Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes the unknown story of Namik Luci, an engineer originally from Peja who, forced by the oppression and repression of the Titoist regime in Kosovo, in 1961, stopped his university studies in Industrial Chemistry in Tuzla, Bosnia, and returned to his hometown. his, Peja, to then flee to his home country, Albania. Graduated from the University of Tirana and had an excellent career as a chemical engineer in all the works of the five-year-olds and then at the Laçi Superphosphate Plant where he was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to 18 years in political prison, being accused that together with some of his compatriots originally from Kosovo, would assassinate Enver Hoxha during his visit to Kruja for the inauguration of the Skanderbeg Museum
The events of the spring of 1981, when the student youth, the intelligentsia and the entire people of Kosovo rose in protests, revolts and mass demonstrations against the brutal violence and oppression that the Titoist regime of Belgrade was exerting on them, had a great echo throughout world opinion. , as well as in the chancelleries of the West, which not only raised their voices in defense of that martyred population, but forced official Belgrade to withdraw from Kosovo its war machine, which was engaged there with all its arsenal. But, while almost the entire international diplomacy was lined up against the defenseless Kosovar population, the mother country, the communist Albania of that time, paradoxically, did not do what it should, had the opportunity and it was up to it to do. Although the communist regime in Tirana ostensibly rose to defend the rights of the Kosovar population, Enver Hoxha and his close circle of communist leadership at the time were in principle opposed to the status of republic that Kosovo demanded. This is due to the fact that they were afraid of the formation of another Albanian state in the Balkans, because by gaining Kosovo the status of a Republic, the image and benefits of Albania would fall significantly, as the West and all other developed countries would return. eyes from Kosovo. And so, the isolation where they had introduced Albania, would increase even more. Based on this, exactly a few months after the student demonstrations of the spring of 1981, the communist regime in Tirana launched an unbridled campaign of arrests, imprisonments and internments of Kosovar “emigrants” (as that regime called Kosovars who came to Albania), in order to lower in the eyes of Albanians, the image of Kosovars, labeling them as spies of the UDB, agents of the West, and all sorts of other slanders. In the framework of this campaign, which was extended to all those cities where there were Kosovar “emigrants”, in 1984, the talented technological engineer of the chemical industry in Albania, Naik Luci, was arrested. Together with Namik (who had been working and living with his family in the town of Laç for years), Selim Kelmendi, Estref Kelmendi, Shefqet Kelmendi, etc., against whom the State Security had mounted one of the charges, also ended up in the cold cells of the Security. most absurd and horrible: “Assassinations of the main leader of the Party and the People.” According to the investigator of the Kruja Branch of Internal Affairs, Nexhat Selimi, who was also the originator and formulator of the indictment against that “extremely dangerous hostile group”, the “group of Kosovars”, would carry out the assassination in the Museum of Kruja, where the main leader (Enver Hoxha) would go to do his inauguration. And as a result, the “hostile group” of Kosovars were first sentenced to death, and then “with the generosity” of the Party, their sentences reduced: from 25 years for “group leaders” to 18 years for Namik Lucin. All these events are thrown in a book by friends and close friends of Namik Luci, which was prepared by his wife, Leno Luci, and Esat Myftari, (one of Namik’s closest friends and people since the banks of primary school of Peja), where the most talked about is the famous technological engineer of the chemical industry, who passed away on March 7, 1998, the day that peaceful rallies were held throughout Albania in support of Kosovo. From that book we have selected for publication, some memories of Namik’s friends and comrades, who lived and worked with him in the city of Laç.
