Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the inauguration ceremony for the statue of Ismail Qemali in Pristina:

I believe we said every salutation the circumstances require, so let me greet a lady whose name is Vlora, Vlora Dumosha. She was born on November 28. I want to greet her parents; I don’t know if they live, but I am sure that right now they are the happiest souls, as every Albanian parent of Kosovo who, thinking of Ismail Qemali, called their daughters Vlora.

Dear compatriots, there is no gesture more ceremonial, and for the sake of truth more mechanical, for a Prime Minister than the inauguration of statues commemorating the history of the motherland in city squares.

But, my friends, when a monument of Ismail Qemal Vlora is sculpted from the earth, the Albanian flag, our banner throughout the centuries, is immortalized again.

Any time a statue of the great old man is raised in front of us, the independence and sovereignty of Albanians is proclaimed over and over again.  It is the shelter of eagles who, on their way back to their nests – as Pope Francis said in Tirana – gracefully trace and make revive our painful journey in the right direction of autonomy, not isolation; of self-determination, not self-sufficiency; of the generous patriotism and full of light, not of the avaricious and blind nationalism.

The statue of Ismail Qemali is being raised on this square to stay here forever, like a rock standing where it belongs.

The journey started in 1912 by the bronze or stone effigy of this great figure of our nation, which has stopped in many square not only in Albania but also in Europe, would have been incomplete hadn’t it stopped also in Pristina, here where the Albanian civilization was founded in these lands.

We must not forget that what was accomplished in Vlore with the Declaration of Independence was conceived here, since the very beginning, with the big insurrections of 1910-1911. Dedë Gjo Luli and Idriz Seferi begged the Toskë compatriots of Boston to donate the red flag with the black double-headed eagle brought from America precisely to Ismail Qemali when he would step in the motherland in 1911.

Although physically lost, that flag of the motherland became the sacred seed of all those flags that subsequently inflamed the Albanian land with the fire of freedom and autonomy, with the fire of the unutterable love of Albanians of that time and of later times, until freedom and autonomy came here in Kosovo as well.

One of those flags of the inflamed land was vigorously grabbed by Isa Boletini a few days after the banner was raised in the palaces of the great man from Vlore, thus conferring the real meaning to the freedom and self-government of the nation that speaks the same language and has the same blood, the nation that has shared sufferings and bitter victories, because they were taken hostage by others.

In Vlore Isa brought Kosovo, precisely because this land was back then under an imposed yoke.

Today, Ismail Qemali comes to the free and independent Kosovo, I would say, on his own feet, and greets the sons of these parts, and finally rests with his radiant spirit also in this land, definitely freed and independent, once and forever.

Just as Kosovo, reborn and alive as never before, welcomes the Father of Independence, so he comes today to Kosovo more alive than ever.

Today, a very modest successor acting in the capacity performed with wisdom at the service of the nation by Ismail Qemali, the Prime Minister of the Albanians, I am here today together with Pandeli Majko, Prime Minister of Albania during the fight of Kosovo for freedom, to immure in a monument the independence act of 1912 which historians, antiquarians and cultivators of a fetishist and static memory has been searching forever, like the Bedouin searches for the mirage of water in the desert. Maybe that act, which unfortunately has been physically lost, tells more about us precisely because it is lost. It speaks so that us, the next generations, but also the foreigners, can understand that Albanians are not hostage to fate, much less are they slaves to a piece of paper. It is the power of the word, of the word and of the example lived, that makes us what we are, what we have been and will always be here in the Balkans.

When Ismail Qemali urged neighbors to respect the word given to not undermine our integrity, he was not a pioneer of letters, treaties or agreements that interests and diplomacies of all kind, back then and today, have wrought with unspeakable force inside the forms of injustices and inequalities.

When Albanians of Macedonia commit to implement the Ohrid Agreement, they do not try to impose an unfair bill to a poor people. Instead, they try to believe often, also against the believable, that the word given and honor are neither maltreated nor humiliated, neither shot nor lost.

When Albanians of Presevo raise their voice, they ask neither more nor less than what Serbs of northern Kosovo have, and it is not intention of the Albanians of Albania and Kosovo to break the promise to the Unites States and Europe to carry out the national unity as a culmination; in addition to the culmination of spiritual, economic and social unity with the European Union and by no means as a contempt towards neighbors with whom we want also to unite under the common roof of Europe. Respecting each other and doing for each other what we do for ourselves, and asking our neighbors neither more nor less to do what we do for them. Today, Pandeli Majko and I, as two people who have been lucky to fulfill the function that Ismail Qemali fulfilled first, haven’t actually brought here the statue, which is fruit of the work by a group of citizens form Vlore and Pristina. They jointed they desires, their goals and efforts and brought it here quite naturally. So, respect for them.

