Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at the farewell ceremony for the martyr of the nation, Major Klodian Tanushi:
For second time in few days’ time, our national flag drapes the body of another martyr of the nation, Major Klodian Tanushi, the colleague of corporal Zarife Hasanaj.
We return to a funeral like this to bid adieu to an army officer, father of three, the son of a father from him he inherited the sense of mission in the Armed Forces of the Republic, and the husband who prematurely parts from his wife and family.
And again it is difficult to choose and find the right words to fill this moment’s void for each and every one of us, but the void that will be left right at the heart of his children, spouse, parents, relatives, friends and comrades in arms.
However, I hope our presence here, together with you most honourable and respected parents and family members, and dearest children of the martyr, though little will relieve and help you to cope with your irreplaceable loss.
Klodian was serving in a peacekeeping, rescuing and lifesaving mission and he sacrificed his own life to prevent the loss of other lives.
In a holy book, such a self-sacrifice to save other people’s lives is called the ultimate sacrifice. This is the core of every peacekeeping and life-saving mission of our Armed Forces, part of the largest alliance of nations and NATO member countries.
At extreme moments, it is easier to give your life away for your beloved ones. It is easier to be claimed by death when attacking and facing the enemy eye to eye and it is easier to exchange the life’s joys with the departure to the eternal life in order to save a good man’s life. But it is extremely tough and sublime to accept your own life ending at any moment to save lives of the unknowns. Accepting death in a country that is not your motherland, because by healing the open wound by the anti-personnel mines, you accepted and you wanted to sow the good seed that nourishes life. This is the case!
This is the moment to endeavour and say what may sound senseless to many; why boy, a father, a husband, an Albania should return home from an unknown soil lifeless?
Precisely because Albania and Albanians and our Armed Forces today are part of this mission, which the Euro-Atlantic Alliance carries as an unmatched and inalienable value.
Klodian climbed the military hierarchy and career ladder as a dignified member of our Armed Forces, a devoted, noble and highly respected man. This explains, beyond human pain and the unnatural tears running down the cheeks of the Chief of Staff while speaking about Klodian, or the voice choked and overcome with emotions of the Minister of Defence, who used to know him personally.
He was about to return back home in few weeks’ time and he would then be close to his family, caress his sons, kiss his mother’s hand and be in the father’s eyes a living reason of legitimate pride, yet he came back draped with the national red and black flag, not to return home, but to rest in the nation’s temple, right where the nation has gathered all those who gave their lives for it.
Knowing the families of both martyrs it is not difficult to understand that dignity and passion to serve homeland along this very thin line between life and death is a legacy of generations and also a cultivation of family values and it is also a proof of what we Albanians say, blood is thicker than water.
Life of Klodian, Zarife and hundreds of other soldiers serving in peacekeeping missions shows exactly the dignity of the blood that is thicker than water. It precisely speaks of the example created day after day, from the mother’s breast-feeding and father’s early advices to the involvement in this large family of Armed Forces, which are increasingly devoted to protecting the great community of the people of this country.
Indeed, they show that peace comes always at a price.
They show that unification has a value, it always does.
They show us that at a crucial time to our future, the sun always rises in the west for Albanians.
Another martyr from the Armed Forces ranks will be laid to rest at Mother Albania and it is not impossible, on the contrary it is quite natural to observe a correlation between those a symbol of a heroic and decisive war on the 75th anniversary of the country’s liberation and Zarife or Klodian, who join them in the eternal world as part of a new history that requires new sacrifices in a country that belongs to NATO.
Both sides are united by the right side of history. The war martyrs are the heroes of a national struggle on the right side of history, whereas the modern time martyrs are the martyrs of a national consciousness embedded on the right side of history. To face Nazism, fascism in the past meant to be ready and sacrifice your own life by choosing to stay on the right side of history. Being today alongside the United States and all other NATO member countries means being ready to give away your life by staying on the right side of history.
This is a tiny country, but beyond figures and financial or human contributions to every shared step of the Alliance, it has a contribution that can’t be gauged quantitatively and makes us all equal, and that is the blood contribution.
Every saved life on behalf of values and principles that unite NATO as an unmatchable force is a parable of exactly the equality of contributions and capacities to be equal to the point where every life is worth all the lives combined.
To conclude, I would like to express deepest gratitude, because thanks to the martyrs of the past and the martyr of today, that we are unable to blur the future, because their sacrifice also helps us in the most difficult moments to understand where and what the right side of history is.
May their memory live on!
A word on the three children. One day, when you will become parents, you will finally figure out your father’s legacy right in your hearts, nothing in this life is worth than good reputation and memory!
