Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes an archival document issued by the Central State Archive in Tirana (fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP), which belongs to 1970, where the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Rexhep Kolli informs the secretary of the Committee Central Committee of the ALP, Ramiz Alia, who covered art, culture and propaganda, regarding a postal correspondence of the Kosovar writer from Mitrovica, Jakup Çerraja, with his uncle who lived in the city of Fier, where he had settled with his family since Zog Monarchy. Among other things in that letter, Deputy Minister Kolli stated: “As he writes in his letter, the aforementioned refers to some authors of these publications that were written in” November “who are in fact known to the people of Kosovo as bad people. Thus e.g. Murat Isaku and Nuhi Vinca”.
As we have seen in all the other documents published in the pages of this book, the communist regime of Tirana exercises a very strict censorship and control not only over the life, work and all the activity of the writers and artists who lived and worked here in Albania, but also to those who were on the other side of the border, in the Albanian areas under Yugoslavia, such as Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, etc. In order to achieve total control over them, according to the platform of the Politburo, it was entrusted by law to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and State Security, which went so far as to open and regularly check the correspondence that writers and artists carried letters to relatives, friends and comrades on both sides of the border. In fact, the opening and control of postal correspondence was done even for ordinary citizens, mainly for those who were in pursuit or suspicious, but to writers and artists it was linear and not only viewed ‘with a magnifying glass’, but their content was analyzed in detail with details. The opening and control of letters was done mainly at the “House with leaves” which was adjacent to the Albanian Post, as well as at five or six other bases in Tirana (secret villas) which were under the subordination of the sector “Operational evidence and postal control” “, Which at that time was led by Dhimitër Bonata. And after a thorough check of this correspondence, the State Security compiled a report, extracting the extract of the letter, which was then formally forwarded to the secretary of the Central Committee covering propaganda, art and culture. This function was held and exercised by Ramiz Alia from the beginning of the ’60s until 1982 (when he also assumed the post of Speaker of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly). This thing, this “work practice”, among other things becomes known from this official document of 1970, where the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Rexhep Kolli, has sent a secret report to Ramiz Alia, where he analyzes a letter of the Kosovar writer, Jakup Çerraja, sent to his uncle in the district of Fier, where he had settled with his family since the period of the Zog Monarchy. Although that report-information speaks well of the writer Çerraja, Deputy Minister Kolli makes a comment to some other Kosovar writers, names and well-known characters of Albanian letters, both at that time and later, such as; Ali Podrimja, Azem Shkreli, Din Mehmeti, Murat Isaku, Nuhi Vinca, etc., where for the latter two, he emphasized that “in Kosovo they are both known as bad people”. Like most of the documents in this book, this one is published in full and without any abbreviations.
Letter from the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, to Ramiz Alia
THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA SECRET
MINISTRY OF INTERIOR Copy No. 1
Nr. 323 Tirana, MË 20 6.1970
SUBJECT: On a letter from Jakup Çerraj
SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE ALP
(SHOKUT RAMIZ ALIA)
Tirana
In order to get information, we are informing you about the content of a letter that Jakup Çerraja from Mitrovoica, Kosovo, sends to his uncle in Fier.
…I have not received any books from you recently (it has been three months). Of course, I waited for them impatiently, but since they are not coming, then do not waste it. I now have many of these published here in Pristina. So, calm down and remind me with some letter from time to time.
More than a month ago, I posted three books, but they came back to me?! This does not surprise me so much….
In today’s newspaper “Rilindja” is published a news for the magazine “Nëntori”, no. 5 of this year, which has published poems and stories of nine Kosovar poets (prose writers), some of whose names surprise me and put me in a dilemma…. Now many things have become clearer to me than ever before. Order and read the poems of Ali Podrima, Murat Isaku, Nuhi Vinca, Azem Shkreli, Din Mehmeti, besa befasi, right…?
If you happen to read the writings of Kosovar poets, please tell me their names in the letters and magazines where their writings were published. This is how it helps and honors me….
Note
Jakup Çerraja is a teacher in Mitrovica with secondary education. He has constantly written poems with patriotic content and spirit, for which he has been mistreated, leaving him without a job. Known as a researcher of Albanian literature. In Fier he has his uncle, who came before the liberation and with a good attitude, who has constantly sent him novels, stories and poems published in our country. As far as I know, these have recently been banned.
Jakup’s correspondence with his uncle was full of content and fighting spirit. His social circle is in good standing. He has published a book of poetry, “Sweat and Blood”, which has been well received by the people of Kosovo.
As he writes in his letter, the aforementioned refers to some authors of these publications that were written in “Nëndori” who are in fact known to the people of Kosovo as bad people. Thus e.g. Murat Isaku and Nuhi Vinca.
I think there is room to intervene for other publications of Kosovar writers and poets, whose works may be published in the future in our periodical literary and artistic bodies./Memorie.al
DEPUTY MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS
(REXHEP KOLLI)
