An answer to the Minister of Interior of Albania!

2026-07-24 14:47:00, Opinione Mentor Kikia

Mr. Minister!

I read and heard your reaction to the positions I held on Thursday, regarding the protest, violence, and several other incidents.

To my purely civic concern about the violence, its proportionality, and some subsequent police actions, you responded by calling this “an attempt to re-enact the violence, to blame the victim (which in this case is the police) and to spread a smokescreen of “terror”. Of course, there were also your commentators who accused me of being paid by Berisha and foreign agencies to discredit the State Police.

Mr. Minister,

I started this profession in 1993, when you were 6 years old. So, a full 33 years. This entire career, as a journalist of the black chronicle, as an editor and editor-in-chief of media, has taught me to know very well the value of the spoken and written word, so I weigh it a lot before I say it. I weigh it in relation to truth and justice, in relation to the public interest. And, I have no political emotions.

In the name of justice and truth, I wrote about police violence in May 1996, a full 30 years ago, when police officers led by the notorious Agim Shehu beat opposition politicians and people in the streets because they thought they were going to or had been to opposition protests (you were 9 years old and the party that made you a minister was in the opposition).

I suffered for this myself. At that time, there was no Facebook to accuse, but they fell short. They beat me too.

Even further, when the party that made you a minister came to power, I was again a critical, oppositionist, non-political journalist. Even further, when the party that made you a minister went into opposition, I was again a critical, oppositionist, but non-political journalist. Your former colleagues in the Socialist Party, most of whom have now left to make way for your generation, would call me after reading the newspapers in the morning, saying: "Bravo for your courage, you had cried writing, good pen."

The party that made you a minister is now in power, while I have the same courage and the same pen!

And, in the name of justice and truth, I spoke out yesterday when I saw that the citizens who were protesting were wet not with water, but with a liquid that caused irritation and burns to the skin. As to what substance it was, I think you are obliged to give public explanations.

In the name of justice and truth, I reacted to the violence, including the injury of a police officer. Yes, I said that that police officer should not have been at the protest without any means of protection. You call this relativization and victim blaming. Because you refuse to take any responsibility.

No, Mr. Minister!

At a protest, for which you were prepared that there would be clashes, sending police officers with their hands in their pockets and wearing cloth hats is a responsibility. It's like sending police officers on operations to arrest dangerous criminals, without weapons.

It's easy to say that the person who threw the stone is to blame. But if that were the case, the police would be waving chains when confronting the crowds, not wearing protective gear.

Even shooting at the police is prohibited, but during operations, police officers wear bulletproof vests and loaded guns.

Mr. Minister!

I did not spread "smoke and a climate of terror" by sharing a video that was posted online, showing two civilians violently dragging a young man into a car.

I continue to be concerned about how civilians, without identification marks, take citizens on the street by force. You say they are agents of the criminal police. But how is the citizen to know that they are agents and not criminals?

What if criminals come out and take someone hostage, in the same way, in the middle of the street, and witnesses walk away calmly, thinking they are police?

What if that guy they were violently dragging had had a gun and shot you, and then said I reacted in self-defense, what would you do, Mr. Minister? Or would you pay homage and have commentators add your reaction to the network.

Didn't the man who killed the four agents in Durrës say this: I didn't know they were police officers, I thought they were my rivals who wanted to kill me.

As a citizen, I am very concerned that you are not concerned, and even accuse me of spreading terror, because I am concerned by such unprofessional behavior by the police.

No sir!

Citizens cannot be "kidnapped" like this in broad daylight, in the middle of the street, among other citizens. If he had been a dangerous criminal, the agents should have handcuffed him immediately, as they know, without even having a chance to look at him.

I don't know what that guy did. You hinted that he might have thrown stones at the protest. His colleagues showed footage that proved that he was broadcasting the protest live. But I think broadcasting the protest live on the network is more serious than throwing stones.

Mr. Minister!

There have been others before you in that chair. Some are remembered for good, and some are remembered only for their zeal to throw as much tear gas as possible at opposition protesters. For nothing else.

You will probably remember the water with solutions that burned the protesters.

While I will continue to be here, as long as God allows me.

A preacher and fighter for freedom and human rights, a journalist in love with law and truth, a critic and oppositionist, regardless of who is in government.

The day will come when your colleagues will write again: "Bravo, you cried that writing, good luck with your pen".../ CNA