From Gani Perolli
Memorie.al / It was the year 1949, when we lived in “Qarshi i Vogël” (Little Bazaar), and while walking on the street of Gjakova with my father, Hamit Perolli, we ran into Fadil Hoxha. They knew each other well from the days of the war, from their experience in the tents of Gani Kryeziu. We had left Albania illegally in October 1948. They greeted each other as follows.
Fadil: Hello, Hamit.
Father: Hello, Fadil.
Fadil: So you’ve come out too?
Father: Yes, I came out, Fadil.
Fadil: Did the Kryeziu family get hurt?
Father: Why, what happened to the Kryeziu family?
Fadil: Only Saidi saved himself, because the others will not see the sun again in this world. At this time, Gani Kryeziu had not yet been liquidated.
Much later, it became known that he had been sentenced to 5 years of hard physical labor by order of Aleksandar Ranković, who had given it to General Petar Brajević, both sworn enemies of the Albanians.
Brajević had intended to sentence Gani Kryeziu to death. He says the following: “on the third day of the trial, Aleksandar Ranković notified me and asked me what the verdict would be. ’In my estimation, death,’ I replied. Then Ranković explained to me that due to the intervention of an allied state, ‘Kryeziu should be looked at through one’s fingers.'”
Back to Fadil. The question arises: Where did Fadil Hoxha learn that Gani Kryeziu would not come out of prison alive? He had been sentenced to five years in prison. And we have the answer to this. According to later British archives, it appears that Aleksandar Ranković sent a telegram to Miladin Popović and Fadil Hoxha, as the two main leaders of Kosmet (Kosovo and Metohija) regarding the Kryeziu affair.
The telegram says the following: “Urgently inform us why Gani Bey was imprisoned and why you executed his brother (Hasan – G.P.) along with 22 of his followers. Your dispatches are too short and you do not make sufficient use of the radio links.” This correspondence at the time was highly secret, internal party correspondence within the Committees of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, its Federal Committee, and that of the “Oblast” – the Zone or Region of Kosmet.
At that time, even the liquidation of Hasan was not known to British Intelligence. They were also demanding his release, not knowing that he had already been eliminated. Nothing is left to the imagination. The only question that arises is: “What role did Fadil play in the decision for their elimination?!” I am convinced that he is complicit.
In the letter that Fadil writes to Liri Gega on September 23, 1944, he says the following about the Kryeziu family: “They do not believe that with the National Liberationists of Yugoslavia, Kosovo will gain freedom, therefore they consider Kosovo as an inseparable part of Albania.”
Fadil says these things with full right, confirming their patriotism and their correct path. But it was not only Gani Kryeziu and the Kryeziu brothers, as well as Llazar Fundo and my father, but it was the overwhelming majority of the entire people of Kosovo and Albania who held the same opinions.
Why did Fadil Hoxha not show a shred of manliness throughout his entire career by saying just once: “Gani Kryeziu was right?” A thing that was known before the war, during the war, and which was proven after the war. That the Slavs were not for the good of the Albanians. The deception of the Albanian communists at the Bujan Conference is something astonishing.
Patriotism, manliness, and bravery were not lacking in the Kryeziu brothers. Those who had been in prison with Gani Kryeziu showed that in prison he befriended Shaqë Curri, the man who had burned down his house, tower, and guest rooms in Gjakova. According to testimonies of the prisoners, Gani and Shaqa got along in prison. Gani forgot and forgave the hostile act of burning down his houses. Shaqa said in prison that he was very remorseful that he had not known who Gani Kryeziu really was.
At the trial of Shaqë Curri in Gjakova, Rada Bey Kryeziu, Gani’s brother, was invited to testify as a witness for the prosecution, regarding the fire that had been set to the tower, to which Rada Bey had the property right. He declared that his tower and houses, together with the guest rooms, had been burned by the Germans, even though he knew that the fire had been set by Shaqë Curri and his followers. Here once again, on this occasion, a manliness that was a quality of the Kryeziu family was proven.
Even in New York, Said Kryeziu associated with Mehmet Aga Rashkoci, knowing that he, along with Shaqë Curri, had also set fire to his properties.
Another clarification regarding the Movement led by Gani Kryeziu. It comes from veteran Colonel from Bytyçi, Isuf Imeraj, at the gathering of the scientific seminar marking the 60th anniversary of the heroic resistance of the Bytyçi Highlanders of the Gjakova Highlands, against the Nazi-fascist occupiers, held in Tirana on September 23, 2004. He concludes:
“I consider it necessary, based on writings but also on the stances in the relations between the nationalist group of the Kryeziu family and the Partisan Movement, on the platform between them, what united them and where they diverged.
– These two groups in the war against the occupier were united by national and regional interests, primarily the resolution of the Kosovo issue, which was the most delicate point.
– What divided these groupings, which cooperated in the war against the occupier, was: The Kryeziu family was for the form of Western democracy and against the communist regime, with a pro-Slav orientation.”
During his stay in the Sremska Mitrovica prison, Gani Kryeziu had offers from representatives of the Yugoslav authorities for cooperation regarding the overthrow of the regime in Albania, from Slobodan Penezić, known as “Kërcun” (The Stump), exponent No. 2 of the UDBA nomenclature in Socialist Yugoslavia. He refused all offers, declaring to his Albanian fellow prisoners: “Better in the grave than a disgrace.”
Yugoslavia had declared in the New York Times that the Committee for the Liberation of Albania was led by Gani Kryeziu. (See the article published in this newspaper on August 29, 1949). Right after the formation of the National Committee “Free Albania” in Paris on August 26, 1949, where Said Kryeziu held an important position.
Regarding the issue of Kosovo and Enver Hoxha, this is explained by Enver himself on December 18-20, 1946, in his discussion at the extraordinary Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Albania.
He says textually: “Some party members want the people not to ask what is happening with Kosovo. If a party member has a clear line, he also has a clear understanding of the Kosovo issue. Democratic Yugoslavia is more advanced, more progressive than us.
Our interest is for it to be strong, because with a strong Yugoslavia there will be peace in the Balkans. Is it in our interest to demand Kosovo? This is not progressive. So, in this situation, on the contrary, we must do everything possible for the Kosovars to fraternize with the Yugoslavs.”
Does anyone need a better clarification of Enver Hoxha’s opinions towards Kosovo?! Years later, Enver Hoxha wrote the book “The Titoists,” but he did not mention the two biggest Titoists on the Illyrian island, who were himself and Fadil Hoxha. No one in Tito’s Cabinet in Yugoslavia was as admirative of Tito as these two were! / Memorie.al
