Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes rare photos of some of the largest and most famous families in Albania, who suffered for almost 45 years in the internment camps of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, since 1944, when the war was not over, they were labeled “reactionary families and enemies of the people.” Photos with unknown images of “Forbidden Families”, such as: Dosti, Kupi, Mirakaj, Merlika, Mulleti, Frashëri, Çelo, Gjonmarkaj, Kola, Kaloshi, Staravecka, Dine, Dema, Pervizi, Radi, Gjeka, etc., by internment barracks covered with tar and glassless windows, work in agriculture and construction, to family joys such as birthdays and weddings, and funeral ceremonies in cemeteries. The unknown story of the descendants of former Prime Minister Mehdi bey Frashëri, ministers Hasan Dosti and Kol Bib Mirakaj, diplomat, Tefik Çelo, etc., where some of them after growing up in luxury villas and mundane salons like the European aristocracy, after arrival of the ruling communists, spent for almost half a century of their lives (in three or four generations) in internment camps, starting from Kruja, Berat, Stalin City, Kamza, Tepelena, and the fields of Myzeqe, in Gradishtë, Savër, Grabjan, Plug, Bedat etc. Memorie.al on the occasion of August 23, known as the Day of the Disappeared by totalitarian regimes (Nazi and communist) in Europe and around the world, brings 32 photos with rare images of these families, starting from the “golden age” of them in the period of the Zog Monarchy and that of the conquest of the country, to the “communist misery” where they spent their lives for almost half a century.
Captions of 32 photos
Photo 1. Shehriar Frashëri Çelo, (daughter of the former Prime Minister, Mehdi bej Frashëri), in exile in the village of Gradishtë in Lushnja in the 1960s, in the windowless window of the barracks where they lived.
Photo 2. Shehriar Frashëri Çelo, with his little granddaughter, the daughter of Tefik Çelo. Photo taken on May 1, 1975.
Photo 3 – 4. Edison and Elinora Çelo, (brother and sister), children of Tefik Çelo, nephew of Mehdi Frashëri, in exile in the village of Gradishtë in Myzeqe.
Photo 5. Tefik Çelo, Mehdi Frashëri’s nephew with his wife Vexhije, in exile in the village of Gradishtë, in the early 1970s.
Photo 6. Tefik Çelo, nephew of Mehdi Frashëri in exile in the village of Gradishtë. Photo taken at the age of 27, where he still keeps the expensive clothes of European brands, inherited from his father, Remziu, from the period of the War, when he had not yet finished in exile.
Photo 7. Lek Mirakaj from the well-known family of Kol Bib Mirakaj, originally from Puka, (in the foreground, sitting) and Tefik Çelo, during the period when they were working on the construction of agricultural cooperatives.
Photo 8. Moisi Mirakaj and Tefik Çelo, during the period of internment.
Photo 9. A group of internees while working in construction: Abdurrahman Kaloshi, Tefik Çelo, Evgjen Merlika, Sherif Kaloshi, Halil Zenuni, Gëzim Bylykbashi etc.
Photo 10. Halil Zenuni Tefik Çelo and Genc Pervizi (above), Reshit Qazim Mulleti, Moisi Mirakaj and Lek Mirakaj, while working in construction.
Photo 11. Standing from right: Abdurrahman Kaloshi, Valentin Prenk Pervizi, Neim Staravecka, Mimika Çelo (bride) Vexhije Çelo, Tefik Çelo, Lek Preng Pervizi, Viktor Hasan Dosti, Men Mena and Ernest Hasan Dosti. Sitting down: Suzana Kaloshi, Genc Preng Pervizi, Bajazit Kaloshi, Babeta Dosti, Tomorr Hasan Dosti (with his daughter) and Arta Dosti. Photo taken on the occasion of the wedding ceremony of Mimika Çelo, sister of Tefik Çelo.
