From Tefta Cami
Second part
Memorie.al / Haxhi Lleshi, former Minister of Internal Affairs in the period 1944-1946 and Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania from 1954 to 1982, starting from the period of the War, until he was alive, i.e. for more than half a century, he constantly attacked and denigrated Ahmet Cami, my Cami tribe and me personally, with all the means and with what he had the opportunity.
After the change of the system, that is, after the 90s, I did not think of dealing with Haxhiu, because the problem already belonged to the past. But he left many things written and I had to make a publication with the necessary explanations, which I deposited in the Library of the Central State Archive in Tirana. I did not want to publish it, for the sake of his children, so that they do not carry the burden of their father, but I was forced to respond with this article, after the publication of an archival document in the media, where Haxhi Lleshi’s conversation with the historian was disclosed known, Prof. Kristo Frashëri, developed between them on July 16, 1982.
This is because, in a large part of that conversation, Haxhi Lleshi attacked, attacked, denigrated and defamed my father, Ahmet Cami (‘Martyr of the Fatherland’), the Cami tribe and me personally. Likewise, in that conversation, Haxhi Lleshi has manipulated and falsified not only the history and past of the Lleshi tribe, his family and his own, but also the entire history of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War of Dibra District, and even beyond of the North of Albania.
Based on these, I considered it reasonable that in this article, I give with facts, arguments and archival documents, the history of the Cami tribe, my father Ahmet Cami and our family, as well as my own personally, always, only on them and giving them answered the accusations of Haxhi Lleshi, as well as the distortions and forgeries he has made for years against the Cami tribe. Let the reader judge for him.
Continues from last issue
How has Haxhi Lleshi adopted Ahmet Cami’s struggle?
- In April 1977, Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu criticized me, saying: “The hostile work continues in the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the minister, Tefta Cami, is responsible.”
I did not speak, because this also happened to other ministers, but they were not published in the Prime Minister’s Bulletin. When I went to the office, I found the Bulletin, where it was written: “In the Ministry of Education and Culture, Minister Tefta Cami does hostile work.” This Bulletin was quickly sent to Diber as well.
Then I wrote a letter to the prime minister and, after reporting to him about the one-year work, I asked him to resign. He called me the next day together with the deputy Prime Minister, Manush Muftiu, and after I reported to him in detail, he told me: “From 1945 until now, you are the first minister to request resignation and I do not accept the request for resignation. Continue the work, as you have been working until now”.
After a week, Sulejman Baholli, who was the head of the State Audit Office, published an article in the newspaper “Voice of the People”, where he wrote that: “In the Ministry of Education and Culture, they had made an inspection and the hostile work continued, where responsibility says the minister, Tefta Cami”. He was close friends with the President, Haxhi Lleshi. It was confirmed to me that the Prime Minister had accused me on the basis of his report.
I gathered the apparatus of the Ministry of Education and Culture, if any control had been done without my knowledge and they told me that no control had been done. On this occasion, I informed the prime minister again. The meeting of the Presidency of the Prime Ministership with the Prime Minister Adil Çarçani took place, where the confrontation took place and it was decided to propose to the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the ALP, to dismiss Sulejman Baholli, for defamation. The material is in the Prime Minister’s fund, in the Central State Archive.
- In 1980, the chief prosecutor, Rrapi Mino, came to my office and presented me with a report of an inspection that they had done as the Prosecutor in the district of Dibra for the investments of the Ministry of Education and Culture. It had issued as a violation the construction of two schools in the city of Bulqiza… and for the beginning of the works of the Palace of Sports and the Palace of Culture in the city of Peshkopia and of a high school and water supply in my village Viçisht.
I explained that; we have built secondary schools in all Agricultural Cooperatives of Albania. At that time, investments in social and cultural sectors accounted for 27-29% of the state budget. I clarified that; all were signed by the Prime Minister. I asked him: “By what order did you do this check, because according to the platform of the Political Bureau of the ALP, the bodies of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat cannot be placed above the elected bodies. I, as a deputy and member of the Central Committee, do not I know and this method am kocixoxist”.
