The US Ambassador to Tirana, Yuri Kim, gathered today all the former Foreign Ministers of Albania, in a ceremony to appreciate the contribution of Albanian diplomacy in relations with the US. The news was actually somewhere else.
Also waiting were three Foreign Ministers of Sali Berisha, who today are supporters of the anti-American movement of Berisha, not counting Ilir Meta, who unlike the three who hold iso, is himself a major actor of this movement . Two of these ministers are actors in the first major breakdown of relations between the US and Berisha, in the years 1996-1997.
Tritan Shehu was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the crisis of 1996-1997, while Arian Starova was left with this crisis during the joint crisis management under the government of Bashkim Finos.
Aldo Bumçi does not even remember why he was and when he was, but he remembers that he appointed Sali Berisha and he is still grateful to him.
Ambassador Yuri Kim has become the protagonist of a marathon of commemorations of Albanian-American relations on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and its purpose is to commemorate the events that keep the two countries united.
Berisha's three former foreign ministers, who are in fact the most angry people with the US in Albania today, must have had a hard time when they made the decision to go to the reception. The dilemma of whether or not to ask Berisha, in these cases proves the level of commitment and sacrifice they have for Berisha's cause.
This dilemma has tortured them a bit, while Berisha himself is trying through the same characters, to organize a memorial "for the visit of President Bush in Albania" next week.
He loves that activity as opposed to the ambassador's activities, where she does not invite him. Even to end his insistence on a photo with the ambassador, he invited her to his "vaccine".
So the departure of his three ambassadors, supporters of "Foltore" against the US, in any normal situation, is a routine gesture, which is not even worth the news. But in the Republic of Paranoia created by Sali Berisha within the opposition, where vigilance against those who cooperate with the US is considered high treason, the three ministers have done an act of courage, which shows that they, like Berisha, just want someone to disregarded by the US.
Ilir Meta also radiated this joy in his face, as he entered first and almost threw his neck at Ambassador Yuri Kim, against whom he made paranoid accusations until annihilation in Malin me Gropa.
And while the ambassador began her speech by saying that she calls herself a "lucky man" who has come to serve in Albania, each of them did not know where to hide his eyes and hands, thinking that "that man" is looking at them from the happy screen in front of the ambassador and is shaking.
Then they think that the rabbi grabbed his mobile phone and sent a text message to Kaç Islami, asking him to reply to the ambassador and tell her that "It was Edi Rama's luck, not yours".
The idea that "He" calls this deliberate move to isolate him and his loyal people, is their only anxiety, although for the ambassador this is the last thing that may come to mind.
This whole scene is a great torture for the three who were leaving Berisha in his loneliness, and Berisha himself. It would be superfluous to suspect that Ambassador Kim had thought of all those torturous mise-en-scène, which would not have been possible, if the three "faithful" former ministers had asked Berisha before going there.
If they had asked him, we would have lost today that embarrassing scene to torture, with "three Berisha soldiers at the Embassy, not counting Meta".