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THE PAINFUL JULY OF THE ALBANIANS

KORRIKU I DHIMBSHEM I SHQIPTAREVE

IL LUGLIO DOLOROSO DEGLI ALBANESI

Original newspaper scan

Original newspaper scan

THE PAINFUL JULY OF THE ALBANIANS We have now grown used to all kinds of scandals, and to the tragedy of life as well, just as a person gets used to smoking. It seems our official calendar must also add getting used to July, which for Albanians is becoming a symbol of revolt against the state and, in this context, embassies become objects of exploitation by the masses, poctn, tra, d? The desire to flee this country seems to remain the constant anguish of rare Albanians. What happened these days in Tirana, and the desperate attempts to flee in Vlora, have left people stunned. It has psychologically destroyed them and crushed them spiritually. The exact number of people is hard to know; however, more than 5,000 people gathered around 10 p.m. in front of the embassies, from “Rruga e Durrësit” onward. Just as two years earlier they had rushed the embassies, this time the leap over the threshold of prosperity and escape toward Europe was no longer an option; that alternative now no longer exists. Knowing this, the crowd did the simplest thing: it destroyed and smashed the embassies’ plaques, the windows of the shops, r?full, and then until around 3 a.m. it stood in the streets in front of the embassies. Any normal person asks: who is to blame, why must this happen? At first glance, it seemed that after the democratic elections a new era would begin, but that did not happen; it seemed as though everything would be quickly put right, but that did not happen either. The heavy emotional climate before the elections and the lack of ways to overcome the crisis have severely shaken the cohesion of Albanians. And the government? In the irony of fate, that evening television was showing chronicles of these transformations and then? paraand? of the president of the seven most industrialized countries before they entered the meeting, a farce, pointless, as if nothing had happened. Toward the end, a dry statement is given about an attempt at exodus in Durrës. It seems to me that the state is not learning to speak honestly with people. ILIR ZVERI