DASHNIM HEBIBI - KOSOVO

 

DASHNIM HEBIBI - KOSOVO

Dashnim Hebibi, PhD, a journalist, poet, moderator, and publicist from Presheva, was born on June 12, 1976 in Vranjë, a city that was once full of Albanians, a few kilometers from Presheva, near the Red Apple Region. As a young man, he began writing about these regions, such as Presheva, Medvegja, and Bujanoc. After completing primary and secondary school in Presheva, he immediately turned to higher education.

While he was a high school student, he got distinguished with various activities organized in Presheva, where he was often an organizer. Dashnim Hebibi graduated from the Faculty of Journalism in Tirana (1995-1999), and during his studies he wrote for many Albanian written media of the time, meeting various personalities.

Dashnim Hebibi has also completed several postgraduate studies, such as the Diplomatic Academy and Crisis Management in Tirana and in 2011 he completed his Master's Degree in Diplomacy at SEEU - Tetovë. Dashnim graduated from the International Academy of Criminalistics with the well-known Mr. Avi Bleier, in Tel Aviv, Israel. He worked for several years as the diaspora editor for the "Bota Sot" daily newspaper, editorial office in Zurich; he worked as a correspondent at the Macedonian Television, editorial office in Albanian, for three years in a row from Switzerland.

He has edited and redacted many papers, always as a freelance journalist. Until February 2010, he was the director of the ‘Albanian Media Center’ (the only media center of the Albanian Diaspora), as editor of the ‘Kosova e Re’ News Agency, as an information window for the Albanian Diaspora.

Dashnim has conducted many interviews with various political personalities, both domestically and internationally, starting with the late President Dr. Ibrahim Rugova, the late Azem Hajdari, Fehmi Mujota, Jakup Krasniqi, Ramush Haradinaj, Behgjet Pacolli, Lulzim Basha, Academician Nexhat Daci, former President of Albania Dr. Sali Berisha, Ismail Kadare, Prof. Dr. Zef Mirdita, the former President of Albania, Mr. Bujar Nishani, the former President of Kosova, Mrs. Atifete Jahjaga, Prof. dr. Fadil Selmani, the first rector of the University of Tetova, Acad. Prof. Dr. Abdylmenaf Bexheti, Rector of the South East European University (SEEU) in Tetova and many more personalities.

Among the foreign personalities, he has interviewed: Wesley Clark, Eliot Engel, Calmy Rey, the President of Croatia, Mrs. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Milan Bandić, Mayor of Zagreb, and many other personalities.

Dashnim Hebibi is widely recognized among the Albanian diaspora for his great contribution to the integration of Albanian society. He has participated in various events related to his homeland, both in political, cultural, sports and social aspects.

A journalist with extensive experience in almost all fields of journalism, editor and editor-in-chief. Reporter on the circumstances of Southeast Europe. He is a Swiss citizen and is working on several projects, knowing that the Albanian community in Switzerland is constantly growing. According to our sources, over 400,000 Albanians live and work throughout Switzerland. The Albanian language is present in many institutions at the Swiss level. Good knowledge of the mentality of the Albanian diaspora in Switzerland, knowing that Dashnim Hebibi also has a doctorate degree in political science on the topic of the Albanian diaspora. A whole life dedicated to journalism.

 He is a publicist, comments on various events, and is not quick with his analyses and approaches, but when you read them, you can see that they have a really clear study.

He published the Diaspora Newspaper ‘AMC Press’, ‘Kosova e Re’ throughout the Albanian diaspora, but for financial reasons he had to discontinue it. He also wrote several patriotic songs for our most prominent singers, such as Arif Vladi, etc. He also collaborated with TV Diaspora-RTK for the Swiss edition. He was also a correspondent for TVM, the Albanian language editorial office, during the war in Macedonia, where Mr. Hebibi had daily reports from the Albanian diaspora.

