"Come on, son, help me, I'll drown out the song you're singing, what are these graves you're digging, father, they're not graves you're digging, they're trenches for fighting."

It all starts in a youth notebook and with a song that is often heard on the radio. Behind them, is Shog Sokoli. Writer Besnik Mustafaj has published the novel "Në mëni të hërë-tërë-tërë", a work that begins with an old song about the clash between Albanians and Serbs in 1913.

To write literature while leaving hatred aside, to tell a story while finding the path to peace, is his message today.
"The novel 'Ne meni te njeni-traktu' was a debt, it is a dramatic story about a clash between Serbs and Albanians.

One of his readings is related to the relationship between the writer and the subject. I wanted to write it since I was in my 20s, I thought that this subject would lead me to a literary pedestal, because I would be dealing with centuries-old clashes between two peoples, from Muji and Halili. It is a novel about mystery and energy, I would have written a novel about hatred and revenge", says writer Besnik Mustafaj.
The author has connected a verse from the Odyssey with a verse from Gjergj Fishta's Malci's Lahuta, bringing into the novel two Albanian children who, over the span of 100 years, face the machinery of evil from their Serbian neighbors.
"It is a spring night in 1913, just after Albania had declared its independence, and the London Conference is deciding its fate. The events take place in a village between Albania, Montenegro, and Kosovo. An amnesty is declared by the Serbs and Montenegrins, so the Albanian men return home.

However, the Serbs went to the village, took the men and took them to a church. There was no priest, the song and the story say, but the Serbs wanted these Albanians to be made/declared Orthodox.

Since the Albanians refused to change their religion, they shot them, and there was also a child with these men. The song says, 'everyone is going to the funeral,' so while greeting each other, Shog Sokoli, he's going to the funeral, because he's a child who doesn't understand," says Mustafaj.
With an origin that made him closely acquainted with massacres and crimes, how difficult was it for Mustafaj to become a diplomat and Foreign Minister?
"I have focused on history manipulated by the powers that be for political interests, both from Tirana and Belgrade.

"However, I quickly realized that diplomacy does not require personal emotions, but as a minister, the issue of Kosovo has been a priority for me. I believe that the future of Kosovo is built through the eyes of this child, Dren Caka, a character in the novel, because peace between nations is achieved by finding the right language, as the Germans and French found among themselves," says Mustafaj.