Dashnor Kaloçi
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 1977, where there is an information report of the First Secretary of the district of Tysoja, Hysen Papa, sent to the Central Committee of the ALP, where, among other things, he informed about the arrest of the cooperative Zenel Buçpapaj, from the village of Bujan in the district of Tropoja, who not only did agitation and propaganda to the cooperators, saying that : “Tito is a big head and fights for peace”, etc., he refused to shoot at the boards, where was Tito’s head! The full report of the first secretary of the Tropoja District Party Committee, sent to the Central Committee, where in addition to the accusations against the party member, Zenel Buçpapaj, are given some biographical data about the Buçpapaj tribe, where one of his uncles, who had served as a soldier in Tirana, he was sentenced to political prison, as “Collaborator of the coup group of Beqir Balluku”!
Given the many friendly and kinship ties that the inhabitants of the Tropoja district had with those of the Gjakova highlands and other parts of Kosovo, their attention to Tito’s Yugoslavia was even greater than that of the other inland provinces and districts. Of the country, which was favored by the geographical position of that north-eastern district, where the waves of Yugoslav and Pristina television channels penetrated more easily as the city of “Bajram Curri”, as well as the entire district of Tropoja.
Based on these, it is natural that in various conversations, where openly and quietly, the inhabitants of the Tropoja district would discuss with each other about Yugoslavia and its leader, Josif Broz Tito, who thanks to the policy of “non-engagement” , where he had introduced Yugoslavia (or as the official propaganda of the communist regime of Tirana labeled it “the Third World”), from the mid-1970s until his death in 1980, was in the spotlight world politics, which was evident at his funeral on May 4, 1980, which was attended by senior representatives and heads of state from 120 countries, as well as 200 political parties from all five continents.
But as it is already known, this did not apply to communist Albania and official Tirana, where Josif Broz Tito was declared worldwide by Enver Hoxha, as a “revisionist” and one of the “greatest enemies of the Albanian people”! Thus, the mention of his name, or rather the praise addressed to Tito, had serious consequences for everyone, as neither less nor more, those conversations of a political nature were considered “agitation and propaganda” and the various citizens who were denounced for those words, were sentenced to political prison.
This is what happened to Zenel Buçpapaj, from the village of Dojan in Bujan, Tropoja, who in 1977, in various conversations during the military parade, had expressed and given his positive considerations for Josif Broz Tito. Even considering him as a “big head” and a politician who “fights for peace”, etc., etc. But this “heresy” of his was denounced to the “competent bodies” (State Security), where he was immediately arrested and sentenced to six years in political prison.
This is also made known by this archival document that we are publishing in this article, where the First Secretary of the Tropoja District Party Committee, Hysen Papaj, through a letter dated December 17, 1977, informed the Central Committee of ALP, on the sentence of Zenel, who until the moment of arrest was also a communist with the card of a party member in his pocket.
According to the document in question, it is known about Zenel’s sentence that; “This man was directly influenced by the enemy’s propaganda, the Yugoslav press, radio and television, especially the propaganda made to Tito during his visit to China and that Zenel Buçpapaj had started his dissatisfaction after the sentencing of his uncle, an officer. major, with coup groups ”, which turns out to be true, as Zenel’s uncle, Rustem Arif Haxhiaj, (Buçapaj), a senior soldier at the Ministry of National Defense in Tirana, and a graduate of the former Soviet Union, somewhere from in 1975, he was arrested as an “accomplice of Beqir Balluku” and sentenced to 15 years in political prison.
This greatly aggravated the social and political position of the Buçpapaj family and the entire Buçpapaj tribe, which is said to have become the main reason for the arrest and sentencing of Zenel Buçpapaj, on the eve of the new year 1977. These political prison sentences two of the most prominent men of the Buçpapaj tribe, who from the communists turned into “enemies of the people”, seemed “enough” for other members of that tribe to be looked at differently by the communist regime and the popular power of that time.
