By Hajredin Bey Cakrani
Part Three
Memorie.al / In Durrës, I meet Abdi Bey (Toptani) and he tells me quietly that since the beginning of autumn, an Englishman had come from the Serbian side; those chieftains who were guarding him fell into an ambush and were killed, but he escaped by a hair and was wounded. This thing shows that he is someone of weight who stepped on their toes, even though they are victors together and can wander through each other’s lands. But when he came to my estate, he spoke to me saying that the Government of Durrës has requested Italy’s mandate at the Conférence de Paix – this is the greatest catastrophe! They want to divide it piece by piece as they have planned in their minds, and the English have given their word to take Vlora as their own kaza with that paper they called the “hinterland.” Indeed, their eyes were on all of Albania.
Continued from the previous issue
Shkodra was a trouble upon trouble and might fall, so they did not make it long and on Wednesday, the twenty-first (Western calendar) before noon, they opened the Congress. Following the custom, Sheh Karbunara initiated it and Ferid Bey Vokopola, who had also signed in Vlora, opened it. As the lord of the land representing the prefectures of Berat, Lushnje, and Skrapar together with the others, they had torn themselves to pieces for the organization of the Congress; he congratulated the delegates on their arrival and wished the Congress successful work. Aqif Pasha continued the speech with patriotism, and immediately they set to start the work. They appointed Ferid Bey as secretary for the time being and chose a commission of four or five people to review the mandates. And since the majority had not arrived, they postponed it for about a week, until everyone would come.
All that week we were in a fever because it was not known; the Italian army could come from Vlora at any hour or minute. Those of Durrës did not hesitate at all and killed Abdyl Bey – so this was a work of the head (life and death), which has its own good side. Because now they would no longer bicker with one another as in other times, for this time the trouble hung above like a cloud! Within a week, almost everyone arrived, only from Shkodra and the North no; and in the first meeting with the majority of the delegates, those same words were spoken to those who were absent, and it was decided that Aqif Pasha would be appointed Chairman of the Congress. The delegates spoke of Abdyl Bey who had started this work among the first and whom those of the Durrës Government had killed, to bring fear so that no one would come here to Lushnje.
But sometimes one does more damage than gain with these things, for in truth most of them left [the Durrës side], and again in truth, they were the most precise ones! In the end, they made a telegram to condole his family as a Congress. Later it was said that Lushnja, with what it did, should be represented directly in the Senate, even though Sheh Karbunara said that he considered it a duty! Therefore, it was left to write a paper and thank all of Lushnja for this deed. In the third meeting, the Congress truly began because it caught fire, and all their talk was about these sorts of “victors” who seemingly had no other work but to carve and divide this piece of land, waving that piece of paper at us as if we had written it, and not they themselves long ago!
The representatives for the Conférence de Paix were urgently chosen who are known to be Mehmet Bey, Monsignor Bumçi, and Doctor Turtulli. At the next meeting, that High Council was chosen which my brother Bektash had explained to us. With représentants religieux and which would do the work of the sovereign – which was to be the greatest invention and of a different kind in the world, but also the most correct at that time! A thing that showed quite clearly that we Albanians have no eye for the Qaba (no consensus) for this work—not for a hundred years, but for a thousand years! They said and what did they not say also about the Durrës Government which had strayed from the path set for it by the Congress of Durrës, meaning us, back in December 1918.
It had done everything to hinder the Senate in Durrës and as a government doing whatever they pleased – not their own pleasure, but that of the Italians. Thus they had made the place upside-down (ashi-neshi) and had irritated everyone, especially with this: that they want to stop the Congress at all costs! Even though they didn’t say half of it, for I had not just heard them but felt them all on my back. Afterwards, they made the decision which everyone took without any doubt at all: to no longer recognize that sort of Durrës Government and anything of its existence in the world. This, which I had expected to happen from the first day, now made me fifteen, no, twenty years younger!
Now Bektash Bey let no one else speak and in the name of the representative of Mallakastra, he read the new government with names and duties, from Sulejman Bey and Amet Bey, Mehmet Bey and down to Mr. Kosturi, just as he had explained to us before, and with an open vote! If they hadn’t done it with open papers and if it were to be secret – aha – even today it would still be happening, because Albanians cannot be convinced! Ilias Bey alone does not want portfolios because that is how his situation is, as it is, but immediately they replaced him with Hoxhë Kadri Bey, who was chairman of the committee “National Defense of Kosovo.” He was of it, for he had finished law at the Daralfunun of Turkey.
Aqif Pasha was now giving and taking in every way, for he was not giving a path to the work of the government – because if you left it there in Lushnje, you wouldn’t fill the hour before the Italians sprouted up immediately!
– “The hour has come for you, Aqif Pasha,” Bektash Bey said. “With the Vlora Government you did the one thing together with the old man [Ismail Qemali], to take the government to Elbasan and make it the center of all districts! We told Ismail Bey to raise the flag and make Albania in Cakran, for we would provide everything and there would be no more comfort, but he went to the hornets’ nest, to his own people; thus as he sowed, so he reaped,” Bektash Bey wouldn’t leave him alone.
– “Bektash Bey, when there is none, even God has none; what can I tell you now that I cannot find a lodging for this work, it is worse than here, and it is a shame!”
