Prishtina, 11 August 2026
Acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, attended the official opening of the tenth edition of OriginAL, a two-week educational and cultural programme for young people from the diaspora, organized by GERMIN.
Welcoming them to Kosovo, Prime Minister Kurti spoke about the vital role of the diaspora and its extraordinary and continued contribution. Emphasizing the importance of connecting younger generations in the diaspora with the homeland of their parents and grandparents, he highlighted the opportunities that create programmes such as OriginAL.
“OriginAL was launched in 2022 by GERMIN and the Global Albanians Foundation with a simple but powerful idea: to give young people of the Albanian diaspora the opportunity to discover their own origins, not through inherited stories or DNA research, but through people, places, culture, volunteering and direct experience. To date, 278 young people have gone through this experience. Tonight, you, the 42 participants of the tenth generation, are joining them, bringing the total number of young people who have been part of OriginAL since 2022 to 320,” said the Prime Minister.
Beyond the numbers, he added, the story of this programme is about finding one’s roots, and about friendships that began here and continued across the Atlantic and throughout Europe.
“I hope that after these two weeks you will understand that: roots are not a destination. They are a starting point. What matters is not only which family, city or village you come from. What matters is what you will do with that connection once you have discovered it. Because the greatest legacy we can receive from those who came before us is not the obligation to become like them. It is the responsibility to carry forward what they started. Therefore, to the tenth generation of OriginAL, I say: find your roots, know your history, build your friendships and then build even further upon them.”
Stating that the diaspora is not merely a memory of the homeland, but also a capacity of the homeland—an economic, professional, scientific, cultural and diplomatic capacity—the Prime Minister spoke about the policies, actions and programmes of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo for its citizens abroad.
“Citizen Diplomacy brings knowledge. Enjoy Kosovo program strengthens the connection. Made in Kosova showcases opportunity. Investment Window turns opportunity into investment. In other words: from remittances to investments; from investments to the transfer of knowledge; from summer visits to year-round engagement; from a diaspora abroad to national capacity around the world,” Prime Minister Kurti emphasised.
Full speech by Acting Prime Minister Kurti:
Dear participants of the tenth generation of the OriginAL programme,
Dear Co-Directors of GERMIN, Ms Sihana Bejtullahu and Mr Lirim Krasniqi,
Dear Co-Founders of GERMIN, Ms Liza Gashi and Mr Behar Xharra,
Dear Ms Silke Bellmann, Chargée d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kosovo,
Dear Mr Elvin Guri,
Excellencies, Ambassadors of the Republic of Kosovo,
Dear members of the Board, partners, donors, staff, alumni and guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening, and welcome to Prishtina. It is a pleasure to have you all here together.
For some of you, Kosovo is the birthplace of your parents or grandparents. For others, your family roots are in Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro or the Presheva Valley. You come from different parts of the world, but you bring with you family histories rooted in different areas inhabited by Albanians. And this is precisely where the beauty of OriginAL lies.
This programme does not invite you to find a single root or a single version of Albanian identity. It invites you to discover a history broader than state borders and older than today’s maps. For some of you, this history has been passed down through the Albanian language at home, within your families. For others, through a song, a type of food, or a story told by your grandmother or grandfather.
But the connection to one’s place of origin is not automatically inherited. It has to be discovered. It has to be experienced. And, above all, it has to be built. Because roots are not merely the place from which we come; they are also the place to which we choose to return. And returning does not always mean buying a plane ticket. Sometimes it begins with a question: Who am I? Where do I come from? What connection do I have with this place? And what can I do for it, what can I give back to it? This is precisely what makes roots what they are: we keep returning to them.
This is the power of OriginAL. It does not bring you here to present you with an idealized picture of the past. It brings you here so that you can get to know the place up close: its history and its present, its beauty and its contradictions, its successes and its problems, but above all, its opportunities. Because genuine and lasting belonging is not built on myth. It is built on knowledge.
OriginAL was launched in 2022 by GERMIN and the Global Albanians Foundation with a simple but powerful idea: to give young people of the Albanian diaspora the opportunity to discover their own origins, not through inherited stories or DNA research, but through people, places, culture, volunteering and direct experience.
To date, 278 young people have gone through this experience. Tonight, you, the 42 participants of the tenth generation, are joining them, bringing the total number of young people who have been part of OriginAL since 2022 to 320. But numbers do not tell the whole story. The history of OriginAL lies in the friendships that have begun here and continued across the Atlantic and throughout Europe.
It is found in a young woman who arrived knowing only a few words of Albanian and returned with the desire to learn the language. It is found in a young woman or man who arrived asking: Am I Albanian enough? And left understanding that Albanian identity is not an exam that one has to pass. It is a sense of belonging that is discovered because it is lived, and built because it continues to develop.
Therefore, I want to tell you this: There is not just one way to be Albanian. You may speak Albanian fluently. You may understand it. You may know only a few words. You may be learning it right now. You may have been born in New York, Berlin, Zurich, London, Stockholm, Toronto or Melbourne. None of this makes you any less a part of this history. On the contrary. You are its continuation in another place, however distant, and in the same world. And precisely for this reason, our diaspora cannot be viewed solely through the lens of nostalgia.
