By: Dashnor Kaloçi
By the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, Qamil Vlora was imprisoned since 1947, being accused of carrying weapons without a permit, while his family, until the end of the communist regime, was persecuted, denigrated and ignored, never being invited to the anniversaries of the declaration of Independence.
Esma Hurshiti Vlora, granddaughter of Javer bey Hurshiti (former signatory of Independence in November 1912, high official of the Zogu Monarchy, prefect and mayor of the Municipality of Gjirokastra, deputy, minister, Prefect of Shkodra, Senator in the Council of Highness of the State, etc.; the wife of Ismail Qamil Vlora, the grandson of Ismail Qemali, the elder of Vlora who raised the flag and proclaimed the independence of Albania) which tells the sad story of the family of her father-in-law, Qamil Vlora - the youngest son of Ismail bey Qemalit.
"At the beginning of 1945, my father-in-law, Qamil Vlora, was sought by Mehmet Shehu, who told him that he had called him to talk and get some opinions from him, as the son of Ismail Qemal Vlora that he was. After they talked for a long time, Qamili said to Mehmet: 'If you want to know my opinion, I'm saying that Albanians have killed enough of each other, so don't bleed anymore, don't kill anymore'. As Qamili himself told us when he returned home, Mehmet Shehu had called him to turn him to the side of the communists, luring him with many promises. After the top leaders of the communist state could not get Qamili for themselves, they decided to arrest him and sentence him to prison."
Not accepting cooperation with them, Qamili was arrested on the charge of "arms possession without a permit" and was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. He contracted tuberculosis in prison. He died in Tirana, on December 15, 1950. After his death, his family was denigrated until the end of the 80s.
***
The old man of Vlora, who entered the history of Albania, with the patriotic act of raising the flag and declaring the independence of Albania, in November 1912, was married to a Greek girl named Kleoniki, with whom they had 10 children - six sons and four daughters (one daughter did not live). The three daughters were older than the sons: Mahmudi, Tahiri, Ibrahimi, Ahmedi, Qazim and Qamili, who were all born in Istanbul, when Ismail Qemali was a deputy in the Turkish parliament.
The eldest son Mahmudi (born in 1871), from a young age worked in the Ministry of Justice in Istanbul and was sentenced by the Sultan after the escape of Ismail Qemali from Turkey, being exiled for seven years in Bitlis. After that, he joined the family in 1908, when the Young Turk revolution won. Mahmud left Albania with his whole family when Ismail Qemali resigned from the government he was leading and he died in Vlora in February 1920 (at the age of 49) and left three children with his French wife.
Tahiri, the second son (born in 1875), studied and graduated from the Navy School in Turkey, was an adviser in this field in the Supreme Council of State. This too, like his brother Mahmudi, was exiled to Tripoli, where he served several years of punishment. After Ismail Qemali escaped to London, the Sultan sent Tahir to convince his father to return to Istanbul, but Ismail Bey refused. Then, Tahiri asked his father to stay with him, but his father refused and ordered him to return to Istanbul, after he had given his word of honor to the Sultan, to carry out that mission. Even Tahiri left Albania together with his family in 1914 and returned to his homeland in 1919. He spent the last years of his life in poverty, with a pension tied to the government of Zog, to which he was an opponent. established. Tahiri was not married and died in Paris on June 10, 1932 (the Albanian press wrote at the time that he had killed himself) and was buried in the French cemetery "Thiais", where King Zog was later buried.
Ibrahimi, the third son (otherwise known as Et'hemi), was born in 1885 and Ismail Qemali took him with him when he escaped from Turkey, along with the other two sons, Xhevdet and Qazim. Ibrahim accompanied his father everywhere and, in November 1912, he was appointed at the head of a company of soldiers to wait for Ismail Bey who was coming to proclaim the independence of Albania. His career as an officer began shortly after November 1912 and he stood by his father in all his patriotic activity and accompanied him, along with his other brother Qazim, to the London Conference in 1913 . Similarly, Ibrahimi was chosen as a representative of the delegation of Albanians of America, at the Peace Conference in Paris in 1920. He died on May 7, 1937, in Tirana, and his burial was carried out with great ceremonies. All the newspapers of the time echoed his death at the time. Ibrahimi was married to a girl from the well-known Tirana family, Toptani, but they left no children.
