By Bashkim Shehu
The first part
Memorie.al publishes an open letter written by Bashkim Shehu, the son of the former Albanian Prime Minister, Mehmet Shehu, which he sent publicly to Nexhmije Hoxha, the widow of the communist dictator Enver Hoxha, on April 2, 2004. , where through the newspaper “Korrieri”, he reacted to the book “Friendship Betrayed”, which Nexhmija had just published at that time, and parts of that book were published for 15 days, by the newspaper “Sekulli”.
Only two days after Bashkim Shehu’s letter addressed publicly to Nexhmije Hoxha, on April 4, 2004, the USA reacted for the first time, where Mrs. Silva Turdiu, the famous former volleyball player of the “Dinamo” team of Tirana and also of the Albanian representative, (former fiancee of the second son of Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, Skenderit), who with facts and arguments, answers the accusations that she had written in her book, Nexhmije Hoxha.
On April 5, 2004, Mr. Bashkim Shehu has responded to the interest of the press by giving an interview to the daily “Koha Jonë”, where the well-known writer, publicist and translator reacted again against the book with accusations of the widow of the former communist dictator Enver Hoxha, Nexhmija. ,
Bashkim Shehu’s public open letter to Nexhmije Hoxha
Received: Nexhmije Hoxha
Lapraka Poultry
Tirana, ALBANIA
Madam,
Since I have no other way to clarify some issues with you, I am sending you this letter, through the “Korrieri” newspaper. For the past 2 years, I have begged you, through the “Courier”, to confirm that: with which agency services was my father, Mehmet Shehu, connected, so that I could then request, from the respective states, a pension as a martyr family.
Therefore, I looked forward to the publication of your memoirs on the pages of Albania’s largest newspaper, but I was disappointed, seeing that they were an extended paraphrase or Talmudic conception of a chapter of a book by your husband, published here twenty or so years ago.
However, I learned a few new things. I learned the word comes, that; along with the attitude towards the former prime minister, your attitude towards my former nanny, that foreign old woman who raised me, to whom you dedicate a special place in your memories, as a character with a mysterious past, has also changed.
My nanny must have been a really important person, since you came to console her on the occasion of her death, as well as the entire Political Bureau, with the exception of Enver Hoxha, who was content to console over the phone. Maybe Enver Hoxha had doubts since then, even though Hysniu’s safe was not opened?
What about my nanny, wasn’t there any document in Hysniu’s safe? I’m just asking out of curiosity, because the documents you say you found there about my father, (or BAB 008), one for each foreign agency, many could serve as an example of how not to write a police novel.
But if such documents would have been valid for me to prove to foreign countries that my father had served them and thus receive the above-mentioned pension, this whole story with Hysniu’s safe could also be valid for any manual of gambling, to teach gamblers, how to draw from their sleeves or, elsewhere, any necessary card at the proper moment.
Even more interesting than what I found out about your attitude towards my nanny, is that I was not a victim of the regime led by your husband, but, as you testify, I was a victim of Ismail Kadare. I know that Kadareja writes books, but I don’t know that he drafted your criminal code, according to which a person was sent to prison for a word of mouth.
It would be good if, as you explained to me, you would also explain to those tens of thousands of others who, between 1944 and 1991, personally or through their families, have suffered imprisonment, exile, torture, shooting, hanging, as and the killing of those who tried to escape and whose corpses were butchered, and the display of the butchered corpses. Please explain to the people, so that, if your government had no hand at all, they will know who these crimes should burden, at least in their conscience.
What is interesting is the title of these memories, “A Betrayed Friendship”. This title brought me honor, the fact that; the first five communist women in Albania, according to what your husband writes, consisted, apart from you, of Fiqret Sanxhaktari, or Shehu (whose end is known and unknown, that she died in prison under still obscure circumstances), Drita Kosturi ( the fiancee of Qemal Stafa, who spent her whole life as persecuted by the dictatorship), Meriban Najdeni (the wife of my co-sufferer, the dissident, Xhavit Qesja, who spent over 30 years in prison, while Meriban, although she was not imprisoned, is not not at all on your side, but on the side of the other friends of this group) and Liri Gega (shot with a baby in her stomach).
