200 million lekë for Berisha’s rally
“Either Vlora will become ours, or it will be burned to ashes”
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EDITORIAL
By Neritan ALIBALI
To take something by force, or otherwise burn it down. And, even more so, Vlora. This is the folkloric logic with which entire generations of Albanians have been brought up. To take it by force. Which means to destroy it. Because violence always brings only destruction.
War rhetoric, like trumpets of death, has today threateningly enveloped Vlora. Politicians in power, breathers who claim to represent the city, are treating it like spoils of war. To treat Vlora as spoils means to hold it by force or burn it down. To treat Vlora like a prostitute means to use or sell it. This is the greatest affront to Vlora.
The destructive logic of today’s politics, the offspring of monstrous, barbaric mentalities, has already clad the city in the old armor of war. But whom are they fighting for?! Of course, not for Vlora. Worse still, are they fighting?! Of course, not “with one mabret forty million”. How are they fighting?! Of course, not by “grabbing the cannon by the throat”. In fact, today, it is not even the parties themselves who are fighting there.
Today, another drama is being played out in Vlora. One that has nothing to do with politics, nor with its practitioners. Today, the citizens are fighting with themselves. With their mentality. Civility is fighting barbarity. Tolerance is fighting violence. Love is fighting hatred. Because we cannot divide Vlora. Because it belongs to us, to everyone. So there is no reason for it to become a disaster. There is no reason for it to be burned to ashes.
Today, the ambassadors at the Vlora rally
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Photo: Armand Babani
Erieta found, her husband detained
The mutilated body in Romanat
Erieta Avdyli was found murdered in the village of Romanat, Durrës. Her lifeless body was found by chance along a section of the road connecting Albania’s capital with the coastal city of Durrës.
According to the initial examination by the doctors and the investigative team that immediately went to the scene, her body was found brutally mutilated.
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BLOOD IN TIRANA
Tomorri president and international referee Zylfo killed. Referee Janku wounded
A massacre in the center of the Albanian capital. This time, the crime has struck people from the world of football.
Three football figures were shot with a pistol, one of them the president of the “Tomorri” football club, while the other two were referees of the Albanian Football Federation. It all began at around 17:00, a few minutes after the football match between “Tomorri” and “Partizani” ended. The referees Luan Zylfo and Albano Janku, and the Berat football club president Adri Cobo, were shot yesterday near the main entrance to “Selman Stërmasi” Stadium.
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4 million lekë for Kastriot Islami
How funds are stolen in the Albanian Parliament
By order of parliamentary speaker Skënder Gjinushi, the Socialist Party deputy withdrew this money from the Parliament’s Operational Services Office in February 1999.
The story begins in 1994, when Kastriot Islami, the deputy for Mallakastër, set off for Germany to receive specialist training in his profession. For more than a year, he continued his specialization, with his absences being marked “without reason” by the then Speaker of Parliament, Pjetër Arbnori.
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