Dashnor Kaloçi
The fourth part
Memorie.al publishes an archival document issued by the Central State Archive in Tirana (fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP), which belongs to May 8, 1981, where is the political diary of the communist leader of Albania, Enver Hoxha, with notes on the events of Kosovo which had begun in the first days of the spring of that year, first with the protests and demonstrations of the student youth and then of the people of Kosovo, who rose to demand freedoms and their legal rights, as well as all other peoples and ethnicities that were then in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The complete diary of Enver Hoxha, from the messages given to Ramiz Alia to send all the pages of foreign newspapers from all over the world that had covered and commented on the events in Kosovo, the preparation for an article in the newspaper “Zeri i Popullit” regarding with those events in the period March-April 1981, the response to the politician and former Serbian diplomat, Milos Minic, a member of the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, who had made a dangerous provocation against our country, “stating that “The Albanian leadership, through the activity of its intelligence and diplomacy bodies, including its embassy in Belgrade, revealed its full commitment and complexity in the events that took place in Kosovo”, etc.
“The statement made by Mr Minic is a problem for us, so the position to be taken should be discussed. During the conversation, Ramiz told me that this statement of Minic and the statements made by other Yugoslav leaders require a reaction from us. He rightly said, but I do not think we should make an official public protest by our Government, nor any statement by ATSH. The latter could be a variant to publicly express our view. Yet both last night and today, I have thought a little deeper into this issue. First, the stance taken by Titoist leaders of every level cannot be left without an answer on our part. But before we do that, before we answer, we must analyze why Yugoslav leaders do so. This action of theirs, which is accompanied by all sorts of accusations against our country, I consider a provocation, which they make us fall into it and not just remove our ambassador from Yugoslavia, doing so to give them right for all those who have acted against us, but to go even further, to withdraw our embassy from Belgrade, because Miniçi did not say the Albanian ambassador, but the Albanian embassy. This is a great provocation, except they want the consequence that it brings, not to do it ourselves, but urge us to do it. What they do is punishable. “We even condemned him, so we do not fall into their provocation.”
This is stated, among other things, in the political diary of the leader of communist Albania, Enver Hoxha, dated May 8, 1981, where he kept notes about the events in Kosovo, which had begun in the first days of March. that year, when the student youth of Kosovo came out in protests and demonstrations which were later joined by the people of Kosovo, demanding their legal freedoms and rights, as well as all other peoples and ethnicities that were in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. For more about this and all the attitude held by the leadership of communist Albania and personally Enver Hoxha towards the communist leadership of Yugoslavia, we know this archival document that Memorie.al is publishing in full in four parts.
Continued from the previous issue
Enver Hoxha’s political diary of events in Kosovo, May 1981
We feel obligated to tell you these truths as friends. You, if you want, reject them, give us any epithet that comes to hand. We want brotherhood with the people of Yugoslavia. Let the advanced world judge us and you. Mr. Stane Dolanci, in the interview he gave to foreign journalists on the events in Kosovo, said, among other things, that “the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania has no hand in these events.” Mr. Dolanci is one of the most important, if not the most important, leaders in the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, and what he affirmed was well-founded. Who blew the lie? Who distorted the truth? Who cared to accuse the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania of allegedly having a hand in the Kosovo riots? Let the Yugoslav leadership, Mr. Minic and Mr. Vidic, discover this, but what was hatched was a monstrous act, a storm of resentment that opened such a gap that any politically immature Yugoslav would equate the name “Albanian” with ” enemy of the peoples of Yugoslavia. Those who caused this gap are accountable to their peoples, including the Albanian people living in Yugoslavia. They are responsible before history.
