Part One
Aurela Kadriu: Can you introduce yourself and tell us some of your early childhood memories, so your family background and whatever you remember from your childhood?
Edita Tahiri: I am Edita Tahiri. I come from Prizren. Known for my work as a politician, diplomat, negotiator, as well as one of the main leaders of the Movement for Independence. At that time, the Democratic League of Kosovo as a Peaceful Movement for Independence, and my entire life journey was a commitment to the national cause, for the independence and freedom of Kosovo. But there were periods of time when I also devoted myself to academic life doing my education at Harvard, then my doctorate at Johns Hopkins and the University of Prishtina.
I got a master’s at the University of Essex as well, and at the University of Prishtina I studied at the Faculty of Electronics. And the rest, since Harvard and the rest, were connected to my master’s and doctoral studies in political science. I have lived in Prishtina since I was elected chairwoman of the Democratic League of Kosovo in 1991. Before that I lived in Prizren, except for when I studied in Pristina and in Britain, Essex.
Aurela Kadriu: What was your childhood like in Prizren and your family background, what family do you come from?
Edita Tahiri: My childhood was quite difficult as well as my whole family’s, because I come from a patriotic family. My father was one of the main activists of the illegal movement known as the National Democratic Movement, whose goal was to unite Kosovo with Albania. And due to his political activism he was imprisoned during the Ranković regime, it was a very difficult period, where Albanians were oppressed and persecuted in the most severe ways due to the commitments to the rights of Albanians and the commitments of national unity.
He was in prison for five years, sentenced nine years, it was the time I had just been born, when he went to prison I was eleven months old. When he came back, I was six years old. And that family situation was such that my mother had no means to take care of us, she had to work to ensure the family’s survival, but she also had to take care of my father in prison. For me, I defined it as an imprisoned childhood, because that period was all about that tragedy, but also about our pride, because my mother taught us to be proud when we go to school or when we are in social circles.
[She would say] Because, “Your father is in prison for good things, for the nation and you should be proud and not feel bad.” Despite the socio-political context at that time, it was that most were not committed to the national cause, patriotic families or patriotic individuals were few. So, we belonged to this patriotic minority and the others in a way came to terms with the communist system and with the fact of the division of the Albanian nation. This was not accepted by my parents, but then it also became our cause, for the children of this family.
So, we deeply understood the division of the Albanian nation, we deeply understood the injustice and where did this injustice come from that happened to the Albanians living in four – five countries due to the decisions of that time of some great powers, which was then exploited by Serbia and Yugoslavia to oppress and leave the Albanians as backward as possible. However, it is important that when living in a family with a patriotic spirit, you have your ideals in life, you have your life purpose. Not because I was immediately involved in politics, but that patriotic inspiration lived within me.
Also, Prizren as the capital of Albania gave us an additional inspiration, because as children we often visited [The League of Prizren]. So this is the context in which I grew up as a child. I was an excellent student, in all stages, both elementary school and high school. From the descriptions that the family gives, they say that I was wise and polite. And then when I became involved as one of the founders of the Democratic League in Prizren, opposing the Serbian occupation, even to our family it seemed somewhat like an energy or an internal force that grew inside me expressing itself through this direct commitment towards the establishment [of LDK]. And then soon after I became part of the leadership of the Democratic League.
I was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo for ten years from ‘91 until 2000. After Kosovo was liberated, then came the UNMIK [United Nations Missions in Kosovo] institutions, but until then I acted as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The reason why I was appointed to this position was not that I had any political or diplomatic experience, but as they explained from the presidency of the Democratic League, it was because firstly I came from a patriotic family, nationally formed, patriotic. Secondly, I was educated in the west and spoke fluent English, because as I told you, after studying at the University of Prishtina, I got a master’s degree in electronics and telecommunications in Great Britain at the University of Essex.
So I had a {opens her arms} a background [speaks English] that gave me the opportunity to get involved in the diplomacy of Kosovo. It was a very important period because the activity took place in Kosovo and my activity was divided into two parts. In Kosovo together with the entire leadership and president of the LDK [Democratic League of Kosovo], Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, we worked in preserving the resistance, the spirit, the resistance of the people through organization of the society. Practically, the Democratic League of Kosovo as a movement for independence was successful in the sense that it organized the [parallel] institutions in the circumstances of occupation. Also another strategic initiative that we had was the internationalization of Kosovo’s case and in this task I was mainly responsible as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
I can also say that political-diplomatic engagements gave me the opportunity to do something that I had not planned at all as a life mission, to be in the service of the nation, liberation, independence, these became my primary commitments and to this day. So, these 30 years all my commitment and dedication is connected to the Albanian nation, to the state of Kosovo, to make our nation as strong as possible, to make Kosovo a state as strong as possible internationally, fully accepted and an Euro-Atlantic state. Where Western values, our values as an ancient and European nation converge and therefore are integrated in this Euro-Atlantic community.
