Memorie.al / Mr. Dedja of the Mërnaçajs is one of those rare women, a stoic mountaineer, who has defied death in all the forms it has struck her…! I was fortunate to have talked extensively with her…! A few days ago, on January 22, 2025, it was the 35th anniversary of the death (murder) of her son, Nick Mërnaçaj. He was only 31 years old, after the protest they held against the communist leaders who came to Detroit on January 21, 1990…!
This is one of the many accounts I was able to gather from her. In the end, there is also the document that the State Security kept on the members of this family, in 1990! The story of Nikollë Mërnaçaj, who after 20 years in prison could not spend even one night in his own home, and whose life ended two days after his release, made us all doubt! The Berlin Wall had just fallen, and we had hopes that the day was coming for us to unite after half a century of emigration, and they in internment…!
It is now been years since the departure of Nikolla. That death poisoned us all, as most of our fellow countrymen had not known him at all. I myself had never seen him with my own eyes. In America, demonstrations had erupted during that period.
Testimony of Mr. Dedja-Mërnaçaj
“All the members of the Mërnaçaj family, young and old, joined in the demonstration, where Nika, my son, led us first. We went as a family, we demonstrated all day and returned home in the evening. Everyone who participated in the demonstration, that is the leadership, came to our house because they had all been together in the demonstration.
We stayed in our house, had dinner, and after eating, late at night, around 1 a.m., they decided to go the next day and continue the protest in Detroit. After it was mentioned that there was to be lunch for someone important, perhaps even Ramiz Alia, but I don’t remember well for 35 years have passed. After everyone got up, our second son said: ‘I must go for sure!’
To be honest, I called him aside and said: “Be careful, Nika, you’re going! It’s a bad time and something might happen to you! Don’t go there, we’ve given enough!’
– ‘Don’t be scared, Mom!’ – he told me, and he took it lightly, Nika reassured me! He turned to Pjetër Mërnaçaj:
– ‘Uncle, are you coming with me?!’
– ‘No! I can’t come, because of both the winter and my age!’ – Pjetri replied…
– ‘You’re not brave at all…! Don’t you dare come with me?!’
– ‘No,’ Pjetri said, ‘I can’t come!’
They, as a group, got ready, stood up, and set off. There were about 20 of them. There may have been more, but that’s how many left from our house… they headed to Detroit, where the ceremony was also to take place. Inside were all communists! They went and blocked the entrance, ready to confront the one who was the highest among them at the door…!
Everyone had gathered there, and he did not dare to step outside the door. That day, they protested as much as they could. The next day, they were making plans to return home. We spoke with the boy, and he told us in detail everything that had happened in Detroit, how they conducted the demonstration, and how they clashed with the communists and the guards. We have all the recordings from that day.
– “I swear to God,” I told Nika on the phone, “let it go and don’t push it any further, because if it were so, someone would have killed him long ago, those communists from Albania, and no one can kill him in Detroit, but they can do so back there!”
They spent that night there, and the next morning when he set off, he told me:
– “Mom, we are on our way back!”
As they reached about halfway from Detroit to New York, an accident occurred. From Pennsylvania, it was said that a large vehicle hit Nish’s car, dragging it 300 meters, and his foot got stuck under one of its wheels…! We were more than certain that the Albanian communist mafia had come out on him, and it was not true that he broke his neck himself!! Someone had learned about the incident, but we at home hadn’t heard anything. About thirty of them, mostly mountaineers, had gathered and were coming to us!
– “Pjetri called me on the phone and asked: What’s going on, Mr.? I said: Marashi is asleep; why, do you need something? ‘There’s trouble; we’re coming with some friends to stay a little!’
I was worried about Mark and Nikolla back in Albania, and I thought to myself: ‘Now that they know we demonstrated against the government of Tirana, something will happen to that poor guy in Albania!’ I didn’t think, I swear to God, at all about my son!
– “Did something happen, Pjetri?” – I asked, somewhat fearfully.
– “No, no! But we are coming to stay for a bit. These friends want to come and hang out with Marashi!”
– “Alright then, come on over; Marashi is alive, and I’m waking him up.”
When they came in, none of them could shake my hand! They all came in and stopped where you could see they were on fire! I was indeed spiraling in my thoughts. They turned towards me, shook my hand, and said: “God grant you strength for your son, Mri Dedja! For I felt the weight fully! It was the hardest day of my entire life!! I learned that Nika was killed, and all those people gathered there and stayed until midnight.
I had thought that after all the evils I had endured and suffered, I would not see any more bad in the world. I had seen enough, indeed far too much, since I was five years old. I had lost my father, uncles, two brothers, my mother; I had grown up alone…! But what happened on January 22, 1990, was the most painful!
Now, everyone who was there got up to go see where Nika had been killed! When they reached halfway, there was snow and ice, and no vehicles were allowed to pass through there. My children had gone, along with Nika’s wife! She, being from the mountains, had dared to say: “I want to go with you too!” – and they set off together. Somewhere, they were stopped and not allowed to go any further. The next day, Nika Mërnaçaj’s lifeless body was brought to New York.
I was always thinking! In my house, I had seen plenty of evils and thought I would never see anything worse again. My children cried to me; “Mom, from you we have no uncle, no aunt, no grandfather, and no grandmother…! What has happened to your house, mom, that we have no one from you?!” What could I tell them?! They had never been happy from their mother’s side…!
When Marashi found out about Nika’s death, not a single drop of blood remained on his face…! Early the next morning, when he got up, he took Nika’s jacket and wrapped it around himself… and he went and collapsed on his bed…! He wasn’t just weeping; he was crying like a mountaineer when heroes weep: with a loud wail…! I asked the children where Tata was; they told me; “He’s downstairs!” I went downstairs and said to him:
– “Marash, buddy! – he neither looked at me nor spoke – Marash, be strong! The world will soon come to your door, don’t despair! Our son has died! He is gone now! We need to hold ourselves together, because I have it harder than you, and we must endure as we should, even in the misfortune that has found us!”
Marashi got up, put on Nika’s jacket on the bed, and stood tall! For a week, the people came to the organized funeral for Nick Mërnaçaj. The American state documented everything. About three thousand people came to “pay their respects” at our home during the five days of mourning. Three thousand people entered and exited our home for Nick Mërnaçaj.
I can say that representatives of the American state, as well as those from the Yonkers City Council, the city where we had lived for nearly half a century, showed us much respect toward Nika, a gesture that had not happened for anyone else. They brought their service people and told us: “We have taken measures to take care of all these people who are here! With food and all services! You stay with the people and don’t touch anything! Everything you need, you will get from the state! You’ve had enough pain over your son…!”
Even for that God, they came and worked for five days, distributing bread to those who came to pay their respects, and no one left their duty. It was wintertime, and this place was completely filled with people, inside and outside, during those dark days, which were incredibly painful for our family…!
State Security File for Marash Mërnaçaj
By order of comrade Hekuran, he should not be allowed to come!
(Signature)
Secret
Copy No.
Tirana, 28.07.1990
Implication
In the demonstration of January 1990, held in New York, the fugitive Marash Mërnaçaj participated, along with his wife and sons, from Shkodra. Memorie.al
Operational Worker
Aleksandër Thana
(Signature)