The chief prosecutor told me: “I did the check by order of the President.” This report is in the fund of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Prime Minister’s Office and K.Q. of the ALP, because it led to them as well.
- Sadik Qato, a former employee of the apparatus of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, later asked me: “What have you done to the President, because, in every meeting of the party organization, he speaks with hatred against Ahmet Cami and Camev and you, as and records them on a tape recorder”. (Who knows how many of his tapes are in AQSH!)
I told him: “We didn’t do anything to him. As a family, we only defended ourselves from him.”
When I was Minister of Education and Culture, Haxhi Lleshi, continued his attacks, which are countless, using his high position. It made me suspect that some letters from veterans addressed to me were found in his fund and I did not receive them at that time, according to the rules?!
- Even for the accident I suffered on July 20, 1981, I suspect that it was the hand of the Yugoslavs, who carried it out from their segments in Tirana. The suspicion is also based on the fact that: I was given a needle on the third day of the accident by a nurse who was not from the ward of the hospital where I was admitted, and that injection was not even noted in the chart and was not found who it was.
In my room, there were my three sisters, Liria, Drita and the child and my cousin, Sabirea. I spent 24 hours in a coma and was in danger of being paralyzed, because I had a broken cervix and two fractures in my spine. The nurse came as soon as my husband left the room, Dr. Mehdi Cani.
Laugh at luck, that Mehdi was one of the best neuro-infectionists and I survived. Kadri Hazbiu, the former minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at that time, instructed my brother, Moisi, and my husband, saying: “You guard Tefta inside, we will guard it outside.” And so it was done. That day, I was transferred from the Hospital to the Leadership Clinic, and within two weeks I was sent to Paris, where I underwent three life-threatening operations, and I got back on my feet.
In that period, student demonstrations also took place in Kosovo and it is already known that Albania was accused of those. As well as my name, through the analyzes and debates against intellectuals as well as in the press of Belgrade about the relations in the fields of Education and Culture, Sports and Albanian Sciences with Kosovo and other Albanian countries in Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as for promoting Albanian nationalism and irredentism. This thing, I also think about the fact that in October 1980, I visited Kosovo as Minister of Education and Culture, invited by them.
- On the occasion of my 40th anniversary, I was proposed by the collective of the Ministry of Education and Culture, (of course without my knowledge), to give me the title “Teacher of the People”. Although I was appreciated by Enver Hoxha for the direction of Education, Culture and Sports, and especially for relations with Kosovo and other Albanian countries in Macedonia and Montenegro, that title was never granted to me.
- In the meeting I had with Enver Hoxha in January 1980, after he made assessments for the achievements in the field of Education and Culture (which was published in “Enver Hoxha for Science”), Enver told me: “You will have the luck you want to visit Kosovo. I also told Ramiz (Alia) not to mention my name (Enver) and not to mention the Party. We have fraternal relations with the Albanians of Kosovo and other Albanian countries in Yugoslavia.
We are successful with these relations because you are a minister, who comes from a big patriotic family and you plan and follow the tasks for the development of pre-occupation relations. Don’t allow our Kosovo Albanian brothers to be labeled as titists and agents of the UDB. They are more patriotic than us, because they fight against two regimes, the Titist and the Serbian regimes”.
Regarding my decoration, I didn’t even think of approving the former President of those years, Haxhi Lleshi, neither for “Teacher of the People” nor for any other decoration for me.
- In 1992, at the meeting with the voters in Shupenza, among other things, Haxhi Lleshi said: “Ahmet Cami was a traitor”. At that moment there was a noise in the hall and the chairman of the branch of the Democratic Party, Latif Dema, replied: “For us, Ahmet Cami was a hero fighter, but your old age came from your head and not from your feet.” (This was also published by the newspaper “Rilindja Demokratike” of those days).
- In 1973, when an instructor of K.Q. of ALP to ask Aqif Lleshi about Ahmet Cami, Aqif said: “Let me, what does he say… Ahmet Cami was a hero. If it wasn’t for Ahmeti, who was authoritarian in Dibër, I (Aqifi) and my grandson could not come to Albania, with what we had to do with Halit in Dibër”.