Aurela Kadriu: I would want to go back to Prizren once more, you mentioned that your father was politically involved, I would want you to tell us more about elementary and high school, but also tell us more about how your father’s involvement reflected on your life, so in school and in general?
Edita Tahiri: I finished primary school near my house, at that time it was called 17 Nëntori School. While in high school I attended the gymnasium. Regarding the influences that the family or the nation was under, my father, although tortured in the prisons of Serbia, in Sremska Mitrovica as one of the worst prisons, he did not want to dictate our political leanings. Besides, he drew a red line, he did not allow us to become members of the Communist Party, because he was a democrat, he was committed to democratic values. And because he thought, and I think he was right, that communism was in the service of Slavic interests and we Albanians suffered from such a system. So, that was the reason why I never joined the Communist Party.
On the other hand I did not join the Ilegale movement as my older sister did for example. It is not because our father intended to discourage us from underground activism and dangers that come with it, but rather he wanted us to be aware that if we commit to political activism, we should know the consequences that follow because he has suffered. From a well-known figure in the city of Prizren, from a leadership position, when he came out of prison he was mentally ill. And I and everyone else lived with a father who for ten years refused to sit with us at the lunch table. He lived in a house prison because his psycho-social condition was terribly damaged.
Not to mention that he rarely talked about his tortures, but when we grew up we insisted. I insisted when I turned 18, I said, “Now is the time to know more of tortures you underwent.” I can say that torture has gone as far as electric shock. So the forms of torture used by Serbia and Serbian structures against Albanians were severe. And practically all his story, but also his attitude was an inspiration to me, because he said, “Whoever is in the prisons of Serbia should not be accused if they betray a friend or collaborator.” But, as he would he say, “I could not do it, therefore the torture against me was greater.”
And it is true that at the time when my father and his friends were imprisoned, no one was imprisoned after my father because he stopped it, so he managed not to give out the names of his friends, and that was a great value. But, I believe that it has influenced our and my personality, in a way, whatever work you do but especially commitment to the national cause, do it with principles and values and with honesty as such as the nation and society deserves. Especially for the fact that we, Albanians, have had a tragic fate. This tragic fate of the nation’s separation was directly reflected in my household, because my mother was from Albania and she got married to my father during the Second World War and the border was immediately closed [after the war].
You probably know the story that Albanians from Kosovo during the Second World War did not want to fight against the German and Italian occupation, because at that time we practically united as a nation. Schools in Albanian language were opened, a perspective opened up. But in the end, in the last period of the war, there was an offer from other nations of the former Yugoslavia to recognize our right to self-determination if we were to take part in the war. It was this event known as the Bujan Conference, which adopted a resolution allowing Kosovo to join Albania after the end of the Second World War.
However, immediately after the war ended, the betrayals of the communist structures and the Assembly of Prizren began, so the parliament of… excuse me, the Parliament of Kosovo, the Assembly of Kosovo declared a union by force with Yugoslavia and Serbia as part of the same package. So we were again forced to remain under the domination and oppression of Yugoslavia but mostly executed by Serbian policies. So I wanted to tell you that my father did not prefer to influence our commitment to the national cause, but his own tragic story, his own vision and commitment to the nation, I believe became an inspiration for us, and for me since every day as a child and as an adult I have faced the fact of the nation’s separation.
Because my mother tried for forty years to go to Albania and meet her family. As you know, we had an Albanian Berlin Wall between us. She died without meeting her family and I lived in an environment where my mother almost every morning either woke up with a dream that she went to Albania or with a dream that she met her mother and brother. So this was a very particular childhood I had. On the one hand my father was in prison for his commitment to the national cause, on the other hand my mother was in a constant longing due to the nation’s tragic separation. And when I started my political engagement in the years ‘88-‘89, only later have I analyzed these circumstances, so the family and national circumstances influenced that at a certain moment I set out to work for national aspirations.
