Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes the unknown and sensational story that took place in the city of Tirana in 1942, when the communist guerrillas carried out the action of kidnapping the 12-year-old daughter of the Chief of Tirana Police, Man Kukalesh, whom they sheltered on a base them on Fortuzi Street, pressuring her father to release from prison the communist Shyqëri Ishmi, who was expected to be executed by the Italians. The rare testimony of Vanda Çorati, regarding the abduction of Bale Kukalesh (neighbors and friends of Çorati), by her brother, Agron with Toni Jakovë and Sabaudin Gabrani (“People’s Hero”), who dragged her force, putting him in a Milocento vehicle driven by a driver with the nickname “Sazani”. The whole chronology of that event that caused a great commotion in Tirana at that time, alluding to the Prime Minister Shefqet Vërlaci and Jakomoni, from the panic and horror that caused the Kukaleshi family, the throwing of the letter by Vanda Çorati in the yard of Kukalesh, the accusations of Man Kukalesh against Agron Çoratit that he had a hand in that work, the threat of the girl’s uncle, Qazimi, that he would shoot 100 communists, the girl’s shelter at the base at Rruga Fortuzi, where she recognized by voice the neighbor of their house, the order to release the girl and her return home, the accusations and the threat of Agron Çorati against Enver only two or three days after that action, where Vojo Kushi was killed at Kodra e Kuqe, the sending of Çorati “on duty” to Korça, where he was in danger of being killed by the Italians , his return to Tirana and the denunciation he made to the Communist Party through a treaty accusing him of terrorism, his departure with studies in Austria, his return in 1947, and the long ordeal of two brothers and two sisters, Çorati. , in bu rags and internments.
“Around 1942, when the Italians had arrested Shyqëri Ishmi and his execution was expected, my brother, Agron, called me and told me that we would take action to abduct the 12-year-old daughter of Man Kukalesh, the chief of Tirana Police. with whom we had family entrances and exits and was our neighbor. After Agron gave me the tasks I had to perform in that action, there in the dark, I told Bales to take the trials and go fill the Demner Bay at the New Bazaar, as we usually did on evenings where we took drinking water. When Bale and I took the trials and were on our way to the Bazaar, I signaled to Tonin Jakova who got out of the Milocento car, where Sabaudin Gabrani and the driver, nicknamed “Sazani”, were also waiting. As we approached, Tonin Jakova said to Bales, “Come on, Tata loves you in the office,” and pulled him back, dragging him into the car. This is how Vanda Çorati, a former communist and partisan from Peza, recalled the beginning of the action, who told us about the sensational event of 1942, when the communist guerrillas of Tirana kidnapped the daughter of the Chief of Tirana Police, Man Kukalesh, to pressured him to release Shyqëri Ishmi, an action led by her brother Agron Çorati, with his two friends, Tonin Jakovë and Sabaudin Gabrani. But who is Vanda and Agron Çorati who is the past of their family? Who ordered the action to kidnap Man Kukalesh’s daughter, who were the people who took part in that action and why the next night they were forced to release the 12-year-old girl without fulfilling the purpose of that action ?! Was Enver Hoxha the originator of that action and why did he order the release of the girl who was taken hostage and then blamed Fiqret Shehu, Isuf Keçi, and Agron Çorati, whom he expelled from the party? What was the threat that Agron Çorati made to Enver Hoxha regarding the treacherous murder of Vojo Kushi and why the next day Enver sent Agron to serve in Korça, where he barely escaped death? Why, after returning from Korça, did Agron make the famous memorandum against the Communist Party, what was said in that statement that he pasted on the walls and pillars of Tirana and why after that he left Albania with the help of Nako Spiro? Why Agron was accused of being a “German agent” and how he suffered the long ordeal of internment, two sisters and two brothers of the Çorati family, along with their mother Feruzen, who asked Enver Hoxha for the four children he had given her To take someone home for the war ?!
Who were the Corats?
