— PRESS CONFERENCE BY MR. SELAMI AND MR. HUBER — The press conference held yesterday at the Palace of Congresses by Mr. Eduart Selami, chairman of the PDSH, and Mr. Ervin Huber, secretary-general of the O.S.U. (Christian Social Union), was also the conclusion of the visit to our country by the delegation of this party. “It was an important visit in the context of the ties between the CSU and the PDSH, between Albania and Germany. As the PD, our platform makes relations with Germany a priority.” This is how Mr. Selami described Mr. Ervin Huber’s visit to our country. “We discussed expanding bilateral relations, the progress of reform in Albania, current achievements and difficulties, the situation in the region, and strengthening Albanian-German contacts.” Mr. Selami praised the contribution of Germany, the CSU and Mr. Huber. Intensifying relations between the two parties and between Albania and Germany was the purpose of today’s visit to Albania, Mr. Huber stated. We have cooperated, and will continue to cooperate, with the PDSH to secure its full membership in the European Democratic Union. We will expand our relations not only by bringing our representatives to Albania, but also by opening Germany’s doors to Albanian politicians, Mr. Huber said. We are following not only (Continued on page 2)

Address by the President of the Republic SALI BERISHA at the meeting with intellectuals I have requested this meeting with you, distinguished intellectuals of Tirana, and with you, dear pupils and students, the new generation of future Albanian intellectuals, with particular pleasure. The main purpose of this meeting is for all of us together to reaffirm our steadfast loyalty to the ideals for which we fought and to our future, because I consider this loyalty decisive for the destiny of Albania and the entire Albanian nation. The intellectual and the age are inseparable. Through their initiatives and activities, intellectuals have been and will continue to be the driving force behind epochal changes. They were decisive factors in the flourishing of ancient India, Greece, China and Egypt, the Enlightenment, the Reformation, the European and Albanian Renaissance. They were the great initiators of the collapse of the totalitarian communist system in Eastern Europe and of the victory of democracy in Albania. Ladies and gentlemen, The age we have entered is one of a new, modern renaissance of the Albanian world, in which Albania must break away from and overcome as quickly as possible the bitter legacy of numerous foreign occupations and the long communist night. In this age it must proclaim and develop the great spiritual, material and cultural values it has inherited, and realize the ideals of the great luminaries of Albanian thought: Budi and Bogdani, Buzuku and Bardhi, Naimi and Fishta, Noli and Migjeni. Our great task lies in reassessing and redefining the universal values and principles of freedom and democracy as a sine qua non for building in Albania a civilized, free and humane society, at the standards of today’s European civilization. The age we live in is therefore one of great challenges, demands, obligations and sacrifices. It is difficult, but our hopes are great. Today, more than ever, it calls upon the Albanian intellectual to play his great role. The intellectual, whose principal mission is the critical examination of the realm of ideas and who, as Adam Smith says, must economize and distribute everything, must first of all embrace his great purposes and the universality of knowledge, freedom of thought and truth. Regardless of their specialty, thanks to the universal character of knowledge, intellectuals are concerned with the general good and serve it. An intellectual in society cannot be a spectator, but must be a true seeker of life and of the fields of existing institutions. He must be devoted to serving the general good, all of society, and does so, above all, by addressing matters that at first glance “do not concern him”—that is, universal matters—which also constitute the essence of his social role. The intellectual’s ability lies in reasoning and synthesizing, in abstracting ideas. Through these abilities, intellectuals make a powerful contribution to great changes and pave the way for new institutional changes, just as discoveries by physicists lead to technological advances. Their thinking innovates the objective course of society’s development. It always comes first, preceding laws and decrees; it is, therefore, the embryo of new institutions. Naturally, the intellectual is not only an originator of ideas but must also be a decisive element in the new institutions. Yet for these institutions to develop, and for the intellectual to be able to exercise and enjoy the right to open criticism, society must respect universalism and particularism, which Hegel called the intellectual’s consciousness. It is precisely this relationship—that is, the relationship between what concerns him and what does not, or between the universal and the particular—that determines the intellectual’s fate and role in… …society. Precisely because they dealt with what “did not concern them,” the communist regime took vengeance on intellectuals, while its treatment of others was based on brainwashing, transfers, re-education, physical labor, production work, the banning and blocking of literature, consigning literary works to oblivion, and rejecting musical works, sculptures or paintings, in order to force intellectuals to abandon the universal—which, for an intellectual, means becoming merely a technician of knowledge. In this struggle—or, better said, duel—with the dictatorship, dozens, hundreds and thousands of intellectuals were martyred but did not surrender; they became immortal at the altar of Albanian democratic thought. Sadly, there were also those who broke, who placed science and knowledge at the service of the ruling barbaric ideology, and in certain cases even dipped their pens in the blood of others. Let history pass judgment on them. Ladies and gentlemen, The role of Albanian intellectuals in dismantling the old institutions and building new ones has been decisive. Their resistance, as well as their constant action against the old institutions of the dictatorship and their struggle and efforts for new institutions, played a determining role in Albania’s developments in the 1990s. It was precisely through their universal outlook that the students of the University of Tirana, along with hundreds and thousands of Albanian intellectuals, founded the Albanian democratic opposition, in the direct service of the vital interests of the individual, the country, the nation and the national cause, thus ushering in the era of pluralism in Albania. The history of the Albanian nation will remember this forever. It was the call of Albania, rising like the voice of the intellectual spirit, that brought together 183 distinguished Albanian intellectuals around their manifesto, at a moment when the red nomenklatura and its collaborators tried to bury the Albanian opposition. The intellectual manifesto that repelled the Byzantine attack of the red palaces will shine forever in the annals of Albanian democracy. So, honored guests, it was above all in the spirit and heart—in other words, in the very essence of the Albanian intellectual world—that today’s Albania gathered, was born and grew. It is astonishing to hear some people today, placing themselves in the tragic role of the spectator intellectual—a role that was not uncommon even under the dictatorship—or others who were not spectators but were inflated and mythologized by the dictatorship through deception, and who in democracy can no longer be what they once were. These wretched individuals spread a fog over the role of intellectuals in today’s Albania, equating their own recent tragedy with the supposed tragedy of others. Allow me on this occasion to emphasize that freedom is the greatest support for the intellectual. Here I recall the words of Saharov, who said that “intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific and democratic approach to politics, economic development and… …economy and the market, pluralism—were heresies; in a country of total collectivization, where creating political parties was punishable by firing squad, and where religion and faith were forbidden—today the institutions of reform and a free society are developing and consolidating every day, and at a pace none of us could have imagined. All these institutions were first conceived in the minds and hearts of Albanian intellectuals. They were the ones who opened the way and laid the foundations; they are building, expanding and leading, day by day, dozens and dozens of parties and organizations, hundreds of newspapers, magazines and nongovernmental associations, new judicial institutions, new departments and branches, training centers, businesses, marketing centers, and so on. Albanian intellectuals are now applying new practices and methods every day, with great dedication and across all fields of knowledge—naturally, not on the basis of five-year plans or orders from above, but through their own free will. A person who fell asleep in 1990 and woke up three years later would no longer recognize Albania’s institutions. Albania should always be proud of the courage, wisdom, devotion and dedication of its intellectuals. May God bless them. They set the country on the path to freedom and today are building the rule of law and a market economy. Future generations will be grateful to you forever. Ladies and gentlemen, The new institutions remain fragile structures, so their consolidation and improvement are decisive for the development of democracy in Albania and Albania’s integration into Europe; this is not a simple process. On the one hand, a lack of experience, and on the other, the presence of practices and attitudes inherited from the communist system, have a powerful negative effect on their progress. Therefore, to consolidate and improve our institutions rapidly, it is essential to bring in and engage the most capable intellectuals. As generators of new ideas and refiners of existing ones, they will be able to protect these institutions from old ideas, practices and attitudes. But that alone is not enough. It is essential that they subject these institutions to criticism and, naturally, cultivate respect for them. Only in this way will these institutions be consolidated, improved and function as institutions of the rule of law, and be able to serve democratic generations and protect them from other dangerous forces. Thus, if the basis of all social progress lies above all in intellectual activity, it is extremely important that every level of today’s state quickly and clearly understand the crucial role of intellectuals in institutions. Creating spiritual and material conditions that enable them to develop their activities freely, pursue responsible innovation and improve their qualifications are prerequisites for Albania’s development and future. Ladies and gentlemen, the particular—that determines the intellectual’s fate and role in… and… …the market economy, and future. Ladies and gentlemen,