Prishtina, June 12, 2026
Honorable Mrs. Albulena Haxhiu, Acting President of the Republic of Kosovo,
Honorable Mr. Bajram Begaj, President of the Republic of Albania,
Honorable Mr. Fatmir Sejdiu, former President of the Republic of Kosovo,
Honorable Members of Parliament, Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Honorable Ambassadors and Representatives of Diplomatic Missions in our country,
Honorable Friends and Collaborators,
Honorable Disabled and Veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army,
Dear Families of the Nation’s Martyrs,
Honorable Leaders and Representatives of State Institutions,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my distinct pleasure, as the Acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, to welcome you to this state reception marking Kosovo’s Liberation Day, on this 27th anniversary.
On the old continent of Europe, where from the ancient philosophers to the modern and postmodern thinkers, freedom has been so deeply and intensely reflected upon, Kosovo stands as an example, a case study, and an encouragement for the relationship of a people with freedom.
Although in the 20th century, as the century of two world wars, the freedom of peoples and countries has been greatly violated and often absent, the fight for Kosovo’s freedom is truly a special chapter in the contemporary history of Europe.
For decades, Kosovo was one of the most ethnically oppressed countries on the continent, where public discrimination and economic exploitation, restrictions on political and cultural rights, and the violation of human freedoms were official norms executed as state crimes.
This was because Kosovo had been invaded and re-invaded several times by Serbia, in 1912, 1918, and then in 1944, and had been incorporated without the will of its majority Albanian population, initially into the first royal Yugoslavia and then into the second communist federal Yugoslavia, both dominated by Belgrade and its hegemonic policies.
Despite the continuous efforts to liberate itself, by generations of men and women who were organized in armed uprisings and in secret political organizations, from 1912 when Kosovo was occupied by Serbia as the then Vilayet of Kosovo until 1989 when Kosovo’s autonomy as a federal province within Yugoslavia was abolished, Kosovo failed to emerge on the political map of Europe as an independent entity in its own right.
It took two world wars and over four decades of the Cold War to bring about the fall of the Berlin Wall, and then another decade of apartheid under the Millosheviq regime, which ruled the third Yugoslavia, for the regional and international circumstances to be created for Kosovo to be liberated. But when the time came for this idea, dozens of other countries of the Western democratic world joined it, which contributed to the liberation of Kosovo, bringing more freedom to Europe.
In the last decade of the last century, gradually, the topic of Kosovo shifted from being an internal problem of the third Yugoslavia, to a national political issue and eventually into an international crisis, which required broad engagement and a sustainable and long-term solution.
Thus, within the span of a single decade, Kosovo was transformed from a backward and underdeveloped province into a country that aspired not only to free itself from fascist Serbia, but also to become an independent democratic republic alongside European democracies. And so, after many united wills in peaceful resistance and armed resistance in our country, we arrive in 1999, namely in the spring of that year, when Kosovo became a high priority issue in the main political and diplomatic chancelleries of the democratic West.
Aiming to stop the ethnic cleansing and genocide that Milosheviq’s Serbia was carrying out against us Albanians in Kosovo, 19 NATO member states undertook a bombing campaign over Yugoslavia, which lasted a full 78 days, from March 24 to June 10, 1999. Called Operation Allied Force, this total commitment of the West to one country had not been seen since the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944. Doing this, they joined our just war, carried out by the Kosovo Liberation Army and the just and noble cause of the Albanian nation for the liberation of Kosovo.
Therefore, June 12, 1999, when the first troops of the KFOR mission entered Kosovo, is not simply the Liberation Day of a country, but also the final act of a historical drama for Europe and the United States of America, during which they stopped and prevented genocide against a people and liberated a country from slavery, paving the way for the declaration of Kosovo’s independence on February 17, 2008 and the democratic state-building of the Republic of Kosovo in the years that followed.
In this sense, the liberation of Kosovo and its state-building represent a story of glory and success for all of Europe and the United States of America. Therefore, this Liberation Day should be celebrated together. The remembrance of this history should likewise be cultivated jointly, among our countries and peoples who believe in shared democratic values and in freedom itself!
Congratulations on the Liberation Day of Kosovo for life and time!
Thank you!