From the two brothers and two sisters of the Çorati family, who are known as the main exponents of the communist guerrillas of Tirana who during the period of fascist occupation turned their house into a powerful base, Mila with Vanda, have lived until 2005, while their two brothers, Muharrem and Agron, had separated from this life in the 1960s and 1970s. Located in an old Tirana house, which is still located near the New Bazaar today, the two Chorati sisters, Mila and Vanda, postponed the days of old age in their solitude and occasionally recalled the years of one past time that brought many vicissitudes and worries into their lives. The origin of the Çorati family is from Libohova, Gjirokastra, and their grandfather, Beaudin Çorati, after studying law in Istanbul, worked for some time in Voshtina, Ioannina. After the burning of Ioannina by the Turks, a part of the Çorati family moved to Turkey (where her descendants still live) while Beaudini came and settled in Vlora and was appointed as a judge in Tepelena. While Beaudini was living in Vlora, he had a son named Ferit, who is the father of Mila, Vanda, and two brothers: Muharrem and Agron, who passed away a few years before their two sisters. After Ferit was released from exile on Sazan Island, where he had been deported by the Italians for his involvement in the Vlora War, he worked for some time in the Post-Telegraph of the coastal city and in 1920, the then Director of Posts, Sadik Tirana, transferred him to the city of Tirana, which was housed in a rented house in Demnerët, near the New Bazaar.
Croatians, the base of the communists
Muharrem, who was born in Vlora in 1920, was the first of Ferit Çotrati’s children to die in 1930 in Tirana. His four children, Muharremi, Agroni, Mila, and Vanda, were educated at the Tirana Gymnasium and after the formation of the Communist Party, they became closely associated with the Anti-Fascist Movement and turned their home (there to Lik Demneri) into one of the bases. the main communists. Regarding this, Vanda said: “It was the close friendship that our brother, Muharrem, had with Gogo Nushi and Nako Spiro, that made our family close ties with the Anti-Fascist Movement and we joined the Communist Party. At that time, our mother Feruzja, whom the communists called Aneja, not only did not bring us obstacles, but she was the one who opened the house to the comrades of the Movement, waiting and following them just like us, her children. There we collected aid for the partisans as well as the Party’s finances, which we kept in a tin box, which we hid inside the chimney. I remember once when it rained heavily and I washed the box that was hanging inside the chimney, all night we were busy ironing the banknotes, drying them. In addition to waiting and escorting illegal communists home, our mother Feruzja was tasked with sending the Party’s secret mail from Tirana to Korça. In one of her services, she was caught by the gendarmes at the Pogradec checkpoint and was escorted by Petraq Pekmezi’s car to Korça, where she was held for a month in prison. At that time, in addition to Muharrem, who worked with the Party’s technique, illegally printing tracts at the Gutenberg Printing House, I also worked on printing tracts in Tirana and Peza, where the technique was later moved. In addition to Gogo Nushi and Nako Spiro, who were Muharrem’s comrades during the war, Mustafa Gjinishi, Fiqëret Shehu, Nexhmije Hoxha, Hamit Keçi, Isuf Keçi, Qamil Poda, Ali Kubati, Tefik, and Drit Çaushi, Shyqëri also came to us. Këllezi, Pirro Dodbiba, etc., who stayed for days as illegals in our apartment”, Vanda Çorati recalled, at the time when their house had become an important base for the communists.
Man Kukaleshi released Çoratët from prison several times
Adjacent to the house where the Çorats lived was the house of Man Kukalesh, who at that time was the Chief of the Tirana Police. But what were the relations of the Chorats with the family of Man Kukalesh and how was it possible that right next to the house of the Chief of the Tirana Police, the communists had one of their most powerful bases ?! In this regard, Vanda Çorati testified: “All these communist movements in our house were carried out under the nose of Man Kukalesh, the Chief of the Tirana Police, whom we had neighbors and our doors were only five or six meters away. Although our house was next to Man Kukalesh’s house, we had no fear of him not only not telling us about the Italians, but rather helping us whenever we were in danger. From the second-floor window of his house, Man Kukaleshi looked at all the communist movements in our house and when they became frequent, he said to his wife: ‘Go tell Mrs. Feruze, keep the communists away because they are accumulated a lot and you will notice that there are a lot of controls by the Italians’. Whenever the communists held a meeting in our house and there was a signal for control, we would remove all of them from Man Kukalesh’s house and from there they would go to the New Bazaar. Likewise, Man Kukaleshi has rescued us and released us from prison several times, both me and my sister Mila, as well as my two brothers, Agron and Muharrem. When our mother Feruzja went to tell Mrs. Mani that one of us had been arrested and told him to intervene to free us, she said, “Did they catch her again, lady?”, Vanda Çorati recalled. , the friendship they had at the time with the family of the Tirana Police Chief, Man Kukalesh, who not only did not harass the Chorats and the main communists of Tirana who gathered there, but they left his house whenever there were signals. that the neighborhood would be controlled by the Italians.
