Writer Gazmend Kapllani and director of the Department of Albanology “Hidai Bregu” at the University “De Paul” in Chicago, USA states that the announcement non grata for Berisha is an alarm bell for the government.
Invited to the show “Dekalog” by journalist Roland Qafoku on RTSH 24 Kapllani made an extended analysis of the situation that Albania is going through, emphasizing that this decision was an atomic bomb for Albanian politics and means that no one is inviolable.
Kapllani says Berisha’s lawsuit against Secretary Blinken is a Balkan comedy. Below is the interview with Gazmend Kapllani.
Mr. Kapllani, what is your opinion on the decision of DASH and Secretary Antony Blinken to declare the former Prime Minister and former President Sali Berisha non grata?
I am extremely sorry that as an Albanian of America I connect with Albania to discuss something like this. First, it is a shame and we are very sad that Albanian politics in 30 years has not found any moment that has made us proud.
Second, Berisha’s lawsuit is a Balkan comedy. There is no court outside America that can sue the US administration. This is a decision of the State Department. Blinken is not a private person who woke up and tweeted that Berisha is corrupt.
I want to clarify some things that I see that there is a very big discussion in Albania but as always we do not discuss the essential things. Never. We discuss in a sub-way how we will lose this essential thing. The first job DASH does not make random decisions for personal revenge. DASH decisions and especially such decisions are based on facts and usually have long-term strategies.
It is certainly an atomic bomb decision for the political life in Albania. For people like me that after the fall of communism we could create a minimally functional rule of law for Albanian citizens is very difficult. We feel we have failed.
Second and I am speaking as a journalist, Americans approach some countries that interest them. Albania is fortunately interested in the Americans. There is a long-term strategy. They also have some principles for example human rights. I said before that their interests are strategic. But there is also a moral philosophy. Russia and America are not the same when they make their alliances.
This reflects a strategy of American policy. The Americans have come to the conclusion that corruption and organized crime in Albania is so rampant, so systematic that it does not allow the building of any democratic state institution and always keeps the country under the seal of political destabilization. It is the main cause of a society that always returns to a kind of cycle of destabilization.
If Americans want us to have allies, we cannot be incredible allies in such a jungle state. I listen to the discussions that take place in Albania. He did this to introduce Basha. He did this to introduce Rama. He was in a hurry. Of course you have the right to evaluate these kinds of decisions. These kinds of decisions are political and moral. But DASH is not taking Berisha to court.
But DASH and America are interested in having a functioning rule of law in Albania. To have both development and be a reliable ally. No one has received data. Who are our neighbors on the map of corruption and organized crime? Do you know who we are next door to? We are with Libya, Honduras, Haiti and Peru.
You said that we are neighbors with Libya, Honduras, Haiti and Peru, but the person who is a sign against corruption is only Sali Berisha?
We can discuss why Sali Berisha and why this moment. But my personal opinion is that this is a big bell, the biggest possible one that could be thrown by Americans for everyone to hear. The strategy that the Americans have followed with Albania is what is called “Hard Love”. Americans do not invest in Albania in vain.
They have invested heavily in the justice system. We have totalitarian corruption. By impunity we can be neighbors to Libya and Syria which is in civil war. No one is punished in Albania. There is a total impunity. And the Americans decided to give a signal for justice to move forward. None is untouchable.
Mr. Kapllani, I would like you to make a prediction, does everything happen in Albanian politics after this DASH decision for Berisha?
Albania is an unpredictable country. The geostrategic analysis that was done during the discussion in your studio is true, but I believe it plays an important role. But it’s not just her. As I said, the Americans have a political philosophy and a philosophy of approach to Albania that corruption and organized crime in Albania is not leaving the building of a democratic state or a stable state.
The problem is not the Americans. The problem is ours. That the gentleman pulls the donkey out of the mud, even though we donkey has fallen into the swamp. For us, the fight against corruption is not just the tips one gets or the other. But it is that we have a state also caught up in organized crime. We have a jungle state where justice does not work.
Dealing with it becomes existential for us. Our strategic alliances will also depend on them. I very much agree with Professor Apollon Bachen that alliances and maps are being redrawn, especially by Biden, who also lived through the Cold War, and we have a second part of the Cold War because the same protagonists are Russia, China and the United States. Thankfully the Americans have not left us alone.
With the state we have, we prefer allies like Putin rather than Biden and Merkel. So we have to build another state. Or we will do a serious analysis of why we got to this point. Where did we leave it and where did we stay. Or we will deal with Soros and Zeqo’s mother on top of the thana.
Who has the opportunity to commit corruption, the one in power or the one not in power?
I believe that the decision of DASH is long-term. There is a long-term strategy. I believe it is a decision postponed several times. It was ready to be taken and not taken. Why was it announced now? I do not know this. Politics always has its moments to decide. I am sure that even those in power are closely monitored at the moment. The bell that rang I see more for those in power.
