Helena’s memoirs / Agim Vinca’s testimony: What happened at Ismail’s house “The Qosja-Kadare feud Helena lies in the book” “Kadare was not interested then and, as it seems, is not even now interested in worsening relations with Qosja. Why? Because Zeus Kadare seems afraid to confront his Kosovar rival” The news Helena Kadare’s memoir book continues to stir debate. From flings with the writer, which Mrs. Kadare has called low-level gossip, to the difficulties of publishing works under the dictatorship, the events or characters mentioned in the book are also causing reactions, including the one about the 2005 meeting between writer Kadare and scholar Agim Vinca. TIRANE AGIM VINCA Nothing that is said in Helena Kadare’s memoir book about my meeting with her husband, writer Ismail Kadare, in the summer of 2005 is correct. It is all a distortion of the truth, a complete reversal of it. The truth is only that this meeting did happen, but it was quite different from what is said or assumed there, and it was not only correct, but also cordial. “Where had Agim Vinca come from, one of Qosja’s disciples, to make, so to speak, ‘reconciliation’? He was accompanied by publisher B. Hudhri and an Albanian from Switzerland. Is, apparently, was in one of his best moods, or else he became irritated from the very first sentences, when Vinca began saying that it was not good for the two of them, the ‘fathers of the nation,’ to be angry,” etc. It was precisely epithets like these that he could not bear: father of the nation, uncle, and the like. Many would take it as wisdom, as a sign of modesty on his part, or as a sign of indifference, but I knew very well that it had nothing to do with that. Such epithets seemed folkloric to him. As soon as I heard the phrase ‘fathers of the nation,’ I understood that things would end badly. His face took on a contemptuous expression. ‘What nonsense is this, he said, this madness, not fathers, not donkeys.’ In the photo: Writer Ismail Kadare and academic Rexhep Qosja Continues on pages 14-15

Editorial BY AFRIM KRASNIQI The closed circle of politics When speaking about the main defects of Albanian democracy, every international report, public poll, or professional political debate places at the top of the list the level of political culture and the political elite. The same conflictual individuals, the same selfish and rejecting mindsets and behaviors, the same denigrating rhetoric toward the other side, against a clear lack of new ideas, vision for the future, morality and political integrity. The most popular model of the transition-era politician, unlike Western practices of the civic politician with vision, ideas, values and principles, became the individual with no political identity, no public political project, capable of making a career and wealth, who controls the party and the elections, who has no other profession except survival in politics, and who the more he reaches the heights of power the more he gives himself the right to simultaneously play the politician, architect, athlete, doctor, economist and historian. In the political leadership of the Democratic Party, several such individuals with no political values at all vegetate, imitators and spokesmen of their bosses, with no other profession in life and with no positive political achievements in their long careers. Unfortunately, the Socialist Party in opposition also follows this practice. Programmatic innovations or new political arrivals stand in contrast to the return, at the last Congress, of the old guard; mostly former officials, ministers or MPs dismissed and punished by vote for corruption or incompetence. The same situation exists in new political parties as well. A closed cycle of nepotistic political appointments among 2-3-4 people, without allowing openness to competing values, has turned them into personal parties. Everywhere, resignations and competition based on merit have been replaced by periodic recycling and nepotistic appointments. For all of them, the rules of democracy, the vote and intra-party competition, public responsibility and political morality do not matter; it is enough that they are at the top of the proportional list for MP or in government cabinets, and that is the Albania that suits them. This is bad news for Albanians, especially for those who think about the next elections. Used to choosing the lesser evil, unfortunately we are also happening and getting used to growing up with the same faces and names that experiment on our lives, speak in our name and rule in our name. This remains the main reason why our behavior remains far from European standards and values and why political Albania, 20 years after the fall of communism, has only made us 20 years older in age.

PROCEDURES GENC KONDI Mortgages for homes without an occupancy permit and the documents required With the Council of Ministers’ Instruction dated 5 October of this year, the way has been opened for mortgaging several hundred buildings, with proper construction permits, but which could not be registered because of alterations. The instruction entered into force only yesterday, since it had been foreseen that this would happen only when the subordinate legal act was published in the Official Gazette. It is believed that around 700 million euros will be released and can be used as collateral through the mortgaging of thousands of homes in the capital. This has been a promise made by the current mayor Lulzim Basha, after a real deadlock in this area, mainly with specific political objectives, which was caused by friction between the right-wing government and the former left-wing mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama. HOMES According to the Instruction, from today on it will be possible to register properly objects for which no occupancy permit has been issued, although... Continues on page 7

Page 5 The police’s ‘secret’ figures: How many murders and injuries in three months Page 10

Page 11 Privatization vouchers deadline extended for the fourth time Page 6

Names from all over Albania Page 16