American newspaper in New York, in Kadare’s absence.
“Kadare is rightly widely recognized as Albania’s greatest writer of our era. His writings are related to the history of Albania and its people but bring new elements to freedom, dignity and human rights,” said Engel, highlighting his recent award of the Jerusalem Prize.
Vehbi Bajrami, who was the initiator of the flag ceremony, described Kadare as the best passport for Albanians around the world.
“Small nations such as Albania need great figures such as Ismail Kadare with whom Albanians can be identified around the world and I can tell you that this great figure and writer is the best passport for Albanians around the world,” he said.
Kadare’s English translator, David Bellos, described him as a writer who opened a transparent window for Albania under communism when the Balkan country in fact was an opaque window.
The flag ceremony is a tradition on Capitol Hill, the seat of the United States Congress, for distinguished congressmen and senators, but this was a unique event, since this time the ceremony honored a prominent cultural figure from a foreign country.
“Ismail Kadare is one of the greatest authors of our time and a culture treasure of Albania. I am humbled by the opportunity to meet him in person,” U.S Ambassador Donald Lu said in a meeting with Kadare last April in Tirana.
Earlier this year, Kadare, 79, was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for his works which best express and promote the idea of the “freedom of the individual in society.”
An internationally renowned poet, novelist and essayist, Ismail Kadare has been perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize for literature. His international acclaim for his works peaked in 2005 when he won the Man Booker International Prize.
Kadare, known for writing about Albania’s totalitarian government, has had his works translated into over 30 languages, the most famous of which is “The General of the Dead Army.”
