Albanian organization shut down by the Ministry of Culture For $2,000, you can become a prince A company trading in titles of nobility FATOS BAXHAKU TIRANA — How can you add a title of knighthood or nobility to an ordinary name? How can you arrange to be called Prince of Tirana or Count of Durrës from now on? It is a somewhat complicated matter in Albania, where this tradition is absent. But for some, the solution is quite simple: all you have to do is pay $2,000. This is how the “Cultural Association of Emblems and Heraldry” attempted to sell Albanian titles of nobility. On Wednesday, Minister of Culture Anagnosti ordered its dissolution because it had violated its bylaws. The association’s headquarters were formally in Tirana but, strangely, its activities were based abroad, mainly in London, a city where a title of nobility means quite a lot. In the British capital, on one of its most prestigious streets, a lord had set up an office he called “The Albanian College of Arms”. Using the approved bylaws of the Albanian association, the English lord had also prepared forms for aspiring counts, marquises and barons to fill in. A simple form stated that the granting of a knighthood title would also receive official confirmation from the highest Albanian state authorities. “That is completely untrue,” officials at the Ministry of Culture assure us. The price also appeared on the form: $2,000 for each title granted. And this is precisely where the Ministry intervened. Under Article 5 of its bylaws, the association was supposed to obtain its income solely “from members’ contributions and publications”. Selling titles, therefore, constituted a violation, and Minister Anagnosti ordered the association’s dissolution. The association’s activities had become a concern for several ministries. The Albanian embassies in Paris and London had raised their suspicions about the “new Albanian nobles”. An official former employee of the Albanian Embassy in Paris was listed as the association’s president, and his colleagues expressed reservations about him. “He was Embassy Secretary until August of last year. Since being dismissed, he has continued to live in France with his entire family,” says a letter sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Embassy in Paris. But the letters from abroad were more troubling. One was written by Dr. Chaussier, a lecturer at the University of Lille in northern France. “Does an association really exist in Albania that has vacant titles of nobility at its disposal, and what do the people running it represent?” Dr. Chaussier asks in astonishment. What role do the Albanian members play in this whole affair? The list of the association’s founders also includes several well-known figures in Tirana, among them a member of parliament and party leader, a translator and a television director. “I don’t believe the Albanian members are responsible. The association was initially founded with a very positive purpose, but apparently the English lord exploited it for personal ends,” the Ministry of Culture’s lawyer tells the Gazeta. The names of those who may now perhaps be called Count of Berat or Baron of Shkodër are still unknown—titles Albania had forgotten since the time of Skanderbeg. Who knows what the true descendants of the Albanian hero, who live in Italy near Lecce, think of this affair? At least they have held their titles since the Middle Ages. Some examples of heraldic coats of arms: shields, crowns, stars and every other emblem belong to a particular family and a specific rank of nobility. Since the Middle Ages. Therefore, in this case, several companies from neighboring countries have shown themselves willing. At last, the problem is being resolved. Negotiations have been held with several companies from Slovenia, Macedonia and Croatia. The books’ impounded stock has cost the enterprises a debt of 50 million lekë.

TIRANA — Millions of copies of Enver’s works, printed on very expensive paper with state subsidies, will soon be turned into cardboard for packaging. However, it will not be Albania’s paper mills that carry out this process. Many of them are in financial and technical difficulty, so several companies from neighboring countries have offered to help in this case. held with several companies from Slovenia, Macedonia and Croatia. Enver Hoxha’s books, always published in exceptionally large print runs, have become a serious problem for the distribution enterprises, whose warehouses are still completely full. There is no more room for new publications. In addition, the sales stoppage of these books has left the enterprises with a debt of 50 million lekë. In the photograph: Enver’s works that will be turned into packaging.

TIRANA — He sat silently and looked like many others who had business at the Tirana Investigative Directorate. Five meters away—there at the end of the second-floor corridor—behind a closed door, investigators were ordering his arrest. A police officer from the capital’s Precinct 3, who came out of the office of Beqir Kokoshi, deputy prosecutor at the Tirana Investigative Prosecutor’s Office, handed him an arrest warrant, and he obediently held out his hands for the handcuffs. It was 1:25 p.m. on Wednesday, and his name was Ylli Zavalani. “He has been placed under arrest,” prosecutor Kokoshi tells the Gazeta, “because he must be investigated for ‘forgery and smuggling’ connected with a shipment of ‘Parisiene’ cigarettes. Wanted by the Albanian Police after leaving for an unknown destination since 8 June this year, Zavalani was detained on Monday by the Durrës police. After spending another night at Precinct 3, he is now in Tirana Prison. “We had filed a charge against him with the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office as of 30 March 1993,” officials at the Financial Police Directorate confirm, “because we had established serious violations involving forgery and smuggling.” According to these sources, a shipment of 12,600 kilograms of “Parisiene” cigarettes belonging to Zavalani was initially held at the Han i Hotit customs checkpoint. To evade customs duties and excise tax, Zavalani had falsified the goods invoice. “He removed a quantity of 7,000 kilograms of cigarettes,” says an official of the Financial Police, “worth $21,000. Only after the analyses was it established that the actual number 10 had been changed to 3.” Following the arrest of the Lebanese man Sibilnit, who was also accused of forgery and smuggling “Cooper” cigarettes, there has now been another arrest. This time, however, the investigation concerns “Parisiene”.

