Month: <span>April 2021</span>

Center for Comparative and International Studies, in cooperation with Center Science and Innovation for Development and Mesdheu Center, successfully organized the third day of the first workshop in Tirana in the framework of Europe for Citizen Project “Youth involvement in a constructive dialogue: Communist Past in Contemporary Western Balkan” (YOU-WB).

The third day on 11^th April 2021 was organized in the form of field visit in Tirana identifying architectural, urban and social-economic development of the capital city from communism to current situation. Youth accompanied by Dr. Erida Curraj and Dr. Blerjana Bino, visited also the House of Leaves, the Museum of Secret Surveillance during communism in Albania. The House of Leaves tries to narrate to young people and to foreigners, one of the darkest periods of the country’s history. Located in the center of Tirana, in front of Orthodox Church: “The Resurrection of Christ” and near the National Bank, the building that temporarily housed Gestapo during the occupation of Albania in WWII was the Central Directorate of the Secret Service from 1944 to 1991. Young people learnt about various aspects of the communist regime while visiting the House of Leaves, but particularly on surveillance of citizens and foreigners, propaganda and special political courts.

On the overall, young people expressed their satisfaction with the workshop, the expertise of speakers, the topics discussed, the opportunity for networking and exchange of ideas and for getting to know Tirana from a different perspective.

Center for Comparative and International Studies, in cooperation with Center Science and Innovation for Development and Mesdheu Center, with the support from partner’s organization Center for Change Management- North Macedonia; PERIPLI- Italy; PSF- France,

successfully organized the second day of the first workshop in Tirana in the framework of Europe for Citizen Project “Youth involvement in a constructive dialogue: Communist Past in Contemporary Western Balkan” (YOU-WB).

The workshop, organized online on 10th April 2021, brought together academics, researchers, experts, civil society activists, and young people to discuss youth involvement in a constructive dialogue regarding the communist past focusing on the case of Albania. Thirty persons from Albania, Italy, France, and North Macedonia participated on the second day.

The first speaker of the workshop was Altin Gjeta, who holds a Master of Arts in International Relations and Politics from University of Westminster, London. He works as a researcher at Albanian Centre for Good Governance, visiting lecture at University of Durres and he is a regular contributor with columns to different media platforms. In his note he argued that the failure of Albania to deal with its past has perverted the establishment of a shared memory and understating of its communist regime massive human rights abuses. Altin concluded that these assemblages of failures, denials of communist’s regime abuses, the emergence of a crisis of representation and disillusionments towards democracy risk tearing apart the very social fabric of the society – and lastly hampering further Albania’s transition toward a functioning democracy.

Dr. Erida Curraj, holds a Doctorate Degree in Industrial Design, a Joint PhD Programme between Ferrara and Polis University. She teaches a master course in Industrial Product Development at the Department of Art Design at Polis University, and Design course at Polytechnic University of Tirana and is an expert of SCiDEV. She presented findings of her PhD project regarding industrial design in the communist regime. She presented part of her database of furniture design from 1945 to 1990 and D-I-Y furniture designs after the first decade of post-communism. She concluded that generally, in Albania is still a misunderstanding of the value of industrial heritage, the lack of community conscience and political responsiveness.
Prof. Asoc. Ilir Kalemaj, Ph.D, Vice Rector and Chair of Department of Social Sciences University of New York Tirana, main argument in his note was that Albania has a weak political culture that is chiefly legacy of its recent communist past. Albania’s communism that lasted for more than five decades was of a pure totalitarian type, making it an exception even among its peers in former Eastern Europe. This combined with weak democratization standards and feeble institutions in the pre-communist era, were one of the main impediments of establishing strong rule of law that is a pre-condition for fast democratic consolidation in the aftermath of the communist era. Therefore, Albania is still suffering from a protracted transition, with little headway toward strengthening its institutions and building a vibrant deliberative democracy.
Dr. Dorina Gjipali, Lecturer at Luarasi University and expert at CCIS, focused on the constitutional development in Albania during and post communism. Socialism opposed strongly the principle of separation of powers, considering it a fabrication of reality and supporting the full power of the Assemblies as direct representatives of the sovereignty of the people. These theoretical positions and the support of the principle of unity of power were materialized in the Soviet constitutions and later in other socialist countries including Albania. She concluded that today, while in Albania the separation of powers is weakened and seriously threaten from a super powerful executive, ensuring and protecting the constitutional democracy, and the social contract it reflects, requires an active citizenship.

Lutjona Lula, expert of SCiDEV with a Joint Master of Arts (M.A.) focused in South East European Studies from University of Belgrade and Karl-Franzens University of Graz, discussed transitional justice in the case of Albania. Lack of databases and common understanding of the number of victims weakens the victim-centered processes of transitional justice, by making it difficult to promote internal reconciliation of the society. Transitional Justice tools that have a perpetrators-centered approach such as lustration have not been successful amidst some initiated attempts. The country has not gone through a complete transitional justice process. The topic of compensations has been the most publicly discussed, and often used for short-term political powers. While compensations are currently being implemented accordingly, internal reconciliation of the Albanian society must take place as soon as possible in order to avoid further delays and restore justice and trust in Albanian democracy.

Rei Shehu, student at the Mediterranean University of Albania also shared his thoughts regarding youth perspective on the communist part and current collective memory in Albania. The session was then followed with Q&A and with a youth perspective session whereby young participants shared their views on how to deal with the past.

