By Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al / Sazan Island and the entire Gulf of Vlora have recently become the headline of Albanian and regional media due to the visit of Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, regarding potential tourism investments. However, this is not the first time the area has garnered such significant attention. In the past, the Gulf of Vlora hosted some of the world’s most powerful figures, such as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Defense Minister Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, who visited on June 1, 1959. Accompanied by Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu, they toured the Pashaliman Naval Base, then a vital Warsaw Pact strategic point in the Mediterranean.
While Soviet leaders like Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov (who visited in 1957) prioritized the base, later Chinese allies like Zhou Enlai (1963) or Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh (1957) showed less interest. Despite Albania’s isolation after leaving the Warsaw Pact, its geostrategic importance led to dozens of border incidents involving Italian, Greek, and Yugoslav vessels until 1991.
One such incident occurred on April 30, 1970, involving the Italian trawler “Zeus-2”, which led to an exchange of fire with an Albanian Torpedo Boat (Kater Silurues). Below is the secret operational communiqué from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, published for the first time by Memorie.al.
SECRET OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATION OF THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR DATED 4 MAY 1970, ON THE EVENT NEAR THE ISLAND OF SAZAN, WITH THE INCIDENT BETWEEN THE ITALIAN SHIP “ZEUS – 2” AND THE FOUR TORPEDO BOATS OF THE ALBANIAN NAVAL FORCES
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA Secret
MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS Copy No. 1
GENERAL BRANCH Tirana, 4.5.1970
OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATION NO. 102
VLORA
On 30.4.1970, at 6.30, our fishing motorboat, “Antonio Gramshi”, notified the unit No. 9510 Vlorë, that in our waters, 5-6 miles west of the Sazan – Vjosë – Seman coast, 4 Italian fishermen were detected, fishing. It also reports that with great difficulty, it continues to stop one of the Italian fishermen, who is making every effort to leave our territorial waters and break away from it, as did the other three Italian fishermen.
At 07.00, the command of the upper division launched a torpedo boat in this direction, which after searching the region, at 9.55, at a distance of 12.8 miles west of Cape Semani, detected the violator of our territorial waters, the Italian fishing trawler without a flag, named “Zeus – 2”, which was being followed by our fishing trawler “Antonio Gramshi”. Our boat, with numerous signals and maneuvers, attempted to stop it, in order to escort it to the port of Vlora, but the fishing trawler “Zeus – 2”, continued its movement to move as far west as possible, using radio-location and conducting radio conversations with its correspondent. Since it did not obey the numerous signals to stop, our Kateri as a warning fired a short burst with a machine gun and then three more bursts, with a total of 14 rounds.
The direction of the fire was in the air, at an angle of 60 degrees to the side of the Italian fishing boat and none of the shells touched it. At this time, “Zeus-2” stopped, but did not accept the course towards Vlora, claiming that it had a breakdown, and in no way did it accept to catch the top of our fishing boat to tow it. In fact, “Zeus-2” did not have a breakdown and it continued to move slowly and in a disguised manner towards the west.
At 13.00, about a mile near Kateri, a seaplane flew, which immediately left towards the west. At 15.00, an Italian motorboat, armed with a machine gun, docked on board the fishing vessel “Zeus-2”. At 15.25, our Kateri left that region, because the communication was interrupted due to the discharge of the batteries and it was announced that another ship would be sent to replace it. At this time, the fishing vessel “Zeus-2” left.
The fishing vessel “Zeus-2” has violated our waters several times, which is confirmed by the statements of the crew of the Italian fishing vessel “Maria – Dorio”, which was caught fishing in our waters on 14.XI.1968. Considering that this vessel is equipped with radar equipment and has entered our waters several times as a fishing vessel, we think that by hunting, it disguises its actions for the purpose of detection and acts of diversion.
This is reinforced by the fact that this fisherman has never agreed to submit to the demands of our ships and only for this fisherman was the seaplane and the armed motorboat sent to help./Memorie.al
HEAD OF THE GENERAL BRANCH
PETRIT HAKANI
