El Pais portrait of Gashi standing: The brilliant scientist working for Kosovo image

He calls it brilliant, in his portrait, explains the scientist's achievements and how I use mathematics to promote Kosovo, says Kosova Prees.

Pointing to everything about his life and work, the portrait explains how the ambassador could only cross the border and enter Spain once.

Noting Kosovo's problems since the 1998 war, the paper quoted Ambassador Gashi as saying: For reconciliation in the Balkans to be true, it is essential that the academic world be involved.

In that spirit, the whole text was built for him, reports Kosovas

Complete scripture, translated:

“Matematic serves me to design a positive image of Kosovo”

Mathematician and diplomat, Kosovo's Centre Gashi defends “scientific diplomacy” as the way to resolving international conflicts.

From Luca Tancredi Barone.

Toulouse, August 4, 2018.

The story of the new mathematician standing Gashi (Pristina, Kosovo, 1984) is the emblems of how science can be related to international wars and movements. Gashi, now ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo to Paris and head of the tenets for students now in Germany, Japan, France and the United Kingdom, finally spoke at a session dedicated to science and diplomacy at the international congress E SOF, which was held in Toulouse.

It's not a new concept, even though the expression is new. CERN (European Centre for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland was an important example of how post-war science succeeded in building bridges among nuclear physicists from around the world for the construction of the world's most advanced particle architecture. Visits of astronomers, oceanographers, US mathematicians to China after Richard Nixon's historic visit to Chinese counterpart Mao Tsedong in 1972 preceded the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1979. Another example is the recent creation of SESAME in Jordan, the assel of particles that wants to bring peace to the Middle East by working side by side with scientists from Israel, Palestine, Iran or Pakistan, even among countries that do not know each other.

Gashi's path to mathematics began at the age of 12, with his participation in a local math Olympics, which he would earn in a row from 1996 to 1998. In Kosovo, war broke out at that time in 1998 and ended with NATO bombings (for the first time after the UN Security Council's authorisation) in the spring of 1999, which took place with about 500 deaths. The total number of victims during the war is over 13,000. In those years, with Albanian schools closed, many children had to be educated in private homes, as had happened to Gashi's brothers, who were then living in the small town of Kline.

“Matmatic for me has always represented a challenge and a curiosity”, the ambassador explains. And since I was a kid, I've loved knowing the principles behind things, especially if solving a problem is complicated. But, of course, at the time, for me math has been a haven of order, rigorousity and beauty facing chaos that lived around me”, he adds.

When he was 14, some professors of this brilliant young man recommended that he start his studies directly at the university. Just in 1998, Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian government had allowed the reuse of a single Pristina University building by the Albanian population. That year, accompanied by his parents, his attitude went to university for the first time, surrounded by people far older than he was. On the first day, he won the respect of colleagues and professors by solving a complex problem. Since then, the faculty dean gave the young man an academic year to demonstrate his capacity.

If this happens, then we will find the legal form to allow your studies to continue,” he told him.

But that academic year was banned from NATO bombings. Soon a million people had been forced by the Serbian Army to flee their homes. We were placed on a train to the border with Macedonia”, recall Gashi.

At one point, we were taken off the train and told to walk away from the tracks so that we wouldn't step on the mines.” So they entered the neutral zone between Macedonia and Kosovo. They spent three nights sleeping under the open sky. A humanitarian catastrophe was beginning; a million refugees, nearly 50% of the population,” recalls.

That's why they were sent to Stankovec, 5km within the border. Thanks to what the little stand spoke English because “every day watched BBC” news, as he remembers, his life would change.

I met a French colonel on the first day whose name was de Laporte”, Gashi says. The first thing I asked him was if he could help me continue my studies. He found out a long time later, but what he thought was this is a really weird kid who doesn't have other priorities. The Colonel proposes that he become his translator. Soon thereafter, some European countries began accepting refugees. Gashi and their family ended up in Norway, where they remained for four months until the parents decided to return to their country to begin rebuilding. “I will never forget Norwegian generosity at such a difficult time,” highlights Gashi. When he returned, he continued his studies (taking his highest grades in all subjects, as the dean requested). De Laporte, meanwhile, hadn't forgotten that child so interested in math. He helped them find a scholarship to study in Paris in 2001. Since then, although he has studied in Cambridge, the United Kingdom (when he finished his master as 18 years old) and Chicago, the United States (where he started his five-year doctorate for 19 years), he has never lost contact with French mathematicians.

I have defended the doctor's thesis two days after Kosovo's declaration of independence, which was promoted on February 17, 2008,” remembers it. I then had a passport of UN authority governing Kosovo from 1999”. During post-doctorate (in France, United Kingdom and Germany), Gashi founded the Kosovo Mathematics Association. The first thing we did was organize math Olympics that were so important to awaken passion in me. Now they are members of the international Olympics, so that young mathematicians from Kosovo can keep in touch with scientists from around the world”.

After failing to elect MP with the centrist party founded along with friends called the New Spirit, Gashi began co-operation with the Kosovo political world. Then President Atifete Jahjaga invited her as adviser to her cabinet and eventually appointed her ambassador to Paris in 2016.

It was with him that made me discover foreign policy. My appointment was a surprise because I wanted to be out of politics and go back to my studies. However, her offer honored me and I could not refuse it. It was an appreciation that my reputation as a mathematician could play a part in facilitating relations with other countries. It was my opportunity to design a positive image of Kosovo through mathematics. We don't have the same long tradition in sillurese math in other countries, but we have many talents. It's a form of promoting the country beyond our sport or our beautiful mountains”.

As “scientist diplomat”, Gashi has co-organised a math conference in Kosovo last year, dedicated to <x2morf automorform” by inviting the highest-level mathematicians. The fact that besides mathematician I am also the ambassador gave more prestige to the conference. It is normal for diplomats to organise concerts and art exhibitions. It would also take us to organize scientific conferences. Dialogue among scientists helps co-operation among nations and dialogue among diplomats help promote scientific co-operation”.

But there were no Serbian scientists at the conference, nor was a joint conference organised between Serbian and Kosovo mathematics, which Gashi had proposed with entry into the European Mathematics Association.

“are not ready yet, some things take time. But for reconciliation in the Balkans to be true, it is essential that the academic world be involved, and that a Kosovo student can go freely to Belgrade to study, and a Serb in Pristina, which is not now happening”.

And problems do not remain in the Balkans: Spain is one of five European countries (only in the West) that has not recognised Kosovo. Similarly, they do not recognise 81 of the 193 UN nations. Neither Gashi nor any Kosovo scientist can participate in any conference or study in Spain, because unlike other states that have not recognised Kosovo like Greece, she does not accept any Kosovo travel documents.

It's a disaster “, concludes mathematician, “because young Kosovars cannot learn more about Spanish science and culture”.

He could cross the border once: he was on a diplomatic mission to submit credentials to the Archbishop of Urgelli, the Coprinc of Andorra, where Gashi is also ambassador.

“I hope I can get back”, he says.

* Translated from Kosovo

https://elpais.com/elpais/2018...