Who was Alexander the Great?

Who exactly was Alexander the Great? Greek? Macedonian? Or was he in fact Albanian? That's the latest theory on Alexander's identity, put forward by the historians such as Nijazi Muhamedi.

Histoire des Albanais: Des Illyriens à l'indépendance du KosovA

Histoire des Albanais: Des Illyriens à l'indépendance du KosovA

Auteur Serge Métais

Les Illyriens, peuple indo-européen très ancien dans les Balkans, furent christianisés très tôt, comme les Grecs, dès les premiers siècles. Soit bien avant les Slaves, arrivés tardivement dans la région et évangélisés seulement autour du Xe siècle.

Albanian Music History

Albanian Music History - an Analysis


Defining the roots of the albanian music...
Most in the western world have mistaken Albanian music as merely Turkish or Greek. Others would argue that the Albanian musical tradition is distingueshed by its originality and provides a solid historical foundation for early European music. Few have acknowledged the fact that Illyricum (today Shqiperia - Albania), was one of the first areas to be influenced by the new Christian liturgy which would have been distributed around the early churches at that time (I -II BC). Also, almost no one is aware that bagpipes have originated from the region of Southern Albania and Northen Greece. The above features have shaped the debate between Albanian and Western musicologists.

History of Shkodra

Shkodra
One of Albania's oldest cities, an important economic and cultural center with around 81,000 inhabitants. It lies on southern part of the plain of Mbishkodra, next to the Shkodra Lake (Liqeni i Shkodr's), between the rivers Drin and Bun', the mountain of Tarabosh, and the Rozafa Castle.

A street in Shkodra

PICTURE GALLERY

PICTURE GALLERY

An Illyrian artifact found near Prishtina.	A view of ancient Butrint.
The remains of Ulpiana, near Prishtine.	The Skenderbeg Museum in Kruja
Byzantine icon of the 16th century found near Prespa, southern Albania.	The house in which the Prizren League was organized (1878). Starting point of Albania's independence from the Ottoman Empire.
The Bridge of Mesi (Ura e Mesit ), northern Albania.	Declaration of Independence of Albania in Vlora, November 28th, 1912.

ALBANIAN POPULATION

ALBANIAN POPULATION

IN THE BALKANS, AS SEEN BY VARIOUS CARTOGRAPHERS




Map of K. Sax, Austrian (1878).
Karl Sax was a consul of the Austria-Hungary Empire at Adrianople. He was well acquainted with Balkan affairs and had cultivated an intellectual interest in cartography. He made use of previous maps and official reports of populations by Austrian and Bulgarian offices.

ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME "ALBANIA"

ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME "ALBANIA"


A curious item about Albania is her very name, that is, the etymology of the word "Albania."
The country was known as Illyria in ancient times and until the eleventh century A.D. Since the name "Albania"

Chronology of Events

Chronology of Events


1225 B.C.
Earliest known Illyrian king, Hyllus, dies.
Fourth Century B.C.
King Bardhylus unites Illyria, Molossia (Epirus) and part of Macedonia. The Illyrian kingdom reaches its peak.

COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM

COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM

After Hoxha's death in 1985, his handpicked successor, Ramiz Alia, sought to preserve the communist system while introducing gradual reforms in order to revive the economy, which had been declining steadily since the cessation of aid from former communist allies. To this end he legalized some investment in Albania by foreign firms and expanded diplomatic relations with the West. But, with the fall of communism in eastern Europe in 1989, various segments of Albanian society became politically active and began to agitate against the government. The most alienated groups were the intellectuals and the working class--traditionally the vanguards of a communist movement or organization--as well as Albania's youth, which had been frustrated by years of confinement and restrictions. In response to these pressures, Alia granted Albanian citizens the right to travel abroad, curtailed the powers of the Sigurimi, restored religious freedom, and adopted some free-market measures for the economy. In December 1990 Alia endorsed the creation of independent political parties, thus signaling an end to the communists' official monopoly of power. With each concession to the opposition, the state's absolute control over Albanian society weakened. Continuing economic, social, and political instability led to the fall of several governments, and in March 1992 a decisive electoral victory was won by the anticommunist opposition led by the Democratic Party. Alia resigned as president and was succeeded by Sali Berisha, the first democratic leader of Albania since Bishop Noli. Albania's progress toward democratic reform enabled it to gain membership in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, formally bringing to an end its notorious isolation. Efforts to establish a free-market economy caused severe dislocations, but they also opened the road for Albania to obtain vast amounts of aid from developed countries. Albania was thus well on its way toward integrating its politics and institutions with the West, which Albanians have historically viewed as their cultural and geographic home.

Socialist Albania

The Stalinist state

The new rulers inherited an Albania plagued by a host of ills: pervasive poverty, overwhelming illiteracy, blood feuds, epidemics of disease, and gross subjugation of women. In order to eradicate these ills, the communists drafted a radical modernization program intended to bring social and economic liberation to Albania, thus completing the political liberation won in 1912. The government's first major act to "build socialism" was swift, uncompromising agrarian reform, which broke up the large landed estates of the southern beys and distributed the parcels to landless and other peasants. This destroyed the powerful class of the beys. The government also moved to nationalize industry, banks, and all commercial and foreign properties. Shortly after the agrarian reform, the Albanian government started to collectivize agriculture, completing the job in 1967. As a result, peasants lost title to their land. In addition, the Hoxha leadership extended the new socialist order to the more rugged and isolated northern highlands, bringing down the age-old institution of the blood feud and the patriarchal structure of the family and clans, thus destroying the semifeudal class of bajraktars. The traditional role of women--namely, confinement to the home and farm--changed radically as they gained legal equality with men and became active participants in all areas of society. In order to obtain the economic aid needed for modernization, as well as the political and military support to enhance its security, Albania turned to the communist world: Yugoslavia (1944-48), the Soviet Union (1948-61), and China (1961-78). Economically, Albania benefited greatly from these alliances: with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and credits, and with the assistance of a large number of technicians and specialists sent by its allies, Albania was able to build the foundations of a modern industry and to introduce mechanization into agriculture. As a result, for the first time in modern history, the Albanian populace began to emerge from age-old backwardness and, for a while, enjoyed a higher standard of living. Politically, Hoxha was disillusioned with his communist allies and patrons and broke with each one, charging that they had abandoned Marxism-Leninism and the cause of the proletariat for the sake of rapprochement with the capitalist West. Alienated from both East and West, Albania adopted a "go-it-alone" policy and became notorious as an isolated bastion of Stalinism. Hoxha's program for modernization aimed at transforming Albania from a backward agrarian country into a modern industrial society, and, indeed, within four decades Albania had made respectable--in some cases historic--strides in the development of industry, agriculture, education, the arts, and culture. A notable achievement was the drainage of coastal swamplands--until then breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes--and the reclamation of land for agricultural and industrial uses. Also symbolic of the change was a historic language reform that fused elements of the Geg and Tosk dialects into a unified literary language. Political oppression, however, offset gains made on the material and cultural planes. Contrary to provisions in the constitution, during Hoxha's reign Albania was ruled, in effect, by the Directorate of State Security, known as the Sigurimi. To eliminate dissent, the government resorted periodically to purges, in which opponents were subjected to public criticism, dismissed from their jobs, imprisoned in forced-labour camps, or executed. Travel abroad was forbidden to all but those on official business. In 1967 the religious establishment, which party leaders and other atheistic Albanians viewed as a backward medieval institution that hampered national unity and progress, was officially banned, and all Christian and Muslim houses of worship were closed.

