On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the birth of Kosovo’s historic president, a scientific conference titled “Dr. Ibrahim Rugova and State-building in Kosovo” was organized in Tirana, where former Prime Minister and current leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, also participated.
During his speech, Berisha expressed that the League of Prizren was undoubtedly a national unification, where an independent Kosovo was not a previous project—Kosovo’s freedom, Kosovo as part of Albania, these were the dreams of Albanians.
“Despite the problems and the endless series of setbacks we have faced, we have always brought forward distinguished figures. Many wish to compare themselves to Skanderbeg, the eternal prince. But, if the sword and the pen are the two most important tools for making history, and while Skanderbeg did it with a sword, Ibrahim Rugova did it with the mind, he did it with the pen. So today, he would be 80 years old. He is not, but the truth is that he is among us and immortal with his work.
I made this comparison because the idea of a free Kosovo never died in Kosovo. Even during the empire, Kosovo managed to be one of the most important, sometimes even the most decisive, parts of it. Kosovo was the first to oppose the divisive project of the Albanian territories. The inhabitants of Plavë and Gucia, and other inhabitants, the League of Prizren was one, without a doubt, a national unification. But an independent Kosovo was not a previous project, a free Kosovo, Kosovo as part of Albania, these were the dreams of Albanians.
One person initiated or planted in the minds of the Albanians of Kosovo a new dream; an independent Kosovo. In the first meeting in February of 1991, the late Azem Hajdari, who had nothing else in mind but the unification of Kosovo with Albania, kept asking. He would say, ‘What about unification?’ Later, he would tell Rugova, ‘This is for once.’ This idea of an independent Kosovo, he planted it in the mind and heart of nearly every Albanian in Kosovo,” said Berisha among other things.
