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The Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj participated yesterday in the meeting “Dialogue Initiative in the Balkans”, which was attended by decision makers and experts from six Western Balkan countries, with whom he shared the view that Tirana is a city that supports the right, honest and is ready to show solidarity in situations like the one the world is going through today.
Veliaj said that good neighborliness is very important and that this time is right to reflect. “We appreciate our neighbors very much. On the other side of the coast we have Italy, a major power in the world for food, culture, art, music and fashion. We have climbed Greece, the oldest democracy in the world, which we value today more than ever. We are the same fraternal nation with Kosovo, but we are also neighbors with Serbia, which yesterday made a bold decision.
They are also in crisis from what is happening in the world today, but because of Open Balkan, they decided to send to Albania the contracted amount of cereals, wheat and flour. We are also neighbors of Northern Macedonia, where a significant number of the population is of Albanian origin. So if we rotate 360 degrees, to see who we are close to, I think it matters a lot who our neighbors are. If you ask Ukrainians this question today, it certainly does matter to them who their neighbors are. Your neighbors can change the course of history and, of course, the well-being of your people. Therefore, I hope that this is a time to reflect and think well about where we are “, said Veliaj in his speech.
The mayor said that he wants Tirana to always support what is right, what is honest and solidarity. If Tirana decides to name a street “Free Ukraine”, it could have a domino effect, it could go viral and other cities could speak symbolically. Therefore, I want this city to be a city that sets standards.
This city is not Vienna, it is not Paris and London, the decisions of the world do not happen in this part of the world, but we want to be a city that sets standards for what is right, what is honest and what it shows solidarity “, he underlined.
Meanwhile, Veliaj added that the populism that exists today, must always be fought with arguments. “Many of us have been tolerant of populists, saying ‘let them talk’, that this is freedom of speech. But what we have realized is that every time we have confronted the populists with arguments, we have won. Last week we had another big test of what it means to face populism. If anyone in the Kremlin would like to write the ideal scenario of what would happen to democracy in the Balkans or in Western countries during the war in Ukraine, just look at last week’s events in Albania – people who say: “No, no “Ukraine is far away, but rising world prices are affecting us, so we can not drive our X5s or Range Rovers.” So the government made a bold decision and said, “Wait a minute! Are you taking NATO membership for granted? But with the responsibility and privilege of being a member of NATO, of being a candidate country for membership in the European Union, comes the responsibility to sacrifice a little, to bear some of the burden of what is happening. Therefore, I think that the public has matured from this experience “, said Veliaj.
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