FLASH
Shkruar nga Mero Baze
Even President Bush's will for Albania to join NATO was so great, that 15 days before we received the invitation to NATO, on March 15, the son of Sali Berisha blew up an entire village by dismantling ammunition, involved in corruption and state capture, and under normal conditions, such an insecure country should not be included in NATO. But thanks to Bush, not even Shkëlzen Berisha could stop Albania's entry into NATO.
The US Embassy in Tirana published today a video message on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Albania's accession to NATO, dividing Albania into two eras, pre-NATO and post-NATO.
The three significant images of Albania before NATO were the overthrow of the dictatorship in 1991, a view of the destroyed bunkers of Albania in 1996, and a view of the NATO operation to help refugees from Kosovo in 1999. After joining NATO, the images show an Albania other changed.
Enraged by the video, where his image did not appear anywhere, Sali Berisha publishes a video, shaking hands ten times with President Bush during his visit to Tirana in 2007, when he promised NATO membership, at the time Berisha was prime minister.
Berisha's fury is not only related to the disappearance of his image, but also to the evidence of his abuse of power in his first governing term, which ended with civil revolts and violence after the overthrow of the pyramid schemes.
But the importance of joining NATO for Albania, Macedonia and Croatia before was not only national security but also the restoration of the rule of law and democracy.
In that visit to Tirana, President Bush has a historic photo behind him. He is crossing his arms with Sali Berisha, Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
All three are now convicted of corruption. This does not mean that President Bush is responsible for meeting three thieves in the Balkans.
They found they met. His merit is that he introduced these three countries into NATO and then NATO standards put these thieves in prison.
If Albania had not joined NATO, Sali Berisha would never have been punished as he would have been the head of a tribe, without standards, without the rule of law and without public opinion. NATO restored the perspective of a Western state to Albanians and put its political leaders on the scale of Western standards.
Berisha's photos with President Bush show only that he was prime minister of Albania and nothing else. We all know that, even for that reason he is today "non grata", since he did not use that mandate for NATO but to enrich his family.
Even President Bush's will for Albania to join NATO was so great, that 15 days before we received the invitation to NATO, on March 15, the son of Sali Berisha blew up an entire village by dismantling ammunition, involved in corruption and state capture, and under normal conditions, such an insecure country should not be included in NATO. But thanks to Bush, not even Shkëlzen Berisha could stop Albania's entry into NATO.
15 years later, Sali Berisha and Shkëlzen Beirsha are "non grata" from the USA, but Albania is in NATO, as it is permanent. NATO standards protect us not only from external enemies, but also from internal thieves.
So Sali Berisha would do well to delete those photos, and stop dreaming that there are two USAs, one that is with him, in the photo, and another that has punished him and left him on the window.
There is a USA and an Albania and they are allies with each other. Others, history weighs how good and bad they have done to the country and erases them from history, leaving them either in oblivion, or on top of the window.
Lini një Përgjigje