The abduction of Kukalesh’s daughter
But what is the truth of the action for the abduction of Man Kukalesh’s daughter, about whom Enver Hoxha has long written in one of his works, accusing Fiqrete Shehu and Agron Çorati, as terrorists? Regarding this, Vanda Çorati testified: “Around 1942, when the Italians had arrested Shyqëri Ishmi and his execution was expected, my brother Agroni called me and told me that: we would take action to kidnap a 12-year-old girl. Man Kukaleshit. After Agron gave me the tasks I had to perform in that action, there in the dark I told Bales to take the straws and go to fill the Demner Bay at the New Bazaar, as we usually did on evenings where we got the water. drinking. Agron, in order not to be noticed that he was the organizer of that action, stayed at home and occasionally stood at the window to see that he was there. While the other two friends Tonin Jakova, with Sabaudin Gabrani (“People’s Hero”) and the driver, would stay by a car near the New Bazaar, where I would pass with Mani’s daughter. When Bale and I took the pitchers and we’re going out on the road to the Bazaar, I signaled to Tonin Jakova, who got out of the “Miloçento” car, where Sabaudin Gabrani and the driver who had the nickname “Sazani” were inside. As we approached, Tonin Jakova said to Bales: ‘Let’s go because Tata is looking for you in the Questura’, as they called Mani at home. As Balja responded by saying, “Why are you asking me, Tata?” After that, the “Milocento” car left quickly, and I drowned two straws with water and returned home. When I went there, Mani’s wife asked me where Balja was and I replied: They took a couple of people by car after they told her that Mani was looking for her in the Police Station. As Mani’s wife entered the house in shock, I left the letter that Agron had given me inside her yard. The letter told Mann that “his daughter had been taken hostage by the Communists and she would be released on the condition that Man Man Kukaleshi be released from prison by Shyqëriu Ishmi.” After that, I went home and told Agron that the action was over successfully and he continued to stay at home and gave me the task of staying on the street and watching all the reactions that would be made by Man Kukalesh’s family. The first to come to the Kukalesh family’s house was Mani’s brother, Qazimi, who worked at the Police Station, and when he opened the front door, he saw the letter I had thrown there and went outside to read it under the backlight. very close to their gate. After reading the letter, Qazimi started shouting and climbing up to the house he said out loud: 100 communists will shoot today. When he entered, he called his brother Man Kukaleshi, who came out immediately and came to our house and met Agron. Very shocked, Mani said to Agron: Aman o Gono, they kidnapped Bale. Agron, noticing that he knew nothing at all, replied: How or Man did they kidnap Bale, what did you say ?! Mani went on again and said to him: Agron, you have a hand in this work, but please intervene and release me so that no one will take you back. After Man Kukaleshi came to our house and accused Agron of having his finger on Bales’ abduction, he left us, saying: Agron, I have left this in your hands. That evening, after Selman Kukaleshi left our house, Goni went out and went to the house on Fortuzi Street where Bale had been taken. When he entered the house where his friends were, Tonini and Sabaudi, and had begun to talk about the situation, Balja, who was in the other room with her eyes closed, recognized Goni by voice and called out: O Goni, o Goni. After that, Agron came home and told us the whole story “, Vanda Çorati remembers regarding the kidnapping action of Man Kukalesh’s daughter.
