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"Albania was a forbidden land", BBC journalist: What I wrote in my diary

"Albania was a forbidden land", BBC journalist: What I wrote in my diary

John Watkins, who has just published the book "Enver Hoxha's long shadow travels Albania", spoke in an interview for the teacher Elsa Skënderi Rakipllari.

In this interview published today in "Kronike ne letra", in Euronews Albania, Watkin has shown why he was inspired to write a book in which Albania's past and present are combined.

The former English BBC journalist said that the launch of this book came in 1972, when he visited Corfu and looked at Albania from afar, this unknown, isolated and mysterious country.


"The events started in 1972 when I was a teenager and I was in Corfu. From there you could see Albania, but not visit it. Albania was a forbidden land, a mystery. It was very difficult to find information about her. Being a journalist I wanted to learn more about the country, but it was difficult to find information. Even the ones you found were very one-sided.

You couldn't trust them. Some said it was a very good place, others said it was a very bad place. So when I had the chance to visit, 15 years later, in 1987, when Enver Hoxha had died, I wanted to see what Albania was like. I also understood that since the visit was organized by the state, I could not see everything, as they would be careful. they wanted to present a certain image of Albania to the foreign world, this was part of the propaganda. Anyway, it was better to see the place than not to see it at all", he said.

Asked how it is possible that there were many details in the book, the former journalist answered:

"Everything is true, I wrote it in my diaries".