Dashnor Kaloçi
The first part
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents extracted from the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, with the logo “Top Secret”, which belong to 1985, where there is a correspondence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, with the Albanian Embassy in Paris, at the request of the French side and the then president, François Mitterrand, who sought to honor the famous Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, with the “Legion of Honor” decoration, which was the highest decoration awarded by the French state to foreign nationals. Full correspondence between the diplomat Kujtim Hysenaj with his superiors in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana, such as: Minister, Reiz Malile, Deputy Minister Sokrat Plaka, etc., regarding the request of the French side, as well as the instructions given to him from the ‘center’, how he should act and how to respond to French diplomats in meetings and conversations with them!
In the mid-1950s, when the de-Stalinization process was under way in the Soviet Union, thanks to the newly ousted leader Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev and his supporters, a booklet began circulating somewhere in Italy, detailing the horrors of civil war (1918-1922), in that huge country where the October Revolution, which brought the Bolsheviks to power, had “triumphed”.
The book “Doctor Zhivago”, written as a pamphlet by Russian writer Boris Pasternak, was said to have been supported, funded and distributed by the US Secret Service (CIA), which wanted to make the world aware of what ‘cradle’ had emerged that ‘offspring’ of the Stalinist regime, which some of its protagonists and actors were unmasking and shouting at him.
After Italy, under the full care and patronage of the Americans (camouflaged under the Rochkfeller Foundation), the book, which continued to amaze the world, managed to enter the Soviet Union itself. Thus, as Moscow’s Stalinist leadership tried to erase or “bring out” those horrors experienced by almost all the peoples living in all the USSR republics, the Americans “smuggled” them back inside.
And in the midst of all this American-sponsored ‘literary-political’ campaign, then Pasternak’s name and his book reached the top of the world, and the author was nominated for the Nobel Prize, which was awarded to him in 1958. Although under numerous pressures, he refused to receive the ‘Nobel Prize in Literature’, the American mission had already been accomplished at its best.
The Kremlin was boomeranged by this, as Pasternak’s refusal caused more commotion than it would have done if it had accepted the award. Likewise, almost at the same time that the Americans had launched the ‘Pasternak operation’, the communist leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, had come out ‘god himself’ to such an ‘action’ with the Bosnian Serb writer-politician Ivo Andric.
It is said that there was no official or private meeting where Marshall Tito himself did not speak and promote with his friends and guests the “genius” of the Slavic writer who “was shining with his work”, the whole world. A work describing “brotherhood-union” in that country with six multi-ethnic Balkan republics. And, thanks to the support of Tito’s promotion, Ivo Andric also managed to be crowned with the ‘Nobel Prize in Literature’ in 1961, although the “union-brotherhood” which he ‘sang’ in his work, turned out to be just a façade , if we consider the wars that drowned in blood almost all of its republics in the early 1990s!
Full 15 years later (in 1985), a completely different story from that of Tito and Andric took place in Albania. She with the famous writer Ismail Kadare and the communist dictator Enver Hoxha and his successor Alia (the event has its origins when Enver was still alive).
While at that time France and personally President François Mitterrand, had undertaken the “action” to honor the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare, first with the ‘Legion of Honor’ (the highest decoration given by France), and then to nominate him as a candidate for the ‘Nobel Prize in Literature’, his own country, or rather the communist leadership, did not accept this at all.
Not only that, but official Tirana informed the French that: “In case France would take such an action unilaterally, then.”.
This and many other highly refined (typically communist) machinations are made known for the first time by these official documents (found in the archives of the Albanian state), which are published for the first time and in full in the pages of this book. .
Information of diplomat Kujtim Hysenaj from the Albanian Embassy in Paris, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana
Second Directorate
I n f o r m a t i o n
Last night, at the reception at the French, the following came out:
- Councilor Impereto told me that he wanted to talk to me formally about the decoration they intend to give to Ismail Kadare. It is about the “Legion of Honor”, the highest French decoration. I think to be expected. Tell him about the decoration, we will talk to the interested party and then we will give him an answer.
- The trade advisor said that for several days a meeting was held in Paris at the Ministry of Industry attended by representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, MTJ and the largest compensation organization, regarding the ways of expanding trade with our country. He did not know the details.
- The ambassador asked if sh. Andon and if he went to France. He was interested in the relations with the FRG. After making it clear that I do not know the details other than the fact that they are talking about finding a solution to the problem, he said that there is nothing new from the English.
According to him, there are even bigger conservatives in England than Thatcher himself and that it is difficult to find a solution to save face when there is a decision of the Hague Tribunal.
21.11.1985
Kujtim Hysenaj
Notes from the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tirana
Regarding the first point, the fellow minister notes:
-To put in the leadership information, but to explain why they give the “Legion d’Honouer”.
It seems to me that they were mercenary military expeditions in Africa, etc.
For the second point approve what comrade Socrates marks.
(Signature) 25.11.1985
Top secret telegram of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sokrat Plaka, to the Albanian Embassy in Paris
Top Secret figure telegram
Nr. of Sheet 103 CODING
Nr. 4957
Address: Embassy of Paris
Concept: The Embassy here has requested our opinion on the award of
- Kadare of the Legion of Honor.
We have the issue under study. For knowledge. Memorie.al
(Sokrat Plaka)
Continues in the next issue
