Deputy Minister Tartari loses his powers. A duel between the Minister and Starova is expected Controversy begins between the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Albanian Football Federation over the misuse of funds from television rights pages 23–25

By Frrok Çupi From early on, the Renaissance poets and others fondly caressed their beloved homeland, calling it “Little Albania.” Lately, when many schools have closed, when children’s Literary Reading has been forgotten, when so many essays are no longer being written..., it is precisely now that many have begun to stammer “Greater Albania.” Paradox! What on earth happened; did Martians arrive who had never seen Albania, or have dictionaries, language and the system of values been turned upside down?!... None of this has happened. It is the “patriots” who summon the Medieval Kanun onto the stage to “settle accounts bloodily with Albanian bravery”; they are the fierce critics even of Gjergj Kastriot (Skanderbeg), who “made Albania smaller by breaking away from the Porte and joining it to Europe”; they are some “heartsick advocates of Greater Albania,” who sleep in Tirana or Prishtina and write Albanian-language newspapers around Europe, baring their teeth over “ten marks earned through nonsense”; they are people emptied of every value who, as the “mire” engulfs them, cling to a branch called “the idea of Greater Albania.” The “patriots” who, while this Albania is not even in their line of sight, demand another one. But they have created a very big problem for Albania and its people. Representatives of the world’s highest political powers were forced, one after another within two days, to land in Tirana to “deflate” the dangerous balloon of the “Greater” fixation. Meanwhile, unfortunately, Albania has been getting smaller. People leave across the seas in search of a better life, leaving fewer Albanians here; masks narrow the spaces for movement, and the homeland is and is not yours; everyone comes to Tirana, and even on the streets they sell Albanian for Albanian; there is not even enough space for them to fight one another; someone else’s apartment block is built in the light of your window, while beyond it all the space remains “wild,” without inhabitants; in the public park you cannot plant trees because it has been occupied by some people; you have to wall off your own yard to please others, while “there’s room on the road” for a historic monument. Just two days ago ATSH published a story saying that “the builders of the Corridor had destroyed an ancient Albanian urban settlement from the Roman period,” but no one was alarmed. Do we do no other work anymore?!... As long as we are in love with Europe and America, do we do nothing but civilize these places?! They have asked for a little “America” or “Europe” wherever they are. Meanwhile, every self-respecting America has become “America” or “Little Europe,” “Little Scotland”... Could there also be a “Little Spain,” “A true Albanian, wherever they come” Britain, France, Israel, Finland... wherever the Albanian is identified, they are honored and integrated as good citizens, identifying their beautiful culture and nation, even if they are called “small, but good.” They do not want the greatness of “Greater Albania.”

Natalina Çea: “Prime Minister Meta successful in combating smuggling” Page 3 Yesterday, Meta and Çea at the Prime Minister’s Office

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