Message of the President of the Republic, Mr. Sali Berisha, on the occasion of Christmas To all Christian believers I sincerely wish: “Merry Christmas and many more years to come, these blessed days” Albanian Christian believers are celebrating Christmas this year with special devotion, with renewed faith in God. The Christmas feast is a unifying part of life and hope, of peace and faith, of the future and understanding. This great feast finds Albanians more united, freer, and more determined in their faith in God, in their national efforts for a better life and a true renewal of the finest values of their spirit and civilization. Today Albanians celebrate Christmas by honoring together the work and the long endurance and sacrifice of the thousands of believers and clergy who were martyred, yet did not give up their faith in God, thus becoming living and not living martyrs of free faith, dignity and true civilization. This year Christmas is being celebrated throughout our entire region. It brings the message of peace, hope and faith, tolerance, love, respect and harmony among Albanians and with other peoples. Therefore tonight, with great faith in God and in man, as the bearer of His blessing and divine goodness, I wish you, brothers and sisters, Christian believers, wherever you are, Merry Christmas and many more years to come! Glory to God!

Visits by President BERISHA to the Archbishopric of the Diocese of Tirana and Durrës and to the Church of the Annunciation On the occasion of Christmas, yesterday at midday, the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, paid a visit to the Archbishopric of the Diocese of Tirana and Durrës. Monsignor Rrok Mirdita, welcoming President Berisha, expressed his special satisfaction for this honored visit. President Berisha, extending this occasion his greetings to all Albanian Catholic believers, said that on this day they come with a great sense of pride, not only for their valuable contribution to the history of Christianity, but also for their steadfastness and great sacrifices in defense of the values that reach down to the roots of our civilization. On this occasion, President Berisha sincerely wished His Holiness Pope John Paul II a Merry Christmas and a speedy recovery, recalling his meeting with His Holiness Pope John Paul II. President Berisha said that His Holiness Pope John Paul II expressed extraordinary admiration for the Albanian clergy, for its work, and for Cardinal Mikel Koliqi. Monsignor Rrok Mirdita, thanking President Berisha from the heart on behalf of all Albanian Catholics, said that we value your contribution to creating a favorable and good climate among the faiths. Later, President Berisha paid a visit to the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, where he was received by Archbishop Anastas. “I extend my most heartfelt greetings to all Orthodox believers on this significant day you are celebrating, in your name,” President Berisha said. Spiritual renewal, he said, is very important for Albania and Albanians, because it is one of the factors of strength and resilience for today and the future. President Berisha announced to all Orthodox believers that the Ardenica Monastery will be definitively returned to the Orthodox Church. He assured that all properties belonging to religious institutions will be definitively returned to them. Archbishop Anastas, after thanking him for this hopeful sign for Orthodox believers, once again praised President Berisha’s contribution.

