The month of July is a blessed month for us Albanians, as 4 of the most important events in our history have occurred. This month is the month of the baptism of the Albanian states, as on July 29, 1913, the Conference of Ambassadors in London recognized "de jure" the Albanian state declared independent on November 28, 1912, as “…autonomous, sovereign principalities … under the guarantee of the six Powers”, while on July 22, 2010, the International Court of Justice declared the Kosovo Declaration of Independence of February 17, 2008 legal and declared that: “has not violated international law, nor resolution 1244, nor the UNMIK Constitutional Framework", but is fully consistent with them. With this decision, the ICJ (UN judicial body) confirmed the borders and statehood of Kosovo.
July is the month when diplomatic relations were established between the United States and Albania, our great strategic ally.
We also remember July 2, 1990, the day of the Embassies, when the collapse of the communist regime began.
My expectation was that all these events would be celebrated as Albanians deserved wherever they are. But with the silence that accompanies them, we showed that even this time we Albanians never "disappoint", or we are not very interested in becoming a state. These 3 events in the eyes of history should have been very important, but they passed almost without being mentioned at all, both in the public space and in the Albanian political sphere.ë Albania and Kosovo. The only one that came to mind was the US embassy, when it declared that: "We are proud of our partnership with Albania to advance our shared security, strength, and prosperity.". Blessed are those who have us, because who knows how many problems they could have encountered without our support!!!???.
Well, politics on both sides of the Albanian border was busy with "big problems". That of Kosovo for the vote of 50 for the election of the speaker of parliament, while that of Tirana with finding the thief among the people, the thieves who had stolen votes from their friend and friend, or with the police who did not intervene to break up a shameful fight in a bar in Vlora. But the media, the scientific and cultural institutions that are paid for with our taxes for these jobs, where were they?, or is it beach time and they are "tired of working"?
Forgetting, my friends, is a common occurrence in our daily human routine and is evident in individuals. As scientists say, it is a phenomenon caused by the degree of interest in remembering, by the emotions that an event, a phenomenon, a news item, a piece of information causes, as well as by the importance that the development of what is called the "process of events" takes on.
But can it happen that the process of forgetting is conceived in social groups, peoples and nations, in their political and intellectual elite, as in this case?
This is both shameful and frightening.
To at least somewhat alleviate this forgetfulness, I am bringing something about these events to the reader's attention.
The baptism of Albanian states
On July 22, 2010 The Decision of the International Court of Justice, as an organ of United Nations General Assembly, related to The Declaration of Independence of KosovoThe Chairman of International Court of Justice, Mr. Hisashi Owada said among other things that: "Kosovo's Declaration of Independence on February 17, 2008 did not violate international law". With 10 votes in favor and 4 against (Russia, Slovakia, Morocco, Sierra Leone) the court ruled that Declaration of Independence of Kosovo has not violated international law. According to her, all the data shows that the Independence of Kosovo has not violated either Resolution 1244 or the UNMIK Constitutional Framework.
Sot Republic of Kosovo It has been formally recognized by 119 out of 193 member states of the UN and 3 countries that are not members of OKB.
On July 29, 1913 The Conference of Ambassadors in London recognized "de jure" the Albanian state declared independent on November 28, 1912, as “…autonomous, sovereign principalities … under the guarantee of the six Powers.”
Despite the great limitations of this decision (it legalized the fact that Albanians were the only people on earth that was limited to themselves), it had a special importance for the fate of Albania, since even though the Albanian territory and population were severely fragmented and in frightening numbers, it still managed to survive, through the blood and centuries-old sacrifices of men who were wounded by their nation.
It was these blatant injustices that forced His Eminence Father Gjergj Fishta to accuse: "Uh! Europe, you whore of the weather!/You have denied the new, the faith of God!/Yes, is this the saint of citizenship?/I give you the land of Albania”.
Establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Albania
On July 28, 1922 US-Albania diplomatic relations were established for the first time. In a telegram dated July 25, 1922, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes informed the American Commissioner to Albania, Maxwell Blake, that on July 28, 1922, Blake “may send to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania written notification of the de jure recognition of Albania by the United States."On December 4, 1922, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Ulysses Grant-Smith presented his credentials to the government of Albania in Tirana.
In 1922, the United States granted Albania and the Albanians most-favored-nation status. Prior to formal mutual recognition, U.S. Commissioner Maxwell Blake exchanged notes with the President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania, Mr. Xhafer Upi, to secure mutual most-favored-nation status in future trade treaties between Albania and the United States.
In 1945, the United States established the Additional Assistance and Relief Corps, which showed increased American concern for Albania and Albanians despite the orientation towards the East and the communist system by the leadership of Albania at the time.
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Albania were reestablished on March 15, 1991, after a 52-year hiatus. The U.S. Embassy in Tirana opened on October 1, 1991, with Christopher Hill as Chargé d'Affaires and succeeded by U.S. Ambassador William Eduin Ryerson, who presented his credentials to the Government of Albania on December 21, 1991.
At the historic ceremony in 1991 for the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, which restored diplomatic relations between the two countries, then-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs Raymond GH Saitc said: “The relationship between our countries dates back to the early years of this century, when President Wilson offered American support to the new Albanian state. The relationship was never forgotten by the thousands of Americans of Albanian origin…who maintained contact with their homeland throughout all these years.”
At the foundation of these relationships lieë the figures më të luminaries of our nation, at the beginning of the 20th century, like Fan Noli, Faik Konica, Kristo Floqi, Petro Nini Luarasi, Mehmet Konica, Mihal Gramenja, Kostë Çekrezi or Parashqevi Qiriazi, etc.
Unlike us Albanians today, the "Vatra" Federation, in the letter of gratitude it sends to President Wilson, writes: "Sir, will you permit us, the representatives of a small nation, which has always valued honor, justice, and courage as the highest virtues, to express to you our deepest gratitude for your noble sentiments, to which you have given such powerful expression? In them we see the proclamation of freedom...".
My friends, as he saidënë President Ronald Reagan: "America is more an idea than a country, it is the love of freedom, of dignity, of"It lies deep within the heart of each of us."
In conclusion, I would like to bring to the reader's attention Walt Whitman, one of the most famous voices of American poetry, recognized and explored in depth the concept of collective forgetting, especially in relation to the infinity of experience and the fading of grateful memory and the passage of time. It is true that gratitude and collective memory are transient in nature, they can fade, but they never disappear, as they live both in the individual and in the narrative of the greater and continuous story of the nation, which also shows the reasons for the stability of a nation, thanks to eternal memory and gratitude. Thanks to memory and gratitude, nations deserve respect. This relationship between individual and collective memory is also expressed quite well by the poet Mahmoud Darwish, when he writes: represent only yourself, but the self is full of collective memory.
(BalkanWeb)
