The Chairman of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, appeared with the scarf of former President of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, during a meeting where he promoted the books "A Step with Rugova", "The Castle of (Dis) Agreement", "The Hostage" and the set of 5 books "Të Premtet", by author Adnan Merovci.
During his speech, Berisha said that Rugova, in his opinion, is an Albanian genius in European and world politics.
He also added that Rugova was not only a visionary leader, but according to him, he was the only politician who was as much a leader as he was a missionary.
Excerpt from Berisha's speech:
Dear Adnan, dear Avni, dear Genc, Edit, my friends here, I feel excited, but also infinitely grateful to the man who did not leave President Ibrahim Rugova at every moment of his life, to the man who followed him at every step of his life, Adnan Merovci.
Dear friends, Ibrahim Rugova is, in my opinion, an Albanian genius in European and world politics.
He is an inimitable genius.
Descendant of a patriotic family.
First class intellectual.
He engages in the cause of his nation and country.
Ingeniously, he chooses a path completely foreign to Albanians.
Foreign to most nations of the world. Chooses the peaceful path to defeat an invasion.
Nations have either submitted to invasions or faced armed confrontations.
Ibrahim Rugova chose neither the first nor the second, but chose peaceful resistance, with which he pushed the walls of time.
With which he, in the most amazing way, let's call it the Rugova miracle, he achieved that a project that, apart from him, apart from the Albanians, I don't remember a second one that supported, that supported, leaving aside folklore, the independence of Kosovo, was supported by no one except him.
Imagine for a moment fighting alone and everyone against you.
But again, he's standing.
Why on foot? Because he had made a brilliant choice, he had made the peaceful choice.
And I will tell you here in 1992, as president, I met in Istanbul, Konstantin Mitsotakis, who had shown a lot of sympathy for the democratic forces in Serbia, but since the Balkans were being reformed with wars, he had a different attitude towards Milosevic than the others.
And I tell him in Istanbul, I say you meet Ibrahim Rugova.
Why should I meet him, he told me.
If you meet him because he represents 2 million Albanians and you found someone else who represents them, don't meet him. But as long as you are interested in developments, they should also have their voice and be heard.
He felt it, he said neither yes nor no.
Then I tell him, yes he is peaceful, he really doesn't like the project, but you can't reject his position. You are right, he told me. And he is the first prime minister to have received President Rugova. He called him and met him in Thessaloniki.
During the war, Tirana misbehaved with President Rugova.
Belgrade was understandable.
In the fall of 1992, Cyrus Venz and Lord Owen came to Tirana and asked me to convince Rugova to participate in the elections taking place in Kosovo.
I told them, I don't ask President Rugova for such a thing. And they immediately, as they had prejudiced, said why didn't they tell me he didn't ask for it.
I don't ask, because even if he tells the citizens of Kosovo, they won't participate in the elections. The result is that we won't have a leader like him to talk to. What benefit does the international community have in devaluing a figure like him?
In the end, they were not convinced, but in the end I said to them, let me give you a suggestion, why don't you go to Pristina and meet Rugova himself, he is a pacifist, he is an intellectual.
Okay, they told me.
And they went, Milosevic played a trick on them, they were very shocked.
What remained in their minds was the meeting with Rugova. They were amazed by the meeting with President Rugova.
They came back and told me that you were very right and they also explained to me the cruelty they had experienced at the hands of Milosevic's gangs.
Rugova was not only a visionary leader, but he was the only politician who was as much a leader as he was a missionary. (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
