TIRANA, October 20 – The President, Bajram Begaj, started on Friday the several-day official visit to the municipalities inhabited by the Arbëresh in the Calabria region at the invitation of the Calabria authorities and the Regional Institute of the Arbëresh Community of Calabria.
President Begaj held a meeting with the president of the region of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, in Catanzaro, as well as with other representatives of the municipalities and provinces of the region, with whom he discussed the commitment of Italy and Albania in support of the historic Albanian diaspora and the Albanian community in totality.
A special attention was paid to the intensification of economic and commercial cooperation between Albania and the region of Calabria.
“Calabria is the new homeland of our ancestors, who were forced to leave their lands not willingly and willingly, but forced by the invaders,” Begaj said in a statement after the meeting.
“Despite the suffering at the beginning, they inherit, preserve and promote the language, tradition, culture and every other element related to the Albanian identity,” he said.
“Currently I want to thank the President of the Calabria Region for the warm conversation we had together. Albania sees friendly Italy as the gateway to the European Community. We have very good political cooperation between the two countries. We have mutual high-level visits which have not happened before. Also, Italy takes the first place in Albania for commercial exchanges, but together with the President we thought that Calabria should be the first,” said Begaj. /argumentum.al