World War II

World War II


Using Albania as a military base, in October 1940, Italian forces invaded Greece, but they were quickly thrown back into Albania. After Nazi Germany defeated Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941, the regions of Kosova and ,ameria were joined to Albania, thus creating an ethnically united Albanian state. The new state lasted until November 1944, when the Germans--who had replaced the Italian occupation forces following Italy's surrender in 1943--withdrew from Albania. Kosova was then reincorporated into the Serbian part of Yugoslavia, and ,ameria into Greece. Meanwhile, the various communist groups that had germinated in Zog's Albania merged in November 1941 to form the Albanian Communist Party and began to fight the occupiers as a unified resistance force. After a successful struggle against the fascists and two other resistance groups--the National Front (Balli Kombtar) and the pro-Zog Legality Party(Legaliteti)--which contended for power with them, the communists seized control of the country on Nov. 29, 1944. Enver Hoxha, a college instructor who had led the resistance struggle of communist forces, became the leader of Albania by virtue of his post as secretary-general of the party. Albania, which before the war had been under the personal dictatorship of King Zog, now fell under the collective dictatorship of the Albanian Communist Party. The country became officially the People's Republic of Albania in 1946 and, in 1976, the People's Socialist Republic of Albania.

Independent Albania

Creating the new state

Shortly after the defeat of Turkey by the Balkan allies, a conference of ambassadors of the Great Powers (Britain, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Italy) convened in London in December 1912 to settle the outstanding issues raised by the conflict. With support given to the Albanians by Austria-Hungary and Italy, the conference agreed to create an independent state of Albania. But, in drawing the borders of the new state, owing to strong pressure from Albania's neighbours, the Great Powers largely ignored demographic realities and ceded the vast region of Kosova to Serbia, while, in the south, Greece was given the greater part of ,ameria, a part of the old region of Epirus centred on the Thamis River. Many observers doubted whether the new state would be viable with about one-half of Albanian lands and population left outside its borders, especially since these lands were the most productive in food grains and livestock. On the other hand, a small community of about 35,000 ethnic Greeks was included within Albania's borders. (However, Greece, which counted all Albanians of the Orthodox faith--20 percent of the population--as Greeks, claimed that the number of ethnic Greeks was considerably larger.) Thereafter, Kosova and the ,ameria remained troublesome issues in Albanian-Greek and Albanian-Yugoslav relations. The Great Powers also appointed a German prince, Wilhelm zu Wied, as ruler of Albania. Wilhelm arrived in Albania in March 1914, but his unfamiliarity with Albania and its problems, compounded by complications arising from the outbreak of World War I, led him to depart from Albania six months later. The war plunged the country into a new crisis, as the armies of Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia invaded and occupied it. Left without any political leadership or authority, the country was in chaos, and its very fate hung in the balance. At the Paris Peace Conference after the war, the extinction of Albania was averted largely through the efforts of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who vetoed a plan by Britain, France, and Italy to partition Albania among its neighbours. A national congress, held in Lushnje in January 1920, laid the foundations of a new government. In December of that year Albania, this time with the help of Britain, gained admission to the League of Nations, thereby winning for the first time international recognition as a sovereign nation and state.

Bishop Noli and King Zog

At the start of the 1920s, Albanian society was divided by two apparently irreconcilable forces. One, made up mainly of deeply conservative landowning beys and tribal bajraktars who were tied to the Ottoman and feudal past, was led by Ahmed Bey Zogu, a chieftain from the Mat region of north-central Albania. The other, made up of liberal intellectuals, democratic politicians, and progressive merchants who looked to the West and wanted to modernize and Westernize Albania, was led by Fan S. Noli, an American-educated bishop of the Orthodox church. In the event, this East-West polarization of Albanian society was of such magnitude and complexity that neither leader could master and overcome it. In the unusually open and free political, social, and cultural climate that prevailed in Albania between 1920 and 1924, the liberal forces gathered strength, and, by mid-1924, a popular revolt forced Zogu to flee to Yugoslavia. Installed as prime minister of the new government in June 1924, Noli set out to build a Western-style democracy in Albania, and toward that end he announced a radical program of land reform and modernization. But his vacillation in carrying out the program, coupled with a depleted state treasury and a failure to obtain international recognition for his revolutionary, left-of-centre government, quickly alienated most of Noli's supporters, and six months later he was overthrown by an armed assault led by Zogu and aided by Yugoslavia. Zogu began his 14-year reign in Albania--first as president (1925-28), then as King Zog I (1928-39)--in a country rife with political and social instability. Greatly in need of foreign aid and credit in order to stabilize the country, Zog signed a number of accords with Italy. These provided transitory financial relief to Albania, but they effected no basic change in its economy, especially under the conditions of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Italy, on the other hand, viewed Albania primarily as a bridgehead for military expansion into the Balkans. On April 7, 1939, Italy invaded and shortly after occupied the country. King Zog fled to Greece. The social base of Zog's power was a coalition of southern beys and northern bajraktars. With the support of this coalition--plus a vast Oriental bureaucracy, an efficient police force, and Italian money--King Zog brought a large measure of stability to Albania. He extended the authority of the government to the highlands, reduced the brigandage that had formerly plagued the country, laid the foundations of a modern educational system, and took a few steps to Westernize Albanian social life. On balance, however, his achievements were outweighed by his failures. Although formally a constitutional monarch, in reality Zog was a dictator, and Albania under him experienced the fragile stability of a dictatorship. Zog failed to resolve Albania's fundamental problem, that of land reform, leaving the peasantry as impoverished as before. In order to stave off famine, the government had to import food grains annually, but, even so, thousands of people migrated abroad in search of a better life. Moreover, Zog denied democratic freedoms to Albanians and created conditions that spawned periodic revolts against his regime, alienated most of the educated class, fomented labour unrest, and led to the formation of the first communist groups in the country.

