By Hamza Kazazi
Part One
Memorie.al / Seventy-seven years after the event and twenty-nine years into democracy (a democracy of sorts), the truth about the Battle of Reç remain unrevealed; especially since 2013, it has been commemorated from only one side. I have managed to find documents that prove the truth: the merits belong primarily to Balli Kombëtar and Legaliteti, while the communists rank third – who undoubtedly also fought, but are being given all the credit while others are eliminated. The participation of the people of Reç and the surrounding area also cannot be forgotten. Thus, the truth of history is being defrauded, and the politics that rule today usurp it, leaving it only to the communists, acting just as they did during the dictatorship. I cry out then: Where is our politics, which does not want to know?
Where is the center and the center-right – Balli and Legaliteti, to whom it belongs, the Democratic Party, the Republicans, etc. – but also any left-wing party, if it were truthful and not extremist or nostalgic for communism? It belongs to politics to deal with issues such as this, and they must understand that it is also part of the propaganda to win sympathy among the electorate and the people. They should go to Reç when it is commemorated and take their place on the podium by merit, and they should not wait for invitations. In fact, during the governance of the Democratic Party, even communists like Qazim Kapisyzi and others used to be invited and had their place on the podium.
Unfortunately, this is not understood and acted upon as in every other country of the advanced world. Someone might say that one who does not understand politics is trying to teach us. I love my country; I want to see it as the best in the world. I have the education from my elders and the experience of life – though heavy for many years – and I feel this issue, as I do many others. Among the greatest battles in our country against the occupier is the Battle of Reç on August 30–31, 1943, where about 40 Italians were killed and over 100 were wounded.
(I have taken these figures from other publications and from hearsay, as I have not found documents for them). For this event of value to our history, the truth must be brought to light. Articles have been written, and a book by Mentor Quku with data from the archives, although some important ones are missing, and it also contains interviews. I will not speak of the details of the fight, but of matters of importance, for the truth.
Jup Kazazi was the primary figure and held the great merit – which is documented – of organizing the Battle of Reç, where Ballists, Legalists, communists, and simple folk fought together. I will present documents for this. For approximately five years after “liberation,” that battle was not celebrated or spoken of because it was fresh; then communism appropriated it entirely, distorting the truth, and they began to celebrate and write about it every year. Not only is it untrue, but those who wrote, deceived, and slandered – such as Sadik Bekteshi, Rexhep Haka, Qazim and Fadil Kapisyzi, etc. – were committing a crime. They made the battle entirely theirs and, moreover, portrayed Jup Kazazi and the “reaction” as traitors and criminals, claiming they had fought alongside the Italians against the communists.
Some of them later received these same epithets themselves and were condemned by their own communism under charges of being “enemies of the people.” For this, one should look at the newspapers Bashkimi and Zëri i Popullit from August 31st, or near it, of every year – especially until 1975 – to see the vile things they wrote while some who were later condemned were still standing. Nevertheless, they have continued and unfortunately still continue almost like them, even in the years of democracy.
Important for comparison with other writings and for extracting some truths is the article by Qazim Kapisyzi in Zëri i Popullit dated September 1, 1993, titled: “Great and Always Current Messages,” where he writes about the Battle of Reç. He uses the style from when he was in power and shamelessly appropriates the battle as theirs, making the “reaction” a collaborator that fought alongside the Italians against them. He writes as he did once: “The Italian fascists, in cooperation with the leaders of the country’s reaction, foreseeing the swift capitulation of Italy, to exclude the possibility of Shkodra’s occupation by the National Liberation forces, undertook the attack against the partisan forces…”!
There were no Albanian forces that fought against Albanians in Reç; the Italian army fought there. He again vilely distorts the truth, as he and his comrades once did. The opposite is proven by documents, and I am explaining below that the Italians attacked Reç primarily because the “Committee for the Salvation of Albania” was created under Jup’s initiative and leadership, where all hree political forces united. Kapisyzi tells a “lie with a tail” [a blatant lie], as they say in Shkodra, when he says that the Italians attacked Reç because of their [partisan] squad, which wanted to liberate Shkodra! It was exactly the opposite. In this, too, he falsifies the truth and appropriates the merit of others.
Kapisyzi writes with the pomposity of the communist style that: “on August 30, 1200 Italian soldiers came and fought in a 30 to 1 proportion with the first squad of the ‘Perlat Rexhepi’ battalion, with about 40 people (in fact about 30), but they, with their bravery and courage, defeated them badly.” Thus, only they have the merits and the “reaction” fought alongside the Italians against them, while those 40 people broke 1200 people and killed 40 Italians – 30 times their number. As a participant in the fight, he approaches the truth regarding the number of 40 partisans, which was always enlarged by them; it is proven that it was not a battalion of 140 people, as they wrote and continue to write.
