OSCE-supported summer school on Albania’s communist past and legacy starts in Tirana

A one-week summer school on communism and the communist legacy in Albania started on 9 July 2018 in Tirana. The event is being held for the second consecutive year and is organized by the OSCE Presence in Albania, in co-operation with the Faculty and the Institute for the Studies of Communist Crimes and Consequences in Albania.

Sixty participants selected out of 330 applicants will attend lectures on various topics concerning the totalitarian past, discuss documentaries featured during the course and listen to stories of people who were persecuted by the communist authorities. The purpose is to further engage future professionals - historians, journalists, lawyers and teachers - in a discussion on human rights violations during the totalitarian regime and how the communist legacy can be addressed.

Speaking at the opening of the summer school, the Deputy Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Robert Wilton, said that he was glad to see that there are many Albanian institutions that are now dealing with the totalitarian past. They include the Authority of the Opening of Sigurimi Files, universities, the public broadcaster and civil society associations.

Wilton noted that only through an open, sincere, well-balanced and respectful dialogue the communist past can be better understood. “There is a cliché that, if we forget the past, we are doomed to make the same mistakes, but there is truth in it. Albania has developed unimaginably and very positively over the last three decades, but we cannot escape history. And our only possible achievement is to get a perspective on the past, not escape,” Wilton said.

The rector of the University of Tirana, Mynyr Koni, said that post-communist generations must be informed about the past and it is the task of historians to identify it with objectivity. “This school is a window to deepen studies into the historical reality as it has happened,” he said.

The dean of the Faculty of History and Philology, Sabri Laçi, said that history needs to be revised and re-written, because new facts continue to emerge every day from research as well as Albanian and foreign archives. “In this school, you will learn some truths and we expect from you – future scholars and youth – to discover even more historical truths of that period so difficult to explore,” Laçi said.

The summer school is part of the Presence’s efforts to encourage a dialogue in the Albanian society on human rights violations during the totalitarian regime.