TIRANA, Jan. 8 – Albanian political, civic and religious leaders have condemned the attack on a French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.
President Bujar Nishani expressed his condolences to French President Francois Hollande, pointing out that the Albanian people near the French people in these difficult moments.
“This barbaric act of terrorism against the press and free speech makes us even more aware of the needed solidarity to intensify our common fight against terrorism,” Nishani’s message said.
The Albanian Muslim Community, the country’s official religious governing body for Muslims, also strongly condemned the terrorist attack in a statement, expressing condolences to the victims and wishes of quick recovery for the injured.
“We condemn with the greatest severity this barbaric act against journalists, police officers and others hurt in it this incident. This massacre causes outrage in every human being, and is condemnable by moral, religious and universal human values.”
Prime Minister Edi Rama expressed his solidarity with the French people in a message to his French counterpart and on his social media channels.
Messages of condemnation for the terrorist attack and solidarity with the French people also came from the Albanian parliament, the main opposition Democratic Party and a series of other civic leaders and state officials.
Albanian journalists held a vigil to honor their French colleagues in downtown Tirana Wednesday night.
On Jan. 7, two masked gunmen armed stormed the headquarters of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, killing 12 people, including eight Charlie Hebdo employees and two National Police officers, and wounded 11 others.
The gunmen have been identified by French police as two French nationals of Algerian descent, who are believed to Jihadists.
Those killed included some of France’s best known cartoonists, and the victims drew solidarity from people across the world.