The girl’s return home
What happened next to the 12-year-old daughter of the Tirana Police Chief and how did the events unfold in the Kukalesh family’s house? Regarding this, Vanda Çorati said: “The next evening, Tonin Jakova took Bale by bicycle and brought him and left him somewhere near the house at Selvija. Along the way, he blindfolded Bales, putting on a pair of sunglasses, and when he got him down, he told her to open his eyes only when he counted to four. That day before Balja was released, Agron called me and gave me the task of staying playing near the Kukalesh house and observing the movements and people who would enter and leave. He also told me that: when Balja came, I would talk to her and without being noticed, if she had known her abductors, Tonin Jakov, Sabaudin Gabrani, the driver, and the house where they had kept her. isolated. When Balja came home, many relatives of the Kukalesh people, their neighbors, as well as many personalities who were friends and colleagues of Mani, such as Questori Papalilo, etc., gathered there. I remember that day or the next day, Jakomon’s wife came and gave Bales a bicycle and a beautiful doll as a gift. As I approached Agron, I approached Bales and, riding the bicycle brought to him by Jacob’s wife, asked him what had happened to him. Balja told me that in the house where those who abducted her had taken her, she had heard Agron’s voice. I told him there was no way out because Agron had been home all the time and hadn’t come out the door at all. I told Agron all the conversation I had with Bale, telling her that she had known him by voice “, Vanda Çorati recalled, adding that:” Although Man Kukaleshi learned the whole truth of his daughter’s abduction and the persons who had carried out that action, led by our brother Agron, he took no action against us. Even after that event, our family relations continued quite normally, just as before, and Man Kukaleshi not only did not send the police to arrest us, but on the contrary, he released us from prison several times, both me and Agron, Muharrem and Mila, who was arrested by the Questura from time to time “.
Vanda Çorati: “Enver ordered the kidnapping of the girl”
What is the truth about the abduction of Man Kukalesh’s daughter and who was the person who ordered her to be taken hostage in exchange for the release of Shyqëri Ishmi? Regarding this, Vanda Çorati testified: “Since that time, our brother, Agroni, has told us that the order to kidnap Man Kukalesh’s daughter was given by Enver Hoxha himself. But after it was seen that her abduction caused a great commotion and that gesture was condemned by the entire city of Tirana, calling the communists “terrorists who deal with child abductions”, Enver Hoxha himself gave the order for the release of Man Kukalesh’s daughter… That Enver was the man who ordered the abduction of Man Kukalesh’s daughter cannot be doubted. This fact is credible to us, not only from Agron’s testimony, which he repeated to us many years later but knowing the rules and discipline that the Party had at the time, the logical deduction is that: No one else could order such an action involving the abduction of a girl, much less that of the Tirana Police Chief. But after that action, seeing the situation created, Enver Hoxha charged Agron Çorati, Fiqret Shehu, and Isuf Keçi with responsibility, and he himself took on the attributes of the savior of the situation “, testified Vanda Çorati, showing the truth about that sensational event of the year. 1942, when the communists took the 12-year-old girl hostage, in exchange for the release of Shyqëri Ishmi, for whom Agron Çorati has accused Enver Hoxha, as the man who ordered the abduction of Kukalesh’s daughter.
Agron threatened Enver that he had a hand in the murder of Vojo Kushi
Was Enver Hoxha the person who ordered the abduction of Man Kukalesh’s daughter and why did he hold Agron Çorati responsible for that action ?! Regarding this, Vanda said: “Two or three days after the abduction of Bales, the murder of Vojo Kushi, Sadik Stavelec and Xhoxhi Martin took place. That evening, shortly before the rifles started, Agron wanted to go to Ije Farka’s house to meet Enver Hoxha and Vojo Kushi, who would go to Montenegro the next day. But why Agron did not go there and who was the person who stopped him, he only told me in 1960. That evening, when he wanted to go to meet Vojo Kushi, he was stopped by a communist friend, whom the Tirana Circuit and had assigned to shelter in our house. The one we considered the same as the girl of the house, came out in front of him and, putting his shoulders to the door, had said to him: By no means will you go there. Only if I die will you come out of this door. And a few moments later, when the rifles were heard on Kodra e Kuqe, Agron remembered that there was a betrayal. That night after the rifles were fired, Agron went to Enver Hoxha and told him: Vojo Kushi has been betrayed and killed. But if I find out the truth about who is the person who betrayed him, I will kill him with my own hand even without the permission of the Party. As Agron told us, he said those words to Enver, because he was convinced that Vojo Kushi and his two friends had been betrayed and killed. Agron told us that: Vojua was killed not by the Italians, but by someone else, and after the murder, in order to lose track of the betrayal, the Italians started firing, as if they had been killed in the attempt. It is not true that Vojua got into a tank and fought, he was killed before the rifles were fired by the Italians. I remember his body being killed as it is now when the Italians put him in a wheelchair and took him for a walk in Tirana to terrorize the people. After that conversation that Agron had with Enver, where he told him that Vojua had been treacherously killed, Enver started Agron the next day with a service in Korça, charging him with carrying out a very important action. While carrying out that action, Agron was left in the mud by the person who was with him and he was able to escape without being arrested by the Italians, only because of his abilities. After the operation, Agron was left alone in a house, completely abandoned, and although he sought contact with Korça communists, no one went to meet him. He remained there for some time completely alone and ill, assisted only by the old woman of the house, who gave him something to eat. After almost two months, Nako Spiro sent a 14-year-old boy from Tirana, who, on his behalf, told him not to trust anyone and to return urgently to Tirana “, Vanda Çorati recalled, regarding the debate made by his brother. her, Agron, with Enver, for the murder of Vojo Kushi and his sending to carry out an action in Korça, for which, as Agron told him: He was sent on purpose, to be physically eliminated ”.