Esat Myftari: A rare man
Writing about Namik Luci, the political emigrant in his homeland, is like writing about a generation of our Kosovars, who had a paradoxical and painful fate. In fact, they were the product not only of an unjust historical decision, such as the partition of Albanian lands, but also of the Cold War, during which Kosovo and Albania were divided by ideological and police “iron curtains”. The latter should be especially emphasized, because the lack of information and the conditioned inspiration from the evolution of national consciousness and personal cooking became the cause of many personal and family disasters. Kosovar emigrants to Albania (I am using this term because it was the official determinant of the communist regime), constitute a category of Albanians on whose backs the burden of Albanian-Yugoslav relations rested. I emphasize this fact, because when you referred to him, crimes were committed but also undeserved glorifications. Therefore, when I started writing down some memories from the life of my friend, Namik Lucit, it seemed to me that I was weighing a generation of our Kosovar boys, or, more closely, Peja, whose ideal for Albanians was really platonic. They certainly bear the stamp of time and few today can perceive them for the fact that, as I said above, they have within them a mystery of paradoxes and alogisms. With Namik I was a classmate in elementary and high school. My rapport with him was quite natural, as it happens in that golden age, when everything is straightforward. He came from an average civic family. His father, Mustafa, had supported the city’s communist movement, without being a prominent activist. However, after the war, thanks to the family (Namik’s cousin, was the wife of Mehmet Shoshi, this well-known figure of the provincial nomenclature), the positions of this family were strengthened. He also enjoyed the assurance from his uncle that, in those circumstances, the rank-and-file police repression could have a very negative side: the temptation to take advantage of such a status. Meanwhile, fate wanted these two hypothetical temptations to end tragically: his father committed suicide, and his uncle died in an accident (an accident that was never clarified). Even his suicide remained a mystery. So, he was left without a father very young, at the age of eight, though with great care from relatives. Namik pat stood somewhere in the foyer of literature. His real trend was mathematics and Chemistry. He went to study Industrial Chemistry in Tuzla, Bosnia.
Ahmet Ulaj: Namik, a great inspirer of patriotism
If someone asked me what I had in Namik Luci, I would find it difficult to answer, to say that I had a friend, it seems very little to me, to say that I had a friend, this is not allowed to me, because I had more …, I had everything. It has been years of acquaintances that make me say this. But for more than years, Kosovo connected us with Namik. We were both born on the other side of the Albanian lands, Namik in Peja and I in Vuthaj. But to this was added even more the love that Namik nurtured for all the people in general and for the boys and girls of the Albanian lands of the ethnic lands outside the borders of the territory of the Albanian state who had come to Albania. In him everyone found something relieving that started from the first meeting with him and continued for the rest of his life. We were connected with Namik by the great concern for our homelands, and the great concern for the fate of the people there. Namik was also connected with the separation with our people there, but no less the concern for our brothers who had come as well as us to Albania, and were called “immigrants” in their country. It was the end of 1984. The day before the arrest, I went to Namik’s house as usual. It did not feel good. He was tired, upset, with the flu, he told me. I never found out, I did not even ask him later, if he knew he would be arrested. A day later I passed under the yard of his house shouting: “O Namik”. Since he lived on the top floor, he often did not listen, and most of the time his neighbors alerted him, which I was expecting. I saw some slight curtain movements in different, unusual apartments, but no one notified me. Disi u habita. These movements and the glances of some random citizens aroused in me a kind of suspicion that something might have happened. Nursing Marte, was calling me, several times: Doctor Ahmet, in a low voice. I approached and quickly read in her eyes something not good. “Don’t call me,” he said. He is not at home. Get to the hospital. “Namik was arrested last night.” I was shocked immensely but restrained. I had anxiety, why not fear, a feeling that I had experienced many other times alone and together with Namik, when they arrested Idrizi, Jatullahu, Esat, Kola, Shefqet, Prof. Kelmendi, Isa and others. But of course, I was very shocked about Namik, who had his turn this time. We had often talked about this kind of treatment of Kosovars. Namik with prudence and arguments valued many of them as patriots who were isolated in prisons, because they knew a lot, they did not agree with everything and finally they were for changes in the country. Namik had a very special position in Laç, due to the personality of his quite prominent features. He worked in the factory with the biggest pollution in Europe, but he was every day dressed in a suit, collar, white overcoat, ironed, with the slight smell of a donated perfume. Weren’t these features enough to isolate him as a bearer of capitalist-revisionist ideas?!
