From Romeo Gurakuqi
Part One
Memorie.al / Given that the Albanian National Liberation Front was organized and directed by the Serbs, nothing could be expected from this organization regarding the Serbian reaction. The Albanian government of the Regency in power, for counteraction, organized volunteer combat formations, sanctioned the deployment of these regular formations such as the SS Division “Skanderbeg,” and sought German support against the Albanian National-Liberation Front in every way. At the same time, friendly relations were established with Croatia, and a political-military understanding was attempted with Turkey and Greece. Why was nothing expected from the reaction of the Albanian National-Liberation Front? What are the events that mark the relations between Marshal Tito and the Albanian N.L.F.?
On December 4, 1943, Marshal Tito had issued a communiqué stating that: “the future of Kosovo would be decided by a referendum and the post-war border between Albania and Yugoslavia, if necessary, would be adjusted in favor of Albania.” This was the formula that had been accepted by the Albanian National-Liberation Front, which on its part emphasized that: KOSMET and KOSOVA are spheres of Tito’s influence. (PRO. HS.7.70, S.O.E. History, File number 37/B, Allied Military Mission in Albania, 1942-1945, page 38).
On May 17, 1944, the American secret service (SOA) reported, citing Tito, that: “The Albanian National Liberation Front is a Yugoslav movement, the views of which and the activities that this organization carries out are nothing other than those of the Yugoslav National-Liberation Movement, which gives orders and commands, therefore the activity of the Albanian partisans is included in the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, within which the Albanian partisans are a part.” As it appears, this was the reason why Radio “Free Yugoslavia” would announce: “our national liberation forces have taken possession of Berat and Tirana.” (PRO. FO. 371. 48090/SF/POL/2A/B6, Albano-Jugoslav Relations, 16 December, 1944.)
From the summer of 1944 and onwards, the Albanian National Liberation Front and Marshal Tito carried out joint actions against the Germans, culminating in joint military operations in Kosovo with the Serbian forces operating in Prishtina and Gjilan and the Albanian partisan units operating in Gjakova and Prizren. In November 1944, in Marshal Tito’s press statement, it was announced about “the armed cooperation (of the Yugoslav National-Liberation Army) with the Albanian Army, in the battle against the fascist occupiers.”
During the same month, congratulatory and friendly diplomatic notes were exchanged between Dr. Nishani (Albania) and Dr. Ribar (Yugoslavia). After providing the above data, the British analysts, on whose reports we have largely built this paper, write in the concluding part that it is a principle that political parties, on their path to rising to power, use whatever kind of support is possible. It is impossible to ignore the existence of Serbian or Yugoslav ambitions in relations with Albania.
But on the other hand, the British analysts note that the fact that the Albanian National-Liberation Front had become more national in its character during the second half of 1944 has become more evident, and the relations during this period with the Yugoslav communists were more independent than in the preceding period. The British analysts also reported that at the end of 1944, it was unlikely that the presence of Albanian partisan forces in Kosovo was motivated solely by international ideals. They thought that Marshal Tito would not ignore the fact that the Albanian quisling troops had fought against him.
“Political and military cordiality,” it is written in one such report, “has been given great publicity recently, but General Hoxha has recently been quoted as saying that he does not see a Balkan Federation as possible in the near future.” The German forces withdrew from Kosovo starting from November 19, 1944, on their own retreat route towards the North, leaving the province in a state of confusion and general uncertainty for the future. On November 19, 1944, the partisans of the XVIII Brigade of the Albanian National Liberation Army took possession of Kukës, while the partisans of the III and V Brigades of the same army, liberated Peja and Prizren in Kosovo.
When the Germans also began to withdraw from Albania and the power of the Albanian National-Liberation Front began to expand, the opponents of the movement of the A.N.L.F. were forced to retreat to the mountains adjacent to the border with Yugoslavia and many of them crossed into the territory of Kosovo and Northwestern Macedonia. The A.N.L.A. moved after them towards the Yugoslav border. On the Yugoslav side, the German withdrawal gave the Yugoslav National Liberation Army the first opportunity to penetrate into Kosovo. At this moment, the long-standing grim stance of the Yugoslav partisans, regarding the possibility of reconciliation with the Kosovars, underwent a sudden change, precisely because at this time there was a mass desertion from the Kosovar quisling units.
Two new Kosovar partisan brigades were created and by the end of October 1944, two more were in the process of formation. Kosovars and Albanians from the northwestern part of Macedonia even began attacks against the retreating Germans. Meanwhile, the attack of the Bulgarian partisans in Kosovo forced the Chetniks of Skopska Crna Gora and of Southern Kopaonik, the latter led by Zika Marković, to re-enter Kosovo, where they positioned themselves alongside the remaining German forces and Kosovar nationalist units. In southern Montenegro, due to partisan activity, some of the Chetnik forces led by Djurišić had joined forces with those of the Catholic highland leaders of Northern Albania in the area north of Lake Shkodra.
We must emphasize that in Shkodër and in Northwestern Albania, linked above all to a series of cultural circumstances and the level of social emancipation, the existence of a fairly well-developed urban middle class, and the influence of the Catholic Church in Malësia e Madhe and Malësia e Dukagjinit, there was a complete indifference towards communist propaganda and this movement was widely considered and understood as an anti-national movement and foreign to Albania’s pro-European orientation.
