The murder of Avdyl Ypi, "the most intelligent man in Albania"

By: Roland Qafoku

There was a time when Avdyl Ypi, together with others, was preparing the holding of the Lushnja Congress, but only six days before its start, a black hand interrupted his desire to participate, but also his life.

On the evening of Thursday, January 15, 1920, the bullets from the pistol of Sulejman Merlika laid him dead on the ground, making him a witness to this congress - one of the most important political events for the fate of Albania. He had described the government of Durres as sold to Italy and this phrase brought a serious crime, due to the fact that he had expressed these words in the presence of Mustafa Kruja, the minister of this government. This was the time when political rivalry in Albania had only one way to resolve it: by murder.

CRIME SCENE

Avdyl Ypi arrived at 18.30:15 p.m. on January 1920, XNUMX at the Durres school to talk, according to the request he had received from Mustafa Kruja's supporters, without even realizing that this was a trap. As soon as he approached the school door, he noticed the education inspector and well-known journalist Sali Xhuka, who was fixing the door. In fact, Xhuka was part of the murder plan and his presence there was simply to alert the killer that Abdyli had approached.

Suddenly, Xhuka opened the door and Sulejman Merlika immediately came out with a gun in his hand, shooting Avdyl Ypi with a pistol. Ypi died on the spot in a dirty infidelity scene.

HOW WAS THE MURDER PERFORMED?

There is no political initiative related to the fate of Albania, in which politicians or people with popular support have been so extremely against each other, to the point of clashing with weapons, as in the holding of the Congress of Lushnja.

On one side were the congressmen who support this national initiative and their names have gone down in history as the re-founders of the Albanian state.

On the other side were the protectionists who fiercely opposed this, even using weapons. The three representatives of the protectionists were Myfid Libohova, who used his influence to prevent the South's delegates from going to Lushnja. The second was Mustafa Kruja who was stopping Kruja and Northern Albania to participate, and the third was Fejzi Alizoti who coordinated the two parties in Durrës.

A secret committee, set up at that time in the coastal city of Durrës, decided to kill Avdyl Ypi at a time when the delegates were meeting in Lushnja. The purpose of this murder was to scare the delegates from moving from their seats towards Lushnja and, on the other hand, it would appear that he was killed as an Essadist.

But, to understand why Avdyl Ypi was chosen to be killed, it is enough to read the secret report of the intelligence service of the Admiral of the English Navy: "Abdyl Ypi is the most intelligent man in Albania. Esad Toptan's right-hand man and ardent Turkophile. He has nurtured sympathy for the Greeks and Serbs, but now he has become an ardent partisan of the Turks. He hates women. Very brave.”

Everything was organized in a trap so that Ypin was shot at a moment when he not only did not have the opportunity to react, but also did not have friends, colleagues or associates nearby. For this, the organizers invited him to the only school in Durrës to talk.

The contemporary politician Sejfi Vllamasi remembers: "Sali Xhuka makes complicated maneuvers in opening the school door and at that very moment Ypi is killed by Sul Mërlika."

But it seems that even in the case of Avdyl Ypi, the cup was full for the murderers for another reason. Avdyl Ypi's bravery was also shown in the eyes of Mustafa Kruja, who had not easily overcome this quality when it came to a challenge against him.

Vllamasi remembers the speech that Avdyli gave against Mustafa Kruja while standing by his side: "There is also a dose of personal grudge in this murder, according to Abdyl Ypi, as prefect of Durrës, in a speech he gave in this city, where he was present Even Mustafa Kruja, minister of the government of Durres, has seriously attacked the government and its members and with the conferences he held to the villagers in Durres, Shijak and Tirana, he had become dangerous for that government."

The murder really created panic among the people, but also among the politicians of that time. Fejzi Alizoti went so far as to send a telegram to the prefect of Shkodra, Rexhep Shala, asking him to take measures so that the delegates from the north do not go to the Congress of Lushnja, due to the situation created, also conveying fear of the event : "Also Abdyl Ypi was killed."

And, nevertheless, the delegates went to Lushnja, marking their name in the history of the nation and state formation. And the honor for Avdyl Ypin was given at the opening of the congress: "Today, 28 January 1.1920, at 2:00 after lunch, following the decision given in the XNUMXst meeting, since the majority of delegates was reached, the assembly opened. In honor of the late Abdyl bey Ypit, who was assassinated for the purpose of preventing the holding of the national assembly, it was decided to suspend the assembly's work on this day, and a letter of condolence was written to the family of the deceased by the assembly. "

THE BAD FATE OF THE JOURNALISTS OF "POPULLI" NEWSPAPER

Sali Nivica had passed away three days after the assassination attempt in Shkodër, while five years had passed since the murder of Mustafa Qulli. Salih Gjuka was the only one of the three founders of the newspaper

The "people" that had remained alive. He was a member of the Secret Committee against Esad Pasha Toptan and the Esadists, in which Mustafa Kruja was the chairman. According to the data, Salih Gjuka was an education inspector, a patriotic veteran from Peja in Kosovo, but if he takes Sejfi Vllamasi for granted, he calls him a born criminal.

Salih Gjuka was accused as an accomplice in the murder of Avdyl Ypi and for this he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, of which he served four years. However, there are also those who oppose this variant stating that Gjuka had nothing to do with the event. /Taken from the book "The 100 most sensational murders in the history of the Albanian state 1912-2017"/