By Enriqueta Papa
We still continue to spin in the vortex of nostalgia, relativizing evil and acting as if we do not have an official date to commemorate the victims of communism. Every year we hear the same complaint: “Albania does not have a day of remembrance for the disaster of the communist regime.” But the truth is different – the date exists. It is February 20.
Since 2010, with Law No. 10241, “On the symbols of remembrance of the victims and crimes of communism in Albania”, February 20 has been sanctioned as the “Day of remembrance of the victims and crimes of communism in Albania”. It is the day of the toppling of the bust of Enver Hoxha in Tirana – a symbolic moment of separation from the dictatorship.
The law is clear.
Article 1 defines the purpose: the designation of symbols in memory of the victims and crimes committed by the communist regime.
Article 2 specifies that these symbols include museums, obelisks, monuments and a date of public commemoration.
Article 3 declares February 20th as an official day of remembrance.
Article 4 tasks the Council of Ministers with establishing the National Museum of Victims and Crimes of Communism.
Article 5 requires the issuance of bylaws for the erection of the Obelisk of the Victims and Crimes of Communism in Tirana, as well as commemorative monuments in other cities.
So, not only does the date exist, but there is also the obligation for museums, obelisks, and monuments.
However, for more than 16 years, no government has issued the necessary bylaws for the full implementation of this law. There is no national obelisk in Tirana. There is no museum dedicated as provided for by the law. There are no memorial monuments erected based on this obligation.
We have a law, but no implementation. We have a date, but no consistent state ritual. We have a memory written in the Official Gazette, but not engraved in the public space.
How long will we continue to forget what we ourselves have established in law? Or is the problem not the lack of a date, but the lack of will to face the past without nostalgia and relativization?
February 20 is not simply a symbol of the toppling of a bust. It is a test of whether the Albanian state takes historical memory seriously – or whether it remains just an unfulfilled article in a forgotten law.
