Memorie.al / The wife of Kujtim, the son of the brother of the former communist Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, recount her life as a bride in the Shehu family. The relationship she had with Mehmet’s sons, the tragic end of her father-in-law, Arshi, whom after the sensational event of December ’81 the State Security incited to commit suicide, by throwing himself off a bridge in a village near Fier, and her unforgettable wedding, where the Shehu clan was reunited after years of separation… after, when the whole family of her husband had paid the tolls of the communist system, with a “suicided” father-in-law, two sisters-in-law separated from their husbands due to the event of December ’81, a husband with a half-job and professional merits that he never received just because of his uncle, Mehmet Shehu, Teuta thought that the “blood feuds” would have ended and everything within the relationships of that clan would have returned to normalcy.
As much as there was fear of associating with the Shehus, there was also a curiosity that gnawed at her from within to get to know one of the families that had been talked about the most during the communist system, certainly after Enver Hoxha. The atmosphere she found in her husband’s family, the nephew of the former Prime Minister, turned all her predictions upside down. At first, every communication resembled that of deaf-mutes, only with gestures and signs, because the family was being wiretapped.
Teuta clearly understood that her life would not be easy (not that she hadn’t thought about it before), but the beginning of a new political era, such as the eve of democracy, had been mentioned positively, making her aware that the dictatorial period had ended…! Her marriage to Kujtim and the moments of the wedding remain unforgettable for her.
More tears of joy, touching faces and bodies with hands to see how much they had changed, surprise, pain, a reunion of the Shehu clan like never before, and moreover, everything coincided with the release from prison of Mehmet’s two sons, Skënder and Bashkim. For Teuta, the chapter of life that came after, as part of the family of Mehmet Shehu’s nephew, was not as impressive as the one of the wedding…!
Ms. Teuta, for years Mehmet Shehu has been widely discussed in the media. After the 100th anniversary of his birth and the interview of his son, Skënder, how do you, the wife of the former communist Prime Minister’s nephew, assess this resurgence of media interest in his figure?
I have followed it with curiosity. On his birthday, I was very impressed by the lack of presence of the media, both written and visual. I say this with conviction, also being aware of the fact that all the media in the country had been notified without exception about this commemorative event, while their distancing impressed me.
I would not consider it negligence, but rather fear among those who try to deal with the figure of Mehmet Shehu again. I also noticed it at the National Museum, when the commemorative event of his birthday was taking place. Many of the people who were outside pulled my jacket, telling me what I needed to participate for, that I’d better stay outside like them…!
I think that everything that has been said or alluded to about the truth of his (self-) killing are just rumors. We as a family, along with my husband, Kujtim, who is Mehmet Shehu’s nephew, have avoided the problem and the attempt to deal with his figure.
Your husband is the son of Arshi, Mehmet Shehu’s second brother. How did you meet Kujtim and how did you decide to become a bride in the Shehu family?
Our acquaintance was not just luck. Which family would take the nephew of the “criminal” Mehmet Shehu as a son-in-law, as he was also called in those years?! Our acquaintance happened under the conditions that both our families were marked, we were declassed; me on my parents’ side and Kujtim, without a doubt, on his own.
But the reason for the acquaintance was a cousin of mine, who had a first thought in her head before she introduced me to Kujtim while he was working as a mechanical engineer in Fier, the fact that in the conditions we were in, only a marked family could fit. While I worked as a primary school teacher in the village of Mokër in Pogradec. I was aware that in other circumstances I might have made a different choice.
But I also trusted the persistence of my father, to whom the first meeting with Kujtim had given a lot of credibility. While in my clan, everyone was against this marriage. They were scared, because we had a gray biography, now we would make it completely black. Many cousins told me to my face: “Teuta, you shouldn’t marry Kujtim”!
Were you afraid before you accepted the marriage proposal from Kujtim?
Of course. I was afraid, because Mehmet Shehu was considered a “criminal” and the consequences for people who associated with his family were known. However, I also had a curiosity to get to know this family connected to power up close, which had been talked about so much.
You said that your family, on your parents’ side, was also one of those hit by the communist regime. What is the story?
My grandfather, Qani Sulstarova, was one of the richest people in Pogradec, so my father was one of the city’s beys. Being a “kulak” was the first reason why we were hit by the communist system and got the name “declassed.”
A significant part of the property was confiscated, while some of my father’s cousins, sons of uncles, had been active with the ‘Balli Kombëtar’, and by calling them ‘Balli’ exponents, the consequences were inevitably unavoidable.
On my mother’s side, I have the surname Hysenbegasi, also kulak families, but extremely persecuted by the communist regime. These were the reasons why the First Assault Brigade, led by Commander Mehmet Shehu, burned down our house in Pogradec twice. Normally, we should have been in a feud with the Shehus after all those things that had happened to us. But, in ’90, all that anger turned into a blood union, because my marriage to Kujtim changed a lot of things. It was said at that time that; “the family of the criminal Mehmet Shehu was united with the blood of the beys of Pogradec, Sulstarova.”
The wedding day for every woman remains one of the most beautiful memories of life. What do you remember?
Our wedding was in May 1991, while Mehmet’s sons, Skënder and Bashkim, had been released from prison in March. During the months of the engagement, I lived with the concern of my husband’s family about where his cousins, Mehmet’s sons, were, in which prisons they were serving their sentences, because the family members had not had any information for years about the place where they were serving their sentences.
Moreover, anyone who tried to ask for more details would be urgently summoned to the Internal Branch the next day to give explanations about the request. Therefore, the evening of my wedding with Kujtim was an extraordinary reunion between the Shehu clan, who a little while ago thought they had all disappeared. I saw great pain in those people.