Aurela Kadriu: It seemed very interesting to me that your sister was in the Ilegale, do you have any stories that she has told you, what was it like for you…
Edita Tahiri: My older sister was a student at the High Pedagogical School in Prizren, studying mathematics. And those high school students joined an underground group, as they did all over Kosovo. These are the students of the 1968 demonstrations.
Aurela Kadriu: Aha.
Edita Tahiri: So, my sister was one of the main figures, they were held all over Kosovo, in Prizren when the [Albanian national] flag was raised… even though, since we are talking about this, let me tell a story about myself at that time. At the time they were preparing to raise the flag, student meetings were usually held in our house and they needed to sew the edges of the flag, they had the flag but its edges weren’t sown. And I was around twelve years old, and they asked me to take it to the tailor. I immediately accepted, I accepted and I went there. The tailor was the mother of one of those who were part of the ‘68 group and when the job was done, I came back, I handed it over to them.
Now when they were ready to go to the League of Prizren to raise the flag, I asked to go with them and my sister and the others told me, “No, no, you are too young, you cannot come.” So I said (laughs), “I was not young to take the flag” {points left}, because I had to go through the city, “So I did that and I want to be there.” So they took me with them. So, since then I have been indirectly involved in these events and practically some of my sister’s friends and collaborators have been imprisoned, and after that my sister was vocal about the need to increase the intensity of the political engagement as something recommended by her friends in prison.
Aurela Kadriu: Do you remember in more detail when you gathered to go there?
Edita Tahiri: We were all there, my older sister Shyhretja, then the sister with whom I live here Myfidja, we were all there. I also remember that before we went to the League of Prizren, there was a parade with the Albanian flag on all the main streets of Prizren. Then we ended up at the League of Prizren and two of the students managed to put it on the pole {points up} to the League of Prizren and at the moment when the flag started to fly the police immediately intervened, beat and arrested several people.
However, the effect of that event was very great in Prizren. So, they were the first sparks of a new movement, because Albanians since the nation’s tragic separation at the London Conference in 1913, have organized in different movements and sought self-determination, freedom and independence. And this event and the student’s political commitment… In it were reflected all the movements of all the generations, including the Democratic League as a peaceful movement and the Kosovo Liberation Army as an armed movement and many others known to our history.
Aurela Kadriu: Which year did you come to Pristina to study?
Edita Tahiri: I started my studies in 1974, after graduating from high school I studied, as I told you earlier, at the Technical Faculty, the Department of Electronics with Telecommunications. A field that was not my first choice. Here, too, I want to share an important event. I was always interested in studying psychology, the reason being, I was very eager to understand my father’s state of mind and the damage that the Serbian prison had done to him. Because at that time there was no Department of Psychology at the University of Prishtina, there was a department in Zagreb and other cities. And, since my family did not have the financial means to invest in my studies, I was forced to change my field of study.
At that time electronics seemed like a modern field, Kosovo was far from any technological development, but it was more of a trend than a designation. And, since I always felt this unfulfilled desire to study psychology, then in parallel I constantly read literature on psychology, psychoanalysis. I have read almost all known psychoanalysts and their works. In the coming days I will bring my personal library from Prizren, since I finally moved to my apartment after 30 years of work for Kosovo and the nation.
Why did I do the reading? I was not studying but attentively reading to be able to… to understand a bit my father’s inner world, but also that of other Albanians, not only the ones who were in prisons but also of those that disappeared, who were killed and tortured, and how that national tragedy was reflected in the Albanian nation. However, initially, my main motivation was to understand my father’s fate. Even though he didn’t bring attention to his condition, he had… even though he isolated himself from the rest, he held his pride. When he decided to meet us, I’m talking about the first ten years [after prison], because later he rehabilitated. If he decided to meet us in the hallway or in the living room, he had a pride which reflected strength, and I liked that.
For that reason, seeing all that suffering… and on the other hand he had a very dignified attitude, and my studies or active readings I would say in psychoanalysis helped me in a way to achieve this life desire, not to let it fade away, but accomplish it. So I successfully completed the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications. I was a good student, and even later as a teacher of these subjects I wrote the first book in Albanian, the book Electronics for high schools. This also had a patriotic incentive, because when I started teaching in Prizren in the technical school, it was the time of the student demonstrations of ‘81, I graduated in 1980, I started teaching in ‘81.