Ahmeti, the fourth son was born in Istanbul in 1910). Not much is known about him as he died very young, at the age of 20 (unmarried) from tuberculosis after being treated at a private clinic in Leysin, Switzerland.
Qazimi, the fifth son (born in 1893), always stayed by his father's side and was his companion. In the years 1910-1912, he dealt with the supply of weapons to the Albanian rebels fighting for the declaration of independence. It is said that Qazim had an extraordinary memory and Ismail Qemali often said that "Qazim was his memory, as he asked him about everything". In 1921, he ran for deputy in Vlora, but did not win. In the 1940s, Qazim lived on a small pension provided to him by the Albanian government of the Bird Monarchy. Qazim was married in Tirana to Behije Ohri and they had no children. He was a strict opponent of the communist regime and for this reason he left Albania and settled in Struga where he died in December 1953, in complete poverty. Qazim is said to have inherited most of his father's documentary archive (among others the original document of the declaration of independence) and, after his death, a vehicle from Belgrade arrived in the city of Struga and confiscated it. all of them and there is no information about their fate.
Qamili, who was the youngest of the children of Ismail bey Vlora (born in 1895), had the "luck" to live after 1944 when the communists came to power in Albania, led by Enver Hoxha. During the years that the Vlora family lived in Istanbul, he was educated and stayed there, until he finished his studies in Political Science. In the years 1926-'32, Qamili served as Secretary General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania, where he also covered the duties of deputy administrative and consular director. For his diplomatic activity, in 1926 Qamili was decorated by the President of France, Gaston Doumergue, with the high decoration "Chevalier de la Legion d' Honneur" and in 1928, by the Albanian Government of Prime Minister Ahmet Zogu, with the decoration "Kavalier of the Order of Skanderbeg". Although Qamili was charged with a high office, he was an opponent of King Zog and the monarchical regime. Based on this fact, in August 1932, together with his family (wife and two sons, Ismail and Xevdet), they left for Belgrade. Qamili's departure from Albania came as a result of the accusations made against him, as a participant in the "Vlora Movement", where a large group of former functionaries and officials of the Albanian government of that time had made a plan and wanted to overthrow Ahmet Zogun. It is not known precisely to what extent Qamil's involvement was in that event that was considered an attempt at a "coup d'état" at the time, but the accusations made against him were not baseless. From Yugoslavia, with the help of his friend, the French Justin Gothard, Qamili was able to leave for France, where he and his family stayed in Paris until 1936, when the French government removed a good part of the Albanian political immigrants (anti-Zogists) from France. From 1936 to 1940, Qamili lived with his family in Zemun (on the outskirts of Belgrade).
After staying in emigration for nearly eight years, in 1940 Qamili returned to Albania with his family and settled in his house in Tirana (in a villa where "Qemal Stafa" street is today), which he had left since he escaped from Albania, since Zogu had not seized it. In 1940, of Ismail Qemal's six sons, only Qazim was still alive, as the others had long since died. Since his arrival in Tirana, Qamili was called by the Albanian government (under the fascist occupation) and started working as an adviser in the High Council of State. At that time, Qamili's son, Ismaili, who had taken the name of his grandfather, was able to receive a state scholarship from the Albanian government, which was awarded to him on the proposal of the district priest of Vlora, as the grandson of Ismail Qemal Vlora, for studied in Vienna. Young Ismaili went to Vienna and began his studies at the Faculty of Medicine in the Austrian capital. But, in 1942, after the war had started in Austria, his family was afraid that nothing would happen to him and his mother, Hylvija, made a telegram for him to return urgently to Albania. Ismail returned to Tirana and so that he would not go to Vienna again, his family betrothed him to Esma Hurshit, the daughter of Javer Bey Hurshit's son.
***
Esma Hurshiti Vlora recalled: "At that time we had the house where today is the street 'Qemal Stafa' and a little further on that street, the family of Qamil Vlora, the son of Ismail Qemal, also lived. As a young girl, I took great care of the flowers and every morning I went out into the yard to water them. So it was up to me to open the door for Qamili, who was a close friend of my father-in-law, Javer, whom he called to go to work at the State Council. Some mutual friends of our two families suggested to Qamil Vlora that I get engaged to his son, Ismail. To look for me, Qamili himself came to our family, who talked with my grandfather, Javer Hurshiti, who was also his closest friend.
