Dear Mrs. Fanë,
Honored members of the Rugova family,
Honored President Sejdiu,
Honourable ministers, deputies, heads of political parties,
President of the Academy of Sciences,
Mayor of the Municipality of Prishtina,
Dear representatives of all institutions and collaborators of our Historical President,
Honourable attendees and of course, excellencies, ambassadors of amicable countries,
Today, twenty years after the passing of our Historical President Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, we gather together to remember and honor his figure and to mark the moment when the idea of freedom also became a political culture, when resistance became ethics, and when politics was elevated to the level of a historical mission. Today we do not commemorate just a date, but an era that forever changed the course of our history.
No one embodied the phrase “I, your son Kosovo” more deeply and better than President Ibrahim Rugova. He was its son in obedience, in dedication and in sacrifice, connected to his land, to its people and to its values, dedicating his entire life and, as Mrs. Fanë says, “every cell of his” to the construction and defense of the free, independent and democratic state of Kosovo. Gentle in manner, but unwavering in his stance, Rugova gave Kosovo everything and Kosovo returned it with love and eternal glory.
President Rugova’s trinomial: freedom, independence, democracy is a political manifesto and at the same time a profound philosophical and humane concept. For Rugova, freedom was not simply the absence of restrictions, but also the ability of the people to decide on their own destiny and their own orientation, independence was not simply a legal act, but also the realization of a historical right. Meanwhile, democracy was not simply an instrument of power, but a mechanism for dialogue and the realization of fundamental rights and freedoms for all, without distinction. This vision made Rugova not only a political leader, but also a thinker and architect of our state.
In the battle for freedom, for dignity and state, Rugova chose peace not as weakness, but as the highest form of political courage.
For Rugova, freedom of thought was the foundation on which physical freedom was also built.
As early as the 1980s, Rugova raised the question that would become a political ideology: How can the Albanian intellectual experience freedom when the denial of himself, history and social reality is imposed on him? This was the starting point of a political thought that would lead Kosovo towards freedom.
And this was not a rhetorical question. It was free thought and the foundation of our national cause. This is because for Rugova, freedom was not a gift, but a responsibility, and an obligation towards the generations that come after us.
Thus, he raised politics to the level of philosophy, doing it with wisdom and making peace with courage and freedom with responsibility.
Freedom and democracy were guides throughout his life, so pluralism for Rugova was not a compromise, but a guarantee of our own freedom.
At a time when politics was being stripped of its human dimension, Rugova gave it precisely this, gave politics its moral dimension and its human dimension. He transformed politics into a service, bringing it closer to the most universal human values, that of dignity, respect and humanism.
Honourable Rugova family,
Honourable participants,
President Rugova was not only our leader, but also a well-known and extremely respected figure in international politics, and remains so today, a powerful voice at the most important decision-making tables of the democratic world.
The strategist of peace and freedom, used the power of the mind and perseverance to build the state.
He did not need noisy rhetoric. A few words were enough to convey great messages.
From the beginning of his political engagement, President Rugova understood that the freedom of Kosovo was not only an internal issue, but a cause that had to be explained, defended and won in the decision-making centers of the democratic world. Therefore, his pro-Western orientation was not a tactic of the moment, but a deep political and moral conviction.
In December 1994, in Washington, D.C., in front of foreign policy experts and international media, President Rugova spoke clearly about the need for the leading role of the United States of America in resolving the Kosovo issue. He saw Kosovo as a small state, but with an important voice, an open, democratic state and a factor of stability, with a vision that clearly placed our country in the Western family of free nations.
This belief was visionary, because as Rugova himself would say a few years later, thanks to the people of Kosovo who fought for liberation, NATO, the International Community and especially the United States, those early demands became reality and Kosovo became free.
Even during the later stages of institutional consolidation, President Rugova remained with the same orientation. In his speech to the Assembly of Kosovo, on the occasion of his election as President, he clearly and forcefully articulated the future of our country: Kosovo, a free, democratic, independent state, integrated into the European Union, into Euro-Atlantic structures and in special friendly relations with the United States of America as an expression of the political will of its citizens.
This straight political line, this clear orientation is the essence of Rugovism as a state-building policy. Rugova did not seek the West simply as a refuge, but above all as a value. He did not see America and Europe as casual allies, but as strategic and permanent partners in building and preserving peace, democracy, freedom and independence.
Twenty years on following his death, Historical President Dr. Ibrahim Rugova remains not only the architect of independence, but also the guide of Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic orientation. He made this orientation irreversible, transforming it into our state identity.
Kosovo had the historical fate of being led by such a person, prudent, far-sighted and visionary. His name became synonymous with patience, stability and the belief that freedom is won with sacrifice and also with wisdom, consistency, vision and the right alliances.
President Rugova is and remains an example of a statesman who transformed peace into an act of courage, an idea into a state and a word into history.
He belongs not only to the time in which he lived, but to history that continues to walk even today with its own steps. He carried the burden of a denied people upon himself and transformed it into vision and hope, building the state with a strong belief in the most sublime values.
President Rugova, as Father Zef Pllumi said, was “the wisest and the shrewdest of them all”. He was President, worked as President, ended his life as President and will forever remain our Historical President.
Because his departure from life did not in any way interrupt his work, but in fact sealed it forever. Because President Rugova was a political leader and architect of a state spirit, a spirit that united people and gave Kosovo the most dignified face in front of the entire democratic world. With his measured speech, human tolerance and persistence, he raised politics to the level of service and the state to the level of ideal. The history of Kosovo does not summarize his name in a single chapter, because he remains eternally as an idea and as our guiding compass on our Euro-Atlantic journey and in the defense of our free, sovereign, independent and democratic state.
Glory to our Historical President, Dr. Ibrahim Rugova!
May God bless Kosovo, its people and our allies!
Thank you!
