Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
"In politics, there is no personality who enters and leaves without mistakes. But, to put it bluntly: in the scales of history, Kurti cannot be compared to Thaçi in terms of his contribution to freedom. Thaçi is not an ordinary politician, he is an era."
This is the statement purportedly made by writer Ismail Kadare, published yesterday (July 1) via a captioned photo on TikTok by the account named "ilirnews".
What did the writer actually say?
Kadare has made his comments about former President Thaçi, but never in relation to any other politician.
Link to the video material published by the "ilirnews" account on TikTok:
Initially, hibrid.info researched the above photograph and found that it was taken in April 2017, when former President Thaçi was hosting the now-deceased writer in his office (see here).
As for public positions on former President Thaçi, it is the one that Kadare expressed in his book, “Ra ky mort eu pamë” – Ditar për Kosoven, which hibrid.info has found as the only case where the late writer has spoken about the former Prime Minister of Kosovo (see here and here).
Excerpt from Ismail Kadare's book:
"Late in the evening, Hashim Thaçi expresses his desire to meet me. He arrives almost at midnight with Ramë Bujë and the delegation's translator, Bukurije Gjonbali. We talk one-on-one for a while. In the next room, my family members, Thaçi's two companions, and the Albanian ambassador to Paris are drinking coffee. French secret police guards are everywhere on the stairs of the building.
Thaçi is restless. Of course, he has decided to sign, but there is a lot of pressure. In Kosovo, Adem Demaçi continues to harbor resentment against the delegation, even calling them traitors. Some of the KLA commanders may create trouble again. Thaçi mentions the letter I sent to the delegation in Rambouillet, as well as the article “Albanian Kapardisja”, which I published three days later. He says that he tries to learn from every criticism, but the situation is not that simple. He asks me a question that is, at the same time, a request: if he were to sign the agreement tonight, would I, as an Albanian writer, publicly support that act?
Without any hesitation, I replied that I would support him. Even from that moment on.
The one-on-one conversation ends. We invite everyone to the living room. I am doubly happy. First, that this work is being done. Second, because in this consultation of the Kosovo fighters with a man of culture, I see a good omen. How many slanders have been made against the KLA. Slanders from Serbian propaganda, from Russian newspapers, from a part of the Western press, from the Albanian ultra-pacifists themselves.
"And they, with this gesture, with this advice, show that, despite the inevitable stratifications of a Balkan guerrilla, they have a strong dose of idealism, a dimension that connects them to the future, to European civilization."
As for Kadare's comments and assessments of the current Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, hibrid.info has in several cases treated the claims by assessing them as false and finding comments that the writer had actually given, in an indirect form, about Kurti (see here, here and here).
Analyze:
The claim that writer Ismail Kadare highly praised former President Thaçi's contribution to the fight for freedom, comparing him to the current Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, is untrue.
The late writer never gave public comments or comparative assessments of any of the politicians in Kosovo.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The "Fake News" rating is given to media reports that are entirely the product of a medium that itself contains factually incorrect claims or information.
Content that is considered fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.