From Nowruz Zeynati
“At the Central Committee, Gafur Çuçi and Mihal Bisha told me: Last night you committed a scandalous act, you went armed to the house of the enemy of the party and the people, Gjergj Titani”!
Memorie.al / Doctor Professor Gjergj P. Titani, was born in Korça on 23.1.1937, in the heart of a family with outstanding patriotic and anti-fascist traditions. He was the youngest veteran of the Anti-Fascist National-Liberation War, poet, publicist, historian and one of the most talented soldiers of the Albanian army. He received his primary education in Korça. In 1950, he entered the “Skënderbej” military secondary school in Tirana and two years later, in 1952, the “Enver Hoxha” United Officers’ School (today the “Skënderbej” Ground Forces Military Academy). In 1954, he was named an officer and sent for higher military studies in Riga, Latvia, in the former Soviet Union. In 1959, he graduated in Baku, Azerbaijan. Gjergji was a direct successor and heir of the National Liberation War.
In this environment, Gjergji Skenderbegas, forges character according to Diogenic principles that the wealth that a person should carry with him is justice, education, will and courage. But above all, he made friends there, whom he never separated from himself. In the banks of this school, he instilled once and for all the philosophical thought that friendship is more than the appearance of virtue, it is virtue itself.
With these human values, Gjergji revealed everything in these years, both when everything was going normally in his life and when fate turned its back. He turned into a symbol, an emblematic figure for the entire fraternity of those who studied with him at the inimitable school, “Skenderbey”.
After returning to his homeland, he started serving in Cape Rodon, Sazan, Tirana, Durrës, Fushë Krujë, Fier, Vlorë as the Chief of Staff of the Coastal Defense Corps. In 1968, he graduated with excellent results from the “Mehmet Shehu” Military Academy in Tirana. On September 1, 1973, the painful ordeal of persecution began at the age of 36, with accusations raised from above by the party, not substantiated by party organs.
He is expelled from the party and released from the army, as “undesirable”. On August 17 of that year, Vitua, Gjergji’s mother, calls me crying and tells me that Gjergji has been arrested in Vlora, where he was on duty, and four soldiers from the Ministry of the Interior have come to the house and are conducting a house search. .
As I was, I immediately got out of the car, filled the pistol with cartridges in my mouth and said to the soldier who was accompanying me with a machine gun: You will not perform any action until I come! I went home; there was a very serious condition. Sokoli and Irma were very small and crying. Likewise, his mother, Vitori Titani, a former partisan nurse, who had served in the General Staff of Enver Hoxha, while his father, Petraqi, had been a communist of the “Communist Group” of Korça.
In this situation, I entered the house and did my best to calm them down. The leader of the group of soldiers who carried out the control knew me, but neither spoke to me nor did I speak to him. The house phone rings, the group manager takes it and they are ordered to leave the house. I stayed at Gjergji’s house. At that time, I was the commander of the First Brigade.
The next day, the managing officer of the Ministry of People’s Defense, Koli Bita, tells me that; “at 12.00, by order of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, you must be at the Central Committee with Gafurr Çuçi and Mihal Bisha”.
I went the next day at the scheduled time and after greeting them, they told me: “Last night you committed a scandalous act, you went to the house of the enemy of the party and the people, Gjergj Titani”. “Yes, – I told them, – I went to this family, because I had a moral obligation to Gjergji, because I grew up with him.”
“The court will convict him, based on evidence and facts, as an enemy. We knew you went there armed, and if we didn’t intervene, do you understand what could have happened? What if fire was opened from both sides? – They asked me.
I knew, the last bullet, I could use on my head; the soldiers could not capture the generals alive. For this crime that I had committed, the Minister of Defense gave me the measure: “Severe reprimand, with a warning for dismissal from office”.
On August 17, 1977, Gjergji was arrested and sentenced to 18 years in political prison, by a trial, without facts and evidence, carried out in cooperation by judges and prosecutors, who gave unfounded decisions. On April 30, 1990, he was released from the wild prison of Burrel, where he served his entire sentence. His moral condition was quite high, but his health was weak.
On the day of release from prison, we talked for a long time about our problems. After a week, he came to my house in Durrës and stayed for two days. He didn’t want to meet anyone, he just wanted peace. I tell him: “When we were serving in the War Fleet, on the island of Sazan, you often said to me: I don’t want God’s freedom, I don’t accept it, forgiven freedom, my soul and heart are burning for freedom, oh we win it, oh in we will go to hell”.
I wrote these few verses in a letter to him when he was in prison, together with 500 lek of that time, I sent him with an officer who was on duty in the Burrel prison. I asked him: “You gave it to him, didn’t you”? George nodded; ‘yes’. “Listen my dear brother, the Titans is not defeated. Ah, you know how much I love you and how much I miss you”!
Gjergj Titani was vital; his activity after the sentence is scientific research work, starting from the activity in the field of protection of human rights and freedoms, as an active member of “Amnesty International”. He is one of the founders of the association of the former Political Persecuted of Albania and initially its secretary.
On January 23, 1996, he earned the degree of “Doctor of Science”, was vice-president of the National Forum of Intellectuals of Albania, established in Istanbul, president of the Association of Military Historians of Albania and “Friends of Pushkin”.
He has participated in important national and international activities, in the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Greece, Jordan, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, etc., he has been decorated with various orders and medals, from the Presidium of the Parliament of Albania, with two medals , by the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.
He has published many articles, reports and statements. His first book of poems is entitled: “Metaphors of pain”, which has been translated into Romania, Czech Republic, Holland and Poland. The last book is “Ballad of hope”, while the last historical-military book is titled: “Albanian military personalities over the years”, December 1912-1997.
He passed away on November 17, 2011 and above all, he remained a permanent soldier of his country and will be honored and remembered with respect. Memorie.al
