Petrit Bejdoni

Pristina | Date: February 12, 2018 | Duration: 4 minutes

Petrit Bejdoni (1988), social worker, Gjakova


Aurela Kadriu (Interviewer), Donjeta Berisha (Camera)

Petrit Bejdoni

Petrit Bejdoni: I am Petrit Bejdoni. 30 years old, a sociologist. I have finished Sociology. A social worker.

Aurela Kadriu: Can you tell us whether you remember or how do you remember the summer of 2007?

Petrit Bejdoni: When it is mentioned within the independence context, it reminds me of the Ahtisaar’s Plan. I remember how it was written and rewritten for three-for times just so it would fit the interests of  Russia and Serbia to achieve an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, which in the end didn’t turn out to happen. A lot of turmoils, protests. We didn’t know whether it was good or bad, we didn’t know what Ahtisaar’s Plan was. Some wanted it, some didn’t. So this is what it reminds me of.

Aurela Kadriu: Do you remember when you first heard or realized that Kosovo would declare independence?

Petrit Bejdoni: Yes, it was in the end of 2007, when at the end it is not happening, we didn’t know whether it was good or bad. Then, I mean, in the late January and early February, that the independence would be declared began to be used as a sentence.

Aurela Kadriu: Where were you for independence day?

Petrit Bejdoni: I am from Gjakova, but I was in Pristina that day because I live and work here. But that day I was here and watched it on television. I was young during the war and being from a city such as Gjakova, which was very destroyed and on which the war had a great impact, was really a mixed feeling. We honestly weren’t happy, we knew it wouldn’t be all flowers the next day. There was a mess in the city, like all the other times  when usually a mess is  created even for the slightest thing, weddings and car sirens, unnecessary celebrations in some cases, and necessary in some others, because in a situation where people lack celebrations, that’s how they express it. So, I was in Pristina and watched it on television.

Aurela Kadriu: Can you tell us more about what you felt that day, what you did after it was declared, do you remember, what did you think about?

Petrit Bejdoni: Somehow more or less it was a similar feeling to the one we had when NATO intervened, is it over now, will it get better tomorrow, what is happening? Historical moments that took place at that time would always make you recall war memories and the sufferings we went through. As a little child, not fully aware, but with a perception of my own about the war, and they bring back those memories so you don’t know whether to be happy, sad, will it get better tomorrow when we wake up in the morning, what will happen after its signing? But being accessible and being active. As an active youth working in various NGOs, we knew and we weren’t happy, we knew that nothing will happen the next day, we will continue with the same routine, tomorrow we will have the same state leaders, tomorrow we will have the same problems, only more emphasized. So, we were happy in a fake way… I even remember I went out with my friends to celebrate in the evening, we went out more because of the pressure that everybody was going out, not that we felt like celebrating much… because in our subconscious, we knew that nothing will happen tomorrow and we will have the same problems.

Aurela Kadriu: Thank you very much!

Petrit Bejdoni: Thank you!

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