This happened there from the end of October 1944, after my family received my consent for the engagement that was to take place, and from the end of November, I went to prison to receive the consent of my father Mehmet, who they arrested him those days, together with his father Javer Hurshit. I still remember that last day of November 1944, when our house, where today is the 'Qemal Stafa' street, was surrounded by many policemen. It was morning and we children were very scared by the behavior of the policemen.
The father immediately gave me his consent, saying that he was honored to give the girl to the family of Ismail Qemali's son, with whom we had a close friendship. Although my father's family had been one of the richest families in Gjirokastra, at that time we did not have any big ceremony for our engagement! Meanwhile, the Vlora family was able to hold the engagement ceremony, although their house in "Moskatet" was somewhat damaged, as the partisans had fought there for the liberation of Tirana.
My engagement to Ismail Vlora was not liked by the communists in Tirana, as I was the granddaughter of a former minister and prefect whom they considered their enemy. Regarding this, at that time, the communists called Ismail and put various pressures on him to leave me. This was done because the communists considered Ismail as their man, since he really, since 1942 when he returned to Albania, connected with Hysni Kapo and Manush Mufti and participated in the Anti-Fascist Movement.
The senior communist leaders did not accept that Ismaili would go to Vlora, seeing the great popularity of his family in that city, which would overshadow the leadership of the communists operating in the Vlora area. At that time, apart from the close friendship that Qamili had with Manush Mufti, (Manush was the nephew of Javer Hurshit's wife), he also had close friendships with several other communists, such as: Muhamet Perja, Refit Bezhani, Mejit Hanku, etc.
Ismaili didn't even want to know about the pressures that the communists put on him and after that he began to cool down, to be separated from them forever. So our engagement lasted about a year and a half and we got married there in the middle of 1946. After the marriage, Ismail and I lived in his house in Moskatet, together with our two parents and younger brother Xhevdet".
In the meeting with Mehmet Shehu, Qamili showed that he was against the punishment of Javer Hurshit and the large group of former politicians and former high officials of the previous governments, who were arrested and expected to be shot. But, after Mehmet Shehu and some high functionaries of the communist state of that time - whom we met later - failed to make Qamili their own, they decided to arrest him. Even, since they created enmity with the heir of Ismail Qemali, they changed his last name to Vlora, to eliminate any kind of connection with the great patriot.
The reasons for his arrest were clear, while the pretext to convict him was one of the most banal: possession of weapons without a permit. At that time, Qamili had a revolver with an ivory handle and covered in gold, which he had as the most precious memory from his father, Ismail Qemali. Although Qamili kept it hidden, as he knew his position and relations with the communist state, it was discovered by the State Security.
Thus, from the beginning of 1947, the State Security made his arrest, when Qamili was working as a worker in a state printing house.
Regarding this, Esma Hurshiti Vlora recalled: "We as a family were not informed at all about Qamili's arrest; we learned that after his two sons, Ismali and Xhevdet, were interested. After being held for some time in the investigator's cell, Qamili was sentenced to two years in prison, being accused of carrying a weapon without a permit, for the revolver he remembered from his father. Even when he appeared in court, we did not participate, because we were not notified. We were able to meet him only when he began to serve the sentence that Qamili did in Tirana prison. He was sent to work in Laprakë, where there was a station for raising silkworms and, during that time, he became seriously ill from the humidity and developed tuberculosis.
After Qamil's conviction, our family was left in a very bad economic situation, since there was no income. My husband, Ismail, was unemployed at that time, as no one approached him, although he had studied Medicine for two years at the University of Vienna. Ismail tried to find some side job, enough to generate some income, going from time to time to the villages of Tirana. Due to the difficult economic situation in which the Vlora family found themselves, they started to sell the furniture and spoils of the house in order to live".
The communist regime sentenced Ismail Qemali's son to two years in prison.
