Three monuments of the National Hero, Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu, were added today to the municipalities of Arbëresh in Calabria; San Sofia, San Basile and Zangarona. In almost every center of Arbëre villages, the bust of the National Hero is raised as a symbol that keeps the Arbër identity alive.

In this context, today’s ceremony of the inauguration of the busts in the three municipalities brought together with the President of the Republic of Albania, Bajram Begaj, Arbëresh residents, local authorities, Albanians of Albania who fled after the 90s, as well as dignitaries from Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Italy.

The President of the Republic of Albania, Bajram Begaj, who presented two busts to the people of Arbëresh, expressed his gratitude to the participants, greeting in particular the young people and children present at this national holiday. “I have come to keep the word I gave you last October, because for among Albanians, the word given is not a myth, but a reality’, said President Begaj during the inaugural ceremony of the bust of Skanderbeg.

“It is the second visit to Calabria and this visit fills me with pride for the fact that all Italian institutions, starting with the president of the Calabria region, the prefects of these communes and all the media have been interested and have promoted everything about Arbër. Undoubtedly, the Arbër project and Albania, now also Kosovo and the Albanians living in North Macedonia or Montenegro, will have a healthy basis to develop their relations.

These relationships wouldn’t be on this day today and wouldn’t develop if you 6 centuries ago had forgotten where you came from, so it’s time to say: thank you all, each and every one of you, and all to the Arbëresh municipalities, what have you done to preserve the Arbëresh language, what have you done to transmit our national identity with our clothes, traditions and culture”.

The head of state emphasized that he will continue to provide his assistance, inspired by the Arbëresh model of valuing and promoting history, which is so important for preserving identity in the face of the challenges of the time.

“The people of Arbëresh really ran away from their hometown, they came here to their new hometown in Italy. They came here and kept their language, clothing, culture, tradition, song and dance with them, they took with them their memory of Skanderbeg, their national identity.

From today, Skanderbeg in this square will no longer be a memory, but will always be a life together with you. Every day you will see his monument so exalted in this work so accomplished”, said President Begaj who advised the young generations, our schools, our teachers and writers to be promoters of national values.

Appreciating the figure of Skanderbeg, as a strategist of the unification that determined the future of our people towards Europe, President Begaj said that even today he is a symbol for all Albanians wherever they are, in the homeland or in the Diaspora.

Meanwhile, in San Basile, the ceremony was accompanied by a photographic exhibition by the artist Vlasov Sulaj on the journey of the Albanian-Calabrian monument made by the sculptor Ardian Pepa.

From Zangarona, after the inauguration of the bust of our National Hero, Gjergj Kastriot, the head of state invited the Arbëresh youth to become ambassadors of the historical, cultural and identity values ​​of Arbër.