Dardan Hoti

Pristina | Date: February 9, 2018 | Duration: 5 minutes

Dardan Hoti (1989), journalist and human rights activist, Krushë e Madhe


Aurela Kadriu (Interviewer), Donjeta Berisha (Camera)

Dardan Hoti

Aurela Kadriu: Introduce yourself. Your name, last name, age, profession…

Dardan Hoti: Ah okay, an introduction, an intro. Okay. I am Dardan Hoti, I come from Krusha e Madhe. I am 29 years old now (laughs) and I work as a journalist and a human rights activist. This is a short introduction of myself, in general.

Aurela Kadriu: Do you remember the summer of 2007?

Dardan Hoti: I don’t really remember what or how, how, what, what I did in 2007. I remember that like every other year I went on vacation (laughs) and I was a high school student. At that time I also started working in a restaurant and at the same time I was doing dancing activities with the Cultural Artistic Society in Krusha. So, some activities, festivals as far as I remember that I took part in while working. There was nothing special, I don’t remember it very well, now after ten years, almost eleven (laughs).

Aurela Kadriu: When did you, when did you first realize or when did you first hear that Kosovo will declare independence?

Dardan Hoti: Besides the information that we got through information preliminarily for… I already mentioned that I was in a dance group and we were informed a month or two earlier. We got some information that we should be prepared to have a, a show when Kosovo declared independence in the framework of Rahovec’s municipality. And in a way we started to get used to the term independence, and how it’s like to have… Kosovo to be independent.

And… But we did not focus on that part, we focused more on preparing that choreography, that event that was all our responsibility, we wanted to, we had… We were the only group in the municipality that had to do that event. So that, I mean maybe two months before this happened, before the declaration of independence we were somewhat informed. Even though there were questions whether it’s going to happen for sure, or not.

Aurela Kadriu: And where were you the day independence was declared?

Dardan Hoti: Half of the day I was in Krusha, my birth place. And the other half of the day I was in Rahovec at, at the event that the municipality of Rahovec held for the declaration of independence. So including the hours of getting ready and going there and… But at the time when independence was declared, it was at three in the afternoon as far as I remember, so I those moments I was in Rahovec waiting, waiting to celebrate as a part of the Cultural Artistic Society in Krusha.

Aurela Kadriu: Can you describe the atmosphere that day? What did you do, how was it?

Dardan Hoti: It was, as far as I remember, it was really cold and I know that our group of dancers experienced it really badly since we were wearing only some shirts. And it was the tension that every hour we were waiting for that to happen, that news. For the independence to be declared and we had to be ready so we had to stay outdoors most of the time people had gathered and everybody was waiting to celebrate and they were waiting for that moment. I got sick actually (laughs) I got a bad cold on that day because of… but there were people everywhere in the street waiting to celebrate, flags, music… I know that, I’m trying to remember every moment that happened, something more special. But this a summary of what happened until three o’clock, that we were waiting for that moment.

And then when the independence was declared we gathered, it seemed like it was organized, all the people in square where the event was happening. And I danced in front of hundreds, thousands of people that were, that gathered in that time.

Aurela Kadriu: Okay, thank you very much.

 

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