– “Then where will you take the government for which you moved the old man, or was it enough just to remove it from Vlora so that only your Elbasan would be heard, Pasha!”
– “Now, oh Bey, find me a solution and leave those things that have passed.”
Thus they left it so that without making a commotion, they would go to Tirana to take the government, because there was little danger since no one in the world would think of it there! Durrës had been doing this work for a thousand years, and whoever occupied Durrës had everything in hand – lord and staff!
In the end, the Senate was chosen and with them my brother Bektash; there they decided that the delegates should not leave until the government found its feet! But where, there in that mud-pit and in the midst of danger – a thing that showed us that although the meeting of the Congress ended and it couldn’t be better, our work had not yet begun! As we knew beforehand, the government will go to Tirana, for Durrës should be forgotten now – to tell the truth, it had more bad things than good! Since that time, Esat Pasha’s people and what remained of those of Durrës burst and did everything with their Italian friends, though they gave up later. They did this out of spite, not because they wanted to!
On the last days of January, Amet Bey sent telegrams to all prefectures, where he explains why the Congress was held and what it had decided for the fate of Albania, making everyone now think well. Bektash spoke with him now with responsibility; although he said he would leave here “roving battalions,” you couldn’t leave for even an hour, for you didn’t know what to expect! Thus the delegates did not move from the place, now that it was understood for certain that either from our sides or from the Italians, it was known what to expect!
But here Amet Bey did a wonder, for that he had amazed everyone long ago was certain, but this thing he did left everyone speechless! For he told them bluntly that what was decided here would be implemented at all costs and this does not need words, it needs courage! “Therefore, I am the first to leave for Tirana; you stay well here,” and despite Bektash Bey and others, the delegates did not lose their composure at all, perhaps rightly so! For those things that happened told us later that the danger was so great, it couldn’t be shown!
He took us aside to give us instructions, but my brother Bektash cut him off and said:
– “It caught us, we will stay with these men, but do you need any other force, for you are few and in every place you have Italians or, worse still, those of your own uncle!”
From the beginning, yes, the frost would hit it, but now there was no concern, for it seemed he had made up his mind.
– “For everything, you know the man,” but Amet Bey shook his head and said:
– “Now Bey, there is no more turning back; this hour will not come to your hand again, but we will understand each other! It truly caught you – either stay, or if you see that you can come, leave these with the delegates, but a trust (amanet), do you hear?”
– “Hey, did I choose you, or did you put me here to show me the fields? Watch and do everything with all you have to succeed, for I have no fear for you! I only want you to hold your breath until Tirana, and there we shall meet if it is written, do you hear!”
He laughed and couldn’t say “Yes, Bey” (peqe Bej), though he thought about it for a hundred years, but now duty would not let him.
He in front and the government behind, and we with lifted minds returned to our people. Bektash Bey with the delegates for some work, I with the men and all who asked with frozen blood: “Oh, did the Congress end or not?!” But what was I to tell them and thus we did what we did, we took all the delegates and sheltered them as if they were refugees (muhaxhirë), in the nearest estates, in Çermë.
Meanwhile, Amet Bey with the others enters Kavaja and, as always, an obstacle there. This time the commander of the Italian garrison had come out to tell them “stop,” but Amet Bey was on his own mission! He told him that he recognized only the government of Lushnje; if they had struggled, not even an hour of war would have been made, because only in cannons and machine guns the Italians had no count! The work went so far that he was going to give the order to fire, but Amet Bey did not move an eyelash and said:
-“Now instead of the volley bursting,” and he got ready, when everyone had frozen!
With all that army, cannons, machine guns the Italians had, without counting the places they had fortified and from where they could see as if in the palm of the hand – where they could wipe you out immediately – it could be made or not, a judgment day of two hours of war. There was no God, let alone Amet Bey, who could overcome this obstacle. Therefore, he made a decision it seems and asked that they speak without lighting a rifle in the middle of a small wooden bridge there – there the Italian, here Amet Bey, but only these two! As he left his rifle and revolver and the Italian saw everything – either so as not to be shamed, or warmed by the machine guns behind him – he started the path also upon the bridge, only to meet thus with Amet Bey.
They had not yet shaken hands well, when fap Amet Bey grabbed the officer by the throat immediately! From somewhere he pulls a dagger, and in the blink of an eye, he puts it to the Italian’s throat, which he had now turned toward his own people. The Matian forces were ready, but he hadn’t told anyone anything, for it came to his mind in the moment it seems, and these two could have been killed together. On the other side, the scream of the officer – not from Amet Bey, but it seems from his own people who wanted to open fire immediately – their shouting and his shouting, made it so that after a while, as he [Zog] would not let go, they came out of the trench.
He had become like a corpse (meit) and Amet Bey clarified that he had no business with the Italian army that held the side of those of Durrës; therefore as an army let it stay where its place is, and thus he was convinced. With care the Matians came there lest the rifle burst since they were so close, but nothing happened! The Italian officer opened the way and Amet Bey stayed a few days to settle the administration in Kavaja now, but the news went to those puppets (çingive) of Durrës and they were seized by the trembles./Memorie.al
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