From Prof. Dr. Vebi Xhemaili
Part One
-Enver Hoxha falsified national history for Tito’s sake-
Memorie.al / The Yugoslav presence in Albania, after the establishment of diplomatic relations, began to grow, providing military and economic aid. In the capacity of experts, Yugoslav envoys were placed in the institutions of the Albanian State. However, relations during 1945 were focused mainly on the political and diplomatic field and less on the economic one. During that year, only a temporary agreement for the exchange of goods was signed. But Yugoslavia, on Tito’s orders, sent Albania large aid in materials for the construction of the country and cereals; wheat and corn. Albania was increasingly being subjected to the will of the Yugoslavs, especially of Tito.
Albanian-Yugoslav relations became even closer after the visit Enver Hoxha made to Yugoslavia, June 23 – July 2, 1946. During the visit, an agreement on economic cooperation between the two countries was signed, and it was agreed to conclude a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance, which was signed on July 9 in Tirana.
Signatories of the agreement, between the Federative Republic of Yugoslavia and the People’s Republic of Albania, were Enver Hoxha himself, while on the Yugoslav side was Stanoje Simić, where the importance of this agreement covered a time frame of 20 years. With automatic renewal every five years, if either signatory party did not request the nullification of this agreement before 12 months.
Article III of this agreement stated; “If either signatory party of this agreement has its independence violated, is enslaved, or any part of its territory is taken, the other signatory party, without losing time, shall provide military assistance, shall offer aid and other available means.” In Article VI: “The signatory parties of the agreement commit that neither one nor the other party will conclude an alliance, nor will they participate in a coalition that would endanger the party to the agreement.” At that time, Tito’s plan for the creation of a Balkan Federation had emerged in the background; for this reason, he signed similar agreements also with Bulgaria.
The creation of a Federation that would include Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Greece was one of the main objectives of Yugoslavia’s foreign policy for the post-war period. In the following spring, the true aims of Yugoslav policy towards Albania were fully revealed. Precisely when Tito’s government proposed to Nako Spiru, who was on a mission in Belgrade, for the resolution of disputes between the two countries, the signing of a secret agreement for security and the protection of Yugoslav interests in Albania, in case of danger to the leadership of the CPA, and the deployment of Yugoslav units in Albania in case of danger.
But Spiru refused to sign; consequently, at the end of his mission, Albanian-Yugoslav relations became more strained than when he arrived in Belgrade. According to Stalin, “Nako Spiru tried to poison relations between Albania and Yugoslavia.” Therefore Nako was against taking this loan, of two billion Lek, amounting to 56.7% of the country’s budget revenues, granted by the People’s Assembly, upon the proposal of Boris Kidrič, granting Albania financial aid, interest-free and with no repayment deadline, knowing that for this humane gesture the Albanian people would be grateful to Yugoslav friendship.
Enver Hoxha went to Belgrade twice within 40 days
Before 45 days had passed, Enver Hoxha found himself again in Yugoslavia; while on his way to Paris, Hoxha arrived in Belgrade and from Belgrade, by a special plane sent by Tito himself, he stopped in the beautiful city of Slovenia, in Bled, where Tito was vacationing in his villa. Hoxha, in this meeting with Tito, stayed in his villa, where two high Tito leaders participated: Vojo Todorović and Sreten Žujović, but it was not made public for the general opinion. Therefore this meeting did not have the same echo as the first meeting in Belgrade.
But after the first meeting in Belgrade and the reaching of an agreement on friendship between the two countries, the second meeting had an internal character and was top secret, regarding the defense of the country from Greek and Italian claims. The policy of the Balkan states went so far as to comment on the act of friendship as an act for the establishment of a Yugoslav Federation which would also include Albania, where Belgrade’s propaganda conditioned this friendship as compensation for the loss of Trieste. While for now this pact was dedicated to the defense of Albania from Greece, since it persistently demanded Northern Epirus.
According to the act foreseen in Article III, “Yugoslavia was obliged to declare war on Greece, in the event that it used force to annex Northern Epirus.” But in the circumstances that developed during the first and second talks, on the eve of the Paris Conference, alarms were given in sensational writings about Tito-Hoxha relations in Bled, and simultaneously the signing of the agreement in Tirana. Even though Tito’s delegation had not yet invited Hoxha to Paris. Indeed, in diplomatic and journalistic circles, Albania’s independence was questioned.
Whereas the Tito-Hoxha meeting in Bled passed unnoticed by foreign and domestic news agencies, without being investigated at all. But the first duty of the agreement was how to oppose the Greek side and counter its propaganda for gaining Albania’s status in the Anti-Fascist Bloc, which the Greeks, with the help of some Western states, strongly denied. The Yugoslav representatives in international meetings always defended Albania’s interest.