The entire Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia unjustly condemned the events in Kosovo, condemned the Kosovars, condemned the Albanians of Yugoslavia, condemned the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania as instigators of these riots. This is a fact that will remain in the Yugoslav events. But we also know how to distinguish between those who spoke at the high forum of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. We found that the main leaders of the neighboring Socialist Republic of Montenegro, Macedonia, but also of Croatia and Slovenia, although condemning the events, were calmer, more restrained, more far-sighted about the situations that would develop later in between Albanians and Yugoslavs, between the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania. We cannot make the same assessment of the main leaders of the League of Yugoslav Communists, such as Messrs. Minic, Vidic, Stambolic. Their speeches are characterized by unbridled savagery, by an unprecedented Serbian chauvinist streak against the Albanian people living in Yugoslavia and against the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania.
As for those “Albanian leaders” who spoke at this high forum of the League of Yugoslav Communists, or outside this forum, their speeches were also characterized by such great hysteria, as well as servile and service, to their masters, Vidic, Minic, Stambolic and others. It is understood that these people cannot calm down Kosovo. These situations are so serious that expedients can hardly be cured. Do you, leading Yugoslav gentlemen, want this disease to gangrene? You think for yourself, but we do not want such a thing. This disease must be cured immediately, straightforwardly and courageously. The people of Yugoslavia and the Albanian people want friendship with each other, but friendship must be established on a sound basis. In all the meetings of the high state and party forums of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, voices were raised that said: “Relations with Albania should be reviewed”, etc., etc. Twice within thirty years you have broken the cup with socialist Albania. Do not you think to frighten us? Does it occur to you that the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania breathes in you? You are wrong! Your eyes are darkened by the great Yugoslav megalomania. We have cold minds and fiery hearts. We also do with the restrictions on the relations between our two countries, which you intend to do.
Smoke will flow straight into our chimney, even if you expect these relationships at all. We, for our part, do not want such a thing in any way, because it was not us who created the difficult situations in Kosovo and in the whole of Yugoslavia, which you created yourself. This is a pretext you artificially raise to cover up ugly events. Once again be careful! Be cool! Do not return your faults to the conflict with the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, because this is in the interest of our enemies. Serbia’s Petar Stambolic spoke like an incorrigible Serb. He knew how to protect Serb interests at the expense of Albanians and, among other things, said that “the struggle for ethnic purity objectively leads to nationalism.” He called this attempt fascist. We ask Mr. Stambolic: Is not the Serbian people an ethnic group? Does he not consider the Albanian people an ethnicity? Undoubtedly these two peoples are two ethnicities. If Mr. Stambolic does not consider the Serbian people a “pure ethnicity”, why do Albanians, Montenegrins, Bosniaks, Turks live with him, as well as the Albanian people is not a “pure ethnicity”, why in Kosovo, where the vast majority are of Albanian nationality, a Serb, Montenegrin and Turkish minority lives with him. In these same circumstances, Mr. Stambolic is focusing: “Albanian ethnicity is nationalist, fascist”, while “Serbia is not like that”.
Why does Mr. Stambolic not say more openly that the larger ethnicity should rule over the smaller, that the first should be sovereign in the constitution and the second not, that this is in the best interest of the larger ethnic group that will use the most the little one? In continuation, this great Serbian theorist, who follows the same ultra-reactionary line of the infamous academician ububriloviiq, coming out with the thesis that “pure ethnicity” leads to fascism, to nationalism, in practice means that the Albanian ethnicity must be destroyed, to lose the features of his nation, to degenerate, why has he become a thorn in our side”. For Mr. Stambolic, only the Serb ethnicity can live in friendship with other peoples he considers third and fourth, while the sovereign Albanian ethnicity in Kosovo cannot live in friendship with Kosovo’s minorities, such as Serbs, Montenegrins and Turks… “Relations between Albanians, Serbs and Turks have been seriously shaken,” Stambolic said. This is true, but these relations have been shaken only between Serbs and Albanians and not between Albanians, Montenegrins and Turks. Why have relations between Serbs and Albanians been shaken? Read La Fontaine’s fable “The Wolf and the Lamb” and you will find the reasons, Mr. Stambolic. From the meeting of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia the attacks against the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania and the Albanian Labor Party passed to the meeting of the Central Committee of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, this time with unparalleled virulence.