The diaspora is not merely a memory of the homeland. The diaspora is a capacity of the homeland. It is an economic, professional, scientific, cultural and diplomatic capacity. Fan Noli, one of the figures who understood early on the power of Albanians living outside the homeland, wrote: “Hold on, Mother, do not be afraid, for you have your sons in America!” Today, a century later, we could expand this thought, this call or saying of his: Hold on, because you have your sons and daughters throughout the world.
For a long time, dear guests, our relationship with the diaspora has been described primarily through remittances, financial transfers to family members, relatives, friends and loved ones. Our gratitude for that contribution is boundless. But our ambition must be much greater than this. We want your generation not merely to be the generation that sends money to Kosovo. We want it to be the generation that brings ideas, knowledge and experience; a generation that creates companies, a generation that connects universities, a generation that brings professors and researchers, a generation that opens doors in international institutions, a generation that invests and works with Kosovo.
Therefore, in recent years, state institutions have begun to change the way they engage with the diaspora, moving from a policy that merely welcomes its contribution towards a policy that seeks to organize, facilitate and multiply that contribution for mutual benefit. We have built this approach through several concrete programmes.
The Citizen Diplomacy Programme was created on the premise that a young professional from the diaspora should not come to Kosovo only for holidays. They can also come to work for Kosovo, bringing to our institutions the experience and expertise they have acquired abroad, as well as their professional work culture and the networks they have built.
So, rather than simply telling our young people: do not forget Kosovo. We say: Come. Work with us. Bring your abilities and skills. Build and advance Kosovo together with us.
Then there is the Enjoy Kosovo program, because a connection with a place is not built only through documents and institutions. It is built by getting to know that place. We want a young person coming from New York, Berlin or London not to know Kosovo only through their grandfather’s home or summer weddings. We want them to know Prizren and Rugova. Art and festivals. Universities and companies. Young people and institutions. Problems and opportunities. We want them to know Kosovo not only as a place they come to for holidays, but as a place where they can work, create and contribute.
Made in Kosova, meanwhile, seeks to show the diaspora and the world that Kosovo is not only the place from which people once left. It is also a place where things are produced, created, exported and invested in today.
And to turn interest into investment, the Diaspora Investment Window has been established through the Kosovo Credit Guarantee Fund, with financing potential of around €100 million for investments by diaspora businesses in Kosovo. Because it is not enough simply to tell the diaspora: invest in Kosovo.
And if we want this connection to survive into the second, third and fourth generations, it cannot rely solely on longing. It must be grounded in opportunity.
This is the logic: Citizen Diplomacy brings knowledge. Enjoy Kosovo program builds the connection.
Made in Kosova presents the opportunity. The Diaspora Investment Window turns opportunity into investment. In other words: from remittances to investments; from investments to knowledge transfer; from summer visits to year-round engagement; from a diaspora abroad to national capacity around the world. And this is why OriginAL has such an important role to play.
Therefore, I would like to thank those among you standing before me today, Ms Liza Gashi and Mr Behar Xharra, co-founders of GERMIN, for an idea planted many years ago: that the Albanian diaspora should not be a spectator of the development of our countries, but a participant in and decision-maker on that development. An organization becomes a true institution precisely when its idea becomes greater than its founders. Therefore, I would also like to thank its leadership, in addition to the organization’s founders, Ms Sihana Bejtullahu and Mr Lirim Krasniqi, the entire GERMIN and OriginAL team, the partners, donors, former participants of this programme, and everyone who is taking this initiative forward, from one generation to the next.
And, above all, I thank our diaspora. Those who, for decades, kept the homeland close to them, even when the homeland was far away. They kept the language alive at home. History alive in their memories. And the homeland in their hearts. But you are a different generation now. Many of your parents and grandparents knew this place through absence. You have the opportunity to know it through presence. Therefore, during these two weeks, do more than take photographs. Ask questions. Listen. Debate. Get to know people.
See Kosovo, Albania and North Macedonia as they are, with their beauty and challenges, with their history and with the future that is still being written. Visit Prekaz and understand the price of freedom. Walk along the cobblestones of Prizren and see the layers of our history. Get to know our institutions, universities, enterprises, cities and mountains.
But, above all: get to know one another. Because ten or twenty years from now, one of you may be a professor at Harvard, another an entrepreneur in Zurich, a doctor in Stockholm, a diplomat in Washington, while someone else may choose to live here.
But if, after OriginAL, you know one another, collaborate and regard this space as part of your responsibility, then we will not have merely a diaspora. We will have a global Albanian network. And this is a transformation we need.
Yesterday’s diaspora helped us survive. Tomorrow’s diaspora must help us develop together. The former kept the homeland alive in our memory. The latter must make it stronger—much stronger—in the world.
Dear young people,
OriginAL is described as a programme for finding your roots. But I hope that after these two weeks you will understand that roots are not a destination. They are a starting point. What matters is not only which family, city or village you come from. What matters is what you will do with that connection once you have discovered it.
Because the greatest legacy we can receive from those who came before us is not the obligation to become like them. It is the responsibility to carry forward what they started. Therefore, to the tenth generation of OriginAL, I say: Find your roots. Know your history. Build your friendships. And then build even further upon them.
Welcome to Kosovo. Welcome to OriginAL. And, above all, welcome to a part of your history that, from tonight onwards, you will no longer have to learn only through what others tell you. Now, you will experience it for yourselves.
Thank you, and I wish you an unforgettable journey.
