In the presence of Ministers Jeton Shaqiri and Krenar Lloga, at MTU was promoted the book “In the Shadow of the Plane Tree” written by Lecturer Azis Pollozhani Ph.D.

Skopje, 23.11.2023 – Today at “Mother Teresa” University in Skopje was promoted the book “In the shadow of the Plane Tree” by the first rector, Lecturer Azis Pollozhani Ph.D., in the presence of the Minister of Education and Science Mr. Jeton Shaqiri, the Minister of Justice Mr. Krenar Lloga, the Ambassador of RNM to Germany, Mr. Ylber Sela, colleagues, family members and those who enjoy writing.

Rector of MTU, Lecturer Izet Zeqiri Ph.D. congratulated the author for the book, while he appreciated the symbolism of Ohrid’s Plane Tree (Çinar), as one of the symbols of the city, a touristic city where he spends most of the summer break, at the same time thanking the author for the information that he shares in the book about the history of the Albanians in Ohrid.

The reviewers, university professors: Rizvan Sulejmani, Enver Abdullai and Murat Aliu, evaluated the book as a valuable literary work with important information about the past of Ohrid, which, unlike Struga, is significantly less treated by Albanian writers.

Professor Rizvan Sulejmani appreciates the place where the stories of Pollozhani begin, precisely in Ohrid’s characteristic Plane Tree, an old tree symbolizing the stability, antiquity and history of the city and its inhabitants.

At that time, Plane Tree was the Agora of Ohrid, where people refreshed themselves, debated, gathered and recounted experiences both painful and joyful, the trunk of this tree speak of antiquity, the loose branches symbolize the oil as well as the hope of the vitality that is no less than the Albanians themselves, among the many cultures, religions and traditions of a city that history has condemned to pay the price of geography and history’, said Sulejmani.

Murat Aliu said that he appreciates authors who write outside their profession.

“A monographic book, with a stylistic and rich language as well as with a great interpretive master of facts and phenomena, an original text, because it consists of self-experienced narratives, of course not excluding the part of the text that is the result of numerous studies on the relevant issue’, said Lecurer Murat Aliu.

The author of the work Lecturer Azis Pollozhani Ph.D., said that the reasons that prompted him to write this book are two: the family’s move from the village Livadhia in Struga to Ohrid in the 60s, where his father would serve as an imam, and the second reason is that most Albanian intellectuals have written about Struga, and very little about Ohrid.

The source of the information written in the book is my father’s conversations with well-known personalities in Ohrid, while he took me everywhere with him. There I noticed that the conversations my father had with these people, the information they shared had nothing to do with the stories we learned at school.

‘People in Ohrid after 1912 were treated according to nationality and religion, and only one nationality was treated, the others were excluded. We never learned in the books that five or six members from Sanjak of Ohrid were signatories of the Declaration of Independence in Vlora, we never learned that the Prince of Ohrid before the arrival of the Turks, was Andrea Gropa, the prince of Arbër – ruler of Ohrid during 1371-1379.’- added the author Pollozhani.

Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Jeton Shaqiri congratulated the author for the will to write, which represents motivation for the new generation.

Organizer and moderator of the promotion of the book “In the shadow of the Plane Tree” by Lecturer Azis Pollozhani Ph.D., was the university professor Enver Abdullai Ph.D.

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