For immediate release!

 During the June 15, 2013 meeting, the Board of Directors approved the following:

As the scheduled elections for 23 June are critical to the country’s near and long term future and for democratic institutions in Albania, VATRA calls on the people of Albanian to get out and vote en masse in the upcoming elections; to exercise their civic duty to vote peacefully and express their free will. Show the democratic world, of which we aspire to be part of, that we belong fully integrated in the European Union;

VATRA, as a patriotic organization that is intimately connected to Albania’s destiny and its long history of anti-communism, calls on the people of Albania to vote against any derivative form of the communist party, which is a real threat to the future of a fragile Albanian democracy;

Vote against reinstalling the dictator’s statue in the squares of Albania’s cities; such an act is an insult to the recent memory of the Albanian citizens and a provocation that jeopardizes stability in the country;

Vote against sham courts that decide the fate for the politically persecuted; don’t trust false promises passed down by communists that can only be realized through violence and tyranny;

VATRA reminds the Albanian people that the age of the second national renaissance actually began in December of 1990 with the overthrow of the enverist dictatorship, whereas the unification of the four original communist parties in November 1941 is not the renaissance of the Albanian people but of 8 November.

VATRA calls on the Albanian people, to not vote for political forces that do not distance themselves from and do not break ties with the “8 November renaissance”; instead  vote only for those which are against returning communists to power, that are for integration and democratic progress. Remember that the road to a bright future cannot be paved with banners and images from the past totalitarian regime.

Albanians, vote today, tomorrow may be too late!