And some of my students were arrested, so we had to confront a new reality, and that year in September, assigning the reading materials to my students on the board, on the spot I had the thought, why are there always books in Serbo-Croatian? So I did not have a book to recommend in Albanian. But also the relations with Albania, the border was closed, we could not get books from Albania because there were books written in Albanian or translated and this was the moment when I decided (laughs), “I will remove one of these books in this language,” and for several years I worked on that book, then it was published by the Kosovo Schoolbook Bureau.
So I chose the field of electrical engineering and telecommunications and was committed to it. I also went to study in Great Britain at the University of Essex. I got a master’s degree in this field, in digital telecommunications, which was also very far from the realities and level of development of Kosovo. But it was a commitment that in the future I could contribute to, in the field of telecommunications in Kosovo. However, my life changed from ‘88, ‘89 when I became politically engaged. And then I also studied Political Science and International Relations.
[Video stops]
Aurela Kadriu: Did you confront your father about the reason for his isolation from his family, as an adult or after all your readings?
Edita Tahiri: As I told you he was isolated long after prison, some part of the time he came to the living room was when he listened to Voice of America on the radio, then quickly watched television because my mother bought a television that my father to be able to, to communicate at least through television. And, at the time when he came to listen to the news we would ask him why he is so dedicated to hear out the news, what’s happening? About such issues he was more open, so he spoke about politics, what should happen to Albanians, how the West will engage, especially the USA. And he practically would show a degree of optimism that one day we will overcome the issue of nation’s separation, we will have political agency to achieve our national aspirations.
However, he would shut down all the questions concerning his experience in prison. There were a few moments that I managed to encourage him to vent out, and usually this has happened when we went on summer vacation. At that time the main destination was Ulqin, an Albanian environment and he relaxed. There, I had the opportunity to talk about these topics. Especially when he went to swim, I noticed a mark, a hole here in the back {points with her hand} and from there his story began. I said, “What is this?” “No, no…” he minimized it. Then he began his testimony, that during the tortures he had endured {touches her back} he was injured and had to undergo surgery {she pretends to sew something by hand} to close the wound, because of the lashings that happened.
And I remember at that time, not only a summer, but for a few summers he talked about his political activity, he talked about the movement in which even his cousin was involved. He was the main leader for the area of Prizren and Kukës and he went missing, to this day we don’t know his whereabouts. He told me about their activities and in particular about a secret operation to bring some American paratroopers (smiles) who at that time wanted to observe closely the situation of Albanians on this side of the border but also in Albania. He then said that they had managed to establish a radio link with which they had maintained Kosovo-Albania communication, in order to form a military resistance to liberate Kosovo from Yugoslavia and to join Albania.
He also told me a very interesting case, one of his friends who had come down from the mountain to see his family, and at that time the Yugoslav Secret Services found out and went to his home to catch him. He had a shelter room and he entered into that shelter and {holds her fist close to her chest} killed himself, he had a bomb with him. He always brought up these cases. He also mentioned the friends he had in prison, with whom he had great relations, especially a friend from Rahovec. While my father was in prison we would spend the summer with them. The reason was that they wanted to help my mother survive the economic hardship, because our means were very limited. He also spoke about moments of torture, he singled out this electric method, due to which he lost conscious for two weeks. There may have been medical treatments but only after two weeks he regained consciousness.
Aurela Kadriu: How was this reflected in your mother, she had to take care of you on her own?
Edita Tahiri: Mother was always busy, she had two jobs. Before noon she worked at the textile factory, she got that job after my father was imprisoned, and since my father did not betray his friends, all of them were free and so they made efforts to find a job for my mother. And my mother had to become a tailor, she took a course and became a tailor. So, in the first half of the day, she had an eight-hour shift, and then she worked at home. So, she was busy making sure we survived. But what I appreciated her for, is her commitment to our education. Too much, so that when we had to study, she would never interrupt us because of house chores.
She also talked about her family in Albania which was also persecuted, all six uncles and two aunts there. Meanwhile, my grandfather was the mayor of Kukës and since one of the uncles was against the regime of Enver Hoxha, he ended up with life imprisonment. He was released from prison only when the democratic changes took place in Albania and practically she said that all her brothers were educated and she wanted us to be educated too, because she would say this, “The nation cannot move forward without education.” She did not bother us much, but there were times when she told stories about dreams or when she missed her family, she certainly could not hold back her tears.
