“The Italian side refuses not to publish the biography of Fadil Paçrami in the Encyclopedia ‘De Agostini’, because it may be related to Koliqi…” / Report of Ambassador Piro Koçi from Rome, in ’73

Dashnor Kaloçi

Memorie.al publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana (fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP), which belong to 1973, where there is a report-information of the Albanian ambassador in Rome, Piro Koçi , sent to the Director of the Directorate of Foreign Relations at the office of the Central Committee of the ALP, Agim Popa, regarding the problem that had arisen with the Italian publishing house in Milan, which in 1972, through the professor of literature, Gino Fosati , biographies of well-known writers and playwrights, Fadil Paçrami and Qamil Buxheli, were submitted to be included and published in the Italian Encyclopedia, ‘De Agostini’. Full report-information of the Albanian ambassador from Rome, for the Central Committee of the ALP in Tirana, where he is informed with details and details of all the demarches that were made by the Albanian diplomats in Rome, headed by the secretary of III- of the embassy, ​​Lumo Shehu, near that publishing house, for the withdrawal of Fadil Paçrami’s materials, as well as the resistance they had encountered from the Italian side, which, not only was aware that the writer and playwright, already had problems with political reasons and was dismissed from the party and state functions he had held until the period when official Tirana had proposed to include him in the Encyclopedia ‘De Agostini’, but for the refusal of the Italian side, could have affected the connection that house had publisher, with Ernes Koliqi!

The document with the report drafted by the Albanian Ambassador to Italy, Piro Koçi, sent to the Director of the Foreign Directorate in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the ALP, Agim Popa, regarding the refusal of the Italian publishing house in Milan, to return the biographical materials of Fadil Paçrami, which were sent for publication in the Encyclopedia ‘De Agostini’

AMBASSADOR

DELLA REPUBLICA POPOLARE D’ALBANIA

        IN ITALY

VIA ASMARA 9

ROME 20.12.1973

Comrade Agim

In the letter no. 269 ​​dated  11.11.1973, we informed you about the work done for the non-publication in the Italian Encyclopedia ‘De Agostini’ of the biography of Fadil Paçrami and Qamil Buxheli. Comrade Petro Taku, conveyed to me the concern of his comrades on this matter and instructions on how to act.

I do not know, but perhaps with the above letter we may not have presented this issue in full and clear, so at the beginning I want to repeat that, for us it has now become clear that the position of the editor responsible for publishing the biography of Fadil, starts from political considerations and as such, seems to me difficult if not impossible to, prevent publication, regardless of the tact we will use.

The problem of withdrawing the biographical material, submitted for these two people, we started carefully from the beginning, precisely because we doubted the curiosity that this action would arouse in the editorial staff of the Encyclopedia. So we first got in touch with Gildo Fosati, a literature professor through whom the materials were delivered to the publishing house.

This is her external collaborator and predisposed to help publish data on our literature in this encyclopedia. He was asked to return the materials submitted to Fadil Paçrami and Qamil Buxheli, on the pretext that they were requested by the sender to see them again as they had some flaws and shortcomings, without giving him any idea how we had it. plight.

As the response was delayed, I repeated this request to him, when I met with him on October 1 at the Chinese embassy on the occasion of the People’s Republic of China holiday. After that, he came to the embassy and informed us that it was impossible for him to do anything because the publishing house did not return the material. In these conditions, we thought of intervening directly and sent to Milan, the Second Secretary of the Embassy, ​​Comrade Lumo Shehu, to get in touch with the publishing house.

In the first meeting that Lumo had with the editor-in-chief of this section of the Encyclopedia, after the explanations given to you to argue the request, it seemed as if he agreed, but added that the editor-in-chief had them and that only he could decide.

In the meeting with the editor-in-chief from the beginning he took a firm stand and stated that the material is enough for them, and if we insist they could return it to me, and not publish anything about Qamil Buxheli.

As for Fadil Paçrami, they would definitely publish this data, taken from other sources, since he is a great and talented writer and playwright, and that his works they knew would not be put on the stage of the Albanian theater, and that in their encyclopedia were published data on writers of any color, without starting from political considerations, etc., etc.

From this conversation it became clear that he was fully aware of the measures taken against Fadil, and this perhaps through the Italian press, but it is not excluded any connection that this publishing house may have with Ernest Koliqi. So apparently, here we are dealing with political motives that push this editor to insist on the publication of data about Fadil.

At the end of the conversation, he gave Lumo the photocopies of the biographical material of Paçram and Buxhel, handed over by us, and promised him that he would send the originals later, as he allegedly did not have them there. But he stressed once again that despite this he would publish something about Fadil Paçrami, without using our data.

So far this material has not been returned to us. We, as you have instructed us, will find the opportunity to ask for them, but we find it difficult that these materials should not be published under the above conditions. Memorie.al

I greet you

Pirro Koçi