Some members with a furious Serbian and fascist spirit went so far as to say “destroy the Stalinist regime in Albania.” “Delenda Carthage” shouted in the “Serbian senate” a new Cato. However, the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania is not Cartagena and a great Serbian Scipio has not yet been born to destroy the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania. We have won everything with blood, shouted this young Katon. How did Albania gain its freedoms? Without blood? We even tell her that she won them only with her blood, we even shed this blood for the freedom of the Yugoslav peoples and for this we have not been and will never be sorry. We will pour it again, if necessary. The new katons of Serbia accuse us Albanians of hating the Serbian people. This is a monstrous slander. We have loved and love the Serbian people, we only hate Serbian chauvinism, Albanian chauvinism and any other chauvinism, because we are Marxists-Leninists, we are internationalists. Serbian chauvinists, in order to disguise the great Serbian chauvinism, are putting in front of us Albanians the title of great Albanian. This slogan was created by Mussolini’s fascist Italy and the expansionist-aggressive intentions of him and the ballists are well known, as are those of the Serbian Chetniks. We fought heroically and defeated our common enemies. The post-war period was to regulate relations between Albanian-Yugoslav friends and allies.
We did our internationalist task. Together with the Yugoslav partisans we fought for the liberation of Yugoslavia. You did not do the task that you should have done, for the solution in the right path of Kosovo. As we said above, you spoke in principle, but in practice you did the opposite and continue to do demagoguery. The Albanian people were not slaughtered by Caesar’s Rome, Stefan Dushan’s Slavs, the Ottoman sultans, or Mussolini’s fascist Italy. The Albanian people have its centuries-old history, full of wars for freedom, for existence. His enemies wanted and acted to destroy him, but they could not. The Albanian people fought and survived for centuries and remained a compact ethnic group, despite being divided and fragmented. Whoever denies this reality not only causes laughter in the world, but also shows his wild chauvinistic feelings. The Albanians of small Albania of almost three million inhabitants or of “Greater Albania” (an appeal used by the Italian occupier, and now you are also using it to accuse us as chauvinists) of more than five million, are all Albanians. You have nothing to do with this Serbian chauvinist gentlemen. There are two Germanys, one East and one West, just as there are two Koreas, one North and one South.
But no one doubts that there are a people of a single German nation, just as there is a people of a single Korean nation. Albanians are an ethnicity, a people, call it Little Albania or Greater Albania. These Albanians of this small or large Albania, who constitute a compact people and who have all the features of a true nation, have neither occupied the lands of others, nor violated the rights of anyone. They have just demanded, protected and will protect their rights. You find this unnatural, you call it “great Albanian”, “nationalist”, even “fascist”. When Kosovo demands the status of a republic within the Federation for which 50 thousand partisans have fought and sacrificed, you dare to call this a counter-revolutionary demand, Albanian nationalism and full of such epithets. You openly contradict the principles proclaimed and what your key leaders have said to whom you sing hymns day and night. You are in conflict with the principles of international law, with the principles of good neighborliness, so you cannot have on your side a sound and reasonable world opinion. We must all strive to defend the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from an aggressive imperialist-revisionist attack, but by doing so you do not strengthen the position of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, on the contrary, you weaken it.
TUESDAY 12 MAY 1981
TITISTIAN INTRIGANTS, FAMOUS DEFAMATORS AND LIARS
In an interview given by the Minister of Interior of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Franjo Herljevic, he accused our embassy in Belgrade and all our diplomatic missions in the world of “organizing and promoting events in Kosovo.” Of course, everything that Herljevic and his colleagues claimed are all lies and slander. They aim to hide the truth about the situation in Yugoslavia, as well as the heinous crimes that Yugoslavs commit in Kosovo and other areas where Albanians live. We will make the back of this great Serb softer than the belly. Titoist intriguers are known as slanderers, as liars./Memorie.al
