By GJERGJI KRISTO FRASHËRI
Dear Mr. Gabriel Escobar, Your interview has left me sleepless for the humor it caused in a friendly circle in Tirana (I can say American benevolent), for this “non grata”, “pro grata”, “grata-grata”, “super grata”, “poor grata”…
Part of the humor, I tell you honestly, was inadvertently brought to me by the memory of a graduate female friend of mine from 1967, who at that time had just started learning Latin, but at the same time had fallen in love with a close friend of mine, a little older than me, at that time a student at University of Tirana for Medicine. From her I heard the word “molto grata” for the first time. She had chosen them to show me carefully in confidence as a young friend, that she had fallen in complete love with my close friend.
I wanted to say, honorable politician, do not get too tired from Washington, classifying Albanians as “super grata” or “non grata”. I mean it, do not get tired, sir! I am giving this advice because the Albanian is not American, that is, it is not a new conglomerate nation like the Americans, that has just come out of the belly of a two-century-old cow.
We Albanians in our historical lands cannot become Americans. I myself am one of them and I do not want to become an American or anything else in the world. I want to be Albanian and show all their characteristics, no matter how primitive they may seem to Americans and to you personally. Albanians live in their most ancient historical lands of the world. Mr. Berisha also has this origin. He is in his own country and has taken nothing from America, nor from Washington, nor from you personally.
If you start again not behaving well with Albania and thr Albanians as you have done sadly and not in a few cases even before, you will lose the friendship of the people of this country and you will pack your bags like 70 short years ago. Via Egnatia, which the USA needs so much, cannot become USA without the desire of the Albanians. (Albanians are not your friends, your friends are the provisional leaders who do the duty once in four years and lick the back of the unscrupulous foreigners, among them the Washington administration…). It seems to me that the history of the New Age is a witness to this.
One last thing for today. I have probably not been and am not a political supporter of Mr. Berisha, but I am certainly a political opponent of the American ambassador Arvizu, who supported Berisha in the criminal event of January 21, 2011 in Tirana, calling him a statesman. (Read my 2015 post, “The Republic of a Criminal and Three Million Angels”). What is in your capacity and it’s up to you to do and what you should do is to declare Mr. Arvizu “non grata” within the bounds of American law, as the American citizen he is.
Because if you claim that you are right in your judgment on the actions of Mr. Berisha, it turns out that the American ambassador, Mr. Arvizu in Tirana, lied to us, which does not honor at all the official US representatives in our country. The worst thing is that you are wasting your time, your pen and your ink, declaring an Albanian citizen “non grata”. You become funny as a citizen of American nationality who declares undesirable any citizen living somewhere in the Republic of Albania. Turn out to be frivolous even as a man of American political administration.
Your action casts doubt on us other citizens of the Republic of Albania, regarding the indisputable sympathy and gratitude we have for the United States. Like Berisha, I am also retired. Now did the American administration find the right to deal with Berisha, that is, with a pensioner, after more than decades that he has contributed to the democratization of the Republic of Albania under the daily advice of Washington?
In my view, Washington has been sending ugly and unscrupulous ambassadors to Tirana for at least 20 years in terms of the degree of civilization (including this lady who was recently sent), which, if I had been competent, I would have advised her in wise ways, to leave Albania as soon as possible. With the actions you are doing and the interviews you publish, honorable American diplomat, you will lose the Republic of Albania, as you lost it in the period 1946-1990.
Albania has been located in the Middle of the Earth since the creation of humanity. The intelligence of the patriotic Albanians of this country inside and outside Albania knows this. I also know its strategic values. World history is the story “of the war who will rule Via Egnatian (Durres-Istanbul)”
The last Albanian leader before you came, together with our grandparents and fathers, played that game in preserving the independence of the Republic of Albania, to remind you of the superpowers after 1944, first Russia (BS), then Western Europe at the same time and the communist Eastern Bloc, that Via Egnatia could be commanded by the Albanians themselves.
Or not? There are many Albanians like me who know this value and are conscious connoisseurs of this strategy. As historians, in the last 31 years we have also analyzed how “forward” our country has gone. I mean, do not play by touching every Albanian where you do not swallow the tradition of this stubborn country in itself, because we will lose. We will draw you a line.
Your reckless actions by insulting us in our family home and hearth, are forcing us to join Berisha, for the sake of your arrogance. I’m afraid, what I would never want – we will slowly start to hate you and as our tradition says, we will end up sleeping with the miller. Do not hurt our deep and fresh gratitude to the USA. We have chosen with you the next Empire.
But there are other empires on offer in current world developments to choose from. Beware brothers! We do not want to, and we have no right to lose you! But do not insult us either! Berisha is one of us, you will always be a foreigner. I could not find more honest words to say openly what I think.
Source: http://www.panorama.com.al/disa-rreshta-derguar-zotit-gabriel-escobar/