By the end of December 1944, the German forces withdrew completely, together with half of the “Skanderbeg” Division, which accompanied them. The remaining part of the division either deserted or was intentionally left behind as a rearguard, and also a part of the Chetniks stayed with them in the mountains of Kosovo and Sandžak. The region of Skopska Crna Gora was never completely cleansed by the Yugoslav National Liberation Army and in all likelihood, in this region, at the time this report is made; about 1,000 Chetniks had remained in activity. Kosovo and the mountainous edges around it remained zones of fierce and powerful resistance against the partisans.
This resistance was carried out by the remaining part of the “Skanderbeg” Division and the remnants of the Chetniks from Southwestern Serbia of Kopaonik, who were so compromised that there was no hope of reconciling with the partisans. Likewise, in Northern Albania, all the opposing elements of the Albanian National-Liberation Front were concentrated and the same can be said for the villages in the northwest of Macedonia, inhabited by a population hostile to the partisans. Also, in all likelihood, some remnants of the Chetnik forces of Djurišić remained on the run around the borders of Montenegro.
Regarding the presence of the V and VI Divisions of the Albanian National Liberation Army throughout the entire time span of the first months of 1945 in Kosovo and the subsequent pursuit, encirclement, and annihilation operations, that is, during the months when the process of stripping Kosovo and Northwestern Macedonia of Albanian youth took place, a series of documents from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Albania testify to us, among which we cite: 1. A document from the Operational Staff of the National-Liberation Army for KOSMET, No. 23, dated 13.03.1945, addressed to the Headquarters of the VI Albanian Division, based on which, by order of the General Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army, the V and VI Divisions of the Albanian National Liberation Army, would now be deployed to Novi-Pazar and also to Mitrovica, Vushtrri, Podujevo.
The Headquarters of the brigade groups, based on this order, was placed in locations as follows: In the south: from the intersection of the railway line near the village of Bresnje, along the railway line towards Peja, up to the White Drin River, continuing further south along the White Drin River to the mouth of the Ribnik River into the White Drin, and from there continuing along the road of the village further south to peak 434, the village of Gerçina to peak 1261 on the border with Albania. In the west: along the Albanian border, then to Bogiqevac and Mokra Planina and from there along the border line between the districts of Kosmet and Sandžak over Mokra Gora and Stari Kolašin to the upper part of the bed of the Ibar River, i.e., to the western border of the places occupied by the other Albanian Divisions.
The Headquarters of the brigade groups was placed in Peja, while the headquarters of the constituent brigades of these divisions were located in Peja, Gjakova, Istog, Rudnik. Alongside these Albanian divisions, the 46th, 52nd, and 41st Divisions of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, the People’s Defense Brigades, etc., operated at this time in the rest of Kosovo. The task assigned to all these armed forces deployed in Kosovo was clear and the same: “to keep the designated area under permanent and firm control, to completely destroy the remaining groups of fugitives, and to assist as much as possible the military governing bodies in the creation and strengthening of people’s power.” (AQSH, F. 14/APL Year 1945, File of Albanian military formations in Yugoslavia, page 40, Order of the Operational Staff of the National-Liberation Army for KOSMET. No 23, dated 13.03.1945.)
As can be seen, the forces of the Albanian National Liberation Army were deployed in the zones along the border of Kosovo with Albania and Kosovo with Sandžak; otherwise, the cleansing operations in the interior of Central and Eastern Kosovo, during March and early April, were left in the hands of the forces of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, and those of the few Kosovar partisans.
The cleansing operations did not include only the active opposing forces and the Kosovar male civilian population, but also the Kosovar partisans, which is evidenced in a number of documents reported from Vushtrri, by the commander of the VIII Brigade of the A.N.L.A., Major Feti Smokthina, and the Political Commissar, Major Rasim Bazo. (AQSH, F. 14/APL Year 1945, file of Albanian military formations in Yugoslavia, page 97, Report of the Headquarters of the VIII Brigade addressed to the Headquarters of the VI Division, no 118/19 dated 31/03.1945 and no. 118/ 29 dated 08.04.1945).
The displacement of the Albanian partisan forces towards Western and Northwestern Kosovo was done by order of the Yugoslav High Command, conveyed through the Yugoslav II Corps at the beginning of March 1945, precisely at the time when the massive process of forced recruitment of Kosovar males was taking place. This displacement is evidenced by two reports made by Ramiz Alia and Rahman Parllaku, of the V Division of the A.N.L.A., dated 03.03.1945 and 17.03.1945. (AQSH F. 206/APL year 1945 D. 11 sheet 1-14.).
Subsequently, from the end of April 1945, the V and VI Divisions of the A.N.L.A. would be moved again towards Eastern and Central Kosovo, respectively to Ferizaj and Gjilan, and the V Division with its center in Gjilan. (AQSH F. 206/APL year 1945 D. 11 sheet 1-14, Report of the V Division addressed to the High Command, bears no. 146 dated 29.04 1945.) The units of the Albanian National Liberation Army that operated in Kosovo, being considered to be under Yugoslav territory, were placed under the direct command of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army and were ordered to form a joint staff for the two divisions, the V and the VI.
The highly confidential order for this was sent by Lieutenant General Velimir Trezić, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, and bears the date 17.03.1945. (AQSH, F. 14/APL Year 1945, File of Albanian military formations in Yugoslavia, page 84, Highly Reserved Order 49/ 1945, dated 17/03.1945 addressed to the Headquarters of the V and VI Albanian Divisions). 2. The order dated 01.04.1945 signed by the Commander of the Operational Staff for the V and VI Divisions, Lieutenant Colonel Gjin Marku, and the Political Commissar, Lieutenant Colonel Ramiz Alia. / Memorie.al
Continues in the next issue