Avni Martinaj: For what he deserves the most
It was 1979 when I first started work at the Copper Plant in Lac, which had just launched its first production. And it was there that I got to know Namik Lucin closely, and I had heard his name before. Tireless energetic, he was praised by all specialists for his professional skills and innovation, but for this field it is others who must make accurate assessments, as they have professional knowledge and decades of working relationship with Namik. From the age we had a big difference and I cannot say that I had a friend, but from the way he communicated he seemed very close to me, so age had no value. I was not the only one who had this feeling. The entry of that man into the office, house, canteen, or other premises brought pleasure to all. Wordy, with a good sense of humor and rare simplicity, he made them his own. Human ready like no other to help those in need. If you look closely at Namik’s society, you will find his most valuable quality, there you will find the rare soul, the love for ordinary people, the dangerous efforts to help them, etc. He never became a servile to the greats or a career contender, you find him with employees and there he was many times more satisfied. Wherever the rulers of that time needed him, they took him to one factory and to another to use his skills. The more the years passed, the more Namik’s acquaintance and fame spread, so that there was no joy, engagement, wedding, etc., where Namik did not become the main place. Buzagaz of all humor, wished you with tears of joy that came out of his angelic eyes. But these high virtues paid dearly. However, after his release from prison, he showed no sign of revenge for those who caused him and his family pain.
Llambi Kacorri: Namik, elegant and generous patriot
Remembering Namik Lucin, one cannot help but think of a stylish man for the time of his greatest maturity and who left this world when you were not expected, nor was it even thought. It is this that made the greatest and insurmountable pain of those who loved him dearly, of his family, friends, but also us friends who have spent many years together. I had it for Namik before we met each other. He had seen her walking with two Peja girls, also those students in Tirana, and with the well-known Kosovar poet, Agim Gjakova. The case brought us to work in one city though in different professions. The city of Laç, where we lived and worked for a long time, had a great intelligence and created a suitable ground for academic conversations, for an admirable intellectual vitality, but from time to time these created a jealousy in some mediocre apparatchik, who did not were also few, which in some cases creates obstacles or difficulties, which were overcome thanks to the personality he had created and the sound social opinion he had created around himself. As a man from whom only goodness flowed, the circle of his engagements was Kosovo with its problems, factory work, and family, so that no one, and for nothing could penetrate into his life and problems. Patriotic and patriotic feelings in Namik were present at every moment. This gave rise to the thickening of our conversations in every case and without any reservation. The most significant case was the explosion of student youth demonstrations and Kosovar intelligence in the early 1980s. At this time in Namik were experienced two moments, which were quite expressed and dictated: first the excitement, the pride and meanwhile the pride for what was happening there in Kosovo, but also the sadness and regret that was here and not there with friends where these events boiled down, because in my opinion, he imagined himself there in the war, where the danger was greatest. All this because first of all he was a patriot of his homeland. I remember a case in the canteen of the Superphosphate Plant. Namik was sitting in a large group where mostly students of the branch of Industrial Chemistry were doing the teaching practice in Laç. When I went inside, one of their teachers recognized me and called me. Meanwhile, Namik gets up, takes a chair and introduces me to more than ‘what was right for me. As in such cases the topics of conversation were varied, but from time to time the conversation went to Kosovo and its events. This was confirmed by the fact that there were 7-8 newspapers on the table. After a few minutes of free conversation, I whisper to Namik two verses from De Rada’s “Songs of Milosao”, which I have always had in my heart. “We must die on the bed / If we do not groan on the doorstep of our homes.” Namik Luci was an exemplary parent. This not only in the relationship with the woman, whom he considered the best part of him, but also in relation to his four sons, who for him were more friends than children. On a larger scale were his social relations. Joining Namik Lucit’s family was a pleasure, because you felt a warm, honest and fearless environment that you usually feel when entering a foreign family. Generosity and generosity were the main features of this family.
