Albania PM Accused of Plotting ‘Takeover’ of Illustrious Academy

Skënder Gjinushi, (left) and Edi Rama on a conference about the 50th anniversary of the Congress of Language in Tirana on 10 November 2022. Photo: LSA

Skënder Gjinushi, (left) and Edi Rama on a conference about the 50th anniversary of the Congress of Language in Tirana on 10 November 2022. Photo: LSA

Albania's Academy of Albanology, ASA, the country's main body for cultural, anthropological and linguistic research, has condemned the government of the Prime Minister Edi Rama following a media leak that it aims to subordinate it to the Academy of Science.

The proposed decision states that the academy will be transferred to the control of the Academy of Science, a change that is being denounced as unlawful and wrong.

"The proposed decision is unlawful, has not been consulted with us and doesn't have the support of the senate of ASA," the academy stated on Saturday.

The board added: "If the rectors, lecturers and students allow the closure of this Academy of the Albanian Identity by an arbitrary decision of the Minister of Education, this will be a bleak day for academic freedom, political freedom and scientific research in the country."

Over the weekend, citizens and academics from several countries voiced support for the ASA.

"This is an attempt to subordinate the country's highest academics, who have contributed greatly to the preservation of history, archeology and the language, to a leadership made up of academicians who derived their credentials from politics and from the communist system," Qendresa Qytetare, a local pressure group, said in a statement.

The Academy of Science is led by Skender Gjinushi, a politician who was Minister of Education during the last communist government and reinvented himself by creating the Social Democratic Party following the collapse of communism.

A few years ago, Gjinushi handed over his party to Tom Doshi, a US...

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