TIRANA, Dec. 8 – A national conference marked Tuesday the 25th anniversary of the University of Tirana student protests that forced the former communist regime to allow political pluralism in the country, ushering in a new era of democracy in Albania.
Organized by the country’s head of state, President Bujar Nishani, the “Albania and Europe, 25 Years After Communism Conference brought a wide array of views and greetings from national and international figures.
Former Croatian president Stipe Mesic, former Greek Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos, German euro-parliamentarian Doris Pack, Kosovo President Ahtifete Jahjaga and many others joined the conference.
Bitter political rivals, Prime Minister Edi Rama and his predecessor, Sali Berisha, both of which were involved with the December 1990 student movement, spoke at the conference on the same panel.
“Ultimately, the first lesson learned in these 25 years of dealing with our past and with the challenges of European integration is that it is not the climate, it is not geography, and it is not the history of people that makes the difference,” Rama said. “It is rather the history of institutions and the tradition of the state as such, regardless of the people and regardless of generations that replace each other.”
The conference was also hailed with a video message from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had sent a message to the conference on behalf of President Barack Obama. The Pope too had sent a message congratulating Albania on its path forward.
They all commemorated the students’ protest in 1990 and their leaders of the time. Many well-known journalists of international media outlets remembered how they covered Albania’s transition at that moment.
In another place a group of former students of 1990 held their meeting too. They also held a youth fair in an effort to make a call for more attention in the employment of the youth in the country.