As a freelance journalist, he has also written for the Daily Newspaper 'Zëri', 'Illyria' in the USA. Otherwise, he has organized dozens of entertainment and sports events for the Albanian diaspora, moderating with great professional modesty.

Mr. Hebibi was also the initiator of the first Albanian Library in Switzerland, specifically in Zurich in 2002. Dashnim has also participated in many organizations for the benefit of the Albanian diaspora in Switzerland, and has also received numerous recognitions from associations operating throughout the Albaniandiaspora, such as the Albanian Teachers and Parents League in Switzerland and Germany.

He has also worked as a teacher at an Albanian supplementary school in Switzerland, in three classes in the Canton of Aargau. In April 2011, Dashnim Hebibi was nominated “AMBASSADOR FOR PEACE” by the UPF (Universal Peace Federation), an organization with special status in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (UN). From 2013 to the end of 2015, he was in the media project ‘Dialog Plus’ with an editorial office in Zurich.

He also worked as deputy editor-in-chief of the "Plisi" Monthly Magazine, which was published in Switzerland. He spent no less than two decades in this profession. His writings are published in many media outlets in his homeland and abroad. He is currently the Director of the Helvetic Scientific Institute of Southeast Europe based in Switzerland.

On 24.03.2023, he successfully completed the third cycle of doctoral studies at the Faculty of Contemporary Social Sciences, Study Program: Political Science at SEEU of North Macedonia. He has also published several scientific papers in various scientific journals.

He is married to Naime, with whom he has three children: Dea, Edaand Adi. He lives and works in Switzerland. He is extremely devoted to his noble profession of journalism in various fields of the profession from politics, culture, to sports.

His written projects are expected to one day be realized here in Switzerland, because as Dashnim Hebibi himself says, the Albanian diaspora in Germanic countries comprises a complete Albania or Kosova. Integration, work, respect and peace are the alpha and omega of Dashnim. From 01.11.2024, Mr. Hebibi has launched the media project www.helveticALforum.ch where he is being very well accepted by the Albanian diaspora based in Zurich, Switzerland.

 

He also runs the Albanian Media Center in Switzerland, SAM24.info.

 

 Titles of published works:

 

•     ‘A Hundred Hours of Travel’ (collection of poems);

 

• ​‘Hidden Moon’ (collection of poems);

 

•      ‘Time with Many Holes’ (prose);​

 

•       ‘Reading the Earth’ (poetry);

 

• ​‘Kosovo, a Mother Fire’ (collection of poems);

 

• ​‘Dialogue with the Stone’ (poetry, Albanian-German);

 

• ​‘The Aristocracy of the Spirit’ (poetry, Albanian-English);

 

• ​‘16 Bullets of the Word’ (collection of poems);

 

• ​‘Interviews in Transition I’ (summary of interviews);

 

• ​‘Interviews in Transition II’ (summary of interviews);

 

• ​‘Interviews in Transition III’ (summary of interviews);

 

• ​‘Interviews in Transition IV’ (summary of interviews);

 

• ​The Monography of the Humanitarian Association 'Medvegja' entitled '30 Years in the Service of the Nation';

 

• ​The Monography of the Humanitarian Association ‘Presheva Valley’ entitled ‘10 Years for the Nation’;

 

• ​"Albanian Diaspora at the Crossroads", (The book was published with the financial assistance of the Government of the Republic of Croatia from the 2016 budget, as a supporter of the project of the Albanian Community of the City of Zagreb and the Zagreb Prefecture, through the Council for National Minorities.

