“Thank you for the warm welcome and hospitality and also for the good Bulgarian language you speak. I am happy to be here only a month after a law which will protect the Bulgarian minority was adopted in Albania.” This is what Iliana Iotova said in the village of Shishtavec, Kukus district. The Vice-president is on a working visit in the Republic of Albania.
“From now on it depends on you whether more Bulgarian language will be studied in school, whether the Bulgarian traditions will be preserved, whether there will be more pretty girls in traditional folk costumes, who will sing Bulgarian songs and recite Bulgarian poems,” the Vice-president addressed our compatriots who came to the square in the village.
Iliana Iotova granted to the school in Shishtavec books by classical Bulgarian authors and primers and readers.
Earlier in the village of Orgyust Iliana Iotova was welcomed by local girls in traditional folk costumes, who sang Bulgarian fold songs. The many-year Bulgarian Ambassador to Albania Bobi Bobev, who is currently member of the Council for work with the Bulgarians abroad at the Vice-president’s office, was welcomed as a true friend and protector of the Bulgarians’ rights. The fact that there is only one dirt road to the village and also the lack of any additional infrastructure whatsoever makes our compatriots’ lives in Orgyust and the region very difficult, they said during their talk with Iliana Iotova.
Within her visit, the Vice-president visited also the town of Kuk?s, where she talked with the mayor Bashkim Shehu.