Kurti says March 11th demonstrations turned Kosovo face-to-face by popular self-determination

Today, 37 years are being staged by the student demonstration, which is the first protest to be suppressed by the Yugoslav police and army.

Vetevendosje Movement Chairman Albin Kurti has more precisely remembered what happened that day.

He has said power at the time responded with even more police brutality, arresting and condemning for many years the organisers of these demonstrations.

Full Facebook Kurt mailing:

On the 37th anniversary of spring demonstrations 81

On March 11th 1981, Albanian students of the University of Pristina organised a massive demonstration in response to the violence used to suppress spontaneous student protests, where they sought dignified treatment and food at the student cafeteria on March 4, 1981.

Student demonstrations against the police regime answered with great support. A few days later, labor demonstrations were organised, while citizens of Kosovo and other Albanian regions under the former Yugoslavia, from every social background, from any profession of any district background, joined the protests. Demands for dignity in terms of student treatment and halting police violence were added to the demand for Albanian political rights, as well as those for social progress and economic welfare.

The power responded with even more police brutality, arresting and condemning for many years organisers and participants in these demonstrations, even two months after the start, was declared a state of emergency. Powerful demonstrations took place on March 26 and April 1, 1981. In each demonstration there were students killed but they wouldn't stop.

What the students started was bigger than anything that might have presupposed the powers of time in Belgrade and Pristina. It was even bigger than the host students could hope for.

The 1981 demonstrations turned Kosovo face-to-face from popular self-reliance and from Albania, gave momentum and energy to unprecedented movements and illegal and legal organisations working for the Republic of Kosovo, for national freedom and equality, for justice and social progress. So they became the first step on the long and painful road, but full of pride, which brought the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the liberation of Kosovo in 1999.

Students and then the workers were in the forefront of demonstrations, in the face of changes, when the political conicture was humiliated by its people. Likewise today, by honoring and respecting the history of our nation and the 1981 demonstrations, we remain organized for awareness of students, workers, and popular class, to continue our movement for prosperity, for dignified conditions, and for realising national aspirations.