“Today I want Tirana to speak” — Veliaj proposes Honorary Citizenship for KLA leaders from detention

TIRANA — The mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, who is currently in pre-trial detention, has reacted to the Hague verdict convicting the leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

In a statement from detention, Veliaj said the Special Court’s verdict against the four former KLA leaders has deeply shaken him.

In a statement on his Facebook profile, the Tirana mayor said that in his capacity as Mayor of the Municipality of Tirana he will propose to the Municipal Council that Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi be declared Honorary Citizens of Tirana.

Read his full post below:

“Honored citizens of the Republic of Albania,

Dear citizens of Tirana,

Dear Albanians wherever you are,

I am spending 19 months in isolation. Nineteen months without the real opportunity to exercise the constitutional mandate entrusted to me by the citizens of Tirana with a historic record of votes.

Only a few days ago another court decision was made that was an institutional blow to local democracy. Naturally, you might have expected me to talk to you about that today.

But there are moments in a person’s life when one’s personal drama becomes small in the face of a national cause.

The verdict handed down in The Hague against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi has deeply shaken me. Of course, the legal process has its own course and justice must follow its procedures and standards to the end. But we Albanians also have the responsibility to remember.

To remember how Kosovo’s freedom came after decades of repression, pain and resistance, after families expelled from their homes, lost lives and extraordinary sacrifices, after a people’s decision to no longer accept that its fate be decided by others. In that history, the Kosovo Liberation Army has its glorious place, as do its soldiers Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi.

They are four men whom history placed in one of Kosovo’s most difficult and decisive chapters. I have lived and worked in Kosovo; I know Hashim closely …

That is why today I want Tirana to speak. Tirana is not only the capital of the Republic of Albania, but the center of Albanianness. For this reason, in my capacity as Mayor of the Municipality of Tirana, I will propose to the Municipal Council that Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi be declared Honorary Citizens of Tirana.

Certainly not to replace justice with politics. Not to tell a court what to decide. But to exercise our city’s right to express its gratitude and appreciation for their historic contribution to Kosovo’s journey toward freedom and statehood.

Unfortunately, Tirana cannot give them their freedom. But Tirana must honor them.

And from Tirana I want to address the mayors and municipal councils of other Albanian cities as well, to honor them as Tirana does. For these four men are not part of the history of just one city. They are part of the history of Kosovo and, through it, of our Albanian history. Let us show their families that they are not alone. Let us show the Albanians of Kosovo that Albania does not forget Kosovo. Let us show the coming generations that a society can respect justice and at the same time preserve its historical memory.

That is why today, from where I stand, I want to tell Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi: your legal process will continue. Justice will take its course. But our memory will follow its own. We will not forget the Kosovo of repression and expulsions. We will not forget those who lost their lives. We will not forget the families who sacrificed everything, and we will not forget the contribution of those who took responsibility in war and then in building the state of Kosovo.

I may be behind a closed door today, but it is precisely here that I have understood even better something very simple: freedom is one of those words whose full weight you understand even more strongly when you lack it. Perhaps that is why today I feel Kosovo even closer. Because its history reminds us that freedom does not become eternal simply because it was won once. It is preserved. Defended. Remembered. Honored.

For those who did not live to see its day. For the families who paid its price. For all those who fought and worked for it. For Kosovo. For freedom. For our national memory. They must and will be the honor of our capital, Tirana.

Erion Veliaj
Mayor of the Municipality of Tirana”