We carry feuding in our genes

By Artur Ajazi

When Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg came to Krujë for the first time, few rejoiced, many were surprised, others started whispering.

They began to wonder “who will defend Arbëria”, or “who will bring us trouble”. The latter were the wealthy part of Arbëria occupied by the Ottoman Empire. They were the ones who had lands, wealth, offices, and did not want the country to move forward, perhaps did not even want to be freed from the Ottoman yoke. They had settled into comfort. But Skanderbeg, from the very first days, began gathering them, speaking to them about freedom, land, the occupier, war — and at first he had a very hard time.

Had it not been for the authority and power of his name and figure, Arbëria might have been wiped off the face of the earth. Skanderbeg had many opponents, many traitors and enemies from within. That has been our fate through the centuries. The years passed, many things changed, even under occupation. Along with the years, feuds also multiplied. We never had peace. The bey, the aga, the bimbashi, the kaymakam, and all sorts of riffraff, though Albanian, worked against the Arbër land. Even though Ismail Qemali came exhausted from his biblical journey to proclaim Independence, feuding did not leave him, even as he disembarked in Durrës.

How is it possible, why are we a “crooked tree”, always when goodness approaches the country? Naturally it remains a vice and a genetic habit. We are the only nation that, even in cases of calamity and danger for the country’s fate, divides instead of uniting. Perhaps Enver Hoxha was the only one who acted with an “iron hand” (taking valuable lessons from Robespierre) who united this people by force both during the war and after it. Post-1990 Albania was a miserable country. With a people aiming to flee, to leave and never return to their birthplace. We entered the political and democratic transition with “fallen trousers”, from feuds, intrigues, thefts, extra services to foreigners.

Saliziu started it, melting every hope for democracy as soon as he came to power. As if that were not enough, Saliziu, even when in opposition, has blackened and cursed everything. He has smeared the country’s governance, attacked achievements, development, integration. He has called for “the isolation of Albania” even in times of earthquakes, COVID, and European progress. We have evil inside us genetically. It doesn’t leave us easily. We are the “blacks” of ourselves and others. For our wealth and money, we are ready to curse and destroy brother, friend, party and Albania. And today? For 14 years we have been inseparable from feuds, firebrands, smearing Albania; we are ready, for power, to sell the country’s fate.

Politics in Albania is divided into many positions, many fronts and directions. We don’t want to see Edi Rama in Brussels, nor his government receiving “European praise”. We only want to stir anger, to stir acts of violence, and this unfortunately comes from the doors of perverse politics, which for 36 years has blackened Albanians’ lives and obstructs this country’s progress by every means.

Perhaps the help of the exact sciences should be sought, to examine and study in detail our deformed “genes”, perhaps focusing also on particular individuals, to find the origin of evil.