A great Swiss honor for Kosovo

On the state visit of the President of Kosovo to Switzerland.

By Enver Robelli

A state visit is the highest honor that Switzerland bestows on another state and people. This year, this honor was reserved for Kosovo and its president. The Swiss invitation was also a gesture of appreciation that the Swiss government made to the large Albanian diaspora in Switzerland. More than 200,000 people with roots from Kosovo live in Switzerland.

A state visit is a type of public celebration during which the closeness or friendship between two countries is celebrated. Politics is only superficially discussed. This is understandable because presidents usually do not govern directly. The visit is dominated by a reception with military honors, motorcades, red carpets on the asphalt and sidewalks, flights from one point to another by helicopter and government plane, in some cases even a special train, meetings, speeches (sometimes pathetic, sometimes impressive), conversations.

The highlight is the state banquet, which is held on the evening of the first day of the visit in the premises of the Ministry of Finance in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. Until 100 years ago, this building was a hotel and is still called the Bernerhof. At the invitation of the Swiss government, I had the great honor of attending the state banquet in Bern last week. It was a good opportunity to meet many high-ranking figures in Swiss politics, including 7 government ministers, state secretaries, ambassadors, officers, as well as several successful members of the Kosovar diaspora, whom I have not had the opportunity to meet in person until now.

Switzerland presented itself modestly, without pomp, this evening. Nothing was left to chance, even the bouquets of flowers and the lit candles harmoniously matched the curtains and walls. Before the banquet, the waiters' brigade rehearsed for the big show. At the same time, as a Swiss colleague with long-standing reporting experience from Bern told me, the cantonal police with their dogs inspected the hall in search of any explosive devices. Nothing was left to chance.

A special charm to this evening was given by the footballer Xherdan Shaqiri, currently the most famous Kosovar between Lake Constance and Lake Geneva. With his self-confidence, with his redeemed behavior and words, with his originality, Xherdan Shaqiri has motivated many Kosovars to identify with their new homeland, Switzerland. As for integration: despite the undeniable successes, the immigrant from Kosovo still has a lot of work to do to find his rightful place in Swiss society. Perhaps this visit will also serve as an impetus.

Below, for the sake of detail, are some data on the history of state visits to Switzerland.

1.

In his novel “The Big Cat”, the Swiss writer Thomas Hürlimann writes about the state visit from Spain in 1979. The big cat, who is the main character of the novel, reminds one of the then President of Switzerland, Hans Hürlimann. He was the father of the writer Thomas Hürlimann. The following is a detail from the novel: “A traditional choir (Jodelchor) had sung for too long, a heavy wail, eyes looking askance, while the mountains turned purple and the sky red, escape to the cars, the escorts screaming, return to Bern, change of clothes and dinner, light conversations and smiles, for friendship, for Spain, for Switzerland, salud!

Early in the morning he had visited the troops with the king, at ten a watch factory, at eleven a chocolate factory, while Marie and the queen, cheered on by the Spanish foreign workers, had walked for hours through middle-class enterprises, always greeting and smiling, praising and greeting.

2.

Swiss citizens follow state visits with great attention. In 1929, King Fuad I of Egypt was invited to Bern for a state visit. He was of Albanian origin. Before the monarch from the Nile arrived in the Swiss lands, the Swiss president received a letter from a woman who introduced herself as “Miss Sattler from Baar,” a town in central Switzerland. She wrote:

"Honorable President of the Confederation (Robert) Haab!

I learned from a newspaper that His Majesty Fuad I, King of Egypt, will soon arrive in Bern. If an official dinner is organized in His Majesty’s honor, I know that he, on the advice of his doctor, drinks only Evian water. The bottles must be closed with a capsule, never with a cork. He likes to smoke light-colored Havana cigars. I worked for several years as a housekeeper in an aristocratic house in Cairo, at the time when His Majesty was still a prince and was often invited to dinner. His Majesty has a great sympathy for the Swiss. With the highest respect, Miss Carolina Sattler, Baar, Zug, greets you.

3.

According to the official list of state visits to Switzerland, Kosovo is the first country from the Balkans to receive such an invitation. Not even Josip Broz Tito, known as perhaps the most roving autocrat of the 20th century, has stayed in Switzerland officially or on a state visit. According to historian Thomas Bürgisser, who has written a very informative dissertation on relations between Switzerland and Yugoslavia during the Cold War, no attempt by the Swiss government to invite Tito for a visit is documented in the Swiss archives. The first diplomat from Kosovo, sent to Switzerland by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of socialist Yugoslavia, was in all likelihood Rexhep Xhiha. The Swiss government accredited him as consul general of Yugoslavia in Zurich in early November 1967.

In 1982, former journalist and communist politician Sulejman Rexhepagiqi, born in Plav, Montenegro, was appointed Yugoslavia's ambassador to Bern. Based on his first name, last name, and birthplace, Rexhepagiqi must be of Albanian origin, but this requires more in-depth research.

A politician of Swiss origin also made a career in the Yugoslav communist hierarchy: Alesh Bebler. His grandfather was from the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Alesh Bebler, who received his doctorate in law in Paris, was Yugoslavia's deputy foreign minister and ambassador to Paris. Alesh Bebler's son is Anton Bebler, a professor of political science at the University of Ljubljana and one of the region's most renowned academics. Anton Bebler has been a harsh critic of Serbian repression in Kosovo and a supporter of Kosovo's independence for years. He is 88 years old. From 1992 to 1997, he was Slovenia's ambassador to the UN headquarters in Geneva. Thus, this political scientist returned to the country from which his ancestors had emigrated.

4.

In the recent history of Switzerland, a state visit has been accompanied by a scandal. On March 25, 1999, the day after NATO began bombing the then Yugoslavia, the President of China, Jiang Zemin, came to Switzerland for a visit. At Confederation Square in Bern, all the government ministers, the military honor guard, photographers, journalists, and citizens were waiting for him. Zemin did not appear, because activists from Tibet had climbed onto the top of a bank building carrying balloons with the words “Dialogue” and “Tibet”. The Chinese leader walked past the ministers without even greeting them and entered the Swiss parliament. When Swiss President Ruth Dreyfuss mentioned the situation of the Tibetan population in China during her speech, Zemin reacted by saying: “You have lost a good friend.” The situation was saved by a Swiss minister, who took an Alpine crystal from his pocket and presented it to the Chinese ruler.

5.

It is part of the tradition that after a state visit, the invited president or president-elect sends the Swiss government a letter of thanks. The Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie sent the letter 3 months after the visit! Swiss protocol interpreted this as the emperor's revenge because Switzerland had accepted Italian rule over Ethiopia in 1935. At the same time, Selassie requested asylum in Switzerland at the time, but was rejected. (A2 Televizion)