Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al/ publishes the unknown story of the Gjeloshi family from Triesi, Montenegro, through the rare testimonies of Zef Dod Gjeloshaj, one of her suckers, who in January 1950, after the conflicts his family had with the Tito regime , where some of their sons were killed, as well as the event when the Gjeloshi family fought for several hours against the Serbo-Montenegrin military forces, after refusing to hand over a Serbian officer (grandson of Djoko Mirasovic, “Hero of the Peoples of Yugoslavia” who has busts in Montenegro), who had asked for their trust, he was forced to flee Montenegro, coming to Albania as a political emigrant. Zefi’s “stabilization” in the Llakatund camp in Vlora, where the communist regime of Enver Hoxha kept isolated about 800 Yugoslav citizens of Albanian origin, who due to the discriminatory policy of the Titoist regime towards the Albanian population living in their ethnic lands in Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia, as well as Rankovic’s crimes against them, had fled and come to Albania. Zefi was appointed a teacher in the Lushnja district, where in 1951, the Ministry of Internal Affairs summoned him to Tirana, where two officers, Petrit Arbana and Vilson Pecani, covering Yugoslav emigration to Albania, charged him with a secret mission, sending him in Yugoslavia together with the Serbo-Montenegrin Colonel, Petar Blazovic, who had resigned as UDB Chief for Montenegro and fled. What tasks did Zef Gjeloshaj perform in Yugoslavia, how did the secret mission assigned to him by the Ministry of Interior in Tirana end and why was he sentenced to 15 years in prison in Albania, accused of killing the UDB colonel with his own hand?!
At the beginning of January 1950, when Zef Gjeloshaj from Triesi, Montenegro, forced by the persecution and the Serbo-Montenegrin genocide, was crossing the Yugoslav border to enter Albania, he had never thought that in his homeland, for him who had woven those beautiful dreams, would be arrested and sentenced to 15 years in political prison. Moreover, that political sentence given by the Military Court of Tirana, would have to do with a very serious and very absurd accusation, as Zefi was accused of: “he had killed with his own hand a Yugoslav UDB colonel “!
Shortly after he escaped from Yugoslavia and came to Albania, at the request of senior officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he was assigned a special mission. The mission consisted of illegally entering Zefi, Montenegro, together with UDB Colonel Peter Blazovic, to carry out some special tasks for the communist regime of Enver Hoxha.
Who was Zef Gjeloshaj, what was his past and how did he manage to escape from Yugoslavia and come to Albania in 1950?! Who was the UDB colonel, Peter Blazovic, where he served until 1948, and why in that period did he leave the post of UDB chief for Titograd and was on the run? How did the Albanian intelligence authorities find out Blazhoviç’s location in the forests of Montenegro and how did the agents manage to contact him?! What secret mission was assigned to Lekovic by Mehmet Shehu and why did he remain silent during the meeting with the Soviet ambassador in Tirana? Why, after his release from prison, did the Albanian state allow the two Yugoslav colonels to be repatriated to Yugoslavia, and why would Zefi be acquitted in 1984?
Regarding all these and other events and facts from his life, as well as the history of his family, although at a broken age and with a life full of great vicissitudes and sufferings, Zef Gjeloshaj reminded him with details and details everything had passed, telling us publicly in this interview that we are publishing in several issues, exclusively for Memorie.al
follows from the previous number
Mr. Gjeloshaj, after you returned and reported to Vilson Pecani, Petrit Arbana and other persons covering the Yugoslav political emigration sector in Albania, what did they say about what you said about your mission?
As a start, I wanted to tell you that as soon as Vilson Pecani and the other employees of the Central Committee of the ALP, learned the news that I had returned only to Albania, so without Colonel Peter Blazovic, they were very upset and completely cut off. They were sure that the mission they had entrusted to us, we would complete, and they could not believe my eyes how I was alone there. But this was related to the fact that his arrival in Albania and the loading of secret missions to Yugoslavia on behalf of the Informbureau, was hailed as a major success for the Albanian government. Many of the senior officials of official Tirana had even spoken to him orally, when the latter was in the villas of the State Security.
What did they say when you explained to them what happened to Colonel Blazovic in Montenegro?
From the beginning, they cast doubt, not believing what I told them about the incident with the colonel in the mountains of Leva-Rieka.
What was the version you gave before them about the disappearance of the UDB colonel?
From the beginning, after I told him the whole story, they asked me: what was my opinion about his disappearance.
How did you respond?
I told him the whole story as it happened, moment after moment, since I came back from the river after I had filled the gourds with water and when I went and never found Blazovic in the cave! So, I just told him this fact and I could not allude to other versions about his disappearance.
