Adem Demaci - the "armed prophet" of the Albanian national movement in Kosovo (2)

Writing for Kosovo Online: Dragan Bisenic, journalist

Albanian unification through armed means

Albanian nationalists considered this an act of deportation, even though the possibility of leaving Yugoslavia at that time to go to the NATO member Turkey was seen as a significant privilege. The strategic motives for this move were rooted in the policy of Enver Hoxha's Albania, which was the nearest Soviet satellite on the Adriatic and was viewed as a threat that could use the Kosovo Albanians to disrupt the Balkan balance. For this reason, the USA and NATO approved the agreement between Yugoslavia and Turkey, which were connected by the Balkan Pact at that time.

"What hurt me the most is that almost all of my friends were deported to Turkey during the 1950s," Demaci commented.

He singled out the winter of 1955/56 as the third pivotal moment when the operation to collect weapons in Kosovo began.

Although he was not a member of any illegal organization at that time, he "talked with everyone about everything". Demaci was arrested on November 19, 1958, for "hostile propaganda against the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia regime".

After his arrest, the distribution of his novel was banned. Years later, among students and activists in illegal movements, "The Snakes of Blood" began to circulate, often featuring the cover of Andric's novel "The Bridge on the Drina".

In custody, Demaci told the investigative authorities that his group of friends had agreed on the need to establish an illegal organization, but his own arrest had prevented him from founding such an organization. He admitted that the organization's main goal would be to disrupt the forced movement of Albanians to Turkey, stop the action of collecting weapons, and close and punish a number of student groups.

On March 17, 1959, Demaci was found guilty by the District Court in Pristina and sentenced to five years of hard labor. However, the Supreme Court of Serbia reduced the sentence to three years on June 9, 1959.

A few days later, Demaci was imprisoned in the Central Prison in Belgrade, and a few hours later, he was sent to the prison in Sremska Mitrovica, where he would spend the remainder of his sentence. Demaci was assigned to work in the production of rims for heavy vehicles. Later, he was sent to work in the kitchen.

Two years after his release, on November 28, 1963, Demaci, along with a group of friends, founded the illegal organization Revolutionary Movement for the Unification of Albanians - LRBSh.

Its goal was to "secure the right to self-determination, even to full secession, for areas with a majority Albanian population within the Yugoslav administration". To achieve this, LRBSh stated that it would "use all possible means and resources, from politics and propaganda to armed warfare and widespread popular resistance".

Members of the LRBSh displayed 99 Albanian flags on the main streets of Kosovo cities on April 12, 1964. In every city where this action was carried out, activists also wrote the slogan on the walls: "Long Live Albania, Our Mother".

Two months after the flag action, on June 8, 1964, over 300 members of LRBSh were arrested. After a trial in Pristina, held from August 27 to 31, 1964, Demaci was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Around 100 other activists were sentenced to four to 13 years in prison. About 200 other members were released after a few months.

Demaci spent the first four and a half months of his prison sentence in Nis. He was then transferred to the Pozarevac prison, Zabela, where he spent almost a year in solitary confinement. In addition, Demaci had to perform hard labor. Initially, he was assigned to a group that made models for melting a series of metal plates, and later he was assigned to a group that assembled kerosene stoves.

During this time, illegal organizations of Kosovo Albanians were already growing. The "Revolutionary Party for the Unification of Albanian Territories with the Homeland" was founded in 1958. In 1959, the "Revolutionary Committee for the Unification of Albanian Territories in Yugoslavia and Albania" was established in the Peja area. Demaci's "Revolutionary Movement for the Unification of Albanians" was founded in 1963. These organizations had similarities, but only Demaci's envisaged armed uprisings. This was the most important reason why Demaci was considered particularly dangerous.

The founders of these illegal groups had a significant influence on the formation of a new generation of militant members who followed their ideas. Demaci became an idol for younger members of the illegal movement, which was evident during the Albanian demonstrations in 1968, and especially in 1981 when young people chanted his name.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the situation in Kosovo changed dramatically in the areas of politics, economy, education, culture, and so on. At the Kosovo level, the change stemmed from the 1968 demonstrations organized by the youth wing of Demaci's organization.

The removal of the Vice President of Yugoslavia, Aleksandar Rankovic, led to changes throughout the country, and in view of a broader, international plan, the USSR's intervention in Czechoslovakia influenced improved relations between Yugoslavia and Albania. They both feared that such an intervention could occur on their territories. In this context, Kosovo's position in Yugoslavia was also enhanced.

Until 1958 and his first arrest, Demaci was a man of great influence. He published about twenty stories in various newspapers and magazines that had a significant impact on society. He wrote "The Snakes of Blood", the first novel published in Kosovo, and worked as the editor of the daily newspaper "Rilindja," responsible for world literature.

It's not surprising that during the periods between his prison sentences (1961–1964 and 1974–1975), very few dared to associate with Demaci except for his close friends and family members. Many people on the streets pretended not to know him, with the exception of Esad Mekuli.

During this time, Demaci leaned on the Marxist-Leninist ideology as interpreted by the Albanian leader Enver Hoxha. The Yugoslav dissident Mihajlo Mihajlov, who was imprisoned with Demaci, testified that during their conversations, he realized that Demaci had no interest in any dialogue or deviation from his ideology. His followers in prison also followed this path, keeping themselves isolated from other political prisoners and secretly reading Marxist-Leninist literature smuggled in from Albania.

However, Demaci evolved during his second prison term. In the ten years he spent in the second prison sentence, he realized that he had made a mistake by believing that Albanian national unification could be achieved with the help of one of the two great communist powers, China or Russia.

Initially, he thought that unifying Albanian territories could be accomplished with the help of the USSR, which had vehemently condemned Tito's Yugoslavia for "revisionism" at the time. He lost confidence when he realized that Russia itself oppressed many people within the USSR and completely withdrew his opinion in 1968 after the USSR's invasion of Czechoslovakia.

He also placed his hopes on China, which launched an anti-Yugoslav propaganda campaign. However, during his second prison term, when he had enough time to read and stay informed, he realized that he had erred in his assessment of both Russia and China. Now, he began to consider that national unification might not be the only solution, as such a project would not gain strong global support.

Tomorrow: Differences with emigrant organizations