- When I was appointed Minister of Education and Culture, I received a letter from Reshit Haxhi Lleshi, who asked me to get a job as a teacher, because he was interned together with his mother, in the village of Mollas in Peqin.
I talked to Ramiz Ali and he told me: “You will fight with the President again”?! While I answered: “I am helping his son, my cousin.” He told me: “The president has denounced Reshtini and his wife to his friend Enver Hoxha and has insisted that they be sentenced to prison.” However, in 1986, I took Reshit to Elbasan.
- When the analysis was done in the Secretariat of the Central Committee of PPSh, on September 8, 1973 (one day before the meeting), Hysni Kapo called me and said: “I also called Hekurani and instructed him to talk only about work and not speak against you. You should also speak only about work”!
I told him: I have never spoken against the first secretary despite my reservations. But I want to clarify my biography about the accusations made by the president at the meeting of the Dibra Party Bureau.
This conflict with the president started with my father, when he came to Ahmeti on April 7, 1941, and I took out his father’s prison diary, where it is described that Haxhi Lleshi came to Albania with 300 Serbian forces together with a Serbian major, for prevented the attack of the Italian forces on Yugoslavia. Ahmeti refused to cooperate with them. We had discussed it with Mois, so that we could take it to the top, so that the leadership would know how Haxhi Lleshi had come to Albania.
Hysni Kapo stood up and told me: “I order you not to speak badly about the President”, repeating three times. “The party knows what is written there”, and did not take the notebook that I took out “We will treat the problem as an opposition to the emancipation of women.” And this is how the problem was treated at the meeting of the Secretariat by Enver Hoxha.
– Haxhi Lleshi insisted that measures be taken against me because I had a bad biography for him.
-Sulejman Baholli said: “Tefta is a continuation of the hostile work of Zoi Themel”.
-Enveri: “You condemned the Foundation of Dibra”.
-Haxhiu: “There is a decision for dismissal and expulsion from the party for a bad biography. She is the granddaughter of Ukë Cami….”!
– Enveri: “Not only is there no room for moderation, but Tefta should be the first secretary in the district”!
-Hysni Kapo: “Tefta is the daughter of Ahmet Cami, that great patriot, who shed blood for the liberation of the homeland.”
– Adil Çarçani and Gafur Çuçi said: “Tefta works well, but some cadres from Dibra, who work outside Dibra, don’t like it.” It was eluded to Haxhiu and Suleimani etc.
-Haxhiu: “Do you know how Tefta’s father was killed? We gave the order for the partisan detachments to leave Dibra e Madhe and participate in the liberation of Peshkopia”.
– Enveri, after thinking a little, said: “Why are you worried so much, friend Haxhi? He was killed and contributed more than you and I, who are enjoying him. Even Tefta works well. Why are you worried”?!
But in his published speech, surprisingly, Enver Hoxha’s assessment of my family, as the most patriotic family in Albania, with three generations of ‘Martyrs of the Motherland’, has been removed. Apparently, Enver’s materials were torpedoed by others in those years.
Enveri, how often he met us during the breaks of the plenum meetings of the K.Q. of the ALP, told me: “Remember! You come from a big patriotic family”. During those years, as well as now, I think that the President continued to put pressure on the K.Q. of ALP against me.
From this meeting, my expulsion and dismissal or other punitive measures were expected from Haxhi Lleshi and his friends from Dibra. Mihal Bisha told me: “You are the only one who wins in the conflict with Haxhi Lleshi, because the others have been punished or arrested.”
The problem was addressed by Enver Hoxha, as an opposition to the emancipation of women.
Haxhiu and his clique had planned to celebrate with a dinner. But they could not do it, because their prediction did not come true.
His and Sulejman Bahol’s deeds towards me are endless.
I don’t want to go on any longer, but I would like Haxhi Lleshi, as the president of my time, to leave in his fund, big projects for solving the national issue, projects like all the presidents of the world leave, so that it goes down in history with dignity. But, as time showed, Haxhi Lleshi’s personal fund is like: “Osman Gazepi’s rope”!
In conclusion, I do not want and should not continue these phenomena in the descendants of both parties. Let’s close this chapter and work in the interest of protecting Albania and the Albanian Nation. Memorie.al
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