I remember how she always sang songs of exile (smiles). Well, that was my mother. Also, mother was known as one of the strongest women of Prizren, because… I don’t know if you are aware of this, but at that time, the Serbo-Slavic regime not only would imprison Albanian patriots, but had a tendency to abuse their spouses. So, I remember her saying, “Whenever I go to prison I have a pair of scissors in my bag.” As a tailor, they were her working tools {pretends to hold a pair of scissors in her hands}. “I have my scissors in my bag in case someone attempts something.” And this behavior of hers showed great strength of character, moral strength, and that turned her into a Prizren icon. So, whenever the most powerful women of Prizren are talked about, my mother is among them.
So there was real resilience, not only individual but also national. She told us, as a child I didn’t remember, my brothers and sisters I think remember the raids that took place after my father was imprisoned. And he told me that when she came as a bride, she had the Albanian flag in her pocket and said that, “We had to find a way so that this flag does not fall into the hands of Serbian police.” And, then she tore off the flag that was made of gold so that they would not identify it and destroy it. There are many other life stories related to the role of my mother, but also the role of father in my upbringing.
Aurela Kadriu: Did you visit him while he was in prison?
Edita Tahiri: Yes, yes, we… my mother would go to Sremska Mitrovica every month. Some women would go (smiles), there were some patriotic men who were in prison at the time and they all went together. They went by train from Prizren to Belgrade and then continued, I don’t remember, I think by bus. And I went there, so did my siblings, we went in turns. My father told me that he was touched when we met, he took me in his arms and hugged me. I moved away {she moves her hands towards herself} I said to him, “Who are you? You are not my father!” And, he then constantly mentioned this to me and he was very touched after he returned to his prison cell. I remember a little bit but they told me the story, I was one or two years old then.
I also remember when he came back, some news came out and he sent a letter that he might get released ahead of time, so before his sentence was over, and that morning my mother got up to go to work and told us all that, “Your father might come back today.” And we had a, I mean a special feeling, joy and sadness mixed together. So the joy that he is coming back, the sadness of why he had to be there, and I remember it was before I started going to school, I was waiting in the neighborhood and a family in the neighborhood who were constantly taking care of me, since my mother was at work, I grew up there {points to the floor} Nushi family, childhood… and that day they said to me, “Why aren’t you coming today?” My mother would go to work, I would go there. I said, “No, today I am waiting for my father.” They told me about it, but I also remember it myself. All the time I was waiting outside until he came… (cries). I can’t talk anymore about this because I get emotional {drinks water}. I never talked, I haven’t talked about these things for a long time…
Aurela Kadriu: Do you want to rest for a while?
Edita Tahiri: I don’t want to talk about my mother, I will get more emotional. Once we went to the [Kosovo-Albanian] border, I’ll finish it then maybe I’ll calm down. We went to the border, we were here {points at herself} my mother and brothers went that way, on both sides of the border, and my mother was talking to the [Kosovo] border guard, her mother was talking to the Albanian border guard, I mean it was guarded. Then my grandmother after that moment when she went home she got paralyzed and spent her whole life paralyzed. Life is very interesting, not only mine, but my life was very specific. But many Albanians had tragedies like this happened to them. I do not want to magnify it, but ours was like that.
Aurela Kadriu: What was it like for you to be a student in ‘74, the University was founded in ‘74?
Edita Tahiri: The University of Prishtina was our greatest national achievement, because all the intentions of the Serb-Yugoslav structures that were lined up against the Albanians were against the University of Prishtina. Known Serbian slogans at that time said that Albanians should not have a university because then we can’t stop their demands to join Albania, they will grow, will develop, will be empowered. But really the University is probably the beginning or the basis of the independence we have today, because without an educated nation we could not progress.
When I came to Prishtina, it was the time when Kosovo’s political status advanced, it had [an almost] federal status and the situation was a little better than during the Ranković regime, or other time periods. But in general, those who looked at the political position of Albanians more thoroughly, it was never good. We were constantly exposed to imprisonment, discrimination, inability to access international education and so on. So we began to see the light (smiles) in the long tunnel of Albanians on this side of the border.
Aurela Kadriu: What can you tell us about student life, what was it like for you, you came from Prizren to Pristina as a young adult?
Edita Tahiri: Yes, yes. First, Prizren is very beautiful, it is an inspiring civilized environment with a lot of national cultural heritage. So, it takes a great power to leave Prizren, it is a challenge, it is not easy to leave. However, Pristina was the center of education, it was a student world and for me it was all a novelty. Although I was disappointed by not being able to study psychology in Zagreb, I nevertheless began to get into sciences I chose, so telecoms and electronics and I built many friendships. Being a person who didn’t prefer electronics, but preferred more social sciences, I built my friendships in a way that I spent the period of studies with college colleagues, but the rest I was usually in the company of artists and painters.