Bardh Rica: He is in everyone’s memory
Namik Luci, in my memory will remain the portrait of a noble man, courageous intellectual, true patriot, correct family man, who above all was characterized by unparalleled sincerity in all his activity. When Albania was fragmented in the most macabre way, physically, spiritually and mentally, by heartless atheists, this moderating student from Kosovo, would be forced to leave from there to come to Tirana, where thanks to his passion and will for knowledge, he will to continue his studies at the University of Tirana, where he would graduate in Chemistry. After graduating from university, he would dedicate himself with his mind and intellect to Laç i Kurbinit and was one of the designers and implementers of the Chemical-Metallurgical Plant in Laç, with Russian, Chinese, French, Polish, etc. technology. Thanks to his innovation, he was able to adapt and apply highly functional models adapted to the circumstances. He for all his life at work did not know schedules, worked with and without shifts, as in that man was carved the desire and passion for work, science and new contemporary technologies. Thanks to this passion he was able to create a vocational school for the branch of Chemistry, contributing to the professional training of specialists. Despite work and sacrifice, Namik would be pursued and persecuted by the infamous State Security. Meanwhile, he was burning with longing for the martyred Kosovo, whose son he was, for his childhood peers. I will never forget a thrilling moment at the “Drini” bar in 1978. A group of young people from Kosovo would enliven that night. These young people were from Namik’s hometown, and I was with them at the bar. Namik, knowing that he was under the surveillance of the State Security, could not meet him, hugged and teased him with his Kosovar brothers. Experiencing this impossibility within himself, he could not stop the tears that flowed down his cheeks. There were tears of sorrow but also tears of curse for those without religion and homeland who divided the Albanian lands due to the backward policy they followed for 50 years. It would not be long before Namik would end up in the dungeons of the notorious dictatorship prisons and be sentenced to 18 years in prison. From the stories of his accomplices, he would stand out among them, as a determined and quite noble man, standing and surviving without losing the great spiritual, intellectual and social values. If, for someone, the most precious thing is good name, Namik left it behind in all directions.
Mal Berisha: Namik rooted my love for Kosovo
One summer evening in 2002, I was sitting in a beautiful cafe by the White River that falls in the middle of Peja. The city has not yet recovered from the untold devastation it has suffered from Serbian hordes. The freshness of the river, the coffee horn each other, the loud music played through the tape recorders, all make this Peja evening really enjoyable, in the city where I was born and raised, one of the best friends of my life, Namik Luci. Nearby I have a young, nice and charming guy, who is less than half my age, but who I talk to a lot. It is Avni (Ani) Luci, the son of my dear friend, the late engineer Namik Luci. For Ani, he is the late loving, suffering and proud father, to me, the friend, companion and man I loved dearly. This evening I told Ani many things that he knows and does not know, but that I want to remind him. It must have been the end of the ’60s, when a village known in Albania from the Church of St. Ndout for pilgrimages, Laçi i Kurbinit, returned to the place that held the most advanced chemical industry of that time in the country. Along with the hundreds of thousands of employees who flocked there from all over Albania, there was also a charming boy, blond, lively, very expressive, with an easy walk from the athlete, known by all as engineer Namiku. The tendency to have friends with Kosovars made me get in touch with him very quickly, even though I was only a high school student in that city. At that time, the “Ismail Qemali” gymnasium in Laç sent its students for teaching practices at the Sulfuric Acid factory. One of my pleasures at that time was the fact that there I could meet engineer Namik, his Kosovar statue casting a shadow of kindness on the people, not only within the factory wards themselves, but also in the city. Sociable, cheerful, sometimes very meditative, loving with the workers, pleasant to drink, this was his portrait in those days we spent in the factory. But that left behind a long line of friendship and communication with Namik, and then his family. Although for some reason she was physically cut off later, spiritually she was never cut off. That night in Peja, I felt that the story I had told Ani should be told in the book about Namik. And I was very honored to be given the opportunity to put this line in this book for my dear friend Namik.