Tributes to him in Tirana today TIRANA — (Ed.La.) Today, the final tributes for Huanag Ming, a member of the Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, will be held in Tirana. Ming drowned accidentally on Monday at 7:00 p.m. while swimming in Lake Pogradec. “He was returning from Korça, where he had gone to bid farewell to his Albanian colleagues,” Wang Hongqi, the HSINUA correspondent, tells the newspaper. “The driver and the accountant — both Albanian — who were accompanying him on the trip had no way to save him.” Today, after the tributes, Ming’s body will travel by plane to Switzerland, with his homeland, China, as its final destination. For this purpose, a representative of the International Red Cross, headquartered in Geneva, arrived in Tirana, bringing the necessary equipment for transporting the deceased. Zhuang Ming had been working in Albania since May 1992 and was also responsible for distributing aid from the International Federation of the Red Cross. As his mission was nearing its end, 32-year-old Ming unexpectedly lost his life in Pogradec.

KORÇE/ Foreign businessmen deceived by fraudsters KORÇE — (Fa.Ba.). Even cemetery busts have now become objects of trade. It happened in Korçë, where some unknown people took several busts and sculptures from the city’s graves. The objects were not of great value, at least not artistically. They were only busts or small sculptures that the deceased’s family members had commissioned from local artists to honor the memory of their loved ones. It seemed that the tribute was preserved more by these than by a plaque bearing an inscription. And yet someone has made a profit from them. And it was no ordinary trader in a Korçë accustomed to carrying out [?]. This is something that had never been heard of before. Some foreign trader paid as much as 1,000 dollars, thinking he was buying a rare antique artwork. Until now, it was foreigners who tried to buy works of art from Albanians—works worth millions—for prices that were often symbolic. Thus many works left the country, some of them priceless. The latest example shows that the nature of the deception is now changing, although deception remains, regardless of who suffers from it and who loses out. Some busts and sculptures have now left the quiet of the cemetery, where they kept company with the deceased and their grieving family members, and ended up in some home where they are brought to life. A place for which they were not intended. Their place was in the cemetery in Korçë. But someone chose to disturb their peace in order to make a personal profit.

Stretched out on the ground KADRI A VANGJELI 1921–1987

Three bombs sow death and fear in Italy Minister Shehi: “Stop” to clandestine work Military agreement between Italy and Albania

IN TIRANA, THE CSCE HIGH COMMISSIONER ON NATIONAL MINORITIES — Maks Van De Shtoel, the CSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, arrived in Tirana and met with the highest-ranking Albanian officials. “During my visit to Albania about a month and a half ago,” Shtoel said at his meeting with Berisha, “I met representatives of the Greek minority and they did not raise any very serious problems with me. I will examine the issue of this minority further and report objectively.” He added that he had also met with the Archbishop of the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Janullatos. THE FAMOUS ALBANIAN PAINTER LIN DELIA WILL RETURN TO HIS HOMELAND FOR GOOD — Lin Delia, the famous Albanian painter, will soon return to his homeland. In the fax addressed to the Directorate of Diaspora at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Delia has stated where he wishes to live: Shkodër. It is precisely in this city that he wants to open a painting school for 20 students; his works have found success as far away as Japan. Lin Delia, 72, has lived in Rome, Italy, for many years. MEETING IN POGRADEC TO ESTABLISH A BALKAN MINERS’ UNION — Representatives of the Miners’ Unions of Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, and of the Independent Unions of Macedonia and Kosovo, met in Pogradec to establish the Balkan Miners’ Union. The consultative meeting decided that the Congress of the Balkan Miners’ Union would be held in Pogradec from 26 to 28 November of this year.

Psychological interpretation: This vision is connected with a state of anxiety, with troubling preoccupations that cause us fear. Its image also carries a powerful sexual charge and represents a long-repressed desire that must be brought to life. Predictions: This dream foretells a lack of friendship, harm, and betrayal. TO WRITE Psychological interpretation: In the world of dreams, this gesture symbolizes the need to put your thoughts in order, the desire for organization: perhaps the circumstances of our existence are too confused and muddled, and in the silence of the night we seek a way to make them clearer.

: If the writing is neat and easy to understand, it foretells recognition of your merits; but if it is hard to read, it foretells disappointments. SCHOOL Psychological interpretation: The [?] and school leave deep marks on us and play such a role in our maturation that episodes, characters, and places associated with this period continue to appear in our dreams throughout our lives. These conceal, more or less in disguised form, current events that trouble or amuse us. Moreover, school memories represent an outlet for our unconscious, which is freed from anxiety by projecting it onto an event that has already passed and is generally behind us.

Everyone dreams when they sleep. This is an entirely normal fact, except that sometimes these dreams are so beautiful or so bad that they leave you amazed and astonished when you wake up. But dreams can also be “warnings,” that is, they may contain a prediction, a warning about what might happen in the future. Every week “Gazeta Shqiptare” offers its readers explanations and the meaning of dreams and situations that are most often dreamed about.

On the other hand, at school we take on our first responsibilities, and it is logical that dreams of this kind suggest we apply ourselves more thoroughly. Predictions: The image of a school is not auspicious: difficulties and worries are on their way. But if we are accompanying children, the dream warns of family duties. CHAIR Psychological interpretation: The image of a chair is connected with our state of mind: a comfortable feeling expresses a state of calm, while a broken one reflects an unstable situation, little clarity, and much anxiety. Predictions: Pleasant days are foretold, unburdened by work commitments.