Likewise, in the first meeting of the United Nations Organization, Eduard Kardelj presented Enver Hoxha’s request for Albania’s admission to its body. In his reasoning, Eduard Kardelj said: “Albania was one of the first victims of fascism in Europe; the Albanian people, with their own forces, took the side of the National Liberation War, fought alongside the United Nations, giving with their own forces a valuable contribution against the aggressors, as an ally of the democratic countries.”
Likewise, the Yugoslav delegation that participated in the Conference for Aid and Reparations in December 1945, requested an increase in aid for Albania. After the first visit Hoxha made to Belgrade on June 23, 1946, they agreed on economic cooperation between the two countries and decided to sign a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance. On the other hand, propaganda had begun in the Albanian press against the Soviet Union, where Soviet materials had been removed and rejected.
Gjergj Fishta was cursed by the Yugoslav communists
After Hoxha came to power, Kosovo and the other Albanian territories of Eastern Albania no longer existed at all. Although Hoxha had sworn at the grave of Çerçiz Topulli that “he would fight his whole life for Ethnic Albania and national unification,” he knelt before the Yugoslavs for a chair. Within the Cold War atmosphere of post-war Europe, Albania’s position was particularly precarious. Its relations with the West had worsened after the Corfu Channel incident. At the initiative of the Yugoslav government, an agreement was reached with the Albanian government to conclude the treaty on friendship and mutual assistance.
In June 1946, the two countries signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, previously initiated by Tito and Yugoslavia themselves. Speaking on the importance of this Albanian-Yugoslav Treaty, the newspaper “Borba” would state: “The treaty of friendship represents a contribution of great importance for securing the integrity and independence of Albania. But the Albanian people and the peoples of Yugoslavia heroically resisted the furious waves of invaders and their Albanian-Yugoslav agents; our peoples kept alive and immortal the spirit of the fiercest resistance that small peoples threatened in their existence as peoples and as nations could have shown.
To gain freedom and independence, the Albanian people and the peoples of Yugoslavia, in spirit and heart, were bound against the same enemies, such as: Turks, Austro-Hungarians, Italians, Germans, etc. Amidst the countless and varied intrigues of the enemies of our countries, the link that connected the feelings and aspirations of the Albanian and Yugoslav peoples stood out and remained strong: the fight for freedom against the same enemies.
Among the ancient battles against the Turks, the blood of the people of Albania and Yugoslavia was mixed to defend an ideal, which our folk songs sing with so much fire and pride as was the heroic war of our peoples. These strong links connecting the two peoples could no longer be cut by the sword of our oppressors, nor by the intrigues of the imperialists, nor by the verses of the poet of imperialism and the Italian agent, the chauvinist Father Gjergj Fishta, nor by the writings of the Serbophile Vladan Đorđević”.
(Is there greater shame than this comparison, placing the great Gjergj Fishta on the same line as a Serbian chauvinist, who in all his writings: “Insults and curses the Albanian people, Skanderbeg, declares him a Serb”! This Albanophobe put all Serbian historiography in the service against the Albanian National Movement. V.Xh.).
Enver Hoxha would declare: “The feelings of brotherhood and cooperation of our people and the peoples of Yugoslavia were something else higher, it was the invincible will of our peoples, which overcame every obstacle, to realize their centuries-old aspirations, to liberate their countries from external and internal enemies and to establish such friendly relations and cooperation as exist today between our two peoples. Such a thing could not be realized without the great National Liberation War of both countries, against the same enemy, fascism, and against the same internal enemies, perpetual tools of the occupiers and sworn enemies of our peoples.”
Enver Hoxha forgot that Serbia had been a state since 1804. While Ali Pasha of Ioannina and Dervish Cara fought to revive Skanderbeg’s state. Enver Hoxha praises the work of the Montenegrin Miladin Popović and declared; “He was among those progressive students of the University of Belgrade who demonstrated in the streets and demanded weapons to come to Albania to fight side by side with the Albanian people, from the first days of our invasion. He threw himself into the war at the beginning of the Yugoslav National Liberation War; he was a youth determined to death for the liberation of his homeland. What Miladin Popović was asking for in the Belgrade demonstration, the circumstances and vicissitudes of war made it come true? Interned by the Italian fascists in concentration camps in Albania, liberated by our guerrillas, he linked his fate with the war of the brotherly Albanian people and fought for Albania until death. Miladin Popović, a Yugoslav ‘People’s Hero’, properly personifies the brotherhood of our peoples in war and peace; he is linked to our war, just as Qemal Stafa and Asim Zeneli are linked with all their comrades.
