From AGRON ARANITASI
Part Fourteen
– THE TRUTHS I BELIEVE, THE FRENCH AGENT –
Introduction
Memorie.al / When I started writing the book, “The Truths I Believe” (PAPIRUS Publishing House), I had not intended to write about myself. The first impetus came when I became acquainted with the State Security files concerning the surveillance of the citizen Agron Hajdar Aranitasi. Those files are one more testimony of how someone could be persecuted who, at a given moment, was placed among the enemies of the people’s government. Nothing was taken into account – neither how he had worked, nor how he had behaved, nor how he had lived. Nor was the stance of his parents, brothers and numerous cousins taken into account; they automatically fell under brutal attack and suffered consequences without having any guilt.
Continued from the previous issue
The reference to the diagrams of the institution that I had taken to my house – not those days, but years earlier – was ridiculous. At home I kept an instruction manual for “Ampex” videotape recorders, which I used for my daily work in the sector where I was employed. I used it to prepare qualification courses for the technical staff working in that sector. Each video recorder came with two user manuals, so in Television we had twenty such copies, which had no special value and were used only by me and the two technicians who maintained the video recorders, Mina Shagla and Hasan Curri. The manuals were not entered in the inventory.
As for the expression of grievances, that was slander by certain individuals (“hyenas”) who tried to profit from the situation created. I will speak about some of them below. As for the people I had unjustly defended who had broken state laws, it would have been better for them not to have spoken or written. Yes, I had defended one of the oldest TVSH technicians, Mina Shagla, about whom despicable people had slandered. As a result of the slander, he was considered a suspicious person and was processed by the Security organs. I spent two years clarifying his case and managed to have him removed from the list of suspects.
His neighbour, Officer Eqrem Nonjaku (Ndroqi), had told him: “What Agron Aranitasi did for you, your own parents could not have done, even if they had given your life a second time”! Yes, I had defended the technician Vladimir Terezi and a female technician at Television (E.X.), about whom a vile letter had been written, sent by the technician M.P. and another person. Technician M.P. hoped that Vladimir would be removed from the list of those going for specialisation in Germany and that he would go in his place.
Yes, I tried to defend Mark Shoshi, one of the oldest and best technicians, one of the most conscientious people I have known in my life, because the operational agent of the Security who covered RTSH had reported to the General Director that Mark’s father had a file as a “Vatican Spy.”
I could do nothing for him. I defended many others in Television who were not violators of state laws, because even after my departure they continued working there.
Of course, given the motivation provided, confusion arose among the institution’s employees. That was the reason for the fabrication that I had supposedly thrown the keys to my office immediately after the collegium meeting.
In fact, at the collegium, after they were forced to admit that I was on regular scheduled leave, I was asked (by Marash Hajati) to continue my regular leave and to hand over the keys to Vladimir Shpuza.
I had to wait over two hours in the technical premises, but he did not come. Then I threw the keys on a table in the camera control room and addressed the chief technician, Lejla Bedo, saying: “Tell Vova that here are the keys.” Those who were interested in harming me presented the incident as an act against the Party of Labour. The word spread and was disseminated throughout the country! It even reached Enver Hoxha’s villa.
The work file arrives in Pukë
The above characteristic was forwarded to Pukë. Unchanged, signed by Mr. Lin Shahini, head of the cadre section at the City Executive Committee, and by Mr. Nikollë Pali, deputy chairman of this Committee, it was sent to the directorate of the Fushë-Arrëz Commodity Park. There was only one addition: the decision that I be appointed as an engineer with a monthly salary of 840 lekë, in accordance with the first category (my personal category).
The director of PAM Fushë-Arrëz, Arif Halili, replied to the Executive Committee that there was no vacancy for an electrical engineer. He was asked to assign me to work immediately. He appointed me as a quality controller, with a salary of 650 lekë per month, as a worker with the sixth category. Thus, although I was a highly educated specialist with extensive work experience, I was classified in the staffing table as a worker. Such a thing was allowed for young engineers until a job opening appeared, but not for an engineer like me.
Arifi asked the Executive Committee to find another solution. At that time, the Copper Enrichment Plant was asking for me. The Executive Committee of Pukë made another appointment, as an engineer at this plant. The Internal Affairs Branch intervened and annulled the appointment.
After this, the Executive Committee claimed that Agron Aranitasi had been given the first category outside the rules because he had not remained seven years in the second category, but only four. When Arifi informed me about this, I replied that everything had been done according to the law. I had been distinguished in my work, and in such cases one could advance more quickly from one category to another.
