"Kosovo Independence..." with newspaper reports on the historic day

The National Library of Kosovo has opened the exhibition "Kosovo's Independence in the Albanian Press" with newspaper front pages from the past 17 years, where this institution has turned its attention to reporting on Independence Day.

These are the newspaper front pages from that time. They were reporting on Kosovo's biggest day, the day it became an independent state. The illustrative photographs in most cases show the celebration. And the big news and common denominator of all the reports is Independence. It was a time when the youngest state in the world at the time had dozens of printed newspapers. In the exhibition of the National Library of Kosovo "Independence of Kosovo in the Albanian Press" there are two more issues of the newspaper "Koha Ditore". Another one with the front page "Kosova shtet" is missing. Academician Bardh Rugova, then deputy editor-in-chief of "Koha Ditore" and now chairman of the Steering Council of the National Library of Kosovo, recalled the time when the newspaper issues that gave news about Independence were being prepared.

"I had written an article the day before about the 1974 Constitution and another about the history of Kosovo. Both would find a place in that special issue of the newspaper that we would distribute for free. In the morning, with the editor-in-chief Agron Bajrami, we had decided on the title: 'Kosovo State' for the special issue and 'State Awaits Recognition' for the regular issue," Rugova said.

The Director of the National Library of Kosovo, Blerina Rogova-Gaxha, said that Independence Day was a great dream of many generations. According to her, the exhibition recalls the past.

"Therefore, today with this exhibition we want to recall a recent past and the great effort of a country in its fight for independence and the great dream of peace. The exhibition focuses on reflecting this historical event through images from the Albanian press of the time as an effective and powerful way to express the historical events of that period and to enrich collective memory," said Rogova-Gaxha.

The front pages of that time illustrate many events, from the reading of the Declaration of Independence in the Assembly, which from that day on February 17 had become the Assembly of the Republic, to the citizens' celebration in the capital. After 17 years, Kosovo no longer possesses a single printed newspaper. And, the exhibition of the National Library of Kosovo has, among other things, drawn attention to the importance of the press.