“When I was the Minister of the Interior, I called on you to join me, let’s destroy communism, and if the rest of you (with Mit’hat Frashëri at the head) had listened, I’m sure…”/ Col. Bib Mirakaj’s letter

By Fritz Radovan               

The third part

HOW LONG AT THE SERVICE OF AN ANMIK?! KOL MIRAKAJ ANSWERS

                                OPENING LETTER, Mr. ABAZ ERMEN

New York – June 1967

Memorie.al / “…I believe that he expressed the feelings of the entire Albanian people, that if our neighbors understand the need for peaceful coexistence and legal cooperation of good neighborliness, give us back the rights that belong to us, the Albanian people, sincere friendship with the Greeks and the Slavs of the Balkans.”

Kole Mirakaj (1967)

The actions and fruits of the two collaborators:

1. Among those circumstances that were mentioned and are known, we acted bravely and courageously together, we often put our personality at risk, and in this way, we saved the legal figure of the Albanian State, so that it could continue life (nobar formally) as a sovereign State – monarchist.
2. The Albanian Government with Parliament, acting on the basis of the Statute that His King, Victor Emmanuel (according to the tradition of the House of Savoy), gave to the Albanian Kingdom, as his father had given to the Italian Kingdom, united under His scepter.
3. We kept the Albanian language intact, not only in the Parliament, but in the entire administration of the Kingdom and in Education, which we improved with the addition of schools, with national-educational programs, with book publications, which were missing before, especially for the classes of high school level, in the Albanian language. We also created the High Institute of Albanian Studies, the direction of which was entrusted to the bright mind of Mustafa Kruja.
4. We brought economic improvement, to the extent that Albania had not seen it for a long, long time, so that from the economic point of view, Albania was like an island of Lumnije, in the straits that the war had brought to Europe, we had so much that we saved Greece as well without dying of hunger!
5. United to the Motherland, the lands we captured, you realized the Most Holy Right of the Nation.
6. We open the Albanian School in Kosovo and other Free Provinces, a school that, in addition to the progress of citizenship, has also awakened national consciousness and awareness, which can never be extinguished!
7. We removed the swords of fascism from the Flag; you returned it to its original purity.
8. We brought out the possibility that Albanian diplomats would be there near the legates and consulates of Italy, where Albania had interests, to deal with those interests.
9. We managed to change (exchange) Diplomatic Representations with Italy, in the rank of Legates, where they were accredited; Ernest Koliqi, Representative of Albania to the Italian Government, as Minister Plenipotentiary; and Dr. Silenzi, Representative of Italy to the Albanian Government, with the same title as Koliqi.
10. We obtained consent from Mussolini himself, to suppress the Albanian Fascist Party, and replace it with the “Sons of Shqipes” Movement.

You:

1. He cooperated with us, in the state administration and in the Albanian Fascist Party, until the day Mussolini was arrested in the King’s private villa, on July 25, 1943.
2. At the same time, until the Mukaj meeting, he also cooperated with communists, giving them national prestige.
3. Time and facts show that for the kind of cooperation you had with the agents of the Allies, you had no protocol agreement with the Allies, for the future of Albania, after the end of the Second World War, no plan of action, for the preservation of what it was earned, from our collaborationism, especially, the profit it brought; The auspicious April of 1941.
4. You were not good at maintaining a fixed and permanent position, as we did, but you were known, you were with us and with the communists, with the agents of the Allies, with Italy and Germany. This system of acrobatics made you lose all consideration, from all sides, so that even the Allies themselves came to the conclusion that they support the communist gangs, more than you.
5. The fruit of this kind of cooperation of yours, the sabotage you caused of their defense plan with fruitless actions, brought the tragic reality that the Albanian people are being crushed, for 22 years now.

These are the actions and witnessing facts, for both sides, which the chronicle has recorded and which History has to judge! Therefore, Mr. Abaz Ermeni, neither you, nor I, have a mandate, nor are we qualified, how can you judge the other!

However, I personally do not deny your patriotism, or those who follow them in good faith. But I am convinced that you proud people have a reason and the greed of Arrivizma has dried their hearts.

How do you have the courage, in front of your conscience, to deny the patriotism and patriotism of Atyne, that these virtues are boiled in the oven of the superior slaughterhouses? Only blind selfishness can justify such an attitude.

Appeal to Clear Consciences

Even though, for 22 years now, you have brutally attacked us with every kind of intrigue and slander, we of the Independent National Bloc, are still ready for the sake of the Motherland to loyally reach out to you, because we know that without the Union of all Albanians we cannot the necessary force must be taken, and without brotherhood and common therorina, the Nation State cannot be rebuilt!

If the leaders of the Blerte International Agrarian Party do not want to give up the path that is only for the benefit of the bloody communist regime, then I appeal to the men and especially the young men who have followed them in good faith, to research conscientiously and find the truth of national benefit, to withdraw from your anti-national path, from your blindness and return to the national path, to the path of Albanian brotherhood!

I do not invite them to join the ranks of the B.K.I., or the O.L.L., or any political group that is not originally theirs. I invite them to return to the real National Front, which requires cooperation and brotherhood with all Albanians, to the Front that was led by patriotic hearts such as Nuredin Vlora, Ali Klisyra, Koço Muka, Rasim Babameto, Kolë Tromara, Isuf Luzaj, etc.

I had conversations with these men several times when I was the Minister of Internal Affairs, when we were still able, if we were united, to destroy communism, if the rest of you had listened (with Mit-hat Frashër at the head), the legend of Tyne’s advice, I am sure even today, that Albania would not have suffered the tragic fate it did.

