The former president of the USA, Bill Clinton, has been criticized for the recent tensions in the north of Kosovo.
During the ceremony in Tirana, Clinton said that she would never want something like this to happen.
"The Kosovars created those four cities in favor of the Serbs, to give them four more mayors. So I think now they made a mistake. I think it is easy for Albanians in the majority to try to take advantage of the moment to present their argument. But the real thing to do is to stop this nonsense. What major political issue can be advanced by having tension? There are people who live there, they need to have decent government," said Clinton. "Citizens need to be told that you should always vote."
He was welcomed in Tirana by several Kosovar children and young people who bore his name or the name of his wife Hillary.
Clinton was decorated with the "Star of Appreciation" by the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, the highest honor given by the Prime Minister of Albania.
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Clinton has taken the example of Great Britain and Ireland.
He said that he is speechless about the organization that was done to him in Tirana, he said that he will keep it as a "treasure until the end of his life".
He has shown how in New York he lives in an area where there are many Albanians. He has shown that he cannot go by without seeing any Albanians and without talking to them.
"A week before I came here, I saw three excellent Albanian restaurants there, people came out and started telling me my agenda here. They knew more than me," said Clinton.
Clinton had a message for all young people not to be discouraged by what is happening.
"Because these problems are rooted in an impulse that is older than nation states, more ancient than even our religious beliefs. There has always been a fear that the moment we go beyond our kind something bad might happen. We say this while keeping the other away. See these children, the greatest joy in life happens when we open ourselves to the possibility that every single person can receive. I do not know what to say. It is difficult for me to say anything about what was done and said. I did not learn the essential lesson of my life in politics at the university, or during the wave of elections, and in the halls of Government discussions. I learned when I was just a little boy, growing up watching people live their lives," said Clinton.
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He has also shown that he had always dreamed of visiting Albania, which was once isolated.
Clinton also shared an event that he still remembers, when a waiter from Kosovo approached him in a restaurant in the US and thanked him.
"He told me, thanks to you my family is alive. The other people I was with had no idea what was going on. I told you that he was an Albanian from Kosovo. They asked me how I knew. I told him that in New York you can find them everywhere. He got up, talked a little with people, told about his family life, what he had been through," said Clinton.
He also mentioned the case of the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, when after his release from prison and after winning the elections, he saw a little blonde girl and approached her.
"He asked, I know who I am. She said yes, you are Mr. Mandela, my president. Mandela told him, I'm here for a little while, but if you study hard and if you learn a lot, and if our country goes in the right direction, one day you will be the president of South Africa as well. There was a time when it was tempting to say look how they treated us, now we have the power. But Mandela says those words to a five-year-old," Clinton said.
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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Edi Rama thanked Clinton for his support for the Albanians. "President Clinton's hometown is called Hope, 'Hope' maybe it is not a coincidence that 'Shpresa' his house was given to eagles driven from their home from Kosovo. The 42nd president of the USA taught us by the example of his oratory, by the strength of his example that to have hope is to believe, that there are only bad regimes, governments, there are never bad peoples . Rama said that no one knows what the region would be like without Clinton. "The time that has flowed from that historic decision until today has been much more gloomy than we can imagine. Not only for Kosovo, and the consequence for all Albanians, but also for Serbia and the consequence for all Serbs, the two nations of the Balkans. They are condemned to live together forever. They choose to return the Balkans to the space of a new battle for the triumph of peace, or under the tyranny of the bloody machine of Belgrade, we came to seek salvation in Albania, they may not return. The Belgrade butcher himself could have spent his life in power and not behind bars. Without question, Clinton's direct personal contribution to our twin eagle across the river is such", Rama emphasized.
Rama said that Clinton made a historic decision for the liberation of Kosovo and for the future of the Balkans.