Anti-intellectualism, a fundamental line of the PS The anti-intellectual attitude of the PS and especially of its leaders has deep roots; it is a continuation of the barbaric, criminal and anti-Albanian Stalinist attacks that the PPSH waged from after the war until the end of the monstrous dictatorship it installed in Albania against the Albanian intelligentsia. The Socialist Party, as the direct heir of the Party of Labour and its direct continuation (nothing changes by merely changing the name through a decision), if it truly had had the slightest sense of reform and wanted to promise European standards, by escaping the barbarity it has gone through, at least for appearances’ sake should have apologized to Albanian intellectuals, scientists, writers, engineers and various specialists, who were locked into a constant terror, who were trampled and interned, sentenced to prison, and shot, stripped of everything, solely for their dignified and uncompromising stance toward the violent dictatorship, solely because they could not remain silent while Albania was being destroyed and collapsing, while lies, deception, deheroization, and the promotion of human brutalization were prevailing, destroying the codes of morality and generosity. For fifty years Albanian prisons were filled with human beings, intellectuals, patriots, engineers and specialists from various fields, clerics and artists, who did not compromise with evil and opposed it. The suffering and torture endured by these intellectuals in the interrogators’ prisons and in Albanian prisons are unforgettable, as is the spiritual support that those who were shot had, because they opposed tyranny, oppression, the destruction of the homeland and the denigration of the Albanian question, and opposed the depersonalization and distortion of national culture. Equally unforgettable are the sufferings of hundreds and thousands of intellectuals, mainly specialized in Albanian society, who lived in the communist hell and the asphyxiation created, under the silent bell of annihilation not only intellectual but also physical. They will never forgive the cannibals of the dictatorship for the destruction of talent, the inability to realize themselves, the suffocation and the anxieties imposed on them until the very last days when those people were in power. Precisely for this reason, the true Albanian intelligentsia was the promoter of the democratic movements that emerged in the historic December events. Precisely for this reason, dozens and hundreds of distinguished intellectuals, writers, artists, engineers and specialists of many kinds joined the Democratic Party, its programme, and made an extraordinary contribution to the overthrow of the dictatorship and the victory of democracy in Albania. They gave an equally great contribution during these four years to the implementation of the Democratic Party’s programme, especially through work in the most important sectors. Hundreds of experts and specialists of European level helped with the rapid implementation of deep economic reform, in the radical transformation of institutions, of the school, of all Albanian life. With their realistic and wise remarks and criticism, with their dignified opposition, they helped this difficult period pass with as few mistakes as possible and ensured that the necessary corrections were constantly made, so that all Albanian society and democracy could move forward day by day, so much so that today Albania has a completely different physiognomy, an essentially different content, which is naturally leading it toward the peoples of civilized Europe. This dignified stance of the Albanian intelligentsia, this extraordinary contribution they have made during these years and the support they are currently giving to the democratic forces have enraged the conservative and dogmatic leaders of the PS, the Stalinist and Enverist leaders of this Party, who still preserve in their souls Enver’s pathological hatred of the intellectual and intellectual thought. Accustomed to the mass line and pathological hatred for everything intellectual, as representatives of darkness and crime, as bearers of regression and ignorance, they launched an anti-intellectual campaign within their own party, removing professors and capable specialists from the leadership and replacing them with cooperative workers. But that was not enough. Blinded by slavish and dehumanizing hatred, they sought in their “cultural ABC” a series of endless insults and outbursts against well-known Albanian academics, scientists, writers and artists. Monstrous anonymity, in a section called “ABC”, with such absurdity that one learns, among churches and inns, of the man who called for a Saint Bartholomew’s Eve, openly reveals his beastly hatred for intellectuals, as if he wants to repeat, with hooligan-like outbursts, stale, worn-out things, dehumanized, depersonalized, discredited, without any power of reason, incapable of intellectual initiative and often uncivilized. Scientists and academics are wise clerics. For five years they have had no connection and they know and preserve well the Albanian language, writes the monstrous anonymous author. A day later it continues. A nation with intellectuals is a lost nation. Thus the monstrous anonymity finally addresses the socialist officials of the Albanian day, that they should not correct themselves toward the distinguished alone, but toward Europe and the world. Thus it speaks to academics, scholars, the respected and artists of extraordinary thought. Meanwhile the former ideologues continue as guides of anti-intellectualism and of the inherited spirit, at the center as saviors of darkness. Today in the PS press appear Ismail Kadare, professors Zija Çela, Çelo Popa [?], Sandër Lleshi [?]. Thus it addresses scholars and the female officials of the socialists and scientists, professors and scholars, who have cultivated incomparable Albanian values in the fields of knowledge, the arts and journalism. Thus they express hatred toward independent thought and toward every effort to de-ideologize it and free it from the old Albanian anti-communist and anti-European schemes. These clichés and this primitivism become the norm in a newspaper that claims to be “modern” and “pluralist”, which clearly shows that anti-intellectualism is an unchanging line of the heritage of the PPSH and that the PS and so many of its representatives have not been able to break away from this dark political past.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution on Kosovo Kosovo is now not only an Albanian problem but a problem of the entire international community. This is unquestionably the most realistic focus that can characterize the position of the Albanian problem in the international arena. Four days earlier, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by majority vote a resolution on the situation of human rights in Kosovo. This resolution, after garnering the support of the majority of the permanent member states of the Security Council as well as a number of other countries sensitive to solving complex international problems, was supported by 115 states and marked the richest instance of such support for Kosovo. Perhaps unlike in previous times, this time the Albanian problem was treated not only as a just issue raised as a fundamental right stemming from the human rights charter, but the demand of the international community went even further, first setting out the need for international supervision. This marks the entry of the Kosovo problem into a new level of international discussion and at the same time marks the highest level of treatment it has received. Its integration into the international agenda with regard to the necessity of fully achieving the solution of the Kosovo problem is a very great achievement of Albanian diplomacy. Without its extraordinary work and persistence in all international forums, in all mutual visits, and in the most important meetings of high-ranking figures of the Albanian state, such awareness would not have been achieved. It is worth emphasizing that President Berisha’s meetings with President Clinton, with Chancellor Kohl, as well as with other diplomats who played a role in negotiating Balkan problems, have been fruitful for reactions such as the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly. All the efforts of Albanian diplomacy have secured a suitable ground for raising the Kosovo issue to normal levels for the Albanian people living there by President of Kosovo Ibrahim Rugova. The unification of demands on the fair Albanian diplomacy and the legitimate leadership of Kosovo, as well as the growth of hope and their purification, are to such an extent a normalization of the Albanian problem, not as a momentary or marginal problem but as a fundamental problem of conflict prevention in the Balkans. The statement by the American Secretary of State in this way that after Dayton Kosovo remains at the top of the international agenda is another assurance at least from Albanian diplomacy regarding this problem, which not only has made things clear but is now also bearing fruit. Albania has permanently sensitized world opinion that Kosovo has been subjected to violence and that this Albanian land is in a situation of occupation. With the victory of the democratic forces in Albania, Parliament has given the will of the people of Kosovo to be independent and to decide their own fate. The entire activity of the Albanian state and diplomacy in function of the Kosovo issue has been directed toward an optimal, peaceful and acceptable solution for the Albanian people living in Kosovo. The latest resolution on which Albanian diplomacy has relied in solving this problem will certainly be followed by other concrete actions until the full solution of the Albanian problem. S.N

