The Acting President of the Republic of Kosovo, Albulena Haxhiu, participated today at the Memorial Academy held for Rrustë Kabashi.

In her address to the participants, Acting President Haxhiu said that the history of Rrustë Kabashi is closely linked to Prizren and to the time when Albanians, after the League of Prizren, continued to look for ways to organize and oppose Ottoman rule.

Acting President Haxhiu further said that he dedicated more than thirty years of his life to the struggle for freedom, until on August 18, 1910, he was sentenced to hanging right here, in Prizren.

“Rrustë Kabashi had politically matured during the time of the Albanian League of Prizren and belonged to the generation that, even after its suppression, did not give up organizing and opposing. As early as the beginning of 1880, he had commenced his patriotic activity. In Zojz, in 1882, he was among the organizers of the assembly where the Ottoman administration was openly opposed. Two years later, Rrustë Kabashi led the resistance in Podrimë and the surroundings of Prizren. When even persecution and imprisonment did not stop him, the Ottoman authorities extended the punishment to his family and property. The towers of the village leaders of Kabash were burned, their property was confiscated, while the family members were forcibly sent to Prizren, as a means of pressure to force the leaders to surrender”, said Acting President Haxhiu.

Acting President Haxhiu further said that Rrustë Kabashi did not retreat; on the contrary, years of persecution and resistance strengthened his authority among the people of the province, to the point that the Ottoman government sometimes pursued him and sometimes was forced to negotiate with him.

“He continued to participate in assemblies and be among the leaders who organized the opposition, maintaining for years the influence he had gained among his people. When the Young Turks came to power in 1908, hopes for change quickly faded. The policies of disarmament, persecution, and military interventions in Kosovo brought new clashes, and Rrustë Kabashi again ranked among those who opposed them. In the wave of repression that followed the 1910 uprising, he was brought before the military court in Prizren; he was sentenced to death,” said Acting President Haxhiu.

According to Acting President Haxhiu, his death did not foreclose the memory of him, adding further that the name of Rrustë Kabashi remained in songs, in Prizren and in Kabash, and was passed down through generations as the name of a man who for most of his life did not retreat from opposition to Ottoman rule.

“One hundred and sixteen years later, we remember Rrustë Kabashi in a free and independent Kosovo. He did not have the opportunity to live at a time when Albanians would decide for themselves about their country. Still, the effort to which he dedicated his life belongs to the same long history that, after many generations and many sacrifices, brought us to our state. Therefore, it is significant that today, precisely in Prizren, where he was convicted and hanged, Rrustë Kabashi is commemorated and honored by the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo and by its citizens”, said U.D. President Haxhiu.

In the end, Acting President Haxhiu said that time has turned the place of his punishment into a place of his honor.

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