Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare was awarded the “Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor” title by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday. Macron arrived in Tirana after a summit of European Union leaders with Western Balkan countries earlier in the day.
Apart from Kadare, the only Albanian who has been awarded as a “Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor” is Iljaz Vrioni, signatory of the Declaration of Independence of Albania and diplomat of the Albanian state. For his rich contribution to international relations, he was decorated by the French Republic in the 1920s as “Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor”.

By chance, it was Jusuf Vrioni, the son of Iliaz Vrioni, who with his brilliant translation of the novel “The General of the Dead Army” for the French reader gave Kadare’s work international fame.

Other names that have been honored with the “Order of the Legion of Honor” are: the writer Fatos Kongoli in the rank of Knight (2010); Drita Hadaj, President of the French Alliance of Tirana in the rank of Officer (2014) and Prime Minister Edi Rama in the rank of Commander (2017).

/k.s/