Miladin Popović, after coming to Albania, spoke to me for the first time about Josip Broz, the glorious leader of the National Liberation War of Yugoslavia; for him, Josip Broz personified heroism, wisdom, military ability, personified the victory of the peoples of Yugoslavia. Our partisan information services seized an order from the Gestapo that was given to the Italian SIMI service, which literally stated: ‘The roads, checkpoints, block posts should be guarded, and searches should be carried out in all four corners of Albania, because the great Yugoslav revolutionary Josip Broz Tito may be in Albania. A price has been placed on his head.’ Attached were the photograph and description of Tito. The enemy’s fear was evident.
Today the question is raised: How could that be, when it is known that Yugoslavia capitulated in less than 7 days. Tito, who personified and led the war of the Yugoslav partisans, terrified the Gestapo and SIM; they saw Tito everywhere in the Balkans and placed a price on his head. But the agents of SIM and the Gestapo could tire themselves in vain searching for Tito in Albania! Tito was neither in the mountains nor in the cities of Albania, but he was in the hearts of the fighters of Albania, and there it was very hard to find and uproot him. Tito’s name spread to the four corners of Albania, the Albanian people spoke of him with admiration.”
Albanians knew nothing at all about Tito until 1943, when the Albanian communists, after the intervention of Mugosha, betrayed the Mukje Conference. Hoxha, for the first time, knelt before Yugoslav emissaries, declaring war on nationalist forces that were not with the Yugoslavs. Those who demanded the unification of Kosovo and other Albanian territories; one state, one united nation. “For us, Tito’s name was confused with that of Yugoslavia, with that of the heroic Yugoslav National Liberation Army. In Tito, we saw the great friend of the Albanian people, in war and in peace, just as we saw in the peoples of Yugoslavia the friends and brothers of our people,” Enver Hoxha declared.
Can the Slavs be our brothers, after those tortures and cannibalism they have committed (since the period of the Congress of Berlin), in the areas of Niš, Surdulica, Vranje, etc. While after the First Balkan War, the Serbian army wreaked havoc in Kosovo and the Vardar Valley. There is only one truth: After Hoxha came to power, Kosovo and the other Albanian territories of Eastern Albania no longer existed at all. He knelt before the Yugoslavs for a chair. Indeed, until 1963, in Albania, the name of our national hero Hasan Prishtina was prohibited by law. He who had melted all his wealth for the Albanian Nation.
The falsification of national history for the sake of brotherhood and unification with the Yugoslavs!
Enver Hoxha, to gain Tito’s trust, would declare about the Albanian national forces: “They used the old divisive slogans, refining them with the methods of Goebbels and Mussolini. The chauvinists and Albanian-megalomaniacs used their demagoguery in vain. The fable of Oso Kuka no longer holds water, in Shkodra and in the Lake, where the waters of Albania and Montenegro mix, just as the purest feelings of our peoples are mixed, it was written with the shed blood of the Montenegrins: Vaso Strugar, Filip Popović, and the Albanian Vasil Shanto, the common epic, one of the most glorious in the history of our countries, the great epic of liberation. The Albanian people will preserve the immortal memory of the Montenegrin patriots who fell for Albania and at the same time for the cause of their homeland, Miladin Popović, Vaso Strugar, Filip Popović.”
What communist demagoguery, this slogan is equivalent to forgiving the sins of Vaso Čubrilović for the elaboration he made for the cleansing of Albanians from Kosovo and the Vardar Banovina.
Enver Hoxha falsifies the letter, since the war was required to be organized according to Yugoslav criteria
Enver Hoxha, to deceive the freedom-loving Albanian people, would declare: “In the mountains, we received the first letter from Tito, (it is about the letter that Tito sent to the Central Committee of the CPA, through Blažo Jovanović, who participated in the First Country Conference of the CPA, March 1943), as a delegate of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. (Enver Hoxha falsifies the facts: Only the leadership of the CPA knew about Tito’s letter; neither the communists nor the partisans nor the people ever learned anything about this letter. But the Yugoslavs saw in Enver Hoxha the most suitable person for their hegemonic policy. V.Xh.)
Enver Hoxha falsifies the letter, since it required that the partisan war be organized based on Yugoslav criteria. Partisan units in Albania from then on had to move throughout Albania, as until that time they had no influence in the North. Enver, to strengthen his position towards taking power, writes: “With this letter, Tito heartily greeted the Albanian people who were fighting for freedom. The historic letter marks a historic date in the history of our people, because the experience of partisan war in Yugoslavia was now seen more concretely and this served us immensely in our war. And when, due to the vicissitudes of our harsh war against fascism, months and years were cut off, our connections with the Yugoslav partisans, the voice of Radio ‘Free Yugoslavia’ brought to our liberated mountains the fresh breeze of the heroic mountains of Yugoslavia, where the Yugoslav partisans of Josip Broz Tito fought with indescribable heroism.
(Radio ‘Free Yugoslavia’ was not listened to by anyone in Albania. Mainly ‘Radio London’ was listened to in Albania; this is evidenced by existing documents. V.Xh.). Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