THE RISE OF NATIONALISM

THE RISE OF NATIONALISM

By the mid-19th century Turkey was in the throes of the "Eastern Question," as the peoples of the Balkans, including Albanians, sought to realize their national aspirations. To defend and promote their national interests, Albanians met in Prizren, a town in Kosova, in 1878 and founded the Albanian League of Prizren. The league had two main goals, one political and the other cultural. First, it strove (unsuccessfully) to unify all Albanian territories--at the time divided among the four vilayets, or provinces, of Kosova, Shkodra, Monastir, and Janina--into one autonomous state within the framework of the Ottoman Empire. Second, it spearheaded a movement to develop Albanian language, literature, education, and culture. In line with the second program, in 1908 Albanian leaders met in the town of Monastir (now Bitola, Macedonia) and adopted a national alphabet. Based mostly on the Latin script, this supplanted several other alphabets, including Arabic and Greek, that were in use until then. The Albanian League was suppressed by the Turks in 1881, in part because they were alarmed by its strong nationalistic orientation. By then, however, the league had become a powerful symbol of Albania's national awakening, and its ideas and objectives fueled the drive that culminated later in national independence. When the Young Turks, who seized power in Istanbul in 1908, ignored their commitments to Albanians to institute democratic reforms and to grant autonomy, Albanians embarked on an armed struggle, which, at the end of three years (1910-12), forced the Turks to agree, in effect, to grant their demands. Alarmed at the prospect of Albanian autonomy, Albania's Balkan neighbours, who had already made plans to partition the region, declared war on Turkey in October 1912, and Greek, Serbian, and Montenegrin armies advanced into Albanian territories. To prevent the annihilation of the country, Albanian national delegates met at a congress in Vlor'. They were led by Ismail Qemal, an Albanian who had held several high positions in the Ottoman government. On Nov. 28, 1912, the congress issued the Vlor' proclamation, which declared Albania's independence.

The Ottoman Empire

The decline of Byzantium and Ottoman conquest

Owing partly to the weakness of the Byzantine Empire, Albania, beginning in the 9th century, came under the domination, in whole or in part, of a succession of foreign powers: Bulgarians, Norman crusaders, the Angevins of southern Italy, Serbs, and Venetians. The final occupation of the country in 1347 by the Serbs, led by Stefan Dusan, caused massive migrations of Albanians abroad, especially to Greece and the Aegean islands. By the mid-14th century, Byzantine rule had come to an end in Albania, after nearly 1,000 years. A few decades later the country was confronted with a new threat, that of the Turks, who at this juncture were expanding their power in the Balkans. The Ottoman Turks invaded Albania in 1388 and completed the occupation of the country about four decades later (1430). But after 1443 an Albanian of military genius--Gjergj Kastrioti (1405-68), known as Skenderbeg--rallied the Albanian princes and succeeded in driving the occupiers out. For the next 25 years, operating out of his stronghold in the mountain town of Kruja, Skenderbeg frustrated every attempt by the Turks to regain Albania, which they envisioned as a springboard for the invasion of Italy and western Europe. His unequal fight against the mightiest power of the time won the esteem of Europe as well as some support in the form of money and military aid from Naples, the papacy, Venice, and Ragusa. After he died, Albanian resistance gradually collapsed, enabling the Turks to reoccupy the country by 1506. Skenderbeg's long struggle to keep Albania free became highly significant to the Albanian people, as it strengthened their solidarity, made them more conscious of their national identity, and served later as a great source of inspiration in their struggle for national unity, freedom, and independence.

The Ottoman Empire

The nature of Turkish rule

The Turks established their dominion over Albania just as the Renaissance began to unfold in Europe, so that, cut off from contact and exchanges with western Europe, Albania had no chance to participate in, or benefit from, the humanistic achievements of that era. Conquest also caused great suffering and vast destruction of the country's economy, commerce, art, and culture. Moreover, to escape persecution by their conquerors, about one-fourth of the country's population fled abroad to southern Italy, Sicily, and the Dalmatian coast. Although the Turks ruled Albania for more than four centuries, they were unable to extend their authority throughout the country. In the highland regions Turkish authorities exercised only a formal sovereignty, as the highlanders refused to pay taxes, serve in the army, or surrender their arms--although they did pay an annual tribute to Constantinople. Albanians rose in rebellion time and again against Ottoman occupation. In order to check the ravages of Albanian resistance--which was partly motivated by religious feelings, namely, defense of the Christian faith--as well as to bring Albania spiritually closer to Turkey, the Ottomans initiated a systematic drive toward the end of the 16th century to Islamize the population. This drive continued through the following century, by the end of which two-thirds of the people had converted to Islam. A major reason Albanians became Muslims was to escape Turkish violence and exploitation, an instance of which was a crushing tax that Christians would have to pay if they refused to convert. Islamization aggravated the religious fragmentation of Albanian society, which had first appeared in the Middle Ages and which was later used by Constantinople and Albania's neighbours in attempts to divide and denationalize the Albanian people. Hence leaders of the Albanian national movement in the 19th century used the rallying cry "The religion of Albanians is Albanianism" in order to overcome religious divisions and foster national unity. The basis of Ottoman rule in Albania was a feudalmilitary system of landed estates, called timars, which were awarded to military lords for loyalty and service to the empire. As Ottoman power began to decline in the 18th century, the central authority of the empire in Albania gave way to the local authority of autonomy-minded lords. The most successful of these lords were three generations of pashas of the Bushati family, who dominated most of northern Albania from 1757 to 1831, and Ali Pasa Tepelena of Janina (now Ionnina, Greece), a colourful Oriental-type despot who ruled over southern Albania and northern Greece from 1788 to 1822. These pashas created separate states within the Ottoman state until they were overthrown by the sultan. After the fall of the pashas, in 1831 Turkey officially abolished the timar system. In the wake of its collapse, economic and social power passed from the feudal lords to private landowning beys and, in the northern highlands, to tribal chieftains called bajraktars, who presided over given territories with rigid patriarchal societies that were often torn by blood feuds. Peasants who were formerly serfs now worked on the estates of the beys as tenant farmers. Ottoman rule in Albania remained backward and oppressive to the end. In these circumstances, many Albanians went abroad in search of careers and advancement within the empire, and an unusually large number of them, in proportion to Albania's population, rose to positions of prominence as government and military leaders. More than two dozen grand viziers (similar to prime ministers) of Turkey were of Albanian origin.

THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

From Illyria to Albania

When the Roman Empire divided into east and west in 395, the territories of modern Albania became part of the Byzantine Empire. As in the Roman Empire, some Illyrians rose to positions of eminence in the new empire. Three of the emperors who shaped the early history of Byzantium (reigning from 491 to 565) were of Illyrian origin: Anastasius I, Justin I, and--the most celebrated of Byzantine emperors--Justinian I. In the first decades under Byzantine rule (until 461), Illyria suffered the devastation of raids by Visigoths, Huns, and Ostrogoths. Not long after these barbarian invaders swept through the Balkans, the Slavs appeared. Between the 6th and 8th centuries they settled in Illyrian territories and proceeded to assimilate Illyrian tribes in much of what is now Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. The tribes of southern Illyria, however--including modern Albania--averted assimilation and preserved their native tongue. In the course of several centuries, under the impact of Roman, Byzantine, and Slavic cultures, the tribes of southern Illyria underwent a transformation, and a transition occurred from the old Illyrian population to a new Albanian one. As a consequence, from the 8th to the 11th century, the name Illyria gradually gave way to the name, first mentioned in the 2nd century AD by the geographer Ptolemy of Alexandria, of the Albanoi tribe, which inhabited what is now central Albania. From a single tribe the name spread to include the rest of the country as Arbri and, finally, Albania. The genesis of Albanian nationality apparently occurred at this time as the Albanian people became aware that they shared a common territory, name, language, and cultural heritage. (Scholars have not been able to determine the origin of Shqip'ria, the Albanians' own name for their land, which is believed to have supplanted the name Albania during the 16th and 17th centuries. It probably was derived from shqipe, or "eagle," which, modified into shqipria, became "the land of the eagle.") Long before that event, Christianity had become the established religion in Albania, supplanting pagan polytheism and eclipsing for the most part the humanistic world outlook and institutions inherited from the Greek and Roman civilizations. But, though the country was in the fold of Byzantium, Albanian Christians remained under the jurisdiction of the Roman pope until 732. In that year the iconoclast Byzantine emperor Leo III, angered by Albanian archbishops because they had supported Rome in the Iconoclastic Controversy, detached the Albanian church from the Roman pope and placed it under the patriarch of Constantinople. When the Christian church split in 1054 between the East and Rome, southern Albania retained its tie to Constantinople while northern Albania reverted to the jurisdiction of Rome. This split in the Albanian church marked the first significant religious fragmentation of the country.

Medieval culture

In the latter part of the Middle Ages, Albanian urban society reached a high point of development. Foreign commerce flourished to such an extent that leading Albanian merchants had their own agencies in Venice, Ragusa (modern Dubrovnik, Croatia), and Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki, Greece). The prosperity of the cities also stimulated the development of education and the arts. Albanian, however, was not the language used in schools, churches, and official government transactions. Instead, Greek and Latin, which had the powerful support of the state and the church, were the official languages of culture and literature. The new administrative system of the themes, or military provinces created by the Byzantine Empire, contributed to the eventual rise of feudalism in Albania, as peasant soldiers who served military lords became serfs on their landed estates. Among the leading families of the Albanian feudal nobility were the Thopias, Balshas, Shpatas, Muzakas, Aranitis, Dukagjinis, and Kastriotis. The first three of these rose to become rulers of principalities that were practically independent of Byzantium.

The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire

The Romans ruled Illyria--which now became the province of Illyricum--for about six centuries. Under Roman rule Illyrian society underwent great change, especially in its outward, material aspect. Art and culture flourished, particularly in Apollonia, whose school of philosophy became celebrated in antiquity. To a great extent, though, the Illyrians resisted assimilation into Roman culture. Illyrian culture survived, along with the Illyrian tongue, though many Latin words entered the language and later became a part of the Albanian language. Christianity manifested itself in Illyria during Roman rule, about the middle of the 1st century AD. At first the new religion had to compete with Oriental cults--among them that of Mithra, Persian god of light--which had entered the land in the wake of Illyria's growing interaction with eastern regions of the empire. For a long time it also had to compete with gods worshiped by Illyrian pagans. The steady growth of the Christian community in Dyrrhachium (the Roman name for Epidamnus) led to the creation there of a bishopric in AD 58. Later, episcopal seats were established in Apollonia, Buthrotum (modern Butrint), and Scodra (modern Shkodr'). By the time the empire began to decline, the Illyrians, profiting from a long tradition of martial habits and skills, had acquired great influence in the Roman military hierarchy. Indeed, several of them went on from there to become emperors. From the mid-3rd to the mid-4th century AD the reins of the empire were almost continuously in the hands of emperors of Illyrian origin: Gaius Decius, Claudius Gothicus, Aurelian, Probus, Diocletian, and Constantine the Great.

Illyrians

Illyrians

The origins of the Albanian people, as was mentioned before, are not definitely known, but data drawn from history and from linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological studies have led to the conclusion that Albanians are the direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians and that the latter were natives of the lands they inhabited. Similarly, the Albanian language derives from the language of the Illyrians, the transition from Illyrian to Albanian apparently occurring between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.

Illyrian culture is believed to have evolved from the Stone Age and to have manifested itself in the territory of Albania towardthe beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BC. The Illyrians were not a uniform body of people but a conglomeration of many tribes that inhabited the western part of the Balkans, from what is now Slovenia in the northwest to and including the region of Epirus, which extends about halfway down the mainland of modern Greece. In general, Illyrians in the highlands of Albania were more isolated than those in the lowlands, and their culture evolved more slowly--a distinction that persisted throughout Albania's history.

In its beginning, the kingdom of Illyria comprised the actual territories of Dalmatia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, with a large part of modern Serbia. Shkodra (Scutari) was its capital, just as it is now, the most important center of Northern Albania.