Full video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv4zr9t-nIk

Center for Comparative and International Studies, in cooperation with SCiDEV and Mesdheu Center, successfully organized the plenary session of the first workshop in Tirana in the framework of Europe for Citizen Project “Youth involvement in a constructive dialogue: Communist Past in Contemporary Western Balkan” (YOU-WB).

The plenary session, organized online on 9th April 2021, brought together academics, researchers, experts, civil society activists, and young people to discuss youth’s involvement in a constructive dialogue regarding the communist past focusing on the case of Albania. Fifty persons from Albania, Italy, France, and North Macedonia participated on the first day. The keynote speakers were: Prof. Dr. Adrian Civici, Rector of the Mediterranean University of Tirana, and Prof. Assoc. Dr. Enriketa Pandelejmoni (Papa).

Prof. Civici focused on the Albanian economy crisis in the years 1980-1990 and its impact on the end of the socialist system. He emphasized that it is crucial to deal with the past to make the future’s right actions. In the last decade of the ’80s-’90s, the Albanian economy showed signs of a total crisis. Consumer goods began to be massively lacking, switching to the food coupons system for the population, exports decreased, while demand for basic imports was constantly increasing, foreign exchange reserves were declining, and, in its entirety, domestic production, especially agri-food, was declining at an alarming rate. The country fell into a deep economic and financial crisis, and the system of the centralized economy no longer had any means or opportunity to stop it. In a broad sense, despite several attempts to modify economic policy and allow some elements of the “capitalist economy,” this was a crisis of the socialist system itself and, consequently, could not be resolved without changing it.

Prof. Pandelejmoni (Papa) tackled communist legacy and memory-making in Albania. She noted that 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the history of communism still presents itself as one of the most polarizing and controversial themes in Eastern Europe’sEurope’s culture of memory, including Albania. In Albania, the research on communism and its memory are beginning, although 30 years have been passed since communism. The studies on communism and memory of communism are limited reduced in some newspaper articles and most publications of former political prisoners’ memories. Communist crimes are not profoundly studied. The only serious study on violence and terror in Albania to be mentioned is the publication of the volumes of encyclopedia of Institute for the Study of Communist Crimes and Consequences of Communism. Today as witnesses to the tragic event of communism are passing away, politicians, historians, and representatives of associations and NGOs are struggling for the reconstruction of social memory. In the framework of the EU path that post-communist Albania has to follow, it is expected that Albania should apply the European transnational perspective on the politics of communist memory.

Also, Prof. Assoc. Dr. Nevila Xhindi, CCIS Senior Advisor, illustrated the case by providing participants with photos and links from crucial sites in Albania such as museums, archives, etc. She noted that student movements, hunger strikes, protests, and the overthrow of Enver Hoxha monument and his dragging to the student city were the first acts, and unfortunately, the only ones of Albania’s decommunization. The longer the presence of communist persons, beliefs, actions, and mindsets in our country, the longer the transition continues. After three decades, we are not simply facing the inability to punish this period. Today, we are witnessing the tendency to return the old communist signs, symbols, graphics, and ideology.  For the final decommunization to take place, justice must be done. Only then can we hope for visible improvements, a functioning democracy, and a smooth end to our transition.

Participants were very active with questions for both Prof. Civici and Prof. Pandelejmoni (Papa). Some of the issues discussed during the first day were: the relation between the Communist Party of Albania and the Italian Communist Party, the impact of communist legacy in the EU integration process, the impact on the economy and first years of transitions, women and communist past and youth role, history school curricula and public narratives about the past, communism and transitional justice.

 

Full video of the 1^st day of the workshop in Tirana – Youth perspectives on remembrance

CCIS participated in The second Steering Committee meeting of the USIA project, hosted online on Zoom Platform by Mediterranean Center- Mediterranean University of Albania (MUA) as project leader and with the participation of 11 other SC members from project partners.

Following the agenda Dr. Dorina Gjipali Project manager at CCIS- a partner organization at USIA project and leader of WP7- Quality plan, presented Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) drafted in very close and productive cooperation with ACEEU colleagues and the support of the leading institution Mediterranean University of Albania. The Quality Assurance Plan (QAP, Plan) forms a single point of reference in relation to the USI-A Project’s quality assurance priorities, standards, indicators, procedures and roles. It has been developed as a core element of the WP 7 (Quality Assurance Plan-QAP) of the Project in compliance with the Project description and all applicable rules and guidelines.

Mrs. Gjipali started her presentation by thanking everyone for being part of the discussion and approval of Quality Assurance Plan and especially Mr. Nikolai Shmeleand Ms. Adissa Ejubovic from ACEEU for their significant contribution to QAP. She expressed her appreciation for all the recommendations received while drafting this project document.

The aim of the Plan is to define the quality control and quality assurance activities that will be carried out throughout the project in order to ensure smooth implementation, continuous monitoring and high-quality level of the project activities and outcomes.
The QAP will facilitate healthy and efficient collaboration among the project partners and ensure delivery of high-quality results and outcomes. It will also help partners to assess and manage project risks, identify and rectify shortcomings, and allow for speedy improvements.
QAP will be amended by agreements and also reviewed by the end of the year
By end of the presentation session, QAP was approved from Project Steering Committee.

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