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DR. VJOSA OSMANI SADRIU
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO
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President Osmani's address on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka

Honourable Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Konjufca
Honourable Prime Minister, Mr. Kurti
Honourable Deputy Prime Minister Gërvalla
Dear Gërvalla family
Dear Zeka family
Honourable members of parliament and ministers,
Dear friends of the two families of our national heroes
Distinguished guests
 
Each time has its own heroes and each nation bows to them. Heroes are ordinary people who show extraordinary bravery and prudence in difficult, unsafe and threatening periods.

They do not make calculations but choose to fight for the highest of ideals above personal interest.

They are not created by chance, because the path they choose is not random. Their path has a purpose, and the purpose is the cause.

Such were Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka.

Forty years ago, their patriotic activity was violently stopped in an assassination attempt in Untergrupenbah, Germany but they inspired many others after them and continue to inspire today.

All three of our heroes were killed by the Serbian UDB and thus the path of a unifying hurricane was cut short, of the trio which took the care for the homeland with them.

Today I feel proud to be in front of you on this anniversary commemorating these heroes who long ago projected the idea of ​​freedom and the state.

Today we bow before them and we are thankful that their cause today is a reality.

We are proud of this generation of heroes, whose cause continued through the generations and was crowned with the independent state, with our Republic, on February 17th, 2008.

Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri were seasoned with the idea of ​​a Republic of Kosovo. In 1981, Jusuf spoke clearly about its enlivening.

“The people are infallible,” he said. “I, you, the other, may also make mistakes and the people who are being so patient in fulfilling the request for Kosovo to be recognized as a Republic, know without any doubt how far the limits of patience for the status of the Republic extend,” said Jusuf in one of his speeches.

Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri remain the people of sacrifice, resistance and vision for the future of the homeland that they loved so much.

Combining their patriotic and cultural activity in the case of Jusuf, they became the reference of the time for the commitment, dedication and persistence for the idea of ​​Kosovo as a state.

“Their work and deeds left us the freedom we need as we need bread and the spirit of God, and this was carried out by Jusuf Gërvalla. “They paved the way to freedom, while pride for them and their example will be passed down through the generations,” said the historic president Dr. Ibrahim Rugova when the remains of the heroes were brought to Kosovo. 

Therefore, Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri are consistent and have survived many situations and many developments.

Not by chance, our heroes had perfectly combined the cultural activity with patriotic one.

As patriots, they were clear that freedom is not just an individual concept, so with all their being, they tried throughout the years of activity to achieve the goal of national liberation, for which there is no price, and for which they paid with their lives.

In correspondence with his fellow prisoners, Jusuf testifies that all three inwardly had faith in freedom, so he never hesitated to reveal it.

“The future is ours.”Freedom is coming,” he said.
 
Today, as we remember Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri, we have the opportunity to reflect on the difficult path that our people have gone through until they became a state.

This road was arduous but also glorious. These people are insurgents, heroes, but also inspirers, whose cause was clear, namely the creation of our state.

The fate of Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri is mixed with that of Kosovo. They were forced to leave Kosovo, but always kept in mind the country, which lacked freedom.

This year we commemorate the 40th anniversary of their assassination, whose patriotic and cultural hurricane was interrupted by the assassination, leaving behind significant names whose meaning fills every anniversary.

Perhaps the three heroes never imagined that they would leave this world on the day of the death of the national hero Gjergj Kastrioti, who was their continuous inspiration, but also ours.

The assassination of Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri was a great blow to the activity of our diaspora, which since then has not stopped for a moment to serve the homeland in all possible ways.

Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri are evidence of the valuable contribution that this diaspora has given to our state.

All three heroes perished with longing for Kosovo. Jusuf in a letter to mother Ajshe, in 1980, quoted the words she had said to them as children: The path of honour is the most difficult, but the best and the only true path for man. Whoever strived for honour, found honour! ”

Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri walked exactly on this path, the path of honour, difficult, but also easy, easy because they each remained faithful to the honour.

And in his letter, he encourages mother Ajshe not to give up.

“Finally, he says, but do not give up in this difficult time mother, you will take your last brave step, to make you like all those brave and noble Albanian mothers who, when, “the homeland asked for help, they did not spare their sons and they did not shed tears over the lives of their sons and they sang when the cuckoos cried,” he wrote to his mother.

And exactly the mother, the house and the birthplace, are the ones to whom the heroes bow to, as it is said in the verses of the poem “I will return”:
 
Come back quick you told me
Because the worries have overwhelmed me
Your friends await at a grave under the linden tree
Your fathers' testaments,
Many a springs and autumns have passed by, mother
Ever since you evoke a return
If I myself can not
I will tell my son
To spread joy in the fatherland 

Today and forever we will honour the memory of Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri Zeka, because they deserve it because our state bears their stamp.
People like him once enter the history meritoriously and stay there forever!
May the memory of Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka be eternal!

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