Commemorative Ceremony for the Martyrs of the State Police and the Homeland

Speech by the Director General of the State Police, Chief Director Skender Hita
Commemorative Ceremony for the Martyrs of the State Police and the Homeland
May 5, 2026
Dear family members of our beloved colleagues, honorable deputy ministers, honorable partners, and colleagues, guests, and participants,
Today, we have not gathered simply to remember a date. We have gathered to acknowledge an absence that speaks louder than our presence. We are here before a silence that is not emptiness, but a legacy. We are here before names engraved not only on memorial plaques but also carved into the conscience of a nation that must never forget the human cost of its security.
May 5, the Day of the Martyrs of the State Police and the Homeland, is a day when the uniform is seen not merely as a duty but as an oath, an invisible line between ordinary life and extraordinary sacrifice.
Our martyrs were not statues. They were not distant figures. They were sons whom their mothers awaited at the doorstep. They were fathers who never returned home for dinner. They were husbands who left unfinished a gentle word, a small promise, or a dream of a home. They were parents who did not live to see their children grow up, yet they left behind the heaviest and noblest inheritance: a name of honor.
Every nation’s history includes people who don’t seek applause but leave behind light. The martyrs of the State Police and of the homeland are among them. They are the rare individuals who, when life demanded the most impossible choice, did not choose themselves—they chose the law, duty, the citizen, and Albania.
For this reason, today, before their families, we cannot speak with ordinary words. The pain, pride, and absence you carry in your homes are not ordinary.
Dear family members of the martyrs, you are the quietest and greatest part of this sacrifice. We owe you respect, gratitude, care, presence, dignity, and everlasting remembrance. A martyr belongs not only to his family. He belongs to the Republic. He belongs to the flag. He belongs to every citizen who lives in the peace he defended.
For every police officer, today is a day of reflection and a call to action. It is a mirror to reflect on the weight of the uniform we wear. It is a call to never forget that authority without humanity is cold and that law without spirit is distant. The State Police are not only the force that fights crime. It is also the helping hand for the elderly, the calming voice for citizens, the presence that restores trust, and the vigilant eye while others rest.
Our martyrs teach us that a uniform is honored not by rank, but by character. Its luster does not come from the metal of the badge, but from the morality of the person who wears it. The uniform is made sacred not by ceremony, but by the readiness to stand where danger is greater than fear.
When we place wreaths, bow our heads, and speak their names today, we are doing more than performing a ritual. We are renewing an unwritten contract with memory. It’s a promise that says, “We will not forget you.” We will not allow your names to fade. We will not let time cover your traces with the dust of indifference.
Because a state that forgets its martyrs impoverishes its soul. Conversely, a state that honors its martyrs builds a fairer, safer, and more humane future upon their sacrifice.
Today, on behalf of the Albanian State Police, I express the deepest respect for all police officers who gave their lives in the line of duty.
To those who left home in uniform one morning and never had the chance to say goodbye, who returned to eternity wrapped in a flag, I say this: Your message will never fade. Duty, when carried out with honesty, becomes greater than life itself.
May 5 is not a day of sorrow. It is a day of pride filled with pain and pain filled with pride, both at the same time and without compromise. Two hundred and thirty-one martyrs fell standing, and we State Police have only one duty: never to kneel.

May we remember them not only with pain, but also as a compass, not only as a ceremony, but also as a conscience, and not only as history, but also as inspiration.
Glory to the martyrs of the State Police and the homeland!
Eternal honor to their families!
Thank you!