The earliest known king of Illyria was Hyllus (The Star) who is recorded to have died in the year 1225 B.C. The Kingdom, however, reached its zenith in the fourth century B.C. when Bardhylus (White Star), one of the most prominent of the Illyrian kings, united under scepter the kingdoms of Illyria, Molossia (Epirus*) and a good part of Macedonia. But its decay began under the same ruler as a result of the attacks made on it by Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.

In the year 232 B.C. the Illyrian throne was occupied by Teuta, the celebrated Queen whom historians have called Catherine the Great of Illyria. The depredations of her thriving navy on the rising commercial development of the Republic forced the Roman Senate to declare war against the Queen. A huge army and navy under the command of of Santumalus and Alvinus attacked Central Albania, and, after two years of protracted warfare, Teuta was induced for peace (227 B.C.)

The last king of Illyria was Gentius, of pathetic memory. In 165 B.C. he was defeated by the Romans and brought to Rome as a captive.

Henceforth, Illyria consisting of the Enkalayes, the Taulantes, the Epirotes, and the Ardianes, became a Roman dependency. She was carved out into three independent republics the capitals of which were respectively Scodar (Shkoder), Epidamnus (Durres) and Dulcigno (todays' Ulqin in Montenegro).

Authors of antiquity relate that the Illyrians were a sociable and hospitable people, renowned for their daring and bravery at war. Illyrian women were fairly equal in status to the men, even to the point of becoming heads of tribal federations. In matters of religion, Illyrians were pagans who believed in an afterlife and buried their dead along with arms and various articles intended for personal use. The land of Illyria was rich in minerals--iron, copper, gold, silver--and Illyrians became skillful in the mining and processing of metals. They were highly skilled boat builders and sailors as well; indeed, their light, swift galleys known as liburnae were of such superior design that the Romans incorporated them into their own fleet as a type of warship called the Liburnian.

The Greeks

From the 8th to the 6th century BC the Greeks founded a string of colonies on Illyrian soil, two of the most prominent of which were Epidamnus (modern Durr's) and Apollonia (near modern Vlor'). The presence of Greek colonies on their soil brought the Illyrians into contact with a more advanced civilization, which helped them to develop their own culture, while they in turn influenced the economic and political life of the colonies. In the 3rd century BC the colonies began to decline and eventually perished. Roughly parallel with the rise of Greek colonies, Illyrian tribes began to evolve politically from relatively small and simple entities into larger and more complex ones. At first they formed temporary alliances with one another for defensive or offensive purposes, then federations and, still later, kingdoms. The most important of these kingdoms, which flourished from the 5th to the 2nd century BC, were those of the Enkalayes, the Taulantes, the Epirotes, and the Ardianes. After warring for the better part of the 4th century BC against the expansionist Macedonian state of Philip II and Alexander the Great, the Illyrians faced a greater threat from the growing power of the Romans. Seeing Illyrian territory as a bridgehead for conquests east of the Adriatic, Rome in 229 BC attacked and defeated the Illyrians, led by Queen Teuta, and by 168 BC established effective control over Illyria.

*) "Epirus" means "mainland" or "continent" in Greek, and was originally applied to the whole coast northward of the Corinthian Gulf in contradistinction to the neighboring islands, Corfu (Corcyra), Leucas, etc. In consequence it does have not any ethnical meaning, as it is sometimes proclaimed. The name of Epirus, as applied to Southern Albania, is misleading inasmuch as its Greek sound gives the idea that one is dealing with a Greek territory. This is due to the unfortunate fact that the principal sources of the history of this section of Albania, are the writings of Greek historians, some of whom tend to hellenize everything. Yet, all the ancient Greek writers, including Theopompus, Thucydides, and the more modern Plutarch, are in full accord in stating that Epirus was exclusively inhabited by non-Hellenic barbarous populations.

The earliest settlers of Albania

The earliest settlers of Albania

The question of the origin of the Albanians is still a matter of controversy among the ethnologists. A great many theories have been propounded in solution of the problem relative to the place from which the original settlers of Albania proceeded to their present home. The existence of another Albania in the Caucasus, the mystery in which the derivation of the name "Albania" is enshrouded, and which name, on the other hand, is unknown to her people, and the fact that history and legend afford no record of the arrival of the Albanians in the Balkan Peninsula, have rendered the question of their origin a particularly difficult one.

But, however that may be, it is generally recognized today that the Albanians are the most ancient race in southesatern Europe. All indications point to the fact that they are descendants of the earliest Aryan immigrants who were represented in historical times by the kindred Illyrians, Macedonians and Epirots. According to the opinion of most ethnologists and linguists, the Illyrians formed the core of pre-Hellenic, Tyrrhenopelasgian population, which inhabited the southern portion of the Peninsula and extended its limits to Thrace and Italy. The Illyrians were also Pelasgians, but in a wider sense. Moreover it is believed that of these cognate races, which are described by the ancient Greek writers as "barbarous" and "non-Hellenic," the Illyrians were the progenitors of the Ghegs, or Northern Albanians, and the Epirots the progenitors of the Tosks, or Southern Albanians. This general opinion is borne out the statement of Strabo that the Via Egnatia or ®gitana, which he describes as forming the boundary between the Illyrians and the Epirots, practically corresponds with the course of river Shkumbini, which now seperates the Ghegs from the Tosks. The same geographer states that Epirots were also called Pelasgians. The Pelasgian Zeus, whose memory survives even today in the appellation of God as "Zot" by the modern Albanians, was worshiped at Dodona, where the most famous oracle of ancient times was situated. According to Herodotus the neighborhood of the sanctuary was called Pelasgia.

These findings of the ethnologists are, moreover, strenghthened by the unbroken traditions of the natives, who regard themselves, and with pride as the descendants of the aboriginal settlers of the Balkan Peninsula. They, therefore, they think have the best claims on it. It is also on the strength of these traditions that the Albanian looks upon the other Balkan nationalities as mere intruders who have expropriated him of much that was properly his own. Hence the constsant border warfare which has gone on for centuries between the Albanian and his neighbors.

