From: Klejd Kelliçi
The attempt to get the remains of Naim Frashër from Turkey, in the years between 1927-'35, came directly from the Royal Court. The motivation with which they are requested says: "The royal government, tyke takes a decision in favor of this proposal, fulfilling the duty against the memory of the Great Patriot, and will win the sympathy of the colonies that are outside Albania. Like the grave in the homeland, it will be an example of good work for future generations".
The remains of the great patriot highlight not only the state's attempt to control the remains and reburials, as an act of commemoration and care for the body, but also the construction of a certain discursive and hegemonic regime over the national collective memory. They serve as a link between the form of government, the monarchy and the Albanian collective memory, where the Monarchy and above all the monarch, Ahmet Zogu, plays the role of mediator between the past and the present of the Albanians.
The Albanian community in this case is not only those who live in the country, but also those who live abroad, against whom the Monarchy wants to be proposed as the final form of regime, which realizes the collective dream of independence, of the continuity of the state and above all of stability of the country. At the same time, through Naimi's remains she reaches out to future generations who must understand, through the proof of repatriation of the body, the already hegemonic role she has in making and maintaining collective memory.
This hegemonic role, however, is not played by the state, but by King Zog himself, since the efforts to obtain the remains of the Frashërllinje are described as the personal enterprise of the Monarch, who seeks to monopolize or attribute to his living body, whatever element that it connects it with the past and projects it into the future, now monarchical. The very care for Naim's remains is an indicator of the power and power of the already consolidated monarchical regime and serves as a catalyst to search for the bodies of the other two brothers, Abdyl and Sami, although without success.
Obstacles to receiving them come from family members who do not want to be separated from their ancestors and, moreover, state that they have already connected their lives with the place where the remains of their ancestors are located. Sami Frashëri's daughter does not accept in any way the carrying of her father's remains and also, she prevents the exhumation of Abdyl, although his son, Mit'hat Frashëri, lives in Albania. The obstruction of the removal of the remains of Sami Frashër is highly related to the polyvalent intellectual activity, which has not been satisfied only with the defense of the Albanian cause, but has also become important for the modern Turkish language. It can be guessed that the justification for carrying Sami's remains was limited to the family level, in order not to highlight this very important fact at a time when the new Turkish state sought to establish identity premises and limit them to the territory already well-defined ethno-political Anatolia. On the other hand, Mit'hat Frashër's letter, which charges his relative precisely with preventing Abdyl's exhumation, can be related to the idea of prohibiting the use of his father's body for propaganda purposes.
The Albanian research on the famous remains ends with the taking of only Naim and is not postponed further due to the fact that their withdrawal must coincide with the 25th anniversary of independence (November 28, 1937). The sovereign's connection with Naim's remains becomes even more personal, as the Monarch officially expresses the desire to cover the costs of bringing them to the country. This personal relationship that the Monarch seeks to establish with the dead body of Naimi is not accidental as it seeks to seek and clearly define the connection and the discovery of national roots, as a result of political stability and the salvation of the country, something for which the Bird claims all the possible merits. The government press office ensures that this report appears as fully as possible. The remains of Naimi are placed in the Teqe of the Bektashian Grand Duchess in Tirana. The burial site coincides with the Bektashi religious tradition, to which Naim belonged. This religious order has connected its existence with the efforts to give independence to the Albanians, and this was also found in the literary creativity of Frashër. Naim's remains are supposed to be temporarily laid to rest near the Grand Palace, until the realization of a national pantheon for the patriots, extraordinary bodies which the Monarch has pledged to find.
At the reburial ceremony, the Minister of Education, Faik Shatku, commemorates the work of Naim through that of Zog and vice versa. It is Zogu himself who makes possible the realization of Naimi's work, or more precisely - what Naimi has done for the language, the Monarch has done for the state. Naim Frashëri, according to Shatku, was the first to experience the feeling of patriotism, but it was Ahmet Zogu who consolidated the state and thus materialized the work of the renaissance. Zogu is considered as the complement of Naim's work, "the new Skenderbeu", the double guarantor of the Albanians who founded and guarantees the secular cult of Naim Frashër and becomes an intermediary between him and the body of Albanians.