Hil Kamani: He was cruelly punished because he was a patriot
Namik Luci was one of the Kosovar boys who came to Albania as an “emigrant” in 1961, with a pure patriotic desire and dream, with full confidence that here in Albania, the national issue and the solution of the Kosovo problem, were the problems mainstay of communist Albanian politics and state. But he and everyone who had come like him were quickly disappointed. He learned this truth very quickly in the concentration camps in Çermë and Seman, when he saw how his comrades were stigmatized and massacred, imprisoned and interned just because they wanted Kosovo united with Albania. Despite the extreme conditions of the communist regime, where for a word of mouth, Namik Luci never stopped defending the issue of Kosovo for its unification with Albania. In this field he had special skills and dexterity. He knew at that time, the political and social situation of Kosovo, probably better than any Kosovar “emigrant” and this thanks to his commitment to this issue and the connections he had with the most important people of Kosovo: writers, politicians, scientists, pedagogues, singers, teachers, artists, etc. Many times, in Laç, in conversations with Namik, I learned about the developments in Kosovo; the events, activities and attitudes of the Albanians, which sometimes made me happy and sometimes disappointed me. He spent a lot of time, energy and financial means of his own, to meet and talk about people coming from Kosovo to Albania, from 1967 to 1981. Namiku introduced me to prof. Zekeria Cana, prof. Hajrulla Goranin, Luljeta Pula, Ramiz Kelmendi etc. He always kept two photos with him: of Adem Demaçi and Nexhmije Pagarusha. I first heard Namik’s name in 1961, when I was in the third year of the Normal School of Elbasan, and as far as I remember, Qazim Radoniqi, a childhood friend of Namik, also from Peja, spoke to me about him. Thanks to his qualities, he quickly became one of the best known in the circles of Kosovar “emigrants” and beyond. Among other things, at Namik’s funeral, I was charged with saying goodbye. After I wrote the word that I was going to deliver, we saw him with Ahmet Ula, Pjetër Zefi and Avni Martini. They appreciated it. On that day, friends and acquaintances from all over the district of Kruja, from Lezha, Shkodra, Tirana, Durrës, Kavaja, Elbasan, etc. came to Namik Luci for comfort and good health. I had not seen for 30 years in Lac so many people on mortal days, then that day died for Namik Lucin. There was even a former Security employee, operative, who in 1984 boasted that he was the one who had discovered the “enemy” Namik Luci. Namik was buried in the cemetery of Laç where all the people had flocked to accompany him. Namik Luci went to that white life, left a good name, good deed and sons and wife for good.
Namik’s letter from Qafë-Bar prison:
“Ask for my correspondence with Luljeta Pula and Enver Hadër”
Dear Ani, in the environment where I live, I think, I fight working for my upbringing whether political, literary or professional, when I receive letters from you or Ilir, Petrit, Visar, I am very happy. And this joy has its reasons. Especially sensitive is the joy, when the distributor, through the crowd, announces you about the letter or telegram. And this best proves what is called beautiful and true: that one thinks, remembers, fights, draws up plans, and perhaps silently thinks either of myself or of myself, with the sole purpose of overcoming worries, hallet etj. I received the letter late, dated 27.06.1990. I was very happy, I met Jetullah, who was very happy, because he has no one and seeing him as a compatriot wants to know everything about you, whether it is your lessons, your job or your health. We were very happy that you were in good health. From the letter, I learned about your efforts to shed light on the montage that was devised for me in the name of the goddess Justice in April 1984. I explained everything to Ilir and Petrit, and even told them about the letters. numerous I have sent including the Supreme Court. And for me it does not matter how much the efforts I have made to clarify the problems I have dealt with have been taken into account, as in all the letters sent I have shown a lot of people and above all I have refused to trade in my very clean biography of family and social circle, whether here or in Kosovo, when today, the press, television, especially those of Peja and Prishtina, of my family and social circle are freezing them on a pedestal, but at the same time the truths above all are being illuminated those young Kosovars who took, chose the most difficult path of exile. For this I will mention two great truths: In the memory of the Albanian people will never be forgotten the attitude and the war, the relentless effort of Luljeta Pula (whom you also had the opportunity to know in 1978 in Lac), in the American Congress, for exposing the plans of the infamous elaborations of Gracanin, Çubriloviri, Andrij and until the last for life, Milosevic. The war and efforts made in the western countries for 23 years by the late Enver Hadëri will always be remembered with respect. I wrote these two truths in order to ask for Luljeta’s correspondence and photos of Enver from those who took them during the search on the occasion of my arrest. When you come, do not forget the books: “What Kosovars say and what they want”, the second volume, “Literary Awareness” by Sabri Hamiti and “The Rare Pantheon”. Namiku hugs you with longing./Memorie.al