Agron publicly denounced the Albanian Communist Party by tract
What was the attitude towards Agron Çorati when he came to Tirana and why did he denounce the Albanian Communist Party? Regarding this, his sister, Vanda, said: “After Agron came from Korça to Tirana, he was locked up at home and became very pessimistic about the road he had entered. Analyzing the events since the murder of Vojo Kushi and sending him to Korça, where he could barely escape certain death, he made a statement, a ‘memorandum’ type, and after deciphering it in many copies, he pasted it in public. , on the pillars and walls of Tirana. Among other things, Agroni wrote in that statement that he had been active since the founding of the Albanian Communist Party, believing in the struggle for the liberation of the homeland and the recovery of a truly Ethnic Albania, but the SNP had betrayed those ideals. and had come out god, only terror, anarchy, and fratricide. He then called on them: whoever wanted Albania, to choose the path of reason and Albanians, coming out against anarchy and terrorism with a foreign brand. At the end of the statement, Agron wrote that: Balli Kombëtar, was not as presented by the leaders of the Communist Party, but in Balli, he looked at the faithful servant of the interests of the Homeland and the methods of that organization had convinced him of the truth which was expressed and in their Decalogue. When I learned that Agron had posted that statement on the walls of Tirana, I went crazy and tore them up wherever they were, thinking that my brother had betrayed the Party. A few days later, Nako Spiro told Agron to leave Albania, and he granted him the right to study in Austria, paying him money to continue his schooling. According to Nako’s order, who loved Agron very much, in the spring of 1944, he left for Austria to study, together with 20 Albanian students “, Vanda Çorati recalled, regarding the departure of her brother from Albania, after he had publicly denounced the SNP for ‘betraying the ideals and interests of Albania’.
Prisons in prisons and internments
How was the Çorati family treated after the end of the war? In this regard, Vanda recalled: “At the beginning of 1946, Agron discontinued his studies and returned to Albania. He was arrested as soon as he arrived in Tirana and was kept in solitary confinement for some time, changing places several times where he was being held. After a few months, Nako Spiro went to Koci Xoxe and told him: what to do with Agron’s problem? After many attempts by Nako, Agron was released from solitary confinement and sent to work as a manual laborer in the opening of the roads, while our other brother, Muharremi, served as deputy minister in the State Planning Commission with Nako Spiron. Agron then went to work as a financier and graduated from the Faculty of Economics at night with high results. The fiercest blow to our family began in 1956, with the arrest of Muharrem. While he was preparing to go with his family to Czechoslovakia, where he was assigned a commercial attaché, he was arrested on charges of “supporting the Tirana Conference”. After that, he was released only with the intervention of Dr. Stavri Lekës, who told State Security officers that he could die in the cell from time to time. After that, Muharrem was interned in Llakatund, Vlora, where he died in September 1968. Agron was also arrested in 1960 and later interned for five years on the island of Zvernec. After the sentences of Muharrem and Agron, my sister Mila and I were expelled from the Party. Based on the fierce persecution that took place against our family, mother Feruzja, who was never given a war pension, wrote a letter to Enver Hoxha, saying: Of the four children I gave to the war, one returned home. Only after that did Enver give the order and Agron was released from exile and came to Tirana, where he worked as a loading and unloading worker, until he died on January 15, 1977 “, Vanda Çorati ended her story, adding that The persecution of the Çorat family, which had been one of the most powerful communist bases during the war, continued: In 1973, in the cells of the Durrës Branch of Internal Affairs, the husband of Mila, the famous doctor of Israeli origin, Natan Schachner, whose grave is still unknown./Memorie.al