I explained that I could not become the chief specialist of TVSH without holding the first category. In fact, I continued the work of chief specialist but was not paid as such for another 7–8 months, until the first category was granted to me. Arif Halili, a noble, kind‑hearted and courageous man, addressed the Ministry of Transport and Communications with registered letter no. 1303, dated 4 December 1982, seeking a solution to the problem. The Ministry replied with a letter addressed to PAM Fushë‑Arrëz and the Executive Committee of Pukë, which, among other things, instructed:
“…When a highly educated employee is assigned to work as a quality controller and falls under the heading ‘worker classified in the staffing table’, proceed according to point 12 of chapter four of Council of Ministers instruction no. 5, dated 11 November 1978 ‘On the implementation of the salary system for employees’.” This letter, registered no. 5949, dated 23 December 1982, was signed by the Director of the Directorate of Labour and Salaries at the Prime Minister’s Office, Mehdi Shehu.
The way the issue was addressed in this letter could not be related to me. The quality controller was a mechanical specialist, whereas the Copper Enrichment Plant, which needed a specialist like me because electronic measuring equipment was used there, was asking for me. So what was the problem? It turned out to be simple: I had not understood what was being “cooked up” for me and continued to believe in the justice of the Party, which one day would be restored. Later I would understand more and would free myself completely from the belief I had held in the system that governed Albania, a system to which my own parents had also contributed.
Arif Halili was not at ease and kept trying to help me. This was felt more when I brought my children to Fushë‑Arrëz. Nothing was said to me, but my friends told me he had been shocked when he saw them in the park. “This man is not all right,” he had told them. “How can children be brought here in this winter in Fushë‑Arrëz, without even a place to live”? He immediately ordered that a small room (used as a storeroom) of about six square metres be vacated. There they placed a bunk bed and a portable single bed, together with mattresses and blankets.
Only after 34 years (when I was given my work file) did I learn that Arifi had also written to Marash Hajati, at that time the General Director of RTSH:
“…After studying his personal documents it appears that… you certified him, on 26 September 1977, from the third category to the second… and, on 15 January 1981, from the second category to the first…! Council of Ministers Decision No. 134, dated 25 May 1982… Requires… a work seniority of seven years (in the second category) to advance to the first category. Exceptions for moving from one category to another are made in special cases, on the basis of a rigorous evaluation. From the documents… this does not appear (to be the case). We request that you provide us with a full evaluation to complete his personal documents.”
This letter, registered no. 6, dated 2 February 1983, obliged the General Directorate of RTSH to send the requested evaluation. Understandably, either RTSH had to admit that Agron Aranitasi had been favoured with the undeserved granting of the first category, or it had to show the reason for granting it. The letter, registered no. 163/1, dated 4 March 1983, signed by the General Director of RTSH, Marash Hajati, was as follows:
“Engineer Agron Aranitasi worked until 1981 (actually 1980) in the video recorder sector of Television, within the General Directorate of Radio and Television, for which he also completed a nine‑month specialisation course in France… He wrote, to assist in the qualification of engineering and technical staff, three handbooks dealing with numerical integrated circuits… He also took four postgraduate qualification examinations, for which he was graded 10 (the examination documents had been in my work file but were not sent to Pukë—my note). His technical‑professional abilities were good, and in 1981 he was certified as a first‑category engineer, as a special case, which was related to his appointment as chief specialist in Television.”
Compare this document with what was said at the TVSH collegium meeting on 12 October 1982! Arifi could not do more, also because, shortly afterwards, I was internally exiled and my movements were restricted to an area less than one and a half kilometres long. He tried to place me in a room in the centre of Fushë‑Arrëz (where Vito Koçi, the chief engineer and writer of the Wood Processing Enterprise, had lived before being transferred to Tirana in 1983). Mr. Sulejman Sula described Arif’s efforts concerning my treatment (in the Commodity Park) and my accommodation in the town of Fushë‑Arrëz:
“Arif Halili kept engineer Agron Aranitasi close to him, a man who was capable and very hardworking, but who had a black mark following him…! He had been brought to Fushë‑Arrëz for re‑education in the bosom of the working class, together with his two small children. They brought him to an unfamiliar environment, in the middle of winter, snow and frost…! Agron dedicated himself to work, contributing in the sector where he was employed and, very quickly, earned the respect and support not only of the director, who made him a member of the enterprise’s technical council, but also of many employees of the park. The truth was that Agron had to present himself twice a day (in fact three times – my note), physically at the police station…! Housing Agron and his two children in the workers’ building was not a suitable solution, because the sanitary facilities were shared with the workers…! He tried to settle him with accommodation in the town, but this was not within his authority… Nevertheless, he made the proposal.”
The reply sent by Marash Hajati, who in the meantime had been appointed General Director of RTSH, was a curiosity. Director Marash was correcting the denouncer Hajati! My treatment as a worker would continue throughout my stay in Fushë‑Arrëz (until mid‑1991), that is, even after the internal exile measure was lifted. / Memorie.al
