Academician Artan Fuga has reacted on Facebook to the student protests, declaring his support for the young people and opposing any form of violence against them.
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According to Fuga, students cannot be prejudged or labeled as violent without evidence. He says they have the right to protest and demand improvements in economic, social and academic matters.
The academician says that during his years of working with students, he has seen them suffer more because of life’s difficulties and uncertainty about the future than display any inclination toward violence.
For this reason, he considers it unfair for the possible actions of particular individuals to be attributed to all students.
“Students are always right! They do not harm anyone, and no one should commit the national crime of harming them,” Fuga says.
He stresses that he is convinced the students he works with are not violent and have no psychological inclination toward violence.
“In fact, over the years I have sadly seen that a large proportion of them have suffered in silence because of life’s difficulties and anxiety about the future, instead of mobilizing to persistently demand their rights, which are numerous and significant,” he writes.
Fuga notes that, regardless of the criticism that may be directed at them, students have acted this way because they have believed, sometimes with a naïve sincerity, and because they have shown respect—often more than they should have—for the fundamental values of society.
According to him, students have no interest in violence in society, as they are capable of competing peacefully with others to build their careers.
The academician underlines that neither he nor his colleagues have taught students to use violence.
“Over the years, they have suffered more often, but they have never been violent,” Fuga declares.
He says he rejects any insinuation, media cliché, government propaganda or position that, without evidence, portrays students as people who commit violence in the city, break things, set fires, threaten or throw stones at police officers.
Fuga adds that even if a particular individual had happened to be involved in a violent incident—which he says there is still no information about—that person could not represent all students.
According to him, the lack of information about such a case would be serious for the responsible institutions.
“Students are not merely those who await the future; they themselves constitute the future of the country. They are the most educated segment of society and, for the most part, young women who represent hope for the emancipation of Albanian society,” he says.
The academician warns that harming or detaining students without evidence, as well as subjecting them to any treatment outside the law, would be unacceptable, invalid and have serious social consequences.
He adds that such an action would directly affect him and his colleagues, while seriously damaging “the core DNA of Albanian culture.”
According to Fuga, this would inflict new wounds on the nation for decades and further burden the collective memory, which has been damaged by the dramas and traumas caused throughout history by scoundrels, collaborators, traitors to the nation, dictators, madmen, power-wielding fools and merchants of national interests in exchange for undeserved power.
Fuga stresses that students must be heard and that there are dozens of peaceful and respectful ways to respond to their social, economic, educational and political demands.
He calls for these concerns to be taken into consideration by the government, politics in general and university staff. According to him, students have the right to be distrustful, since their trust has been abused, while their demands have been sidelined through empty political promises.
The academician says they have the right to demand quality degrees, since their diplomas and achievements have been devalued by false and cynical mechanisms of social advancement.
According to Fuga, politicians have deceived students and have fulfilled none of the promises made several years ago. He criticizes the fact that there is still no statistic on intellectual unemployment and that meritocracy does not work to place the best people in jobs.
He also raises concerns that governments have not developed a forecast for intellectual professions in the country over the next ten years.
According to him, Albanian society has been stripped of the technology, culture and scientific innovation that would enable the integration of graduates.
Fuga says that clan ties, connections and money continue to dominate society as means of securing a job, while university affairs remain centralized in the hands of politicians.
He describes as a scandal the fact that students from Tirana are being asked to accept dormitories in Durrës.
According to the academician, this is not the essence of the problem, but it demonstrates the level of political absurdity and how far the abuse of the suffering student spirit has gone, as well as the violation of their rights by the administration and the government.
“I repeat what I have said publicly over the years: students are always right. Whoever wants me to explain this to them, I am ready,” Fuga concludes.
He insists that students, as a social group, do not harm anyone and calls on everyone not to smear them.
“Keep your hands away from the eyes, bodies, backs and wrists of students!” says Artan Fuga.