The Albanian Language

A more concrete evidence of the Illyrian-Pelasgian origin of the Albanians is supplied by the study of the Albanian language. Notwithstanding certain points of resemblance in structure and phonetics, the Albanian language is entirely distinct from the tongues spoken by the neighboring natonalities. This language is particularly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages, which formed the primitive speech of the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula. Its analysis presents, however, great difficulties, as, owing to the absence of early literary monuments, no certainty can be arrived at with regard to its earlier forms and later developments. In the course of time the Albanian language has been impregnated by a large number of foreign words, mainly of ancient Greek or Latin, which are younger than the Albanian Language, but there are certain indications that the primitive Illyrian language exerted a certain degree of influence on the grammatical development of the languages now spoken in the Balkan Peninsula.

There is, however, a very striking feature in this whole matter: that the Albanian language affords the only available means for a rational explanation of the meaning of the names of the ancient Greek gods as well as the rest of the mythological creations, so as exactly to correspond with the characteristics attributed to these deitis by the men of those times. The explanations are so convincing as to confirm the opinion that the ancient Greek mythology had been borrowed, in its entirety, from the Illyrian-Pelasgians. As it was mentioned before, Zeus survives as "Zot" in the Albanian language. The invocation of his name is the common form of oath among the modern Albanians. Athena ( the Latin Minerva), the goddess of wisdom as expressed in speech, would evidently owe its derivation to the Albanian "E Thena," which simply means "speech." Thetis, the goddess of waters and seas, would seem to be but Albanian "Det" which means "sea." It would be interesting to note that the word "Ulysses,"whether in its Latin or Greek form "Odysseus," means "traveler" in the Albanian language, according as the word "udhe," which stands for "route" and "travel," is written with "d" or "l," both forms being in use in Albania. Such examples may be supplied ad libitum. No such facility is, however, afforded by the ancient Greek language, unless the explanation be a forced one and distorted one; but in many instances even such forced and distorted one is not available at all.

In addition, we should not forget the fact that Zeus was a Pelasgian god, par excellence , his original place of worship being Dodona. It is estimated that of the actual stock of the Albanian language, more than one third is of undisputed Ilyrian origin, and the rest are Illyrian-Pelasgian, ancient Greek and Latin, with a small admixture of Slavic, Italian (dating from the Venetian occupation of the seaboard), Turkish and some Celtic words, too.

'MY FATHER,ENVER HOXHA'

THE EXHUMATION

Before I describe my feelings about the exhumation of my father's body, which was the most painful event in my life, I must first write briefly about my father's death and funeral.
On 9 April, around nine o'clock in the morning, Father suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma. Mother, who lived as always close by, immediately summoned the doctors. They came within moments, since they were already prepared because of the serious state of Father's health. They were able to restore the funcioning of his heart, but he did not emerge from the coma.