Resting his remains in the homeland is not only a rite that marks the proper resting of the body, but a supplementary proof of militancy in the efforts to strengthen the Albanian state, these efforts can only be passed by the Monarch, who through the guarantee on the remains of Naimit, ensures the Albanians forever. This report is also projected to the remains of other patriots, who will be able to be part of the idea of establishing a National Pantheon. This monument could not be realized because two years after the commemoration of Independence, the King would have to leave the country due to the Italian occupation. The Italian invaders sought to give a milder and almost cooperative form to their stay in Albania. Nominally, the country was independent, although shortly after the conquest, Albania and Italy were united by offering the Crown of the Kingdom to Victor Emmanuel III. The political justification of the invasion was built through two narratives, that of liberation from obscurantism and backwardness and the unification of the destinies of Albania with Italy, as a way of projecting Albanian irredentism and tyranny over Kosovo and Chameria in reality.
Regardless of the invasion, different elements of national identity or the design of greater Albania, this battle was played on the level of national symbology. Even Naimi's remains could not escape this attention, which had to be subjected to a different narrative than the Zogollian one. In order to legitimize the new political order, the Italian authorities and mainly the regent Francesco Jacomoni, turned their gaze towards the remains of Naim Frashëri. This was also done as an attempt to ensure the discursive and practical hegemony on which the nation would be imagined in union with Italy. On April 9, 1940, one year after the Italian invasion, the public authorities announced the performance of a ceremony in the premises of the Bektashi Grand Duchess, the purpose of which was to place the remains of Naim Frashëri in a monumental tomb.
The ceremony was part of the celebrations of April 12, of the acceptance of the Royal Crown of Albania by King Victor Emanuel III. The reburial ceremony would take place under the direct care of the regent Jakomoni, which more or less imitated the form of personal care, like Zogu, for Naim's remains. The remaking of the grave and the reconfiguration of the bones of Naim Frashër followed the same civilizational logic on which the union of Italy and Albania was justified. For this reason, the main issue that was discussed about the bones of the renaissance was that of dignity. The authorities intended to build a funerary monument, grander than Zog's. In this way, the new regime sought to re-elaborate the figure of Naim in a new political context, which would be symbolized by the monumentalization of a new tomb. If Zogu had built a tomb for Naim, the Italian authorities made a mausoleum which respected the prefiguration of the new regime for the greatness of the works and symbols, as well as that of the religious tradition of the Bektashis.
This case also marked the regime's attempt to insert Naim's figure and his remains into the framework of fascist commemorative practices. Rather than the legitimacy sought through the appropriation of the bones, it sought to insert the figure of Naimi into a common and inevitable narrative of Italian-Albanian destiny. According to the "Tomori" newspaper, the official ceremony of removing and placing the bones in the mausoleum, in addition to the religious and civil authorities, was also accompanied by the typical fascist manifestations, where children involved in the "Balila" organization took part. The participants were the highest authorities of the country, starting from the viceroy Jakomoni to the leader of the Albanian Fascist Party, Tefik Mborja, and the Minister of Education, Ernest Koliqi. The official ceremony envisioned the ideal reflection of the fascist imaginary on the new Albanian society. The guard of honor of the monument are two balila children, then other paramilitary and military formations, Italian and Albanian, such as the Albanian Liktor's Youth or the Fascist Avanguardists who gave the solemn and military tone to the ceremony.
According to the daily "Tomori", once the bones were taken and transferred to Albania, no one took care of them, implying that the operation of their return did not receive the attention or consideration it deserved from the Zogist regime! As a result, Naim's tomb is considered old and inappropriate for the time. The undoing and remaking of the tomb thus marks a break between two times and two diametrically opposed regimes. This reflection will then be the leitmotif of Naim's continuous exhumations of the body, where the dignity of rest seeks to minimize the act of taking the body from abroad and thus shift the attention to the intense and constant care, as an element that proves in a way constant, that only that regime that commemorates the body, preserves the monopoly of its use. The article of the newspaper "Tomori" connected the restoration of Naim's grave with the end of the suffering of the nation, with the arrival of the fascist regime. The previous efforts, the entire Albanian political history, from independence onward, are considered futile and troublesome, and thus the reburial of the patriot serves as a way to symbolize the completion and making of Albania, with the union with Italy.
