Prizren, March 27, 2025
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, together with the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development, Faton Peci, and the Members of Parliament, Arbër Rexhaj, Artan Abrashi and Arjeta Rexhepi, paid homage and laid fresh flowers in memory of the martyr Vetim Shala, on the 36th anniversary of his fall.
The Prime Minister recalled that in 1989, when Kosovo’s autonomy was abolished, demonstrations broke out throughout Kosovo, especially in Prishtina, during which our young students were killed, including the martyr Vetim Shala, who at that time was a student at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Pristina.
Commemorating the martyrs, the Prime Minister said that they remind us of the price of freedom, the ideal of the martyrs, but also of the path we must follow to strengthen the state, develop the economy, raise the country’s reputation and the well-being of its citizens. He added that no generation of activists should forget other generations of activists and all martyrs are together.
Kosovo is safer today, more democratic and more protected and advanced than ever before, therefore, even in the light of the martyrs’ legacy, we never lose either the will or the light for the path forward for the good of our generation, and of the generations to come, the Prime Minister said in Prizren.
After the tributes, Prime Minister Kurti visited the parents of the martyr Vetim Shala, Ramadan and Nurije Shala.
Full statement by Prime Minister Kurti
Honored guests,
We are gathered here today on the occasion of the 36th anniversary of the heroic fall of the national martyr, Vetim Shala.
Before the demonstrations of 1997-1998, there were the demonstrations of 1988, ’89 and ’90, and before them there were the demonstrations of 1981, and before them there were the demonstrations of 1968. Thus, generations of Albanians have been connected through demonstrations and resistance, and all of this is the history of the armed uprising and liberation war led by the KLA in the years 1998-1999.
36 years ago was the time when the autonomy of Kosovo was abolished, which was called “Constitutional Amendments” voted at that time in the Provincial Assembly on March 23, 1989 and demonstrations broke out all over Kosovo, especially in Prishtina, on which occasion our young people were murdered; students, Ismet, Shukria, Mustafa, Sevdail and Vetim Shala, a student of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Prishtina. So, the foundations of the Republic were laid with the blood of our young men and women, there is the Constitutional Declaration on July 2, 1990, the liberation of Kosovo on June 12, 1999, and then the declaration of independence on February 17, 2008.
No generation of activists should forget other generations of activists and all martyrs are together. By commemorating them, we remind ourselves of both the price of freedom and the ideal of the martyrs, but also of the path we must follow to strengthen the state, develop the economy, raise the reputation of our country and ensure the well-being of all citizens without distinction.
Kosovo is safer today, more democratic, more protected and more advanced than ever before. Therefore, even in the light of the martyrs’ legacy, we never lose our will or the light for the path forward for the good of our generation and the generations to come.
Honor to Vetim Shala and all the martyrs and the fallen of the Albanian nation!
Last modified: March 28, 2025