Bardhi responds to Rama after message to Iran: Don't use foreign policy to hide Albanians' problems

 

The head of the Democratic Party Parliamentary Group, Gazment Bardhi, has reacted to Prime Minister Edi Rama's statements regarding the Iranian regime, accusing him of trying to shift public opinion's attention from internal problems that, according to the opposition, weigh on Albanian citizens.

Through a lengthy public response, Bardhi emphasized that Albania has been and remains by the side of its strategic allies and in support of the values ​​of freedom, but added that this cannot be used as a shield to avoid the debate on corruption, the economy, immigration, and the standard of living in the country.

The Democrat also responded to the accusations and statements coming from representatives of the Iranian regime, recalling the cyberattacks that hit Albanian institutions and which, according to international investigations, were linked to actors supported by Tehran.

In his reaction, Bardhi also brings to attention one of the most well-known episodes in Albanian history, the sheltering of Jews during World War II, arguing that Albanians do not abandon people seeking protection from oppression and authoritarian regimes.

Full reaction: 

Oh, really?

So now you suddenly care about the Albanian people?
The very same Albanian people whose institutions, public services, and digital infrastructure became the object of a cyberterrorist campaign aimed at paralyzing an entire state and which international investigations have linked to actors supported by your regime.

We know those traces very well.
We know the methods.
We know the threats.

And we know that what has fueled your hostility towards Albania has never been Zionism, or any other convenient slogan of your disgusting propaganda.
It has been your hostility towards freedom itself.

You do not forgive Albania for doing what Albanians do: opening doors to people fleeing persecution.
You do not forgive Albania for sheltering Iranian men and women, whom you asked to silence through fear, imprisonment, and death, simply because they dare to think differently, speak differently, or dream differently.

But we are Albanians.

We do not abandon the people who knock on our door seeking protection from oppression.
We did not do this even when Jews fleeing Nazi persecution needed shelter. Albania became the only country in Europe that had more Jews after World War II than before it.

And we will not disappoint the Iranians who seek safety from intimidation, persecution, or assassination. Nor will we surrender in the face of your desperate and relentless cyber attacks. After your major attack, we built a modern and powerful cyber shield that has made Albania much stronger and much better prepared to face your ongoing, now unsuccessful attacks.

You are free to use the privileges of open societies to spread your false narratives, your shameful accusations, and your brutal threats.

But as we Albanians learned from fifty years of darkness under an atheist totalitarian regime, propaganda can hide the truth, it can distort the truth, and it can delay the truth, but it can never bury the truth, not even under the weight of a medieval theocracy like yours.

Your regime can hack networks, imprison critics, censor voices, threaten opponents, pressure neighbors, and endlessly manufacture excuses for its failures.
But it cannot escape reality forever.

Regimes built on fear, censorship, oppression, and the destruction of dissent may survive for a time, but history is merciless toward those who wage war against the freedom and well-being of their people.

The Iranian people deserve freedom.
They deserve dignity.
They deserve the right to speak without fear.

And Albania will never apologize, will never back down, and will never be afraid for standing on the side of these values.

So continue to manipulate and deceive anyone in the colorful West who is willing to fall prey to your lies.

But you will never make Albanians enemies of peoples, be they Jews, Arabs or Americans.

Because what they share among themselves, and what you fear most, are the very things you have denied your nation for too long:

Great hopes, great dreams, and the determination to live freely, to seek peace, and to build prosperity without stopping.