The creation of the Albanian state is considered incomplete, while its development is impossible. According to the new fascist narrative, the ideal carried by the restless remains of the patriot, finds fulfillment precisely with Albania under Italy, since the perspective of the country's development is already "...whose dream (Naim) is fully confirmed. Right after Jakomoni's speech, the Great Grandfather of the Bektashians would also hold the religious ceremony of inspiration, which he would end with the "divine blessing of MT (His Majesty), the Emperor King and over Duca, Italy and Albania". The attention to sacred and religious aspects was not only related to the strategic importance that the new regime gave to aspects of religious balance in the country, but also to the transmission of traditional religious elements to the modern state, what Gentile describes as the sacralization of politics. If the Zogist regime had previously thought about building a National Pantheon, for the fascist regime the commemoration of Albanian national figures could only be done within the restrictive religious framework and, in this case, even though Naim was proclaimed the apostle of the nation, he in at the same time he was subject to the practice of religious worship.
This can be affirmed for the fact that; despite the Zogollian period, the Italian occupation took care to have better relations with the religious subjects, recognizing them more autonomy than they had during the Kingdom. It is difficult to say whether the commemoration of the reburial of Naim Frashër would have served as a symbol of the care of the occupying authorities, to preserve the Albanian identity, this and the fact that the political trajectory of the Italian occupation would enter into crisis a little later, with the Italo-Greek war and then with the capitulation of Italy in 1943. The tension of the war years, thus the need for commemoration faded. Albania's formal separation from Italy, in 1943, was followed by attempts at de-fascistization and re-appropriation of the national element. This was seen especially with the end of the war and the establishment of the new communist regime. If in the first stages of consolidation, the reconfiguration of memory was limited to the war, the need to raise the sacred of the new socialist society did not escape the recovery and appropriation of the original elements of the Albanian nationalist discourse, of which the patriots were also a part.
After two thousand years, Naim's multiple burials were covered in several daily newspapers. Among them, the third reburial ceremony performed in 1950 by the communist authorities stands out. Naim's body was moved from the premises of the Chief Justice, next to the Prime Minister's building. The location was not accidental. The very name of the central axis in Tirana, "Martyrs of the Nation", highlighted an important element of the communist identity of the post-war years - that of the imagination of being an integral and therefore final part of Albania's history. This could be proven precisely by the name given to the central axis of the city and its marking with the bodies of the most prominent martyrs, those who were on the side of the Central Committee. Naimi's remains could not escape the attention of the new communist regime, which as a first and essential step had the remaking of national symbols, and consequently of the remains of patriots and heroes.
Immediately after taking power, most of the monuments erected in the previous regimes were destroyed under the weight of the new revolutionary momentum. The independence monument built in 1937 in the central square of Tirana was demolished, to be replaced by the statue of Stalin. Most likely, the demolition of Naim's mausoleum and the relocation of the remains near the Prime Minister's Office belonged to this iconoclastic continuation which would be replaced by the new communist iconography to which other national symbols could not be associated. Thus, the remains of Naimi pass into another stage of remaking, that of the fabrication of a new communist authenticity that required a direct connection with the past. In 1950, the authorities of the time will also erect the monument to the renaissance patriot, which should be inaugurated on November 28, 1950, on Independence Day. Somehow this also marks the cleansing of the patriot's body from the fascist heritage of the mausoleum, and at the same time it removed the monopoly over the body of the Bektashi community, achieving a double goal: that of separating the body from the religious context and a legacy, as the fascist one that was rarely mentioned, except here at the time of the invasion.
In the commemorative ceremonies of 1978, on the occasion of the repatriation of the body of Abdyl Frashër, the undignified reception of Naimi's remains by the authorities during the Monarchy period is mentioned. The intermezzo of the second burial does not find a place and here one can guess not only ignorance, but perhaps also the concealment of the fact, since the very narrative of communism excluded any implication of national symbols that could violate the logic of the popular residence that the regime started with the invasion in 1939. Naimi's remains became part of the sacral ritual and demonstrative of the new truth of communism in Albania, which, as researcher Van Ree says, when referring to Stalinism, the latter did not aim to replicate the element of transcendence , typical of religious regimes, but a test of faith, for the present and the bright future. Throughout the sixties, the Albanian government tried to negotiate with the Turkish one, for the repatriation of the remains of the two Frashëri brothers, Abdyl and Sami, but was prevented both by the Turkish authorities and by the Albanian diaspora there.
