Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at the opening of the exhibition: “Through Imperishable Wisdom, Celebrating Europe in Albania: Unicum and Diversity,” an amazing exhibit of Albania’s rarest and the most ancient humanistic and spiritual heritage that will be displayed in the heart of Tirana until May 20.
I want to warmly welcome you all to this somewhat unusual event at an incredibly unusual place and I believe it might have come a surprise, perhaps strange and perhaps even incomprehensible, why exactly to this very building imprinted on our collective memory – which for many years long stands like s sphinx at the very heart that pumps blood pulsing through Tirana’s entire veins – it happens to gather in a celebration of a profound cultural heritage.
Actually, I thought it was perfectly reasonable when I was told by the event’s organizers that the building turns heads because of its location and the mystery surrounding it. On the other hand, it best coincides with a yet not so new, but still underdeveloped idea to turn this building into a stage of regularly hosting events the building’s owner would have never wished to see them happen after being freed from his shadow.
I think that this event, taking place Europe Week 2018, goes up just like the curtain that opens to the whole theatre of this week’s well-deserved solemnities, and it precisely echoes the Europe within us, a trio merging as one, philosophical, secular and spiritual, three great traditions that have depicted and carved and engraved our identity for almost 15 centuries for almost 15 centuries on parchment, manuscripts, volumes, the Old and New Testaments, the Qurans and printings on philosophy, astronomy and humanities, with probably the most prominent volume of all, the Berat’s Purple Codex.
These precious beauties of our heritage, thanks to which we rank among the Europe’s civilized  nations, have emerged from the far corners of the archives’ peripheral corridors  to be showcased in front of countless eyes gathered here, in the heart of the city, for 1001 reason, from morning till dawn, as a way to display them to many who has never happen to head to the archives’ corridors, or that has never thought to see exactly this incarnation of our identity as nation and identity of everyone as a citizen of this country.
I am deeply grateful to the Directorate of National Archives officials who accepted this extravagant proposal and to briefly bring out and collect these miracles to make the music and all the noise of this zone combine with all the magic of the aesthetics of these precious pieces.
The goal to celebrate the Europe Week exactly just like as a week of inner light that led us to this event, which I believe has yet much to show and to teach everyone who are part of us, but are not able to see us from within and see us from outside, our friends here in Albania, be them either ambassadors, or just visitors.
It is like a rediscovery process for us Albanians and a process of discovery for them, at the end of which, both we and they better understand we are one, although separated by destiny, these in the “EU” we in the “E “, these on the other side, we on this side. In search of “B” ahead of the “E”, we are – also thanks to the cooperation with them – in an effort we often try and sometimes get hurt by the fact that for them is enough to reduce our “E”, which is indeed just as great as their “E”. However I am I am also delighted this event also shows that the Skenderbeg’s year is not a year of nationalism tam-tams and uproar, as some of these from the “E” with “B” feared, but it is a year of Europe with the capital letter “E”, in the best literally and simplest sense of the word, of that Europe that embodies it as an extraordinary symbol for us, but yet unusual for Europe itself, Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu.
Likewise, on one hand this event, and the International Conference on the Albanian Studies on the other, dedicated to Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu, best gratify this Europe’s Week.
Without wanting to make this reception lose its magic and curiosity about entering inside the sphinx behind us, I cannot help but say I am very pleased that this week we celebrate Europe as a compulsion and experience of all, but we also allow those who all over this period have been left in a gloomy shadow, people of science and beings devoted to Albanology to be a worthy part of this nationwide Skanderbeg’s year.
During his visit to Albania, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, highlighting exactly the virtue of religious coexistence among the Albanians – also affirmed as an authentic reality on the latest UN Development Program report – said this made Albanians possibly more Europeans than other nations already members of the European Union.
Indeed, we don’t want to be more Europeans, but we just want to be respected as Europeans as we are. And of course it is up to us to persevere in front of each European that no European is more European than we are.
Through this friendly phrase and deeply humbly, I would like to express my gratitude to the leaders of religious communities attending this event, because, at the end of the day, we are the ones taking pride in religious coexistence, but it is these people who give it the daily spirit to this coexistence. These are the people who face the challenges of this coexistence, which is a precious treasure that is not enough for us, who know the value, to have the desire to inherit our children, but our children must also accept it as a precious heritage, knowing its value.
And if the first is for sure, the latter is to be won in the realm of tremendous endeavours to bring up every child with the incredible value of this legacy. I think it is also the case that on the Europe Week and on this nationwide jubilee to avail myself of the opportunity to publicly express gratitude to these personalities and unsung heroes who make us proudly Europeans and modestly award them the Prime Minister’s Medal of Gratitude.
I would like that by respecting their right to choose who comes first and who comes second, as I do not want to risk and classify them according to their importance, but I think it would be appropriate to classify them according to the alphabet order, I look forward to welcoming those who think they are in line to receive this medal.