Part Two
Memorie.al / “A Gathering of Letters with Friends – The Rich Correspondence of Mustafa Merlika-Kruja”, compiled in four volumes, reveals not only the dimension of this personality but also documents and sheds light on many dark aspects of our history during the most delicate period, before and after World War II, when the communists took power. There are 11 years of correspondence with the Franciscan brother from Puka, who found the signatory from Kruja in a difficult spiritual state: “without family, but with the hope that one day I will see them, yet without friends forever”! This letter touches on one of the most sensitive points of the era when, at the height of the communist regime’s consolidation, two exiled personalities seek the reasons why Albania had failed to have a functioning state. Mustafa Kruja cites a saying of Father Fishta, which to the Franciscan seems unbelievable and quite radical for the time.
Continued from the previous issue
LETTER FROM FATHER PULIN MARGJOKAJ IN GRAZ, ADDRESSED TO MUSTAFA MERLIKA (KRUJA) ON APRIL 14, 1957
My very dear Friend,
Your letter, which I received on December 19th, has given me immeasurable pleasure. When you first arrived in America, you wrote me a card from the “Promised Land.”
Of course, America wins a person over when they have spent many years there. For us, who were accustomed to our own patriarchal life, but also for the pre-war European, going to America is truly like changing one’s life and leaving the past behind.
But now, American life is winning over even the European who stays in Europe. People no longer think only of earning as much as possible and enjoying themselves as much as possible.
Family life, as we “Primitives” understood it, does not exist for this modern man of today. Everyone wants to be in the office or at work, to earn a living. As for me, America – only if I happen to go for a short while, because I am not strongly drawn to it.
To see the skyscrapers of America once might be interesting, but now even Europeans are imitating the Americans in building skyscrapers. And the “beautiful” American jazz music is enthusing even the foolish Europeans.
Be that as it may, I am overjoyed that you are able to spend the second half of your life in America without major worries, since your son and daughter are working for themselves and for you.
Others who go to America complain a lot, and it does not turn out to be the paradise they imagined before emigrating there. I am doing well and fine here in this old Europe. With work, I get by as best I can.
You need not trouble yourself about Georgijević’s book, because I found it here and bought it for 12 shillings (half a dollar) in German, exactly in the original language in which Georgijević wrote it.
Thank you for the honor of the relatively long letter you sent me.
Now, a question. Is Aqif Pasha Permeti and Aqif Pasha Elbasani the same person or not? It seems to me they are the same person, but I have found one name sometimes, the other at other times. What is his real name?
And another thing. Can you tell me the names of the most distinguished Albanian patriots who belonged to the Bektashi faith? Was Zogu also of the Bektashi faith, or was he Sunni?
The Frashëri brothers, I know, were Bektashis; also, I hear that Ismail Qemali is said to have been a Bektashi, and likewise Aqif Permeti or Elbasani.
And I think I have heard that you too belong to the same Bektashism. I would also like to know about other Albanian patriots, whether they belonged to that faith or not.
I won’t ask you any more questions, because I don’t want to put you to trouble. I hope that within the coming year you will write to me once and now answer this present letter.
Meanwhile, I wish you with all my heart your 70th birthday, which, as you wrote in your letter, will soon be upon you. In full health and with every good wish, may you also await another 70 years in the American paradise, which you have just entered.
Something else comes to mind that I nearly forgot. That photograph of yours that you once sent me – I have lost it somewhere and can no longer find it.
Therefore, have the kindness to send me another photograph of yourself, taken on the occasion of your 70th birthday. The one you sent that time was very beautiful, and I hope you still have a copy.
If “L’ALBANIE LIBRE” were to come out now, I could write something for your 70th birthday. But even that newspaper comes out whenever it feels like it, because it lacks funds.
Again, I send you my most heartfelt congratulations on reaching your 70th birthday, as well as health and good wishes for the time to come, which I hope will last as long as possible.
Best health and regards to your son, daughter, and sister.
Yours sincerely,
P. Margjokaj O.F.M.
N.F., April 14, 1957
LETTER FROM MUSTAFA MERLIKA IN GRAZ, ADDRESSED TO FATHER PULIN MARGJOKAJ, IN 1957
Dear friend,
You wrote to me on January 18th, and in that letter you also said these words: “I hope that within the coming year you will write to me once and now answer this present letter.” So you thought then that I would wait until Christmas to answer!
Thus, by answering within three months, you will only rejoice all the more. Honestly, lucky friend, with this “half-century” that I have, those younger than I should think a little before blaming me, even if I write once a year and not at great length.