However, Abdyli is at the same time the father of Mit'hat Frashër, the Chairman of the "National Front" in exile, which automatically "passes" the ownership of the "body" to the elements of the Albanian diaspora, opponents of the regime in Turkey.
The regime's first attempt to get them dates back to 1950, but without satisfactory results. The members of the Albanian anti-communist diaspora in Turkey, as if to affirm the "blood" connection that comes through the founder of the "National Front", Mit'hat Frashër, have taken care to preserve Abdyl's memory. They have also taken care of the restoration of Abdyl's tomb. While Abdyl Frashëri is undoubtedly part of Albanian historical memory, Sami Frashëri is considered, by the Turkish state, a personality of Turkish culture and identity, which makes taking his body almost impossible. And, if the taking of Sami's remains is firmly opposed by the Turkish authorities, those of Abdyl return to the ground of the continuation of the war, between the ballisticians and the communists, in the double ground of national memory and that of the ideological clash imposed by the Cold War. The ownership of the bones, according to the logic of the Albanian authorities, belongs to the country of origin, whose memory is owned by the Albanian state.
Those who oppose the taking of the remains are not defined as political enemies, but fugitives, and in the logic of communism, the fugitive was equivalent to treason against the motherland. The escape imposes on the members of "Balli" not only the designation as enemies, but also the delicate status of suspension between surrender to the foreigner through non-acceptance of the regime, and the reduction of citizenship, due to the release of the country of origin. In this way, the "fugitives" have also lost their claim on the body, whose fate is negotiated by both states.
The efforts put the Albanian-Turkish relations at stake since the instructions given to the Albanian representative authorities in Ankara must learn that handing over the body of the reborn will be seen as a sign of friendship between the two states.
Another variable is added to the attempt on the remains of the Frashërllians, which may ultimately affect the Albanian state's ability to retrieve the bodies. At the beginning of the 1972s, the Yugoslav government, which after the protests of the late XNUMXs recognized the autonomy of the Albanians, requested the remains, especially of Abdyl, to be placed near the mosque of Bajraklia, which today is known as the "Complex of the Albanian League of Prizren ". Thus, the political claims about Abdyl's remains are not limited to the narrow plane of ideological conflict, but are laid out in a more complex plane of a dual narrative on the genealogy of national rebirth, which must be produced among Albanians within the multi-national Yugoslav framework. and the Albanian state.
The removal of the remains in Yugoslavia would thus be considered a great loss, not only in terms of memory, but also in the cultural and national competition between Yugoslavia and Albania, over the Albanians of Kosovo. The year 1978 and the commemoration of the League of Prizren is related to the success of taking troops abroad and the multiple competition with political and state opponents, for the monopoly of Albanian memory. When it seems impossible to get Sami's remains, the latter is "sacrificed", and thus only Abdyli is sought, since the approaching commemoration of the League makes it necessary to integrate it with the excellent body of its founder. The Foreign Ministry suggests to the Albanian representatives, the use of any possible means, including bribery to the Turkish authorities, to recover the remains. As if to give shape to the Albanian request, the Turkish authorities are also reminded of the remains of Hasan Riza Pasha, which were found in Shkodër and are being kept until the moment when the Turkish state repatriates them.
After many negotiations, only in 1978, during the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the League, the Turkish state accepted the request to receive Abdyl Frashër's remains. This acceptance is considered a great victory, which would not please either the Titians or the enemy exiles in Turkey.
