Tirana 2006 book fair opened in Tirana

TIRANA, Nov. 1 – The 9th edition of the Tirana 2006 book fair started Wednesday and will continue for a week until Nov. 8. it is being held at Pjeter Arbnori International Cultural Center. Fatmnir Toci of the Albanian publishers association, said there were 120 publishers from all the albanian areas, including those of Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece and Italy, ‘the greatest and most importnat part of publishers in anad out of Albania.’ Toci said the fair serves as a good place with equal opportunities for all of them to present their products. Albanian writers and critics like Ismail Kadare, Drit쳯 Agolli, Rexhep Qosja, Fatos Arapi, Fatos Kongoli, Diana ȵli, Ali Podrimja, Luan Starova, Nazmi Rrahmani, Eqrem Basha, Ali Aliu, Kim Mehmeti, and others will have daily contacts with readers. There will also be present Italian, Dutch, Greek and German persoanlities. The fair will hold a series of activities, meetings, news conferences and debates during the week-long period.
But the fair had also a small incident that spoiled the launch. Mjaft foudnation said that head of the cultural center Muje Bucpapaj stopped journalsits from entering the fair and also he had authorized his staff to move the red color used as a background in the fair areas. That sparked debates with the fair organizers. Following that center personnel exerted violent acts against Mjaft activists and also two organizers of the fair, Fatmir Toci and Petrit Ymeri, according to Mjaft.