According to him: “as soon as the shooting started, the partisans of the first squad were immediately joined by the brave highlanders of Reç and nearby villages, as well as the second squad of the battalion. The miracle happened…” etc., etc. No second squad arrived there. Lieutenant Fadil Deliallisi with 40 soldiers crossed over to their side, but they fought separately from the army formations and after the Battle of Reç, they united and became the basis for the creation of the “Perlat Rexhepi” battalion, which together with the squads reached, as they say, 140 people. The battalion was created later. Thus, I do not consider the 80–90 soldiers with 8 officers and commanders of “Balli” – Majors Zenel Kazazi and Dilaver Dine – whom Zenel brought to Reç, where his brother Jup was.
In their footsteps, Shaqir Vukaj also massacres the truth with his writings on August 31 and September 1, 2009, in Shekulli, passing the merits, as in the old days, to “his side,” in the articles: “The Truth of the Battle of Reç” and “Reç 1943, the Ballists in aid of the partisans”!! Similarly, he distorts the truth by deforming documents in the writing in Dita newspaper, dated August 22 and 23, 2016. As I have said above, the truth is that among the partisans, there was one squad with no more than 30 people, not 140. His father, Bejto Faslia, cooperated with Jup, and there are documents of the State Archive for this.
He was to be one of the assassins of Jacomoni, the King’s deputy, organized by Jup, but it was not achieved. I never held it against his family that when they came from Reç to Shkodra, they lived in the Kazazi house. We were outside, killed, imprisoned, persecuted to the extreme, and completely dispossessed, while his family lived in our house. His writing, filled with bitterness toward Jup Kazazi, made me recall it and pull it from the depths of the suffering where it remained, so as not to forget it.
After this unrealistic writing intended for denigration, I also add his family as accomplices with the dictatorial regime, as long as we were thrown into the street; likewise, his father, as an employee of the Party Committee, implemented the class struggle against innocent families and people. For this, the designation of “kulaks,” which destroyed the lives of entire families, is enough. I have made my rebuttal and will not continue to clarify the smearing of my father.
If Shaqir Vukaj sincerely wanted to bring out the truth, he should have based it on the documents I present. He had the doors of the archive open, and it is impossible that these did not come out to him, while I, after more than 20 years, have managed to collect them little by little, and surely there are others. For Shaqir Vukaj, it is inexcusable because he has not only deformed but deliberately falsified the document below, giving merit only to the communists and without mentioning Jup Kazazi, etc.:
“In the restricted letter dated August 27, 1943, addressed to the Command of the ECTU Sector, it is said: We are now informed that according to data from the Shkrel Commune, the communist squads have joined the residents of the village of Reç in the region of the upper commune, which according to signs, consists of about 800 well-armed people and they are installed at the Church of Reç and its vicinity.
For the information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Tirana.
Vice-Prefect and Quaestor Dh. Bala.”
Whereas the real letter says:
“Albanian Kingdom / Shkodra Prefecture / No. 396 Restricted / Shkodra, August 27, 1943 / To the Sub-sector Command / Here: We are now informed by the Sub-prefecture of Tuz that according to information given by the Shkrel Commune, the communist squads have joined with the residents of the village of Reç in the region of the upper Commune, which according to reports, consists of about 800 well-armed people and they are installed at the Church of Reç and its vicinities. As leaders of this squad, it is said are Jup Kazazi and Ibrahim Mandiqi, former Commander of the Kaptina Bgt. Please dispose of measures you may see fit.
Vice-Prefect and Quaestor. Dh. Bala”
Thus, observing the orthographic and grammatical errors, it appears that the communist squad was also united with others, totaling 800 people, headed by Jup of Balli and Ibrahim Mandiqi of Legaliteti, who could not have been leaders of the communist squad, and there is no way there was a [partisan] squad of 800 people. Below, two other documents will appear stating that 500 people gathered under the leadership of Jup Kazazi. In a truly democratic country, this is punishable by law. Certainly, the fight of the communists is not denied, but it shouldn’t continue as before, taking the merits of others – and not only taking them but making them traitors and enemies.
