www.albca.com/aclis/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=17ACLIS - Albanian Canadian League Information Service - A logistic office of Albanian Canadian League
Albanian Dossier:
General public debates on the past
Major public debates on the past: There have only been isolated
debates over the past 16 years, many of them with a narrow focus.
After Law Nr.2 described above went out of effect at the end of
2001, there was a temporary
lull relating to the Communist past of Albania or the files of the
secret police, but a kind of public debate re-emerged late in 2003
and early in 2004.
Among other things, a prominent Albanian writer, Ismail Kadare,
published an open letter to the President of Albania, calling for
the opening of the files of writers from the Communist era. He
stated that his request was prompted by an appeal made to him 44
Manual on Lustration, Public Access to Files of the Secret
Services and Public Debates on the Past in the Western Balkans
Country Overview: Albania by the relatives of Vilson Blloshmi and
Genc Leka, two writers who had been executed toward the end of the
Communist regime.They were the last two literary men sentenced to
death - not only in Albania but across the Communist dictatorships
of the region.
Kadare’s letter received a favourable response from President
Moisiu,who suggested a legislative initiative on the issue. (It
may be noted parenthetically that a book by the director of the
state archives, Shaban Sinani, involving Kadare’s own files, is
about to be published.) All of these events prompted a broader and
rather stormy discussion, particularly in the press and the
electronic media. Journalists and civil society members discussed
the wisdom of such an action or of broader or different types of
action in general. At the same time, former politically persecuted
persons renewed their efforts for a law to give them compensation
for Communist era imprisonment, and while a law was enacted, they
considered the level of compensation to be too low and the
situation remains unsettled.
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Albanian Dossier:
Albania's King Zog Buys Gold Coast Estate
It happened in Long Island, New York
1951:Albania's King Zog Buys Gold Coast Estate
In 1951, Zog bought the Knollwood estate in Muttontown, New York,
for approximately
$102,800, though some stories claim that he bought the mansion for
a bucket of diamonds and rubies. The sixty-room estate was
described as a castle. Zog intended Knollwood to be his
kingdom-in-exile, staffed by loyal Albanian subjects.
Nevertheless, Zog never moved into the mansion. The house was
never used and Zog sold the estate in 1955, by which point vandals
had done over $8,000 worth of damage to it, apparently hunting for
treasure, in his absence. The mansion was later further vandalized
and parts of it have since been torn down.
When Zog went to the United States, he wanted to bring along his
entire 115-member Royal Court, but the immigration authorities
only allowed twenty members to come. Zog tried unsuccessfully to
bribe the American Senate to permit the rest to join him.
Zog finally chose to make his home in France living the lifestyle
favoured by exiled monarchs, that of the Riviera recluse. Zog
passed away in France in a hospital in Hauts-de-Seine, on April 9,
1961 at the age of 65 but had been seriously ill for some time, he
was survived by his wife and son. He is buried at the Thiais
Cemetery in Paris. His widow, HM Queen Geraldine, died of natural
causes in 2002 at the age of 87 in a military hospital in Tirana,
Albania.
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Albanian History:
Hamit Matjani -"the Tiger" described as Legendary
Zenel Shehu, Nalil Sufa , Hamit Matjani and others were put on a
show trial, which found all guilty as charged. Shehu, Sula and the
royal guards were to be shot, Matjani to be hanged. Many of the
local inhabitants who were suspected of having helped the
guerrillas, were jailed or forcibly located elsewhere in Albania.
Whatever remained of the anticommunist resistance was virtually
erased.
The Albanian Subversion is one of the earliest and most notable
failures of the Western counter-
intelligence covert operations behind the Iron Curtain. Based on
wrong assessments about Albania, and thinking that the country was
ready to shake off it Stalinist regime, the British SIS and the
American CIA launched a subversive operation using as agents
Albanian expatriates. A Soviet mole tipped of the mission to
Moscow, which in turn relayed the information to Albania.
Consequently, all agents were caught, put on a show-trial and
either shot or condemned to hard labor for life.
The Albanian subversion cost the lives of at least 300 men and for
a long time has remained one of the most carefully concealed
secrets of the Cold War. For the West it was a humiliating
operational disaster, whereas for the East, while an operational
triumph, news of Western infiltration would have send the wrong
message throughout the Communist Block.
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Albanian Dossier:
A somewhat unknown History
Israeli Ambassador Mark Sofer spoke about historical links to
Albania. "Not only in Israel, but all over the world, Jews admire
Albania. Not just for the period of World War II, when Albania
saved the Jews, but also because the country is well-known for its
respect towards us. I can say that Albania has never had
anti-Semitism," he said.
