One of the hugest problems of Albania is emigration. About a quarter of the population has fled the country in the past 15 years. How is the state countering the problem?
Some days ago, the government organised a panel for the return of Albanians and there are now different mechanisms to make people return, like raising salaries and hiring people who graduated in Western universities in state institutions. So, people have started to come back and many of them now work in important institutions. They help create the new professional, Western outlook of our state administration and inject a civil spirit.

To become an EU member, Albania will have to eradicate blood feuds still practiced in Albania as part of the Kanun. People say that this mediaeval customary law is still practiced because people do not trust the government.
There has been a revival of the Kanun and this is related to people's mistrust of state institutions and their disappointment with the implementation of laws. Some of the Kanun's traditions have their origins in Homer's Iliad. You can find traces of them in Shakespeare's Hamlet as well. There is a moment in Hamlet where Hamlet's father says that the one who survives the duel should go to the funeral of the victim. The same custom exists in the mountainous regions of Albania - the one who kills in blood feuds participates in the funeral procession of the dead. In recent years, the law was followed strictly enough. Many organisations attempt to reconcile people. Religion also plays a positive role. In recent months, the government has helped by seriously fighting organised crime as well. Hundreds of people are now in jail, while you could earlier see them walk the streets. You could sometimes even see them in politicians' cars. The government successfully fights corruption also. It is now very difficult for a state administrator to embezzle money. The new government almost completely interrupted illegal traffic to Italy, too. In recent months, no refugees reach the coasts of Italy. This positively reflects on Albanian-Italian relations as well.

What is the number of families entangled in blood feuds?
Some say that the number is 2000, others say it is 1000. The estimate is based on the number of children absent from school. But children may have other reasons to be absent, like poverty. Anyway, even if only one family is in a blood feud, it is a problem. I hope that the practice will gradually disappear as people see the law applied. It was like that in the beginning of the 90s.

The Kanun has recently been revived in Kosovo as well.
In Kosovo this is felt less because Kosovo was part of another country. Kosovar intellectuals also organised a big campaign against blood feuding in the 90s, and this had good results. However, in the mountainous regions of Kosovo that border with Albania, blood feuds "inspire" each other - the pressure of public opinion and the pain for the lost people presses people to revenge. This is especially so when the state does not implement the laws.

What outcome do you expect of Kosovo's status talks?
We think that the process is leading toward independence.

Recently, Serbia's foreign minister said that no border in the Balkans has ever been changed without a war.
I heard about that. And I think that this is the last time we are hearing such statements. It is the purpose of each Balkan politician to sustain peace. On another note, the independence of Kosovo will free the minds of many Serbians. Some days ago, a leading Belgrade politician said that Belgrade politicians are the only ones who don't realise that Kosovo has already achieved independence, while more than 50 per cent of ordinary Serbians already know that. Of course, this is a problem of Belgrade politicians and their interest in winning the next elections. (I also want to note that) Bulgarians have no reason to worry over Kosovo's independence because you never warred with the Kurdjali region, as your newspaper wrote once, quoting a blogger.

There is a fear that Albania and Kosovo would try to unite.
Many of my Sofia colleagues have asked me about that. Albania's position is that Albania and Kosovo will be together in the European Union where all European people will live together. Another thing: Albanians have never been known to attack another country. Albanians are a stabilising factor in Macedonia, where they constitute a quarter of the population, and in Montenegro, where they constitute 10 per cent of the population.

However, when Ali Ahmeti's Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) won the bigger share of Albanian votes at the latest elections and did not enter government, they organised unrest.
It is normal that the party that won the greater number of votes enter the government. The Macedonian prime minister, however, decided that he can work better with the other party. Probably Ahmeti had a moral right to be upset and protest. But maybe the situation in Macedonia will change for the better in the future.

A Bulgarian social scientist has said that Albanians in Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania tend to use the argument of radical Islam for political purposes. Could Albanian Muslims turn East, as surveys say Turkish Muslims have?
Albanians are culturally, politically, and historically linked to the West. Two days ago (September 29), the Pope advocated Albania's acceptance to the EU. This came after the Muslim community's reaction to his lecture mentioning militant Islam. Albanian Muslims did not react to this lecture.  Albanian Muslims are tolerant and the cohabitation between Orthodox and Catholic Christians and Muslims is something normal.