Thus, according to the testimony of Zenel Buçpapaj’s son, Adem, while his father was serving his sentence in Ballsh prison, not only his family who had the consequences of persecution, but that was also felt by most of their tribe, such as to close cousins, such as Skënder Buçpapaj, a young writer at the time, who was deprived of high school for several years and forced to work in a quarry as a simple laborer and blacksmith for years.
The same “fate” had his brother, Mujo Buçpapaj, also a young writer and appreciated for his talent as a poet and prose writer, where due to his biography, a book was not published that he had submitted to the Publishing House “Naim Frashëri ”in Tirana and for years he was denied the right to high school as well, as he was denied to Skënder, who were able to gain the right to study, only after the intervention and great help of the famous writer, Dritëro Agolli, at that time in the position of President of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania, was a member of the People’s Assembly.
Report of the first secretary of the Party Committee of Tropoja district, Hysen Papaj, sent to the Central Committee of the ALP
ALBANIAN LABOR PARTY
PARTY COMMITTEE OF THE DISTRICT Bajram Curri, on 27.12.1977
T R O P O J E
No. 872 Prot.
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF ALP
T I R A N E
Recently arrested and sentenced to 6 years in prison, Zenel Buçpapaj, a party member since 1961, with a cooperative status, with 8 years of education and Party course. The above mentioned in a military exercise has agitated in front of a group of reservists by openly expressing that; “Tito is a great world leader”, “Kia got angry and spoke of revenge”, he is a “good man”, “He fights for peace”, etc.
At the time of the shooting on the board where Tito’s head was sketched, he refused to shoot, ostensibly under the pretext that he could not see with his own eyes. When reservists opposed and criticized him for his views and stance, he again insisted on his opinion of Tito.
From the analysis made by the grassroots organization, it turned out that Zeneli was criticized for indifference and inactivity towards the Party, he did not actively participate in debates and discussions, and he was presented as asleep in the grassroots organization.
As it emerged from the discussions, he has once again whispered vague thoughts about various theoretical problems that have been beaten in the Party’s forms of education, but have not been appreciated by seeing them as something merely ostensibly Zenel’s low level.
His indifference and dissatisfaction were allegedly heightened after the arrest and imprisonment of one of his uncles, an officer with the coup group. Another uncle was convicted of theft.
As far as we know, this man was directly influenced by the enemy’s propaganda, the Yugoslav press, radio and television, especially the propaganda that Tito made to him during and after his visit to China.
His action became the subject of discussion in the Party’s grassroots organization, the Front organization, the cooperative, other mass organizations, and in the military unit where he initially expressed his views. Facing the teachings of the Party and Comrade Enver, on the meaning of enemy pressure and the development of class warfare within and outside the Party, under the siege of the imperialist-revisionist blockade, the grassroots organization made a valuable analysis of its work for ideological education of communists and co-operatives, took responsibility and set tasks for strengthening the educational work with communists and co-operatives of the internal life of the grassroots organization, criticism and self-criticism, sharpening political vigilance against the internal and external enemy.
From this case the Party Committee tried to draw lessons for the strengthening of all ideo-political work with the communists and the people, for a deeper knowledge of the forms of warfare used by the enemy, especially Yugoslav Titoism.
In the framework of the preventive fight against crime, in the spirit of the letter of the Central Committee of the Party and the analysis made by the Party Committee, we are doing a special job in the Party and in measures to expose Yugoslav Titoism, its hostile activity against the country and our district, closely connected with all other currents of Khrushchevite, Chinese, etc. revisionism.
With all the communists and the mass of the people we have begun to study in an organized manner the last two chapters of the report of the 7th Congress, the article “The Theory and Practice of the Proletarian Revolution,” “Comrade Enver’s Conversation with Chu En Lain,” Khrushchev on his knees before Tito “,” Revisionism without a mask “. We have intensified the work with the daily press, etc./Memorie.al
FIRST SECRETARY OF COM. DISTRICT PARTY
(Hysen Papaj)