"At the time that Qamili was suffering from severe tuberculosis in a Tirana hospital (Sanatorium annex), my husband, Ismaili, was doing his mandatory military service in the district of Korça. Feeling that his health was getting worse day by day, Qamili made several pleas to the government to bring his son, Ismail, with service to Tirana, so that he would have the opportunity to meet him sometimes. But, even after the many letters he wrote, not only did they not fulfill his request to bring Ismail to Tirana, but they never gave him an answer". Meanwhile, the health condition of Qamil Vlora after the tuberculosis disease began to worsen even more, when he saw how his family was treated by the communist regime in power. Although in this difficult situation, he tried to give courage to the family. Thus, in a letter he sent to his eldest son Ismail, on February 9, 1950, among other things, Qamili wrote: 'My dear Ismail, all my life I tried to make you two of my sons happy and happy, so that you don't understand the moral and material miseries of this life. I believe that to some extent and although I do not have wealth, I raised you with caress and if not better, equal to your friends, more favored perhaps in such situations. Now that I am old and unfortunately I have been affected by a disease that has no mercy, I am no longer able to try, but I can only wish and pray that you are happy. But, with this letter, I mean that you are mature enough to understand that the world is not a field of happiness and that people are not as we idealize them, but are driven by their passions. Thus, knowing this fact, we must strengthen ourselves to face the situations and events that fate reserved for us...', Qamili concluded his letter".
Qamil Vlora died in deep misery, on December 15, 1950, after two years of treatment in the annex of the Sanatorium of Tirana, completely forgotten by the communist state of that time. Regarding the death of Qamili, Esma Vlora, the wife of his son, Ismail, recalled: "At the time my father-in-law, Qamili, died, my husband, Ismaili, had just been released from the army. The economic situation of our family had worsened a lot, because the state saw us as their political opponents and attacked us in camouflaged, milder ways, since in a way it wanted to preserve the figure of Ismail Qemali.
But even though he tried to maintain this label, the attitude of the communist state towards our family seemed open. Thus, no one had the courage to come to Qamili's funeral, but we buried him in the family, me, my husband, Ismaili, his brother Xhevdet and their mother together with two neighbors who helped us. After Qamili's death, our family had even more problems, because every time there were relocations and deportations in Tirana, we were afraid that they would deport us too, removing us from Tirana. But, fortunately, this did not happen, not because they wanted us, but because the communist regime, as I said, was trying to somehow preserve the label towards Ismail Qemali's family...
At that time, we left the house we had in Moskatet to Xhevdet, Ismail's brother, after he got married and had children. We went and took shelter with my sister, in a house near the Ministry of Education (then the Soviet Embassy), which was too cramped for us and we were forced to live in a narrow corridor.
Ismaili could not stand the attitude of the communist state towards our family and he always openly expressed his displeasure with us and sometimes with his friends. Seeing the deplorable condition in which we lived, Ismail, extremely revolted, went to the People's Assembly and told those who received him at the meeting that, if they did not give him an apartment to live in, he would take his wife with all the small children he would leave in front of the People's Assembly building, so that the whole of Tirana could see how the family of Ismail Qemali's son was treated, leaving them without a home in the middle of four streets. After that, apparently they got scared and knowing Ismail's temperament well, they gave us this house (an apartment near Wilson Square)".
Although the communist state forced to give a small apartment to the young Ismail Qemali, they never cared to help him to work, at least as a medical assistant. Although he was able to arrange a job as an accountant for some time, he was immediately removed from that position and ended up as a three-shift turner at the "Enver" factory. Even in that factory he was treated very badly, leaving him to always work in the older lathes, where he could never achieve the norm and barely received half the salary. After many years in that job, Ismaili left there and barely managed to work as a worker at the Bread Factory, where he retired from 1980. The same fate, if not worse, had Esmaja, his wife. Ismaili, who was not even allowed to work as a cleaner at the "Petro Nini Luarasi" school, but was immediately removed from there, as soon as they found out about her biography.
According to the testimony of Esma Hurshiti Vlora, the other thing that burdened the young Ismail Qemali, while he was alive, was the disdain that the highest leaders of the communist state had towards the Vlora family, who were never invited to the official parties and ceremonies that were organized in Vlora and Tirana, on the occasion of November 28, Flag Day. Extremely outraged by this, Ismail tried all year to save and when the end of November came, he took the family, going by train to Vlora, to place a bunch of flowers near the grave of his grandfather, Ismail bey Qemali. /memorie.al/
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