On the 90th anniversary of the birth of the genius of Albanian letters, Ismail Kadare, at the ceremony held by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, a letter that the writer sent to the President of the United States of America, George Bush, in 1991 was also revealed.
In the letter, Kadare asks the question of whether the Albanian people have the right to live in the same house, referring to Kosovo.
He says that democratic means leading to a peaceful and diplomatic solution exist.
“Although I would not like to end this letter on a gloomy note, I cannot help but tell you that the Albanians of Kosovo have appealed to the entire world for help: a bloody massacre is being prepared against them. I hope, Mr. President of the USA, that you will do everything to stop this crime, which has already been warned about from many directions,” Kadare writes, among other things.
LETTERS
Mr. President,
Two years ago, in 1989, when not only in my country but throughout the Eastern empire, the communist dictatorship was still standing, with my friend, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Elie Weisel, I sent you a letter.
At that time, for a letter like that, in communist Albania you were sentenced to death, however I felt it my duty to address you, the president of the most powerful democratic state in the world, to apologize on behalf of the Albanian people, for the hostile stance that the Albanian communist government held towards the USA.
I wrote to you, among other things, in that letter that the Albanian people, in contrast to the communist rulers, had deep feelings of gratitude for the USA and I begged you, without paying attention to Tirana’s insults, to continue to help this martyred people, both those suffering within the borders of the state and its other half, who suffered in Yugoslavia.
And so, less than two years later, the incredible happened in American-Albanian relations. When Secretary of State Baker was grandly received in Tirana, I was happy to see the confirmation of the words I had written to you in 1989, which at that time might have sounded like a writer’s fantasy, that the United States would have in the Albanian people a fervent and permanent friend. For their part, the Albanians, disillusioned by those evil ties to which the communists led them, are today more eager than ever for true friendship.
Mr. President, today, when a part of the world, especially that part that has just broken away from the communist past, is struggling and cannot find peace, all humanity follows with adoration your noble efforts to regulate it. In this regard, not only as an Albanian writer and citizen, but also as a person who desires a more perfect world, I turn to you, the statesman with whom the future of the world has a direct connection.
For many decades, a part of the world, in its political and diplomatic actions, faced with major problems, has often been paralyzed by dogmas and taboos. In the name of a false stability and tranquility, these dogmas were declared sacred and unchangeable, even though entire nations and peoples, overthrown by fate, just like the titans of old, suffered and groaned under them.
It is now clear to everyone that the calm and stability that was justified by supposedly sacred formulas was nothing more than a false harmony. I will not dwell on things that you know better than anyone and that you have been concerned about as rarely as anyone else. I would only like to draw your attention once again, Mr. President, to the people with the most tragic fate on the entire European continent: the Albanians.
This is the only people in the history of Europe that, after two thousand years of existence, was divided in two at the beginning of the 20th century by the Great Powers. This is the only nation that in this century was oppressed by the two most brutal dictatorships the world has known: the dictatorship of the Albanian communists and the dictatorship of the Serbian communists.
This mutilation and this double oppression have exhausted and severely damaged this nation. Now, half of it, that which lives within the borders of the Albanian state, is finally gaining freedom. But the other half, that which is still under the Serbian communists, is in mourning and misery.
Mr. President of the USA! I believe it is unacceptable and contrary to all the laws of nature, universal law, and God, for this nation to continue to be condemned in this way.
The gift given to the Serbian terrorists who assassinated Duke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo in 1914, by giving them half of Albania as a reward, is one of the worst crimes in the history of mankind. The sooner the civilized world frees itself from this crime, the better it will be.
When I write these words to you, I never think that today’s hard-won peace and understanding will be jeopardized because of Albanians. Nor do I make demands for urgent, brutal, or sensational actions.
What I would like to put before you is the request for a fundamental change in the attitude towards the Albanian people. At the end of this century, a historic opportunity is being presented to the Albanians, a chance to correct the wrong that was done to them at the beginning of the century.
Will today’s civilized world accept the right of this people to live together, in the same house, like all nations, or will it deny this right, in the name of taboos or someone’s peaceful sleep?
If this idea is accepted in the vision of tomorrow’s Europe, I think that the democratic means for its peaceful, diplomatic, humane resolution, without pain or bloodshed for anyone, can also be found.
The terrible thing is that to this day this idea has not been accepted. But in our time, in the time of the triumph of human rights, a triumph in which the USA has a place of honor, not accepting such an idea means agreeing with the opposite.
With such a crime on its conscience, the free world cannot sleep peacefully. Although I would not like to end this letter on a gloomy note, I cannot help but tell you that the Albanians of Kosovo have appealed to the entire world for help: a bloody massacre is being prepared against them.
I hope, Mr. President of the USA, that you will do everything to stop this crime, which has already been warned about from many directions.
Thanking you once again, personally and your great country, for your attention to my people, I hope, Mr. President, that among your many tasks and problems, you will continue to be interested in the fate of my martyred people.
Please accept, Mr. President, the expression of my deepest respect.