But no matter how beautiful this statue is, we must never forget that a monument is etymologically close to the word grave, and since it is difficult to find Ismail Qemal Vlora lying in the dark, it is life coming from his life that we joyfully welcome with our deepest gratitude.

The fate of individuals resembles sometimes to the fate of nations, until yesterday weather-beaten under the pedestal of dictatorship and ethnic and state violence. The grandchildren of those Albanians of Kosovo who fought alongside Ismail Qemal Vlora 100 years ago, because of Ismail Qemali, can meet today his grandchildren. They also, through no fault, suffered the absurd persecution and discrimination of the communist dictatorship in Albania. The same as Albanians of Kosovo, who were denied the flag of their nationality, members of the Vlora family were denied to carry their father’s name for decades.

Apparently it has been written that the family of the Father of Albanians’ Independence should walk painfully alongside the Kosovo of martyrdom, the Kosovo of the great testimony for individual, public and national freedom for autonomy and self-determination, for a free choice in order to be equal to others within the big Europe.

The centuries-old wandering of Ismail Qemali finds here today its historical fulfillment, but not the end of its dynamics and inestimable political message. And if Albanians everywhere will have to really and properly honor this statue, to honor the existence of the father of the nation, they will be able to look him in the eyes although they won’t be standing in front of his statue.

Looking Ismail Qemali in the eye requires an intelligence and lucidity that start obviously from the heart, but continue on the path of democratic values and of the fulfillment of a promise in the genesis of which Ismail Qemali put his own life. The promise of united Albanians in the United Europe, of united Albanians as Albanians and Europeans in a space of freedom and democracy where nobody, ever, can even imagine to swallow up Albanians.

Looking Ismail Qemali in the eye requires modesty as well as political self-judgment, it requires the permanent force of the example, but by no means the example of force.

This man was 68 years old when he succeeded in awaking Albania from a centuries-old drowsiness and make it worthy for the Europe of nations.

Seven years have passed since Kosovo became entitled to be free and independent, thus being worthy for the Europe of countries.

It took this great man 100 years to come to this part of his nation, and to both sides of the Albanian Mountains to be two free and independent parts.

Years are important for those who have the time and the leisure to count them. While for visionaries and for the people who look beyond figures with the great strength of the feeling of belonging, years are simply a scale that measures the performance of task, the progress of a mission, the affirmation of a historic vocation. A task that, as Ismail Qemali’s life proves, goes beyond your possible years.

A mission that, as our joint, Albanian and Kosovo’s, history shows, does not end with your life. A historic vocation that, as what we as Albanians have achieved today shows, is a vocation that your people will never allow to get lost, even when the very last hope seems completely lost.

Today’s challenges of Albanians, on both sides of the Mountains, have always had, even for a time we don’t know, a double responsibility.

The ambitious vision of the father of independence for ethical awareness of Albanians everywhere will judge us as harshly as history itself, as will judge us the next generations of Albanians in Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and anywhere if we lose, even for a single moment, the light of reason and are tempted by the example of force, and forget that Ismail Qemali and his mission have been brought all the way here by the force of example.

This is neither a matter of statue nor of flag. What we unveiled today in this ceremony is actually – and I think the same as the Mayor of Pristina – the starting point of a major challenge of our history, both old and new. The starting point of the challenge of accountability which always needs to be reminded of the starting point.

Whenever we will be affected by human tendencies to be let into the temptations of power or to go after iniquities at the expense of the state; whenever our eyes will be covered by the veil of anger toward each other and will be driven by strife, envy and division, only then we will indeed be the ones to honor Ismail Qemali if precisely then we have the strength to turn toward this man and look at this peaceful face which is the image of a great truth: we have come all this way here not by acting as the tough, but by demanding justice; not by stepping on others but by asking others to not dare to step on us; not by saying “do as we say but do not do as we do”, but by doing for others what we ask other to do for us.

So, looking at ourselves through the eyes of Ismail Qemali will be wither the trial and punishment or our service at any time.

This immortal old man has been shining for over 100 years unlined and self-controlled, and he is here among us, always ready to continue making history together with all of us.

Praised be the work and message of Ismail Qemali!

God be with all those who while honoring him think like him, believe like him and are ready to act like him!

Thank you!