The manner of your congratulations on my 70th birthday is truly a masterpiece of style, an unparalleled finesse; I would say, and, in any case, undoubtedly original. I thank you endlessly.
For my part, I often pray to God for only one thing concerning this point: to take my soul at any moment it is His will, only without making me suffer.
That is the mercy I ask for myself. And even this is in His hands, like everything else; let Him do as He wills.
The first part of your letter, which speaks of Americanism – if we can call it that, the modernism of today – is as if you had dictated it to me. And it pleased me.
If I did my utmost to come to this country, to which I am grateful with all my heart for accepting me; if I have called it and call it “The Promised Land of anti-communist refugees,” it is for reasons far stronger than those that make it antipathetic to our generation and yours.
Old Europe is, lucky friend, no longer anything else but the past of humanity, which created everything that shines most brilliantly and most beautifully in the world.
The burning problem that keeps us suspended today between thought and hope is another: which other continent – barbaric Asia or civilized America, albeit with a civilization quite different from what it once was – is taking up its inheritance for the immediate future?
I see the strongest chances on this side, perhaps because it is my inclination; but no one can say with certainty, or even with a percentage does that far exceed half. And if, afterwards, this inheritance is to be won through a nuclear war, then imagine what kind of inheritance that would be.
There is a relative minority of people who, as you write, come here and are not satisfied. The majority of this minority are either lazy or arrogant. Rarely will you find a person from a third category who finds reason to complain. Let me speak for myself: I get quite bored; for God has given me health and strength, and I could do some work to earn something and help my family as much as necessary, especially since here I have two people working for me.
And what kind of work can I do here? I can teach Albanian, Turkish, Italian, and French. None of these four doors are opening for me; there is no way they can open, because I do not hold the key that would open whichever one I desire: I do not know the English language!
And how can I explain to an American the foreign language I know? Let’s leave teaching aside. But almost any intellectual work cannot be done without English, the language of the country. Only manual labor in factories can be done.
And for such work, my physical strength is insufficient, and I would fall ill within a few days. So, because I want to do something and cannot, I get bored. But no one is to blame, and therefore I have no right to complain to anyone.
I struggle with myself, trying to learn English. And once I have learned it to speak and understand it reasonably well, then I’ll see what I can do.
I could not celebrate my 70th birthday at all, because the Hooker Electrochemical Company, where my son works, robbed me of it by sending him to Michigan on a temporary technical mission; and with the three of us not together here, I could not celebrate it.
And now, since the moment has passed, the pleasure is gone. But I will have my photograph taken as soon as my son returns, and I will send you one without fail. As for the one you seem to have lost, I no longer have it. Now I am digging and rummaging to see if I can find in my archives a passport-sized print of that same one you want.
And now let’s come to the questions.
Aqif (Pasha) Elbasani and Aqif Përmeti are two persons who have no connection with each other. As the surname itself says, the first is from Elbasan, and the other from Përmet.
The first was a civil pasha of the Ottoman kingdom, and the second reached the first rank of general officer in Albania. The first was also Minister of the Interior under the first cabinet of Tur(k)han Pasha (during the time of Prince Wied).
The civil pasha of Turkey was a pasha in his own house without any office, like a baron, count, etc. in Europe, and had various ranks like these, but the title was always pasha. He was a patriot, a strong Bektashi, and brave.
He was a maternal cousin of Esat Toptani, but his opponent. I do not know General Aqif – that is, I did not know him intimately. I do not know how he became an officer.
He was, as far as I know, an emigrant here in the United States. When he returned to Albania and how he entered the Albanian army or gendarmerie, I do not know. It seems to me that in ’39, Italy found him a colonel and made him a general. Unless I am mistaken, the communists killed him. Aqifi of Elbasan also died.
He may have been about 20 years older than me. While the other was, perhaps, about 5 years younger or my age. Both knew how to hold a pen, but both were ignorant.
I forgot to tell you that Aqif Elbasani (he signed thus) took part in the Congress of Lushnja and was appointed by it as one of the four regents at the time, while Ahmet Zogu was appointed Minister of the Interior. He was also a staunch opponent of the latter.
I will try to prepare for you a list of old Bektashi patriots, with inquiries I can make of others, because I myself was not a Bektashi, and I cannot assert anything with certainty.
I will pay you a compliment, a little late, on your signature: for a bank director, it’s not bad!
My son, Bashkim, has been taken away from me for a while by his work. My sister is here with me, and with that, I send you warm and friendly greetings.
M. Kruja
P.S. Here, from my son, I am better known as Merlika than as Kruja./ Memorie.al
