By Prel Milani
Part One
Memorie.al / The historic deputy of Shkodra, Professor Kolë Prela, were sacrificed 75 years ago for the sake of free speech. Therefore, I decided to make this historical remembrance on the 75th anniversary of his execution. Professor Kolë Prela is the first oppositionist who openly demanded political pluralism in the infamous Parliament of 1946, but he was sentenced to death as a traitor to the people. He was a laureate doctor in Turin, a researcher, publicist, and art critic. He was a long-time anti-fascist, the creator of the Regional National Liberation Council of Shkodra. He was the organizer of the Anti-Fascist Movement in the Dukagjin District and of the establishment of the “Perlat Rexhepi” Battalion.
Professor Prela was also a prominent educator, from the time he was the Director of the “Normalja” of Elbasan to being a pedagogue at the State Lyceum of Shkodra. This brilliant idealist was shot for our European aspirations, which remain unrealized to this day. He was shot in the flower of his youth, being extinguished even as a family line. This name is worth remembering today with the highest honor, as an angelic model of idealism kicked and mudded by the unscrupulous demagogues of power.
THE MARTYR FAMILY OF KOLË PRELA THROUGH THE CENTURIES
Professor Kolë Prela was born in Shosh on October 19, 1916, into an old trunk of martyred patriots (Lulash Bala, exiled and shot by the Turks in Tripoli; Mark Milani, a fighter against the Turks and Montenegrins in the years 1910, 1911, 1915, who was martyred as a Fanolist and is one of the martyrs of the Albanian Besa, as he went to the gallows solely to not break the oath he had given to his cellmate, Zef Delia).
During the First World War, the Serbo-Montenegrins burned the house of Kolë Prela’s father, therefore he was forced to move to the city of Shkodra along with his family and infant son. In the years 1923-1928, Kolë Prela attended the Saverian College as a student of Mjeda and finished the college receiving maximum marks. From 1929-1936, he brilliantly completed the “November 28” State Lyceum, then gained the right to study in Italy, and in the years 1936-1940, he completed the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy at the University of Turin, being laureated as a Doctor of Literary Sciences.
From 1940 until June 1943, he worked as a professor of Literature, Latin, and Ancient Greek at the “November 28” State Lyceum in Shkodra. He was a colleague and friend of Skënder Luarasi, Gaspër Pali, Qemal Draçini, Ernest Koliqi, Gjergj Kokoshi, Simon Rrota, Zef Kolombi, Ndue Përluca, Safet Butka, etc. He distinguished himself as a teacher, methodologist, translator, publicist, and art critic. He was also the Director of the “Normalja” of Elbasan and collaborated with the magazines; Hylli i Dritës, Leka, Zani Shnanout, Fryma, Cirka, Kumbona e së Diellës, Tomorri, etc.
He wrote many scholarly articles such as; “The Illyrian Albanian,” “Exalted Land,” “Albanian Nationalism,” “Dom Ndre Mjeda and the Clerics,” “Philosophical Matters,” “Matters of Learning,” “On the Knowledge of the World,” “Currents of Social Life,” “Is Mjeda the Greatest Lyricist of Albania,” “Fishta’s Language,” etc. “People’s Artist” Çesk Zadeja, Professors Shefik Osmani, Androkli Kostallari, Çun Jonuzi, “People’s Heroes” Tomë Kola, Nazmi Rushiti, Bardhok Biba, intellectuals Lorenc Shiroka, Luigj Sheldia, Angjelin Zojzi, Caf Jonuzi, Gjovalin Çerkaxhia, Jorgji Sota, Tonin Kiri, Çesk Bazhdari, etc., were some of the former students of Kolë Prela.
Professor Prela was one of the organizers of the anti-fascist demonstration of February 22, 1942. He was one of the first independent nationalists who embraced the political platform of the Peza Conference, entered the National Liberation Front, and together with Riza Dani, Dom Luigj Pici, Xhemal Broja, Rexhep Haka, Sadik Bekteshi, and Shyqyri Hafizi, formed the first Regional National Liberation Council of the Shkodra District, headed by Major Sabri Gjoni.
Professor Kolë Prela, in June 1943, went underground in the mountains of Dukagjin to organize the Anti-Fascist Movement and there established the territorial partisan unit of Dukagjin, coordinating anti-fascist activity between Shkodra-Dukagjin and the Malësia of Gjakova. In the winter of 1943, he sheltered the “Perlat Rexhepi” Battalion in Dukagjin and ensured its passage in the Bogë-Theth-Vuthaj sector. It was the Professor’s foresight, his tolerance, and the dialogue he conducted with other political groups that ensured there was not a single bloody conflict in Dukagjin during the War between the Front forces on one side and the Ballists and Zogists on the other.
Deputy Kolë Prela voted against the 1946 Constitution
In the elections of 1945, Professor Kolë Prela was elected as a deputy for zone no. 11 in the Sub-prefecture of Dukagjin. Kolë Prela and Riza Dani were the only nationalist deputies and among the first oppositionists of Shkodra, together with Hysen Peja and Zef Haxhia, in the first Assembly after the Second World War, where he requested the cessation of political terror. In the Constituent Assembly, he openly demanded political and ideological pluralism and the pro-Western orientation of Albania.
Kolë Prela opposed the draft of the 1946 Constitution and voted against it, calling it an “act full of ideological colors, both politically and from a socio-political point of view.” “The free democracy requested by the deputies Riza Dani, Kolë Prela, Hysni Peja, etc., is nothing but bourgeois democracy,” wrote the newspaper Bashkimi on March 17, 1946. Professor Kolë Prela was arrested on September 14, 1946. He was accused of being a member of the Central Committee of the Christian Democratic Party and, in cooperation with the terrorist organization of the Catholic Clergy, having fought for the overthrow of the people’s power in Albania.
