The Director of the Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism, Mrs. Lejdi Dervishi, released an interview on MCN Television, where she presented an overview of the coordination activity of the CVE Center in the framework of preventing the phenomenon of radicalism and violent extremism.

Asked about the number of individuals who may be in the conflict countries, Mrs. Dervishi underlined that this number is flexible due to various reasons, but would prefer to focus on the phenomenon of radicalism and violent extremism and leave the numbers to “the law enforcement agencies responsible which have a clearer situation and concrete numbers”

Mrs. Dervishi underlined that the CVE Center has a coordinating function and is focused on preventing the phenomenon. During the interview, she stressed that “in our focus we have prevention, education, information, and awareness, because only by working with schools with local communities and structures can we prevent the phenomenon”

Asked about the relations with the religious communities in the country, specifically the Muslim one, Mrs. Dervishi said “we are proud that in May 2019, in these very offices, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Albanian Interreligious Council, which includes the officially recognized religious authorities in Albania”.

During the interview, attention was also paid to the experience of the CVE Center compared to that of countries in the region. In this regard, Mrs. Dervishi said that “Albania is the only country in the region that has built a Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism which does not depend from the Ministry of Interior or law enforcement institutions, but is a subordinate structure of the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for long-lasting policy making”.