Why do we need to have an official date for the Republic?!

2026-01-31 10:27:00, Opinione Ekrem Spahiu

It has long been requested with irrefutable arguments that the Republic of Albania should be given an official day of creation, and that this day should be January 31, 1925, when Albania was first declared a republic. Due to incompetence of judgment, or ideological prejudices, all governments of all sides have remained deaf and mute: so far, no reference has been made in the State Protocol document.

No commemoration. Consequently, no diplomatic congratulations. It is these incompetences and prejudices that even on the official website of the Parliament, this date has been ignored!

January 11th passed, when exactly 80 years ago Albania was declared a people's republic. No reference in the State Protocol document. No commemoration. No diplomatic congratulations. Even though it was even a jubilee day.

December 28th has also passed, when on this date, 49 years ago, Albania was declared a socialist people's republic. Of course, no one wants to mention it.

Finally, October 21st passed, when on this date, 27 years ago, Albania was declared a parliamentary republic. No reference in the State Protocol document. No commemoration. No diplomatic congratulations. No media remembers it.

Why do we need to have an official date for the Republic?!

So, four “Republics” of Albania, proclaimed by the constitution, but none officially recognized as a historical date! The impartial, but dignified reason for a state, asks us to see in what relationship republican states around the world place themselves with the date of the proclamation of their state as a “Republic”. We see that there is no state in the world that has not decreed the day of the proclamation of the “Republic”, either as a national holiday, or as a historical date. Out of respect for history, our state should also institutionalize such a date.

The "people's" and "people's socialist" republics, with the obvious ideological burden they carry, certainly have no reason to be declared as historical dates. The parliamentary republic proclaimed on October 21, 1998, is absolutely the same institution, the same content as the Albanian Republic proclaimed on January 31, 1925 by the Constituent Assembly.

It is enough to mention that the President of the Republic, elected by that Constituent Assembly, announced a clear political program, fundamentally the same and much better defined than the program of today's governments. On the domestic level, for the first time it was sanctioned that "the army should be placed in defense of the state and national honor" and not of political parties.

Why do we need to have an official date for the Republic?!

According to the government program, the Ministry of War was abolished and in its place a “General Army Command” was created, where the President was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. In the foreign plan it was determined: “We do not want to be the nest of adventurist ideas that disrupt the peace of the state, as well as of neighboring states. We respect the international rights of all states, and we want to be respected in return. In a word, foreign policy will be the protection of the independence and integrity of our state.”

It all started with the drafting of the country's first Constitution, through which Albania was declared a Republic for the first time. The first Constitution was modeled after the American Constitution, and this speaks volumes about the country's Western orientation. Considering the country's long Ottoman heritage, such a transition was both bold and dangerous. But time proved that it was the most necessary solution to preserve Albania's European future.

Meanwhile, a law was drafted regarding parliamentary elections, which was much fairer than the one we apply today. It established a balance in the functioning of parliament, a characteristic of developed countries.

Why do we need to have an official date for the Republic?!

Thus, Albania now had its own state, which would create the conditions for better national cohesion against the dangers and threats that presented themselves to the country in those delicate times and situations. For the first time, Albania created a form of presidential republican regime, based on the best Western models.

This is where the explanation for the immediate support that European chancelleries gave to Zog's government begins. It would be Britain, the great democratic power of the time, which immediately recognized Ahmet Zog's government.

Today, in democracy, the Albanian state has declared in Article 1 of the Constitution that "Albania is a parliamentary republic", but, surprisingly, it does not recognize in the State Protocol the day of its establishment, the First Republic, as an official holiday, a day of commemoration or a marked historical day.

We have a duty, like any dignified nation, to respect history and the stages that have prepared each other, because they are part of the shaping of the state and the nation. And the date January 31, 1925 represents such a stage.

Therefore, it is in the dignity and seriousness of the Albanian Parliament to initiate a special parliamentary procedure on this issue with major national and international repercussions and, with certainty, a historical right of the Albanian state will be restored./ CNA