For all these, he was sentenced to death as a “traitor to the people” on April 13, 1948, shot in the meadows of Shkodra, but it is not known where his body ended up, as even today, he has no grave. Prof. Kolë Prela was a brilliant idealist who, for our historical European aspiration still unrealized, was shot in the flower of his youth, being extinguished both as a person and as a family. This name is worth remembering today with the highest honor, as an angelic model of idealism kicked and mudded by the unscrupulous demagogues of power.
THE LETTER ADDRESSED TO MEHMET SHEHU, 1945
-Two historical declarations of Professor Kolë Prela-
Most honored General!
I am obliged to inform you immediately, as your subordinate Ndreko Rino in the Dukagjin District has begun a repressive operation, entirely unnecessary and I suspect unauthorized, using military force without knowing how to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. As a Mandated Representative in the Constituent Assembly, elected by the voters of this zone and organizer of the National Liberation Movement from the beginning until today, I declare that no one in Dukagjin opposed our movement with weapons.
Moreover, even now there is no danger of this nature. Ndreko Rino’s operation has incited terror, dissatisfaction, and insecurity; people out of fear are escaping and taking to the mountains, not to join the reactionaries, whom I do not know to exist, but for the sake of truth, it must be said that we are creating them with our own hands. If we arrest and shoot for a single bullet, for a rifle, for a pistol, no one will remain without being killed or imprisoned in all of Dukagjin.
The highlander would sooner accept death than the unsparing rod being laid across his back. As the deputy of this zone, I stand as a guarantor to turn in all those who are frightened or unclear, on the condition that they be left free to go to their homes, as they have committed no criminal act, neither toward the government nor toward the Anti-Fascist War.
V.F.L.P
With high honors and consideration
The Deputy of Dukagjin
Professor Kolë Prela (signed)
Kodër Shëngjergj 25.12.1945.
(File 2293, Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tirana).
Declaration in defense of Father Gjon Shllaku and the group of clerics of Shkodra, 1946
I, the undersigned Kolë Prela, professor at the Shkodra State Lyceum and Mandated Representative in the Constituent Assembly, regarding the defendant Father Gjon Shllaku, Franciscan from Shkodra, declare as follows: I first met Fr. Gjon Shllaku in the summer of the year 1940, when I returned from Italy after finishing my higher studies.
From the first meetings I had with him, I was able to conclude that he was an anti-Italian and anti-fascist element. Wherever he had the occasion and opportunity, he unmasked and disapproved of the arrival of Italy here; he did the same with the supporters of Italy and with the traitors constantly here. He was against the denigrating article regarding the Albanian people that Fr. Fulvio Cordignano had published in the magazine Albania.
Moreover, in this last instance, he not only contented himself with disapproval, but also worked on compiling the brochure “Cordignano, A Trial before the World,” finding almost the entire bibliography and translating all the excerpts from German authors that were needed for that response. He did not put his name at the end, as the brochure came out in the name of the group of professors of the Shkodra State Lyceum, and in his name as well, it would seem as if the professors of an Albanian institute were not capable of writing an article without seeking help from outside their circle.
This can be testified by the professors Mark Ndoja and Simon Deda, who at that time were in constant contact with the defendant. This anti-fascist stance he continued to maintain throughout the time I was in contact until June 1943, the date on which I went underground, after which I had no occasion to encounter him until Albania was liberated.
After the liberation, it is known by all that Fr. Gjoni contributed to the field where he was most prepared, i.e., in that of culture. He gave the lecture for the inauguration of the House of Culture in Shkodra, in which he said these words: “It is the first time that Albania is liberated with the blood of its own sons. The independence of Albania today is not a gift, but is the fruit of the efforts of the Albanian people.” The content of this declaration I am ready to verify even before the People’s Court.
V.F.L.P.
Shkodra, 14.02.1946 [Note: 1949 in original text but context suggests 1946 trial].
The Declarer
Professor Kolë Prela (signed)
(Taken from the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs).
THE DECLARATION
“Father Gjon Shllaku has contributed to culture, he is not a fascist”
To this sensational declaration, after the nineties, several authors have referred: Father Danjel Gjeçaj in the book “Martyrs of the Catholic Church, 1944”; Ahmet Bushati in his book “In the Footsteps of a Diary”; Zef Simoni in “Communist Genocide in Albania”; Fritz Radovani in the book “A Monument Underground”; Father Zef Pëllumbi in the book “Live to Tell.” This fact was cited in a denouncing manner by the newspaper Koha e Re as early as January 26, 1946.
Angjelin Zojzi, in the newspaper Shkodra, present in that court session, writes: “As in the beginning of 1946, the philosopher Gjon Shllaku was arrested while teaching with the charge ‘attempted escape.’ This false charge shocked his friend, Prof. Kolë Prela, who was a deputy. This shed light on the future fate of Shkodra intellectuals; therefore he came out with force and courage in his defense, issuing a sudden declaration before the court.
The trial was taking place in the ‘Rozafat’ Cinema with loudspeakers in the street. The chairman of the court read this declaration with anger and nervousness, adding that if this person were brave, let him come here and declare it openly. Professor Kolë Prela, who by chance was in the street, entered immediately with his head high, straight into the courtroom. ‘Comrade chairman of the session, I came to defend the declaration you just read. I issued that declaration and I am determined to defend the truth.'” Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