I was at work. They informed me and I went home immediately. I found him in bed, surrounded by medical apparatus. A lump came to my throat. I sroked his head, and said:
"Dad, it's Lilo!"
The hours passed, but his condition did not improve and I began to lose hope. I sat near his bed, held his hand and said to myself:
"Perhaps he is aware of my presence, feels that I am near".
I talked to him in the hope that he heard me, even though he did not reply. This state of affairs lasted until the 11th April, about two o'clock in the morning, when his heart finally ceased to beat. I had fallen asleep, fully dressed, on a bed in another room, since I had been two days without sleep. I got up immediately and went to his room. I kissed him in farewell greeting.
I returned to my room and wept in an effort to ease the great pain I felt, but I had to pull myself together to speak to my children, who were small -- ten and six years old, while Besmir was only three months and could not understand what was happening. It was a heavy blow for them too. Their grandfather, who loved them and had done so much for them, was no more.
In the morning, everyone gathered outside the front door. Then Father left his house for the last time, but now not for the office but for the morgue.
Later everything was public -- the ceremony in the People's Assembly, where a long queue of people stood for some days to say their farewells in silence and in tears, before the coffin, which lay on a gun-carriage covered by the national flag; the ceremony in Skanderbeg Square and finally the burial in the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Nation.
The people accompanied Enver Hoxha to his last resting-place in pain, knowing that he had worked all his life for them.
One day in early May 1992, at nine o'clock in the evening, there was a knock at the door of my house. I opened it. A person unknown to me handed me an envelope and then disappeared. I closed the door and opened the envelope. Inside was a notification that the next day, at six o'clock in the morning, the family were invited to the public cemetery at Sharra where the burial would take place of 'Mr. Enver Hoxha'.
How was this possible? That we should be told at nine o'clock at night to be present at six o'clock in the morning, before sunrise, to attend something so shattering. How was it possible that an exhumation should have taken place secretly, at night, without the presence of members of the family concerned?
It was a difficult time for our family. They had taken my seventy-year-old mother away to prison. Perhaps she would be told of the 'event' there, alone in her cell.
I informed my brother and my brother-in-law Klem. We found a car and set off immediately for the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Nation. But the police had blocked the entrance to the cemetery and would not allow anyone to pass.
"We have orders from the highest authority not to allow anyone in", they said.
I replied:
"No one can prevent me from being present when my father's body is exhumed".
They reported to their superiors and, in face of our insistence, told us to go home, where they would inform us when the exhumation was taking place. But our place that night was not at home, but with our father, and we spent the night at the gates of the cemetery. Then, under searchlights, the grim work began. We heard the sound of pneumatic drills. They were working in haste to finish the task before sunrise. This kind of work needed to be done secretly, at night, away from the eyes of people.
At last they had finished, and we were allowed to approach the exhumed coffin. There were doctors there to certify that Enver Hoxha was really dead. It was eleven o'clock. They bore the coffin away and we were allowed to follow. They reburied it, directly in the earth, in the People's Cemetery.
The next day, and every day after that, veteran ex-partisans came to stand guard over their commander's grave.
President (now ex-President) Sali Berisha would decorate criminals who killed women and children, He would honour Pjet‰r Arbnori, the son of a fascist who fought the partisans! He would honour R‰n‰t Aleksand‰r Meksi, the former Prime Minister who brought Albania to the verge of total destruction! But Enver Hoxha he would dishonour! What hypocrisy!
But the plan miscarried. At the place where the grave of Enver Hoxha once stood, young people have placed bunches of flowers and a large national flag.
I had thought that, at least, the new grave would be 'more personal'.But no! Many people went there, to lay flowers and light candles at this simple grave, which was now the grave of Enver Hoxha.
A BLOCK OF MARBLE
Shortly after the Berisha regime had disinterred my father's body from the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Nation, I was passing one day though the park in Tirana with its artificial lake when I noticed a memorial carved out of red marble.
I recognised it immediately as the gravestone which formerly marked my father's grave in the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Nation. It still bore the holes from the mountings of the letters of his name. But in place of the former inscription 'ENVER HOXHA (1908-1985)' was now written: '1939-1945: IN MEMORY OF BRITISH SOLDIERS WHO FELL IN ALBANIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR'.
As if it was not enough that these soldiers of the Second World War should be buried far from their homeland and their families, now they must bear the weight of the gravestone of Enver Hoxha!
A state which steals the gravestone of the man who led the country's war of national liberation in order to transform it into a memorial for foreign soldiers is a state totally lacking in any semblance of dignity. On the other hand it is an insult to the kingdom of Great Britain. At least, that is what I think.
MY MOTHER'S PRISON
After this event, visitors to our family greatly increased. People came whom we did not know, young and old people, veterans and others.
The young visitors were simple people, but with character. Kosovars were among them, many without proper papers who had come through the mountains at night to reach their Albania, their mother country.
Albania's days of terror brought my mother to court. The propaganda directed against our family was intense, but most people realised that the aim of the proceedings against her was to discredit Enver Hoxha.
State television featured every session of the trial, but people quickly came to see the absurdity of the charges. that she had embezzled the sum of 300 dollars! For this she was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment. Immediately after the passing of the sentence, my mother wrote to us from her cell:
"My chidren:
Do not be upset by my sentence. My only concern was not to discredit Enver, my husband and your father, and this was achieved. It was really we who won in court. I embrace you".
After spending more than two years in solitary confinemnt, in the cold cells of Tirana prison, sleeping on a mattress on the floor, she was transferred to the high security prison at Tepelena, where she spent about a year. It was a prison for men, and Mother was the only woman prisoner.
Together with my wife Teuta and our eldest son, Ermal, I went many times to Tepelena to see her. Sometimes we also took the two other children.
I do not want to go into details of the difficulties which were put in the way to visiting my mother, for she will cover these matters in her own memoirs. I will deal only very briefly with one thing which has remained in my mind.
One day they brought her from her cell to tell her that, on the anniversary of the foundation of the 'Democratic Party', Berisha was willing to shorten her sentence by two years if she made application. Revolted, she had told the official:
"I will not ask for any favours. Take me back to my cell".
Similarly, I remember another incident, when she was in prison in Tepelena. During one meeting, she asked me to bring her some books of memoirs by Enver Hoxha. But the police told me that 'it is not permitted to bring the books of Enver Hoxha into the prison'. I replied:
"I am bringing her not the books of Enver Hoxha, but memories of her husband and my father. These are personal things, in spite of the fact that they have been published".
She spent more than five years in prison, but now she is free, writing her memoirs. Despite her advanced age, her ordeal in prison neither demoralised her, nor weakened her spirit. She faced it with high morale, because it was an unjust and purely
vindictive punishment.
MY ARREST
The imprisonment of my mother miscarried. Protests from many organisations abroad multiplied and pressure for her release grew. It was shameful that she, an anti-fascist, should be in prison for political reasons.
As her sentence neared its end, those who plotted behind the scenes felt it necessary to find another member of the Hoxha family to put in prison. They found the pretext in an interview I gave in which I spoke about my father. It was really nothing more than a son's impressions of his father, but my arrest gave events a new direction.
On the eve of 11 April 1995, the anniversary of my father's death, a journalist from Modeste' asked to interview me. I told him to put in writing the questions he wished to ask and name a meeting-place. I worked through the night on the answers and gave them to him when we met. The reader will find a record of the interview later in the book.
After publication of the interview, many people congratulated me on it, because until then the views of our family had not appeared in print, since the Albanian newspapers were not interested in presenting our views. .
It was 17 April. I reached home at about eight o'clock in the evening. Home was a ruined and abandoned building on the outskirts of Tirana allotted to us by the authorities.
Five minutes later there was a knock at the door. Our little son went to see who it was, and frightened, called back to Teuta:
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"Mummy, it's the police!".
Teuta went to the door, where a group of police and two civilians were waiting. They asked for me, and Teuta called me. When I came, they handed me a letter and said I must go with them to the procurator's office to answer some questions.
"One minute", I said, "while I get my coat".
I went back into the house.
"What do they want?", Teuta asked me uneasily.
"They want to qustion me at the procurator's office".
"The bastards are going to arrest you!".
The children were following my actions without speaking. I dressed warmly because, although it was April, the weather was cold, and it would be very cold in a prison cell.
I embraced the children and my wife, and said to the youngest :
"Don't worry, darling, You're a big boy now, and you must be brave. Daddy will be back".
To the eldest boy, Ermal, I said:

"You must look after Mummy while I'm away. and you, Shk‰lzen, must help Mummy to look after your little brother".
I had no time to discuss things with my wife, but we both knew that the cause of my arrest was my interview.
As I descended the steps, I thought of my seventy-four-year-
old mother in prison and said to myself:
"If she can stand it at her age, I should be able to at my age".
At the bottom of the steps a police-van was waiting. I was, it seems, regarded by the Berisha regime as much too dangerous to be transported in an ordinary police car. Berisha himself had described us to Frau von Kohl, the representative in Vienna of the International Federation for Human Rights as a 'criminal family', when she had asked 'why the family of Enver Hoxha was being persecuted. And she had answered:
"In a democracy there is no such thing as a criminal family, only individual criminals. As President you should know that".
After this incident, Frau von Kohl had come no more to Albania.
I climbed into the police-van, and greeted the policemen, who were all young.
When we reached the procuracy, a procurator named Genc Gjokutaj read me the charge. I was accused of 'inciting hatred among the nationalities and races !
By the time my interrogation began, it was past ten o'clock. But despite the lateness of the hour, Teuta went that night to tell her sister of my arrest. There some friends informed the newspaper 'Our Time' about my arrest, and the next day this published an 'exclusive report' of my arrest.
Naturally, I wondered if my mother knew of my arrest. In fact, the next day she had, as always, listened to the BBC News, which she regarded as more objective than that put out by the stations controlled by the Berisha regime.
"Last night", the BBC report began, Ilir Hoxha, the son of the ex-dictator of Albania, Enver Hoxha, was arrested". The news came as a bombshell to her and she heard nothing more. She was convinced that my arrest was political. It was only later that she read the interview, and wrote to me:
"You have manoeuvred well in a sea full of concealed rocks".
Many other people told me that the interview had been a trap. I disagreed and said that, as far I was concerned, I did not care whether the journalist had come to me of his own accord or had been sent. What mattered for me was that he had given me an opportunity to express my thoughts to the world, and had published them accurately.
The next day, Teuta went to see Mother in prison and told her in detail what had happened.
TRIAL
The period before my trial was one of intensive work preparing my defence. I was allowed to appoint a lawyer and a young man named Arben Ristani, whom I did not know but whose father, a photographer, was known to me, was recommended. He came to the prison and we talked for a long time. He would prepare my defence from the juridical aspect -- something he did very competently, destroying one after another the arguments of the prosecution.
Meanwhile Teuta visited all the embassies of the states who were members of international human rights organisations, such as the Council of Europe, and wrote to friends inside and outside the country.
Preparing my defence was not an easy task, because the relevant documents had to be translated, typed and distributed as press communiques. However, under difficult conditions, Teuta helped me to do what was necessary.
The day of the trial arrived. The courtroom was full to overflowing with comrades and friends, as well as journalists. Seeing Teuta, Ermal and Shk‰lzen in the front row of the court, I waved to them to show that I was all right, and they smiled back.
In such difficult conditions, family unity -- that kernel of society, as it has been called -- was of indispensable value.
The verdict of 'guilty' was a foregone conclusion, and the court sentenced me to a year's imprisonment.
We appealed at two levels, but our appeals were dismissed.
A number of international bodies concerned with human rights sent protests about the obvious dependence of the courts on political masters. Such protests were sent to Berisha, the People's Assembly, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice, etc., and characterised me as a prisoner of conscience. But the authorities were interested in human rights only to trample on them. But at least it was clear to honest people throughout the world that the courts in Albania were being misused to take revenge on the family of Enver Hoxha.
BEHIND PRISON BARS
I was confined at first in the Tirana Prison, where, by a coincidence, I found myself in same cell in which my mother had been been kept.
I found life in prison very boring and frustrating, and was impatient to have a visit from Teuta and learn how the children were bearing up. Two days after my arrival, a warder came and told me to prepare for the meeting. He warned me that I should have to wear handcuffs, because the regulations required this. But he did not lock them properly and they fell to the ground. He winked at me. We understood each another.
That first meeting in prison was very emotional. We embraced and began to tell our news to each other. Just seeing each other gave us courage. But the meeting ended all too soon and we had to part again.
Alone again in my cell, the days passed slowly and monotonously. My cell was very small, furnished only with a mattress on the floor. A small window with bars provided the only light and air. It was impossible to see out of it, for it was set high in the wall. Food could not be left on the ground, for there were large cockroaches, who came out of holes in the wall. There were also large mice, but they did not venture into the cell.
It was very hot, and the sweat poured off me. However, in the recreation room there was a large window through which one could see a courtyard and, in the distance, the state archives. I would walk for half an hour in the recreation room before being returned to my cell. The day of my meeting with Teuta and the following day I was able to eat tasty food she had prepared. The dishes she used to prepare at home were always fine, but in the cell they soon went off with the heat and it took some time before she learned to prepare food which would last for a week, until her next visit. The prison food was as follows: no breakfast; for lunch, we had soup, which was relatively good and which I usually took; while for dinner, there was macaroni, which I avoided beause it looked so revolting.
After four months here, a guard came to my cell one day and told me to get ready as I was being moved to another prison. Within five minutes I had got together the two or three possessions I had with me, and got into a police van with a boy who had been convicted of theft. The van sounded its siren and we moved off in the direction of Durrës.
At Kavaja we turned to the right and I realised that we were going to the prison at Bardhora. The road was very bad, full of pot-holes, and I realised that this would make it very difficult for Teuta and the children to make their weekly visits to me, for the journey needed a vehicle with four-wheel drive. Indeed, I wondered if my family would be told of my move.
And so it was. Only after they had waited for two hours in the queue outside Tirana prison were they told that I had been transferred to Bardhora, near Kavaja. Teuta and the two boys set off at once in the direction of Bardhora, thumbing lifts in lorries to get there.
I waited that day for many hours in the exercise-yard of the prison, and at last I was filled with joy to see them coming up the track towards the prison. After they had gone through the formalities required of visitors, we met and embraced.
"You found me!", was all I could say.
Bardhora was a completely ruined prison-camp. The international organisations who visited the Albanian prisons categorised it as 'completely uninhabitable'. It had formerly been a prison-camp for prisoners engaged on gathering laurel sown by the nearby cooperative farm. But this no longer existed, and the laurels had all been pulled up. The camp had formerly received its water by tanker; now it drank water polluted with lime. There were no showers, and the prisoners made showers out of holes in the ground which were also used as latrines, The kitchen was ten metres away, and the food was covered in flies by the time it reached us.
The whitewash had completely flaked off the walls of the dining-hall. The prisoners slept in dormitories which were more than fifty years old -- four in all -- in hammocks, The windows were without glass. In summer there were bugs everywhere. In winter the wind blew a gale. When it rained, the whole camp became a sea of mud. There were around 250 prisoners, the majority convicted of serious crimes such as murder, rape, robbery with violence.
When it became known who I was, despite their varied political views, they treated me with kindness and friendliness, saying 'everyone has the right to stand up for his father!". This did not please the governor.
The family always brought me newspapers and gradually everyone came to read them. We did the cross-words together. At one end of the dormitory a television had been placed, and when the news came on and the announcer began to say "The Commissariat of Police announces . . . ", everyone came over to hear who had been arrested. They all seemed to know each other.
The days of my sentence eventually came to an end. All prisoners dream of this day. It was good when my family was united once more. But the reunion was only partial, for while I had been in prison, my eldest boy had been forced to emigrate to support the family. He came and told me in prison, and I gave him what advice I could. Now my second son, Shkëlzen, became Teuta's right hand.
On the night before my release, I could not sleep. I had collected all my belongings together. My second son was waiting outside the camp. I could not wait to get home. They suggested that we should stop for coffee on the way, but I felt this would be wasted time. At home Teuta, my second son and other members of the family were waiting. I said to my son:
"You see that Daddy has come back"
Then I spoke with my eldest son on the telephone.
The following day I went to see Mother in prison, and afterwards I went to place flowers on Father's grave. I touched his grave with pride.