From total isolation, Albania has in these years managed to join many very important European and international organizations. Albania's participation in these organizations, and its opening and integration, show that the doors have opened for Albania and its prestige has risen enormously on the international stage. Therefore, Albania's opening and integration into these very prestigious organizations makes me hope that Eurovision will also open its doors to Albania, and then it would be a great satisfaction if I were the first to represent Albania at the European Festival. And I hope that I will represent Albania with dignity, while at the same time giving the Albanian public a truly well-deserved satisfaction. Page 3 Interview with singer Ardit Çebre

BASHKIM ZENELI Socialist deputy: We cannot fail to value President Berisha’s visit to Bonn. The reforms had a clearly social-democratic vision, which the PS follows; continuously and which it must do without interruption, and this is done with deeds and not with calculations. MAQO LAKRORI Socialist deputy: In practice, the overwhelming majority of PS members and sympathizers have their interests in that zone of the spectrum that is shared by the majority of the population (services, employment, education, health care, living security, dignity and property). In relations with foreigners, etc. There are in the minority those who seek to make them non-state (perverse coup?), ministers and mayors, prime ministers-presidents, etc. The interests of this majority are longer-term, more vital than the politics of memory, succession and banal smoke in order to gain power interests for oneself, today and tomorrow. ARJAN DEVEJA Socialist, Durrës: In the time that Kohl seeks, in Marx’s threats, why not tack to Kohl. Are we going to Marx? This must be absurd. Should Enver Hoxha be called a dictator or whatever names we give him. DRITËRO AGOLLI Socialist deputy: Even among the PS electorate, there are all kinds of people, there are extremists, there are also dogmatists, and there are also people who think that when they come to power they will assume sweeping dimensions, they seize from work, and we will have gotten rid of them. This following and even among the PS electorate, there is a mindset that judges dogmatically, there are those who say that they will remove all those who are sympathizers of the Democrats.

Dokle rattles the weapons against the reformers p. 3

Balluku dossier Minutes of the Political Bureau meeting of the Central Committee of the PPSH, dated 2 and 3 July 1974 p. 7