Photo 12. Naim Staravecka, Halil Zenuni, Moisi Mirakaj, Genc Pervizi, Gazmir Kaloshi, Lek Previzi, Lek Mirakaj and Tomorr Dosti (on the right side of the photo with a shovel in hand), during the funeral ceremony of one of their accomplices.
Photo 13. Ylber Starova, (the girl next to him, unidentified) Mimika Çelo, Tefik Çelo, Veronika Hasan Dosti, as well as Ernest Hasan Dosti with his wife and young son. Photo taken in front of their barracks in the village of Gradishtë.
Photo 14. Eugjen Merlika, Lek Mirakaj and Tefik Çelo. Photo taken in the first days of their exile in the villages of Myzeqe, early 50s.
Photo 15. Lazër Radi (famous journalist, publicist and writer), Rrok Rroku, Vexhije Çelo (with the wedding dress) Tefik Çelo and Xhelal Kaloshi. Photo taken on the occasion of the marriage ceremony of Tefik Çelos with his wife, Vexhija.
Photo 16. Lekë Mirakaj (son of Kol Bib Mirakaj), Mois Mirakaj, Tefik Çelo and Neim Xhelal Staravecka. Photo taken on the day of the wedding ceremony of Tefik Çelos with his wife, Vexhija.
Photo 17. Mehdi bej Frashëri, former Prime Minister of Albania. Photo taken in Rome in the 1930s.
Photo 18. Shehriar Frashëri (Çelo), (daughter of Mehdi bej Frashëri), with her husband, Remzi Tefik Çelo and her father-in-law, Tefik Çelo, (sitting), holding Mimika Çelo, the daughter of his son, Remzi. Photo taken at their villa in Thessaloniki in the early 1930s, where the Tefik Çelo family was considered one of the ten richest Albanian families in Greece.
Photo 19. Shehriar Mehdi Frashëri, with his daughter, Mimika. Photo taken in Thessaloniki in 1930 on the occasion of the new year.
Photo 20. Shehriar Mehdi Frashëri (fourth from the left) with some of her friends and relatives. Photo taken in Thessaloniki in the mid-1930s.
Photo 21. Mehdi bej Frashëri with his daughter, Shehriari. Photo taken in the mid-1930s in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Photo 22. Rakip Frashëri, (son of Mehdi bej Frashëri), during an activity with the Arbëresh of Italy. Photo taken in the early ’50s.
Photo 23. Rakip Frashëri (eighth from the left, with a wrapped paper tube in his hand, next to Abaz Kupi). Photo taken in the USA, during an activity of the Albanian anti-communist diaspora. In the early ’70s.
Photo 24. Mehdi bej Frashëri with his son Rakipi (to his right) and his son-in-law, Remzi Çelo. Photo taken in Thessaloniki in the mid-1930s.
Photo 25. Mehdi bej Frashëri with his son Rakipi and daughter, Shehriari. Photo taken in the early 1940s in Italy.
Photos 26 and 27. Mehdi bej Frashëri, in 1943, in Parliament with the Regency. (Alongside him, Mihal Zallari, Speaker of the Albanian Parliament and Father Anton Harapi. Further, Prime Minister Rexhep Mitrovica and Regent Fuat Dibra)
Photo 28. Prime Minister Mehdi bey Frashëri in 1936 going to parliament in the middle of the cordon of honor bodyguards.
Photo 29. Rakip Frashëri, during an activity in the ’70s with “Countries taken captive by communism”, of Eastern Europe, where he represented Albania.
Photo 30. Mehdi Bej Frashëri with his son, Rakipi and some of their friends, in Rome in the early 1940s.
Photo 31. The funeral ceremony of Neire Frashëri, (wife of Medi bej Frashëri) in Rome in the ’70s.
Photo 32. Vexhije Çelo, wife of Tefik Çelo, on March 22, 1992, the day of the victory of the Democratic Party, in Gradishtë./Memorie.al
