Public security, political will and gendarmerie

Ekrem Spahiu*

Today, after about 34 years of "democratic" state, crime, in coexistence with politics and corruption, continue to constitute the main anxiety of Albanian society. The reason is known: crime, not only does not fear the state, but stands above the state in capacities and initiatives. He even commands the state.

There is no doubt that, when the power of the state works with institutions and when the political will is subordinated to the institutions, citizens feel more secure about their lives but also about public peace in general.

When the crime potentials are greater, it is the institutions that make the difference, it is their power, among them, the power of the security institutions. States threatened by crime turn to these institutions, among them the gendarmerie. This is the reason why a significant number of countries in the world, among them large countries such as France and Turkey, apply the gendarmerie system as a public police force.

During the last three decades, two major developments that have occurred precisely in European countries seem to indicate an increase in the number and importance of gendarmerie-type forces: first, the gendarmerie has expanded more than other security forces and, second, the gendarmerie is playing an increasingly prominent role in addressing many post-Cold War security challenges. Border control, the fight against terrorism and criminality, keeping under control rebellions inspired by ethnic, religious or political motives, engaging in peacekeeping operations, etc., makes the gendarmerie forces have a unique role in these missions.

Compared to other police forces, the gendarmerie can offer a better equipped military force, even armored groups, which makes them better able to deal with armed groups and all kinds of violence. Gendarmes play an important role in restoring law and order in conflict zones, remote rural areas, etc., tasks which are suited to their purpose, training and skills.

The growth and expansion of gendarmerie units around the world is also related to the increasingly sensitive problem of the use or non-use of real military units in dealing with internal threats. As is known, the use of military force in the function of internal security has usually degenerated their mission, which results in unforgivable consequences, especially for democratic states.

After the constitution of the Kingdom in Albania in 1928, the Gendarmerie, which previously consisted of a symbolic number, turned into one of the main security and defense weapons of the country. In 1928, its total number reached about 3,600 gendarmes and commanding officers, including the city police, as the municipal police was called at that time.

In 1928, the Albanian Gendarmerie was organized at the level of counties, districts and command posts, in accordance with the geographical distribution of the country's population. A few years later, to help the Gendarmerie, King Zog engaged a group of English advisers, led by a British general, which served not only to increase professionalism, but especially to separate it from Italian influence. 

The inviolable borders of the Albanian state and the preservation of order and peace, which had become proverbial in those years that are still remembered today as the golden time of public security, rank the weapon of the Albanian Gendarmerie alongside the main weapons and services of our national army. One of the newspapers of that time wrote: "Visits, even more distant from the homeland, were followed by a lot of buildings, in which the soldier spent his body and from which he left when the task required him to restore peace and order, where they were violated. The traveler who used to be afraid of our mountains, now passes freely and safely in the most abandoned corners, because there is almost no corner in our Albania, where there is not a hearth of gindars.

The Albanian Gendarmerie, educated with infinite loyalty to the nation, even though it constituted about 20% of the country's total armed force, at the critical moment of the country's occupation by fascist Italy, played a leading role in the defense of the port cities, mainly Durrës , where the main Italian invasion forces and means were concentrated. The Albanian defense against the invasion forces was practically commanded by Gendarmerie Major Abaz Kupi.

The gendarmerie of that time applied open forms of information. In contrast, the dictatorial regime of the communist era abolished the Gendarmerie, replacing it with security forces and applying covert forms of espionage and psychological repression.

It is unforgivable that today, in a political system that presupposes complete economic and public security, we have a more insecure situation. Under these conditions, the alternative of reestablishing the gendarmerie, with the status of an elite security force, is the right solution for restoring public security, and in particular the life of the citizen, in every corner of the country's life.

*Co-chairman of the Movement for National Development