 

• ​"Presheva Valley, Part of the National Unity", (Book written specifically for the visit to the Presheva Valley by the President of Albania, His Excellency, Mr. Bujar Nishani, on March 7, 2017. A historic visit, as it was the first visit to this region by a president of Albania)

 

• ​The Monography of the Albanian Community in Rijeka "RIJEKA, THE NEST OF THE PHOENIXES"

 

(The book was published with the financial assistance of the Government of the Republic of Croatia from the 2019 budget, through the Council for National Minorities)

 

• “A Presidential Overview on the Albanian Diaspora”, (The book was published with the financial assistance of the Government of the Republic of Croatia from the 2020 budget, through the Council for National Minorities)      

 

• “Portable Homeland” (The book was published with the financial assistance of the Government of the Republic of Croatia from the 2020 budget, through the Council for National Minorities)

 

• "Inspiring Women of the Albanian Diaspora", part one

 

• "Inspiring Women of the Albanian Diaspora", part two

 

 

1. With the Story of the Oak of the Red Apple Country

 

I have been inside an oak tree

 

At a very young age

 

there I felt something special

 

A dream of roots

 

A dream of spreading branches

 

My pain is sufficient to me

 

I don't need whispers

 

I will suffer the necessary suffering of life

 

My time has this direction

 

My window is open with all the travelers of light

 

Presheva is my same land

 

They call it the Red Apple Region

 

like Kosova, the same

 

like Ilirida, the same

 

like Ulqin the same

 

Like Shkup, the same

 

like Çameria!

 

The branches of the oak tree and its bark

 

have their own alphabet

 

because those who are there understand

 

the path was paved with blood

 

A lot of pain has been endured

 

There is the oak tree

 

There will be the branches

 

Because the sun is Illyrian

 

Even today

 

I have the same wound of time

 

and the same pain... 

 2. The Red Apple Province is Ours

 

 

 

The province in the heart of Albanian Nation

 

With its capital city, Presheva

 

Protects the stone of memory

 

Guards the stone of morning

 

Make a fist with your hand

 

Don't forget, put it in memory

 

The blood of the brave does not melt

 

If we don't hold ourselves

 

The crops will be devastated

 

Freedom must be witnessed

 

In well-being and construction!

 

I have Presheva as the main song of my heart

 

Albanians in the flag

 

The main song in poetry

 

Spirit of the land in that ethnicity.

 

3. In Zürich Platz

 

There, I feel my silent word

 

that weighs like a stone on the language of exile,

 

the silence that speaks with the voice of the fields of Presheva,

 

with the sigh of the mountains that bear the scars of war.

 

In “Zürich Platz”,

 

my steps knock on the pavement

 

as if they were verses carved in stone.

 

I am writing an epitaph for myself,

 

for the tear that carries memories

 

of a homeland that calls out among foreign languages,

 

of a time that has not stopped its shooting.

 

In “Zürich Platz”,

 

the sight of children in Preshevë

 

comes like an echo amidst the noise of the city.

 

The flowers in the gardens of old houses

 

bloom

 

to see life,

 

to testify that mother Xhevahire

 

waters them with memories,

 

as if to keep an entire world alive in their roots.

 

In “Zürich Platz”,

 

I stopped a few moments ago,

 

to meet family, friends, comrades and loved ones.

 

I met my brother, I called Jeton,

 

and he saw me through the eyes of a difficult time.

 

Together with my brother,

 

we have the same wound,

 

the same pain,

 

the same love for the future of a region

 

that remains a longing and pain in the chest of a nation.

 

At that moment of conversation,

 

the shadow stood at our feet,

 

listening to our words and writing them on the asphalt.

 

We, by gasoline (car), measured the kilometers,

 

the same as the morning pennies for coffee,

 

as if to measure how far we have come,

 

how far we have left.

 

Time comes,

 

with its roots as the shadow of history.

 

It follows us, speaks to us,

 

reminds us that we are there, between two worlds,

 

separated by borders,

 

but never by heart.

 

(Translation by Jeton Arifi -Prishtina)

 

 

Prepared by Angela Kosta Executive Director of the Magazines: MIRIADE, NUANCES ON THE PANORAMIC CANVAS, BRIDGES OF LITERATURE, journalist, poet, essayist, publisher, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter