Speech by the President of the Republic, SALI BERISHA, delivered on the occasion of 28 November, National Holiday An act that brought the Albanian state back to life It is a special pleasure to wish you tonight and all Albanians in Albania, in Kosovo and wherever they may be, a happy 28 November, our national holiday. In centuries of freedom and suffering, Albania. Today, on 28 November, together with all Albanians wherever they may be, we celebrate the day of our flag, honor the greatest act in all our national history, the independence of Albania. On 28 November 1912, the great man of our nation, Ismail Qemali, raised the flag of Skanderbeg in Vlora. This act, which was the culmination of long struggles, made it possible to re-establish Albania’s independence, through immense, unyielding, all-popular uprisings. Albania’s independence marked the big bang of the ancient Albanian nation Albania’s independence marked the big bang of the ancient Albanian nation. The 28 November of 1912 was the magical hour of courage, the crowning of sacrifice, bravery, and the greatness of the most outstanding leaders and heroes of our nation, Ismail Qemali, Hasan Prishtina, Isa Boletini, Luigj Gurakuqi, Bajram Curri, Vehbi Dibra, Aqif Pasha, Mihal Grameno, Mehmet Deralla, Ymer Prizreni, Ali Shefqeti, Elez Isufi, Mustafa Gjinishi[?], Shani Frashëri[?], Preng Previzi and many, many others. The 28 November of 1912 was the day of wise, thoughtful politics, culture, literature, and the various Albanian faiths; of the wise men, Bogdani and Barleti, Naim and Kristoforidhi, Kacë, Jani Vreto and Fan Noli, Hoxha Tahsini, of our revival and independence. To these great figures, with the voice of our hearts, we express respect and gratitude. For Kosovo and all Albanian regions, they fought and shed their blood for their land, their flag, their faith, the Albanian language and its letters, they fought for their freedom. May they live forever, they who gave Albania independence and freedom and independence. On 28 November we celebrate not only the national holiday, but we also honor other great events in our history. Today we honor the 552nd anniversary of the liberation of Kruja by Skanderbeg. Five hundred and fifty-two years ago, the immortal one liberated Kruja in a battle followed by many others, in which Skanderbeg defended it all the way to the apogee of the wars for freedom and progress of all Europe. It was the legendary battles and the great struggles of the hero of freedom that gave our flag eternity. This flag is immortal. It endured long neglect and absurd pity, but it triumphed over all the empires and totalitarian occupations that engulfed Albania. Today, it flies throughout the Albanian lands more aflame and freer than ever. It flies in Europe as well. Long live our national flag![?] Honored veterans, living symbol of this epic, you and the thousands of your sisters and brothers who are no longer with us, decades ago, with a sublime decision, chose to dedicate your lives, youth and dreams to the freedom of the country, while your dignity as a nation and in the partisan units you filled the hills, mountains and fields of Albania. You, in the conditions of terror and brutal violence, with hatred inflamed, fought with unparalleled bravery, courage and self-sacrifice, and through bloody battles you won the war, liberated the country and placed Albania on the side of the world anti-fascist coalition. May you live forever, you who fought and all those who gave their lives for the liberation of the country! Happy Liberation Day! The liberation war, one of the brightest pages in our history On 28 November we celebrate the 51st anniversary of the liberation of the country from foreign occupiers. The national liberation war is one of the brightest pages in our efforts as one of the most sublime moments in which Albanians proved themselves as fighters for freedom and people of dignity. The postwar period turned into one of the gravest tragedies Albania and Albanians have ever experienced before. Honored veterans, your war was an epic act and a bright page in our history, but the postwar period turned into one of the gravest tragedies Albania and Albanians have ever experienced before. Under foreign occupation, the party[?] was replaced by a half-century internal totalitarian occupation. In this occupation, Albania and Albanians experienced the fiercest dictatorship in Europe, the deepest isolation they have known in all their history. Tens of thousands of brave commanders and fighters, clergymen and intellectuals, workers and peasants were shot, hundreds of others were imprisoned, interned, tortured because they dared to defend the ideals for which they had fought, to defend freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom of thought, human dignity. May they live forever, those who fell and sacrificed for freedoms, rights and human dignity! Nations that have won and defended their independence have survived and developed The history of humankind is one of formation, but also of the disappearance and assimilation of nations. It shows itself that nations that have won and defended their independence have survived and developed; while nations that have lost it have suffered historical defeat. Therefore, in the history of nations, the day of independence is also considered their birthday, even though they are hundreds and thousands of years older. This is because, for a nation, independence has the same importance as the day of birth has for an individual. In the 83 years of our state’s life, despite the long external and internal totalitarian occupations we experienced, built and fragmented in the most imprudent ways while we lived as a young state, we Albanians, although today we brought more of, in the national more free, more united, more prosperous and stronger than ever in our history. Today we come to this great holiday with an Albania that has found the right path and is grounded in the true values of its civilization. Despite our morning concessions[?], we come to this anniversary as the youngest nation on the continent and, if we cannot be compared with many others in terms of inherited wealth, we can be compared with them in dignity, not only in our contribution to the civilization of Europe, but also in the fast pace of today’s development. Albania is today the country of political and religious pluralism, free society and guaranteed freedom. It has today consolidated and is successfully consolidating the legal institutions, the market economy as well as integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions; it has done far more than any important contribution to the prevention of human conflict and to the internationalization of the Kosovo issue. Two million Albanians in Kosovo experience Serbian violence, terror and occupation In truth, today we celebrate the independence of Albania in freedom, but two million Albanians in Kosovo experience Serbian violence, terror and occupation. We believe that the Dayton agreement and the deployment of NATO troops in Bosnia will create conditions for solving the Kosovo issue and the Balkan crisis as a whole. Albania is determined to cooperate closely with the United States and the other major countries of the European Union, with the UN and other international institutions to guarantee the human and national freedoms and rights of Albanians in Kosovo. We also insist that a fair solution to this problem is a condition for preventing a much more dangerous conflict than the one our peninsula is experiencing today. The celebration of our national birthday and the day of liberation is an important moment for all Albanians; therefore, on this occasion I call on my compatriots wherever they may be, the Albanian political forces, to move together toward the future, the great message of this day, to focus all our energies and strengths on expanding and consolidating in Albania the spaces of freedom, the rule of law and the market economy, the country’s integration into Europe, the guarantee of the human and national freedoms and rights of Albanians wherever they may be, and the fair solution of our national issue.

In a controversy over the two-day visit that the PDS delegation led by MP Piero Fassino made last Saturday in Albania. Albanian Socialists, the main opposition force, criticized the attitude that the PDS offered to the Democratic Party of President Sali Berisha, the centre-right group, currently in power. "Fassino came to Albania for an official visit, not for a political visit," commented Socialist MP Majko, and added that the arrival of the PDS delegation took place precisely at the start of the election campaign and served as propaganda gift for the government. Members of the PDS delegation, who were also received by President Sali Berisha, were welcomed enthusiastically by the government press, which wrote in large letters on the front page about the support Fassino had offered "for developments led by the Democratic Party." In an interview published on Sunday by the independent daily "Gazeta Shqiptare", Fassino had even rejected the possibility of PDS’s admission to the Socialist International "because within it there are many elements linked to the past." Today, the deputy leader of the Socialists, Hajdaraga, criticizing these statements, stressed that his party "has never asked for admission to the International." ANSA

President Berisha welcomed President Clinton’s decision to send American troops to Bosnia as well as the position of Republican majority leader Bob Dole on this decision. President Berisha expressed his conviction that this is a historic decision not only for extinguishing the flames of war in the Balkans, but also for the role of NATO and American leadership in the North Atlantic Alliance.

President BERISHA received the First Deputy Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, Mrs. Maria Korodi President Berisha expressed his satisfaction at receiving the Hungarian parliamentary delegation precisely on the Albanians’ national day, a day that coincides with notable dates in the history of Albania, one of which marks the early beginnings of friendship and cooperation between the Albanian and Hungarian peoples. President Berisha reaffirmed once again his desire to receive President Göncz, a meeting that will be a major contribution to the friendly relations and cooperation between our two countries, relations that are seeing positive developments. Mrs. Korodi said that Hungary follows with sympathy the developments and achievements of Albania in these three years, for which Albanians should be proud. Common interests and good mutual cooperation create all the opportunities to strengthen relations between our two peoples. Mrs. Korodi conveyed to the Albanian President the greetings of the President of Hungary, who will visit Albania in January '96. Press and Information Office attached to the President.

Kuçova is not socialist land P.3