In the exchange of letters between the consulate in Istanbul and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is reported that the Albanian diaspora in Turkey, and especially the representatives of the "National Front", may try to snatch the remains of Abdyl Frashër from the cemetery. In order to avoid this event, a series of measures should be taken which should last until the moment when the remains are returned to the homeland. The official authorities consider paying bribes to guarantee the receipt of the remains and also mobilize other Albanians for their preservation. Thus, Abdyl's body returns not only to a ground of ideological conflict, but also to the level of competition over the Albanian diaspora in Turkey, which the Albanian authorities divide into two groups - the patriotic and the traitorous. The very recognition of the "ownership" of the Albanian state over the remains reinforces this division even more, as the consular authorities themselves mobilize a part of the patriotic diaspora, in the constant surveillance of Abdyl's burial place, which is guarded by Albanian volunteers, all the time they are carried out legal formalities.
The preservation of the bones during the entire time that the exhumation formalities are carried out is also a test of strength of the Albanian authorities towards the members of the "National Front" in exile. It is seen in the continuation of a war liturgy that characterizes the communication between the Foreign Ministry and the officials of the Albanian consulate in Istanbul. In addition to Abdyl's remains, the Albanian authorities also take to the consulate the remains of marble, the distinguishing marks of the grave which are "war" trophies. Taking them removes any kind of trace linking the body to the anti-communist diaspora, depriving the anti-communist exile of the opportunity to use the empty tomb, even symbolically. Thus, taking the bones finally separates the emotional connection between the body of the father and the son, Mit'hat, who is considered a traitor to the nation and the motherland, thus dishonoring the father figure. Abdyl's remains will be sent to Albania, where the route foresees the passage from Greece. As in Istanbul, also during the trip to Greece, the Albanian authorities organize the continuous preservation of the body, as if to show that not only the rest, but also its final security could only be done within the territorial borders.
The arrival of the body in the country gives the regime the opportunity to organize a series of mass demonstrations, which mark the renewal of the geography for Albanian unity which is manifested through the movement of the bones. Thus, initially the coffin with Abdyl's remains rests in Korçë, Erseke e Përmet, and then is placed in the native village of Frashër. For almost three months, the remains rest in the museum house of the Frashëri family. The program envisages that throughout this period mass demonstrations will take place and the house will turn into a pilgrimage center for the residents of the area, schools and work centers. Throughout, it is also advisable to invite elderly people dressed in folk costumes, as if to make the genealogical connection between the present and the past. Despite the fact that the final declination of the remains of Abdyl Frashër would be Tirana, the decision of the Council of Ministers suggests that the public should be informed that they have been placed in the birthplace, at the request and under the care of the local authorities, thus strengthening the connection between the local and national. The commemorative suspension to which the remains are subjected temporarily isolates them to the bar, as the arrival of the remains is expected to be communicated to the press, just one day before their arrival in Tirana.
Thus, it looks like a kind of unexpected miracle, which is mediated and enabled by the state, as if to keep the whole community in emotional tension even though, the latter, has been engaged by the authorities to participate en masse in the ceremony. The remains of the Frashërllij, unwittingly, turn into the unitary symbol of any regime, including the communist one. Their relocation to the center and not to the birthplace is not unintentional. As the remains of Naim were taken from Istanbul and buried in Tirana, those of Abdyl should also be buried there. Above all, it was important for the brothers to settle in the same place. It begins in the seventies, when it was thought to build a monument to Naim Frashëri, whose location near the Prime Minister's Office was not considered appropriate. The criteria followed require that the place be easily accessible, to become a place of pilgrimage for the population.
Placement in the Great Park of Tirana fulfills these criteria: that of pilgrimage and that of monumentality. The burial site should not be a simple funeral monument. The very ceremony of carrying Abdyl's body is included in the logic of the state ceremonial of the regime. After his remains arrive in Tirana, and meanwhile that of Naim has been exhumed, they are positioned in "Skënderbej" square in front of the statue of the national hero. Mass participation of the population is expected in the ceremony, which will have to honor with a fist. In order to make the connection between the present and the past possible, in addition to the national anthem, it is planned to play the song "For the Motherland" which replaces the funeral march. After the ceremony, the archmorts are moved in a procession that crosses the entire "Dëshmorët e Kombit" Boulevard, passing through two nerve centers of power, the Prime Minister's Office and the Central Committee, to then move to the newly built memorial in the Great Park of Tirana. /Memorie.al/
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