How is it explained that they betrayed you all? I am not counting all those friends of yours who were declared traitors to a regime for which they had contributed, how many members of the Political Bureau and the Central Committee, including some who, although in prison, waited and hoped for the day – days to be declared “innocent”, by Enver Hoxha, the victim of a disturbing number of betrayed friendships.
Yes, the most important thing that I learned from the publication of your memoirs in the “Nekropol” section of the country’s largest newspaper is something else. It is not strange at all; on the contrary, it seems quite natural that you should spend your old age writing memoirs about your life and the man of your life (although it seems strange that you should write a whole book of memoirs, now in your old age, about my relatives, from BAB 008 to my nanny). And it is quite normal to find a publisher.
But for your book to be promoted like no other book, with a space of as many pages and for 2 whole weeks, in the biggest newspaper, this is something that has not happened in any post-dictatorship country! Apparently, in a certain sense, Albania is not a post-dictatorship country.
Apparently, in a certain sense, you are right when you put the word DEMOCRACY in quotation marks, as in the introduction or introduction to the publication of your memoirs in the Necropolis column (usually, with that word in quotation marks, this entry closes, preceded by editorial notes more than favorable in terms of commerciality).
So, this publication is very significant, not so much for the fact that it makes your memories known, but for a specific positioning towards history by some who have the power to influence public opinion (it is not the only case, and it is not the only newspaper, but this current one, surpasses all of them).
People who would remember with a feeling of horror and disgust the deeds of a power, could not line up like animals after its protagonists, to demand that they tell far and wide how good they have been, and that they were victims of their own victims. And, of course, what else could you is expected to tell them? As for me, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to see something unprecedented in a country that has suffered from dictatorship.
One more thing. You say that you followed with emotion what you call “self-accusations of the Shehu family”. I wanted to ask you, when were you most excited and when did your husband BAB 007-a, or just 00, have more emotions and worries in his heart? So, did you feel more excited when you invented our “own accusations” or when you ordered the investigator to use any means to get us to accept your inventions?
Meanwhile, as you should know, I have rejected such “self-blame” since the time of your regime, for which, among other things, my sentence was increased to 8 years in prison. And also, you may know that, the prosecutor who asked for this measure of punishment for me, perhaps by your order, was the same one from your trial after a few years when you were convicted of stealing coffee. But maybe, you don’t know, I treated the prosecutor with the same contempt, as a street dog is treated.
And I believe that he felt humiliated. And he may have only cursed you himself, for ordering him to deal with me, which, after a few years, may have affected the severity of the sentence you were given for stealing coffee. If that’s the case, I’m sorry, I’ve been the cause to aggravate your punishment and I apologize for the years you may have had from me.
Indeed, it is possible that you did not order the prosecutor to punish me; therefore, in this case, the guess is that my behavior towards him has influenced his severity regarding your punishment. However, just in case, I am asking you for forgiveness for those years of prison that you may have had because of me, so that I do not owe you anything in any way.
Bashkim Shehu
The Hell of Western Capitalism, April 2, 2004
Post scriptum: I almost forgot. Since you say that the documents not found in Hysni’s safe, must have been put by Mehmet Shehu in some gray suitcase whose whereabouts are unknown, and since I have a couple of gray suitcases, I hastened to check the latter. I bought the gray suitcases some twenty years after the event, but this is one more reason why inside them could be found agency documents (eg, coded as underwear), as they were found 20 years later in Hysniu’s safe . But my searches turned up no results on either of the gray suitcases. However, when I buy any gray suitcases in the future, I will still check and always, after waiting another 20 years. /Memorie.al
