The Pan-Albanian Federation of America VATRA (THE HEARTH)/
April 10, 2016/
P R E S S R E L E A S E/
The Board of Directors of The Pan-Albanian Federation of America VATRA (THE HEARTH), held a meeting today at the organization’s headquarters in New York, where its discussion focused primarily on a reported statement by the Prime Minster of Albania that “Donald Trump is a threat to America and, no doubt, a threat to Albanian-American ties.” According to The New York Times and other media sources, Mr. Rama was speaking at a talk show Thursday evening on Kosovo’s private television channel Klan Kosova, when he said that Trump’s election would bring “major damage” to the U.S. and would also be “a real threat to Albanian-American ties”.
The Prime Minister’s statement was unanimously condemned by the Board Members, as irresponsible and out of touch with reality. Intentionally or not, he interferes in the electoral process of the U.S. He also seems to ignore the fact that the friendly Albanian-American ties were established a long time ago and have been progressively strengthened, especially around the time of World War I, when President Woodrow Wilson saved Albania from further partitioning by the European Allies. The credit goes both ways: on one side, the reputation of Albanian Americans who showed love and loyalty to this Country and intensive lobbying, particularly by Bishop Fan Noli, Faik Konitza and others on behalf of Albania; on the other side, the spirit of democracy and compassion for the small nations and for human rights of the people of the United States. This has been a continuous pattern since its inception over a century ago and it will continue unabatedly for the foreseeable future.
In addition, Mr. Rama should know that the friendship of the United States towards Albania is bipartisan, as it has been demonstrated in the past and in recent times; and Albania is the one who enjoys a greater benefit from its relationship with the United States, not the other way around!
During the dreadful communist rule, the Albanian diaspora in America and elsewhere in the Free World, particularly VATRA, has been the true voice of the Albanian people and has maintained and strengthened friendly ties with the American people, as opposed to the official voice of the communist party that gave birth to the party that Mr. Rama chairs today.
We know that whoever wins the presidential election will maintain strong friendly ties with Albania. At the same time, we want to assure Mr. Trump and other candidates, that the Albanian people everywhere will remain friendly and pro-American as always, regardless of who occupies the White House.
The only threat a Trump presidency would bring to Albania is that of demanding a business like relationhip that would leave no room for Ilir Mehta and Edi Rama to shortchange the Albanian people, to disrespect the Albanian-American diaspora and to disregard Ambassador Donald Lu’s urgings to reign in corription and crime. I would vote for Trump just for that reason. Edi Rama, answering a question by one of the participants at a semiclandestine luncheon meeting in New York, in September of 2015, responded that he did not need the opinions of Albanian-Americans. He relied on the votes of the Albanian people – he said. To paraphrase Trump, I do not want to comment on the intelligence of that statement and on other statements that Edi Rama made recently. I do not want to go there! One thing is sure, Donald Trump does not need Edi Rama’s vote. He counts on the votes of the American people. I have no doubt however that Donald Trump or, for that matter, Hillary Clinton would be better friends of the Albanian people and of the Albanian-America diaspora than Edi Rama could ever aspire to be.