The communists participated and fought with 30 people, thus much less than Balli with three squads and Legaliteti with two. We must reason and judge: what Sadik Bekteshi and his comrades wrote, and what continues, falls apart as a deception of history and slander, and no one can contradict it because I reject it with documents. Communism continued with this style even for its own people when it eliminated them. The truth is proven by many documents of the State Archive, besides writings and testimonies. In Reç, all three political sides fought the deserting regiment of Ulqin, and with them, the residents of Reç and the surroundings.
Jup Kazazi and his fellow fighters respected their political opponents and, moreover, whoever fought the occupier. He had Western ideas and culture and implemented the Mukje Agreement. He did not consider those with a different ideal as enemies and traitors because he had a sense of democracy and respected the right of a person to their ideas and thoughts. That was done by the communists, who during the War and later during their dictatorship killed, imprisoned, and interned thousands of patriots, and persecuted their families and kin for 46 years, besides dispossessing them. This was among the greatest crimes of humanity. Jup came into conflict with them when it was seen openly that they were sold out to the Slavs, wanted to gift them Kosovo, and to physically eliminate political opponents, as they indeed acted and time proved.
For this reason, they wanted him dead. Thus, the communists and philo-communists who do not condemn this – the class struggle, the persecution, and the crimes it committed – should stay quiet and not be heard, for they have no right even to speak. He who does not condemn the crime becomes one with it. I respect the idea and thought of the other and one can even be a communist in some principles, but not to fail to condemn and, moreover, to protect the crime and to be for the class struggle and for what communism did here and everywhere in the world. Why did the Italians attack Reç with the IX Army? Was it because there were two squads of partisans, as some say even today? Was it because there were three squads of Balli and two of Legaliteti? Not true at all!
The reason they attacked Reç and who organized it is proven by the letter of the Minister of Interior No. 635/206 dated August 28, 1943, addressed to the IX Army Command, consisting of 3 pages, and it is strange that in no writing or study does it appear, and I published it for the first time. This document is very important and proves and explains the Battle of Reç and why they attacked. With this document and others, those things said before and that continue to be said even after 2013 in the commemoration of the Battle in Reç, fall apart.
Among other things, that document states: “On August 15, the various squads gathered in Gradiski of Lohja, and the chairman of the commission, Jup Kazazi, reads them a letter from Lumo Skendo (Mid’hat Frashëri), and that the ‘Committee for the Salvation of Albania’ is formed for the Shkodra Prefecture and Kosovo. The leaders of the squads unanimously appointed Jup Kazazi as chairman, Llesh Marashi as organizer, Enver Bushati as secretary, and Dom Luigj Pici, Dr. Bahri Kopliku, Hasan Isufi, and Ramadan Reçi as members. Also part of the commission was Dom Zef Shestani, Xhelal Bushati, Prof. Prek Kaçinari, Ibrahim Mandija, Gjovalin Lin Luka, and the bajraktar of Reç, Nuz Sokoli (Bajraktari).”
There were several squads of Balli and Legaliteti there, but also of the communists – Gjovalin Luka and Ramadan Reçi – who also voted for Jup. It says there: “Jup Kazazi is preparing the bands to attack Shkodra.” It also written there: “The Chairman of the Committee, Jup Kazazi, with the organizer of the squads, Llesh Marashi, has formed the ‘Black Hand’ for an assassination against the Minister of Internal Affairs; these persons are charged with the assassination: Dan Elezi, from the village of Zagorë (from Llesh Marashi’s squad); Bejto Fasllia from the village of Reç (from Ramadan Bajraktari’s squad) and an unknown unnamed person from Gjovalin Luka’s squad.”
Regarding the preparation of the assassination, there is also another document, a letter from the Minister of Interior, No. 1937/II on August 24, ’43, where it is said that: “The nephew of Sulçe Beg Bushati, Fejzi Boriçi, head of the group with three other comrades (who are the aforementioned persons of the group), have left for Tirana for the assassination. We have been informed that the Chairman of the Committee is Jup Kazazi with the organizer Llesh Marashi, who have formed the ‘Black Hand’ for an assassination against the Minister of Internal Affairs.”
Thus, the assassination group has as its leader Fejzi Boriçi (Jup’s man), Dan Elezi (Llesh Marashi’s man), thus of Balli, Bejto Fasllia (Shaqir Vukaj’s father), and one unnamed person of the communists. In fact, I am quite sure and it is true, from the accounts of Zenel and Hamid Kazazi and Ruzhdi Rroji that the assassination was for the King’s Representative, Jacomoni, and not for the Albanian minister. I add that Gjovalin Luka was an idealist, and we wish the communists had been like him. He understood the reality and was sidelined. / Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