Those men realized that they would all lose if we parted!

They understood that if the nationalist forces joined the government forces, and these nationalists, not only would we eliminate the communist danger in a short time, but if we were able to put into action the Defense Plan that the government had, which We had shown these to the Men, and it was very possible that Albania would not have suffered either the Bolshevik tragedy, or the second split that it suffered.

Our Defense Plan

1. It was armed as much as possible and organized militarily, to successfully face the real war that we predicted would break out against Albania from the side of the neighbors, in the event that the Axis armies were forced to withdraw from Albania, before the end of War.
2. With this plan, the defense of Kosovo was also included with the other Vises liberated in 1941, from Ulcinj to Rozhaje, from Tetove to Dibër
3. The government took responsibility for the implementation of this plan and the personal consequences for the Allies.
4. When the country was now occupied by the Allied forces, the government handed over power to the pro-Allied current.
5. In order to maintain this pro-Allied current, we thought that some nationalist personalities would declare with propaganda in support of the Allied cause, but no, with actions that hindered the weaponization of their plan. Everything had to be done in confidential agreement and with the consent of the government.

What fruit this plan would bear, we have seen in the resistance of the Kosovars, supported only by a small regular army regiment commanded by the Hero Colonel Fuat Xhaferaj Dibra, which not only stopped the enemy’s all-round attacks , he also destroyed two Bulgarian divisions, you also took the cannons and that resistance was extinguished only by the treachery of Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu, who sent their divisions, you lied to the Kosovars, that they would remain with Albania, so, after he disarmed them with faith and massacred them, he gave them the Illyrian Lands – Dardane, to Yugoslavia.

It is assumed that the defense according to our plan with 200,000 fighters, would be impregnable by anyone until the Anglo-American armies arrived, it is assumed that after finding those lands in the hands of a national anti-communist army, it is decided by died before leaving it in the hands of the enemy, because it is understood that we had 90% to win the issue, which could be resolved peacefully with Yugoslavia, with a plebiscite under the control of the Allies.

Conditions for the realization of the plan

1. The disappearance of communist gangs, the fifth column of Slavism, in order not to be stabbed in the back.
2. The organization and arming of the Two Hundred Thousand Warriors that Albania, together with the Free Lands, drew from the selected military classes. Such a force would be sufficient to defend the borders in the North, East and South until the arrival of the Anglo-American armies, by which it was predicted (as it seemed) that the Yugoslav forces in their majority would be to occupy with the retreating German armies through Yugoslavia.
3. For armaments and organizational help, we had a solemn promise from Mussolini, not only did they give us all the necessary armaments, but they also left us the technicians we would need for air weapons and heavy artillery, etc. Yes, we need proof that under no circumstances would those weapons be turned against the Italian army.

I concluded the Agreement on the Defense Plan with Mussolini, in the audience I had with the Duce on Good Friday of 1943, in the presence of my four Albanian colleagues, among them Hilmi Leka, Hysref Frashëri, Vasil Alarupi , and (I remember) another one whose name I don’t remember in this case. Duce’s chief of staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Babuscio Rizzo, was also present. Professor Namik Ressuli also knows this meeting in detail, to whom, as a friend we had, we told him that day.

In order to start the implementation of the Defense plan, it was decided at that meeting to recruit twenty walking battalions, as a first step with the uniform of the Albanian gendarmerie and with a new distinctive coat that would be the distinguishing mark of the “Sons of Albania” “. With these battalions, the purge of communist gangs would be carried out. These battalions would be released to arm themselves with military divisions, after six months of service, so that they would be ready for any emergency.

Again, they would be replaced by twenty other battalions, and so on, until the anticipated number of 200,000 people was reached.

In that audience, Mussolini finally accepted the timely request from Mustafa Kruja and others (that we have mentioned) for the suppression of the P.F.SH, and its replacement with the “Movement of the Sons of Shqipe”.

I proposed this name of the purely Albanian New Movement in that audience and Mussolini commented: “Il Movimento degli aquilloti, un nome degno per i figli del aquilla di Skanderbeg!”.

Failure factors

1. As the Minister of Internal Affairs, I was in charge of putting the Defense Plan into action. A decree of the King’s Viceroy (general Pariani) authorized me to choose officers from every weapon as well as civilians, and to rank and name them up to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

I was sabotaged from all sides, not only by those who opposed the regime, but also by the personalities who belonged to the regime. I don’t know if it’s true, but it is read in the process that a group of personalities were convicted, that the late Hilmi Leka had declared in that process that mainly he and Ekrem Libohoven had sabotaged my plan to recruit twenty the aforementioned battalions.

2. The continuation of the cooperation of the National Front and Abaz Kup with the communists, with their actions, made the King’s Deputy suspicious, that even from those battalions someone could come out of their ranks to join the opposing ranks.
3. The arrest of Mussolini on July 25, 1943, impossible to foresee, was the main cause of the bankruptcy. Despite those sabotages, in June I managed to register twelve thousand people to be included in 20 battalions between the ages of 21 and 35, along with their cadres, and I named Colonel Bilal Nivica as their Commander-in-Chief.

We are waiting for other weapons and other summoning equipment, which the Viceroy suggested to us by the saboteurs, did not ask for them yet.

From the middle of July, after a justification that I made to Mëkambës, I put him in front of a dilemma: Oh, ask for the armament and what was necessary, oh, accept my resignation. He promised me that by August 15, everything would be handed over to me, and I would be given the authorization to call people under arms. As it turned out, Mussolini was arrested. Italy changed pages and capitulated on September 8, 1943. Memorie.al

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