Interior Minister Ervin Demo has once again responded to the protests and violent incidents reported over the past four days.
In a statement, Demo provided an overview of the situation, revealing that 156 people had been injured, including 97 police officers, 45 protesters and 12 bystanders.
The minister paid particular attention to the involvement of minors in the clashes, noting that four children were among those injured.
Demo urged parents not to allow their children to become involved in acts of violence. He described the events as part of an attempt to seize power through violence, stressing that, in his view, such actions would not derail Albania’s path towards the European Union.
Full statement:
“Dear citizens,
The wave of violence that swept through the capital over the past four days has left 156 Albanian citizens injured.
Among them are 97 police officers who were carrying out their duties and who, at the end of the day, like all of us, simply want to live peacefully in our country and return home to their families.
There are also 45 protesters, who likewise have legitimate aspirations for their present and future in this country, for themselves and their families, along with 12 bystanders who may simply have been on their way home or going about their daily business.
I wish all of them a speedy recovery, and I want to remind you that we have far more reasons to come together and work for the good of our country than to clash on behalf of someone who wants others, blinded by hatred and the flames of division, to do the dirty work of political conflict for them.
The words of a doctor at the Trauma Hospital have stayed with me. He said: ‘When they arrive here, everyone has lost. No one has won.’
Among those injured were also four minors, and I want to focus on this for a moment.
I do not believe there is a parent in Albania, regardless of their political beliefs, who would be pleased to see their underage children holding stones or other objects, attacking police officers, smashing the windows of public institutions, destroying traffic lights and road signs, or looting and setting fire to private and public property.
Using minors for deeply political purposes, and especially putting their lives at risk for the sake of a struggle for power, is a disgrace that must not go unnoticed or escape condemnation by Albanian society as a whole.
I have repeatedly instructed police forces to exercise particular care when dealing with minors, but I want to make another heartfelt appeal to parents:
Please, from the bottom of my heart, do not allow your children to be used in the struggle for power by those who recognise neither human nor moral boundaries!
Therefore, when we say that violence has nothing to do with students, we are not engaging in rhetoric. We are refusing to equate students with those who choose violence.
Among those arrested or facing legal proceedings for violent acts, the number of students is extremely small, and I am convinced that they have absolutely no connection to the violent political scenario.
We may have many differences and hold widely differing opinions, but there is one fact that no one who respects the truth can deny.
This is a disguised attempt by those who want to seize power through violence and who apparently have no intention of sparing either minors or the private businesses of people who have nothing to do with their political battle.
They want to halt Albania’s journey towards the European Union, dragging the country away from the EU negotiating table and back onto the path of the past, which we have worked so hard to leave behind.
I want to assure you that they will not succeed!
Albania has already set out towards its destination, and no one and nothing will stop the country’s European development!”
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