You did not give any opinion about his disappearance?
I expressed my thoughts, but they did not believe me and constantly raised doubts about me, alluding that I had deliberately killed him!
Did they just cast doubt on you, or did they openly say, ‘you deliberately killed UDB Colonel Blazovic’?!
At first, they presented as suspicions, that they raised against me, but finally, they openly accused me that I had killed her, instigated by the UDB, so in short, as if I were her double agent.
How did you react after these accusations?
Normally I revolted immensely about these allegations which were completely baseless and untrue. I told them, how could I work for UDB, when they had killed my father, wounded a brother, and imprisoned two others!
After you told them, what attitude did they take towards you, and did they close this problem?
No, they still did not believe me and kept me for about a year in their secret bases in Tirana, under very strict surveillance.
But during this time that they were holding you in Tirana, the Albanian Intelligence bodies did not make any effort through their legal and illegal channels to learn the truth about the disappearance of Colonel Blazovic?
During the time I was being held in the secret villas of the State Security in Tirana, Albanian Intelligence together with the Informbureau branch in Tirana, set up a special working group consisting of selected people, who were illegally sent to Yugoslavia, to revealed the truth about the disappearance of Colonel Blazovic.
Are you included in that group?
Not only did he not include me, but I found out about the formation of that group very late, when I was serving my sentence in Tirana prison, accused of disappearing Colonel Blazovic. I understand that they could not include me, because they had suspicions and openly accused me of killing Blazovic!
How did you learn that fact about setting up that special group, and who told you that?
I learned it from a Yugoslav immigrant named Rade Xharukic, who had been convicted and was serving a sentence like me in the Tirana prison.
What was he specifically told?
According to him, at the head of that special group that was created by Albanian Intelligence and members of the Informbureo, was Vukasin Sharanovic. And during that mission, Sharanovic had met with Blazovic in person, and the two had even talked at length.
So, according to him, it turned out that Blazovic was alive!
According to him, it was like that and I believed that.
What did they both talk about, Bla Bloviçi and Vukashin?
According to Rade Xharukic, Blazovic had told Vukashin that he had disappeared on his own, that is, he had left me, as he no longer wanted to return to Albania, and that he would enter into relations with Moscow and the Comintern himself.
But when the truth was revealed that Colonel Blazovic was alive, why were you sentenced to 15 years in prison?!
Although the Albanian Intelligence and Informbureau special teams had met with Colonel Blazovic, they kept it a secret and did not tell me.
But why were they not told that Colonel Blazovic was alive, and did not want to return to Albania, do you think?
In my opinion, one of the reasons that did not tell me the fact that Colonel Blazovic was alive, was that, according to them, I was the real culprit, that he fled Albania and did not want to return. Given that his escape to Yugoslavia and the decision he took was a heavy loss for the Albanian Intelligence and for the branch of the Informbureau in Albania, so someone had to bear responsibility. And the persons responsible for this work, in order to facilitate their responsibilities, charged me with this work, sentencing me to 15 years in political prison. That was the only reason they were not interested in telling me the truth about the meeting with Blazhovi…
How did your arrest happen and on what charges were you sentenced?
On November 7, 1952, I was invited to appear before the Central Committee of the ALP in Tirana. According to the announcement made to me, I presented myself to the duty officer and two senior officers came there. They told me to follow them a few steps away, as we would have a chat in a bar, and then we would go back there.
Who were those two officers, you remember?
I remember only one of them, who was called Isa Aliaj.
Did you go with them?
Definitely, I went with them to Selvia, where the Directorate of Internal Affairs of Tirana was located. They told me to wait downstairs at the guard office. And while I was standing there, two other officers came and handcuffed me, saying, “In the name of the people, you have been arrested.”
Where were you taken after you were arrested?
After I was arrested, I was taken to the prison on the street, Mine Peza, and there, I was put in a secluded cell without anyone else inside. From the first days the investigation against me started, interrogating me only at night.
Who interrogated you and what were you accused of?
Major General Nevzat Haznedari was the one who asked me the most questions, together with investigators Xhavit Struga and Ferhat Matohiti. They accused me of the same accusation, as I was told in the Central Committee of the ALP, that I had physically eliminated Colonel Blazovic.
Just for that you were accused?
Not only for this, as they also accused me of agitation and propaganda, as if I had said that: “Maliqi of Korça where the sugar factory was located had no city, as the official propaganda presented, but a backward village”.
But to whom did you say that?
I was witnessed by a policeman, who pretended that I had said that to him during a conversation I had with him, which was not true at all, as I was seeing that policeman for the first time! /Memorie.al
Continues tomorrow