For 10 years, not a single small child had been born in the Shehu clan, not a baby’s cry had been heard. During the evening, I saw the boys crying, who met each other while expressing surprise that they were still alive. Mehmet’s sons were also emotional.
I heard screams among people, sobbing while crying as they touched each other’s faces with their hands and realized how much they had changed. For me, they were very difficult moments. But, at the same time, there was also the fear that among the wedding guests, there might be those who were eavesdropping, or Security people, who could cause us problems.
10 years had passed since the event of December 1981, but what was the atmosphere you found in Kujtim’s family?
Everything was so unpredictable. They were people scared to the bone. I was a young girl, who had just left her family and wanted to express myself, to communicate, but in my husband’s family, from the day it was confirmed that they were being eavesdropped on, they only spoke with signs. Not a word, not a sound. One day, my mother-in-law had gone to the neighbor one floor below to ask for yogurt and was horrified when she saw some wires and apparatus in the corners of the corridor. She goes upstairs and immediately tells my husband that they were being bugged.
This led Kujtim, being an engineer, to create an apparatus that disabled the eavesdropping waves. The atmosphere in the family was very tense. At home, I found two sisters-in-law separated from their husbands, divorces that had come immediately after Mehmet Shehu’s (self-) killing.
The only one who was not abandoned by her husband was Shqiponja. Pirro Stefani, her husband, remained the Shehus’ favorite son-in-law for a long time, because he refused to divorce his wife. He went into exile for many years and was not separated from Shqiponja.
Your sister-in-law, Shqiponja, is the girl that Mehmet Shehu himself raised?
Yes, that’s true. This act of his slightly softens the myth of the harsh and wild man. I know that Mehmet decided to raise Shqiponja as his daughter, not only for the fact that he had only three sons, but because my father-in-law had many children, the economic conditions were not so suitable, so, to help Arshi, his brother, he decided to take Shqiponja and keep her in his house. I just saw it as a humane gesture.
And your father-in-law, Arshi, what kind of nature did he have, did he resemble Mehmet?
They looked like two drops of water. Not only in their external appearance, which was almost identical, but also in their character typologies there was a resemblance. Correct, authoritarian. Arshi suffered from a severe headache for many years, after the loss of a child. This tragic story, when during the shelter in the mountains of Tepelena at the time of the German occupation, the years 1943-1944, their six-month-old baby was crying loudly, while next door was the partisan hospital.
It was found that the Germans were approaching and the baby’s cries could be the cause for the partisans and the whole base there to be discovered. So, one of the guard’s takes the baby from my mother-in-law Semine’s hand and throws it from the rock below. The tragic death of the child caused both of them to suffer trauma, while my father-in-law, for many years, suffered from a headache. He did not find a cure, even though his brother, Mehmet, sent him for medical visits to Austria, Switzerland.
His tragic end is still a mystery, isn’t it?
I believe so. Although the severe headache did not allow him to have a peaceful life, this was not a factor that could push him towards suicide. After the ’81 event, my father-in-law was incited to commit suicide, with the idea that the Shehus are like that… they kill themselves.
This is what happened with Vladimir, Mehmet’s eldest son. Everything was calculated to be called suicide, just like in my father-in-law’s case…! It is said that Security people incited him to jump from a bridge in a village near Fier, where he also worked at the SMT of this city.
What is your relationship with your husband’s cousins, Mehmet Shehu’s sons?
We have a correct relationship with Mehmet’s sons. To be honest, at first our meetings were more frequent, especially after being released from prison, they needed people, support. Later they left the country, and the communication normally became less frequent.
But a person always needs his own blood, his own person, so even when Bashkim got married for the second time, my husband was his support, because he came to meet him at home, they both talked. I cannot give more details.
Throughout the conversation, you have consistently avoided the topic of Mehmet Shehu’s suicide. Why?
I cannot talk about this issue, because I am a bride in the Shehu family, and from this position, I cannot make statements. I heard about the event of 1981, like everyone else, on television, that Mehmet Shehu killed himself!
Later, when I became part of the family, I learned that there was a hermetic network around, we should neither talk nor associate with his name. I remember, a few years ago, I happened to be with my husband during the work on Mehmet’s bust, which was to be placed in Mallakastër.
Fatos Klosi, the head of SHISH, was also there. My husband warned Fatos not to deal with Mehmet, because he would suffer the consequences…! It wasn’t long before he was removed from his position. Perhaps the motives may have been different, perhaps it was a coincidence, but this episode made me understand that you really shouldn’t deal with the figure of Mehmet Shehu.
Which scenario do you believe that of his murder or suicide?
Mehmet Shehu at all times did his duty as the country’s Prime Minister, even though he sometimes had his own impulsiveness. We as a family do not support the act or the various crimes that have been served by writings or by the media in relation to him. On the other hand, I believe that everything was a scheme that had to be implemented, just as many others had to be interned, imprisoned or disappeared.
After Mehmet, Vladimir and my father-in-law, in the latter the event was conveyed as suicide with the goal of continuity, that these people all have it in their blood, they kill themselves… I, as the bride of Mehmet Shehu’s nephew, say and at the same time believe that, knowing them closely and living with them, there is no Shehu to kill himself!
How do you remember finding Mehmet Shehu’s remains and reburying them in the Sharra cemetery in Tirana?
The reburial of Mehmet Shehu’s remains was a solemn moment for the whole family. After being released from prison, in March 1991, Mehmet’s two sons, Skënder and Bashkim, decided to deal with finding their father’s remains.
I have that hot July day in 2001 fixed in my memory, when supporters of Mehmet Shehu, relatives, people from Mallakastër and many other people had gathered together in the Sharra cemetery in Tirana, to rebury Mehmet’s remains, after a multi-year search and their discovery by the two sons. / Memorie.al
