Show of the communist star in “Sunny Hill” causes debate

Tirana Mayor, representatives of opposition and numerous citizens through social networks were involved in a debate Monday, following the appearance of a photo of the Albanian flag with a communist star on the last night of the festival “Sunny Hill” that took place Sunday in Tirana.

The five-cept star flag was part of a video clip titled “Where it is better than being Albanian” of the musical group “Nothing like the sun”. The video is found in YouTube since 2014 and features and events in Albanian history are at stake.

Disconnected from the context, the photo circulated on social networks and caused outrage among citizens, as well as was condemned by opposition deputies.

“Displaying the symbols of communism is not an accident in a country that has long suffered under the dictatorship installed by communists. Occasionally, nostalgic and not only appear with the symbols of dictatorship, insulting the memory, suffering and sacrifice of thousands of Albanians,” wrote on his Facebook page the head of the DP parliamentary group, Enkeleed Alibeaj.

Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj said through a tweet that the song was a satire to the regime and used the event to iron out his political opponents.

“I wish you to fight with the same zeal PPSH secretary at the helm of the DP and ally security,” wrote Veliaj in Titter.

Festival organisers “Sunny Hill” and the leader of the group “Nothing like the sun”, Alban Nimani also explained that the picture was part of a satirical video.

“The performance of the national star flag has nothing to do with the cloning of communism, rather, communism collapses in video clips,” said Niman.

” We are the very citizens of persecution, crime and suffering that have caused communism in Albania, because we also belong to persecuted families,” he added.

The star's symbol from the national flag was abolished by law in April 1991, following the collapse of the 45-year-old dictatorship based on communist ideology.

For history researchers, the appearance of these symbols even artistically raises the problem of a lack of face to face the past three decades after the fall of communism.

“DeCommunism must be carried out, to carry out the communist past in dignified forms, restoring human dignity to victims and treating the wounds of the totalitarian-communist dictatorship through the ban on symbols...,”krove Enriketa Papa.

According to her, not taking the past seriously, and the Communist heritage is achieved today to serve as artistic performances. /Reporter. al