During an interview for Euronews Albania, journalist Blendi Fevziu gave an account of his memories from the fall of the communist system in 1990, when students came out and protested against the regime.

Fevziu said that he remembers the day in every detail, admitting that he felt great fear, even describing his legs as shaking when he realized that students were now standing up against the brutal communist regime.

“I remember that day in tremendous detail. When I approached the student campus, I saw the freshman girls from the literature and foreign languages faculty who told me that a demonstration was taking place. I heard the voices. At this moment I took a few more steps to approach the group and a line of soldiers suddenly erected right in front of me. It was the first moment I felt the fear, the most evident fear, my knees started shaking as I asked myself, what about now? Soldiers blocked the road. When I went to the part where the crowd was coming in, I saw somewhere in the first row the quietest guy in our class, his voice had never been heard. I was shocked, he was the first one up there together with Azem Hajdari, with their arms around their shoulders. They were determined; then I saw some of my friends like Ben Blushi and we got stuck at the Lyceum. That was the last moment of a great fear”, he said in an interview for Euronews Albania.

National Youth Day is celebrated today in Albania.

On December 8, 1990, a group of students and lecturers of the University of Tirana became the initiators and protagonists of one of the greatest turning points in Albanian history, the peaceful protests that brought about the fall of the communist system and the birth of democracy.

With the phrase “We want Albania like the rest of Europe”, the young people asked for the establishment of a system of Western values ​​and the rule of law; integration in Europe as well as a guarantee for political pluralism as the main basis for a free and democratic society. Their resistance ended the long era of self-isolation, paving the way for the market economy and an open society.