So, in a way I had the two components that gave me the ability to fulfill how I was feeling inside. So, the studies were not easy. I studied for five years and showed commitment to my studies, I collaborated with colleagues, I would say I have put in all the work to receive my degree. I told you that my mother wanted us to have an education, and this instilled in me that desire to have an education. While on the other hand, the socializing part and having fun (smiles) happened with my friends who were either artists or painters, most of them were painters, sculptors. So, it was a good life.
Aurela Kadriu: Did you live in the dormitory?
Edita Tahiri: Yes, I lived in the dormitory…
Aurela Kadriu: Do you have any memories?
Edita Tahiri: …most of the time.
Aurela Kadriu: Do you have any instances that you remember from life in dormitories?
Edita Tahiri: I’ll tell you the first, every time I went to live in a dorm room it wasn’t very clean and I would paint the room. I would take all the equipment, I am not very hardworking in this sense (laughs). But the rooms were dirty and I could not stand that situation. So, every year the first thing I did was, I took the keys {pretends to unlock the door} and painted. I had roommates, they were surprised, I told them, “Just leave the room, I will do it,” That was it. Secondly, there was the problem with water, we could not use water every day and this was a problem especially when it came to hygiene.
Then keeping order, or running to keep order, who first, who… There were some challenges, they were beautiful but also difficult for life. There was a life… the dormitories I lived in also had some libraries, so a hall where you could go to read. Then came the parties, the socializing, the creation of new friendships. For example, in the dormitory I met a friend who has been my friend for forty years, from Tetovo. So we met there and our friendship has developed for forty years now, and not just between me and her, but between my sister, between my family and her family. She was the daughter of the famous writer Murat Isaku, Luljeta.
Aurela Kadriu: Maybe we can talk a little more about you, you came from a patriotic family, I think that Pristina was culturally and ethnically mixed, whether there were contact between you, between Serbian colleagues, I believe there were, were there Serbians who studied here?
Edita Tahiri: I think there were, but I don’t remember if we had contact, I don’t remember, maybe… I can’t explain why we didn’t interact. But life at the Technical Faculty was very dynamic, many exams, many tasks and we always met only those who were more open to meet. So group colleagues, those who had the opportunity to discuss studies with, so I don’t remember contacts and I can’t explain whether it was a matter of nationalism or because life was very dynamic, student life, and there was no interest in these things.
Aurela Kadriu: Were there any activism in this period in which you were involved in any form?
Edita Tahiri: No.
Aurela Kadriu: It was a period…
Edita Tahiri: It was a period of my studies, I didn’t engage, then when the demonstrations of ‘81 took place I had finished my studies because I graduated in December 1980. So, I did not belong to these eventual structures.
Aurela Kadriu: What was it like when you returned from studies in Prizren, I am talking in terms of the political context and how was it reflected in you?
Edita Tahiri: When I returned to Prizren, I decided to work in education and not in production, because my profession led me to industry and production. I preferred education more and as soon as I started in January 1981, the movements towards the March demonstrations started. The demonstration took place in Prizren as well as in Pristina, it became the main event of developments in Kosovo and there was interference from the secret services of the Communist Party and some of my students were arrested. There I had an extremely sharp reaction, which is probably the beginnings of my patriotism, which was formed in me but was not manifested. SeveralCommunist meetings were held in collectives, they were also held in the technical schools and they demanded that teachers distance themselves from the demonstrations. Not only did I not distance myself, but I gave a harsh criticism for the students who were innocently arrested.
So, that is where the first divisions started, I remember the principal was scared after the meeting, as if he wanted to discuss with so I would be more calm, and I reacted that, “Not only me as a teacher, but you are the principal and you should be the first to protect the students, then come the others.” But I told him, “Here we, our paths separate. I have a different orientation, a different story and a different commitment, but be careful because in the long run in history you may be on the wrong side.” I remember this conversation. What did I do for those students, since they kept them in prison for two months, for two initials KR, people were imprisoned at that time, “Kosovo Republic.” I made it happen that when they returned, they were able to graduate with their generation, and I created all the opportunities for them, I convinced my colleague teachers to provide them with private exams.