ACLIS has published 10 Chapters of Neshat Tozaj's book "They were
not brothers and yet...", a book based on a dramatic reality of
World War II, when Albanians have saved and helped jewish people
from the nazi masive extermination. Click here..
In his work "They were brothers and not yet... Albania 1943-1944"
Neshat Tozaj describes the
Jewish community that had been present in Albania for centuries as
well as Jews from other countries welcomed during, hidden and
protected during the second world war. "Shalom", the original
title of the work published in Albania has been modified for
French readers since we wished to reach them in all their
diversity.
The author deals with this period with an approach different to
that which one is used to reading, hearing or seeing in most
documentaries. The Jewish community is not only depicted as a
persecuted community but also as an Albanian community living
among other Albanians, united in the same struggle against Nazism
and Fascism. A struggle carried on to protect life, human dignity,
the property of each person an the cultural heritage. The joint
commitment to this fight and friendship taken to the ultimate
sacrificed by non-Jewish Albanians to save their brothers and
their guests set an example that is almost unique and especially
unusual in History.
This book, very largely inspired by actual facts, is an
opportunity to pay homage to a little nation often forgotten,
which was merely doing its duty in barbarous times.
The publication of this book, apart from the moment of history
that it reveals, seems to me to be essential and salutary for many
people, starting with the youngest, of all origins, religions or
other philosophical allegiances.
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Albanian Dossier:
Ramiz Alia's Pragmatism
On succeeding to Hoxha's party leadership post in 1985, Alia
reassessed Albania's foreign policy. He realized that it was
imperative for Albania to expand its contacts with the outside
world if it were to improve its economic situation.
He was eager in particular to introduce Western technology,
although limited foreign-currency reserves and constitutional bans
on foreign loans and credits restricted Albania's ability to
import technology.
Alia's public statements indicated that in pursuing his country's
foreign policy objectives he would be less rigid than his
predecessor and put political and economic concerns ahead of
ideological ones. Thus, at the seventy-fifth anniversary of
Albania's independence in 1987, Alia stated, "We do not hesitate
to cooperate with others and we do not fear their power and
wealth. On the contrary, we seek such cooperation because we
consider it a factor that will contribute to our internal
development."
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Albanian Dossier:
A NEW NUREMBERG FOR COMMUNISTS
Albania is one of the former Communist Countries who has suffered
a lot from the Communist Genocide. Compare to its small population
of over 3 millions, it has suffered the lost of 5,000 people (500
of them were women) shot to death by Communist Death Squads and
more 200,000 people interned from their houses to rural and
internment labour camps. Here is the list of more than 500
Albanian High Ranking Communists who are accused for atrocities
and Crimes against Albanian People. This List is in Albanian with
some of 500 names of Communist Criminals
The totalitarian communist regimes which ruled in Central and
Eastern Europe in the last
century, and which are still in power in several countries in the
world, have been, without exception, characterised by the massive
violation of human rights.
According to cautious estimations (exact data is not available)
the number of people killed by the communist regimes divided by
countries or regions can be made up as follows:
the Soviet Union: 20 million victims
China: 65 million
Vietnam: 1 million
North Korea: 2 million
Cambodia: 2 million
Eastern Europe: 1 million
Latin America: 150 000
Africa: 1,7 million
Afghanistan: 1,5 million
The Parliamentary Assembly is of the opinion that the public
awareness of crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes is
very poor.
It strongly condemns human rights violations and calls on all
communist or post-communist parties in its member states which
have so far not done so, to reassess the history of communism and
their own past, clearly distance themselves from the crimes
committed by totalitarian communist regimes and condemn them
without any ambiguity.
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Albanian Dossier:
THIS BLOOD FEUD WITH KALASHNIKOV IS BARBARIAN
Ismail Kadare
Writer
“…This blood feud marks an epoch when the state did not impose its
laws ... and it derived from a very accurate code, without grew
areas … in the areas where Kanun was applicable the right for
self-justice does not exist…”.
– from the preface of the novel “Broken April”.
“Law and Life”” correspondent:
Mr. Kadare, blood feud has taken an important place in your works.
How would you rephrase it
today: an Albanian phenomenon, Albanian –Balcanic phenomenon, or a
typical phenomenon present in any society in transition?
Ismail Kadare:
Blood feud is a deep-rooted phenomenon, not only in the Balkan
countries but worldwide. It is not true that it is only an
Albanian specialty, as it’s presented. Blood feud was present
since the Greek antiquity. Several times, I have stressed that a
part of the Greek tragedies dwell on this universal phenomenon,
which is known in all countries. It is a sin for Albanians to
accept this negative phenomenon as pertaining only to their world.
For this reason, it should be clear to everybody that although in
our country blood feud has continued to exist as an institution
for a longer period of time, it still exists in Corsica of France,
southern Italy as well as in isolated areas in the world.
