Adem Demaci - the "armed prophet" of the Albanian national movement in Kosovo (3)

Writing for Kosovo Online: Dragan Bisenic, journalist

Differences from emigrant organizations

Demaci's activities fundamentally had a European character. Unlike other Albanian organizations that relied on Albania's monarchist tradition and were closely integrated into the operations of Western intelligence services, this couldn't be said for Demaci. His extended stay in prison prevented him from connecting with transoceanic organizations, and his ideology found support in the immediate neighborhood – Enver Hoxha's communist Albania. The concepts of creating an "ethnic Albania" differed in both cases and never came close to succeeding. In this sense, despite his significant reputation and prestige, Demaci remained outside the scope of North American emigrant organizations.

Initially, Demaci advocated for the secession of Kosovo and other territories with a majority Albanian population within the former Yugoslavia, and their annexation to Albania. However, after serving his last year of a second prison sentence in 1974, he realized that the political circumstances had significantly changed, not only in Kosovo and throughout Yugoslavia but also globally. He believed that Albanians should focus on improving Kosovo's status, from an autonomous province to a full republic within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Such an idea had appeared in the early 1970s within US circles but was quickly and dramatically rejected. In shaping the Albanian national program in Albania and Yugoslavia, a significant and even decisive role was played by the Albanian emigration. This emigration originated from the time of collaboration with Nazi Germany and later came under the control of foreign intelligence services, which, with its help, aimed to carry out their Cold War projects. The most well-known of these was the attempt at a British-American invasion of Albania from 1947 to 1952, using these Albanian emigrants. The plan was thwarted by the double agent Kim Philby, who was a liaison officer between the US and British intelligence services in Washington, while also working as a Soviet intelligence agent. He reported these plans to Moscow, as well as to Tirana and Belgrade, so all of them, in a joint effort, prevented this first attempt at invading a communist country.

Since then, the center of Albanian emigration projects has been in the United States, led by Xhafer Deva, Metush Krasniqi, and Mid’hat Frasheri. Xhafer Deva was a central figure in the Albanian movement, thanks to his quisling role and collaboration with the German occupiers, later in recruiting individuals from the Albanian emigration for the invasion of Albania. Deva directly collaborated with German commanding officers and, in September 1944, established the Second Prizren League. He later revived its activities on US soil by founding the Prizren League in exile. Its first Congress was held in the second half of 1966.

Preparations for the Second Congress of the Prizren League in exile began in 1971. When it seemed that everything was going well, a profound political crisis suddenly occurred. The newspaper Dielli published a statement from the General Secretariat of the League, which had three points. The third point stated that it was necessary to call on all political parties and organizations in the diaspora to "establish the Socialist Republic of Kosovo within Yugoslavia," as an act of "implementing the program", where almost two million Albanians were "arbitrarily left under Yugoslavia", and to unite within the borders of the republic two million Albanians who were "twice occupied in contradiction to the Resolution of the First Conference of the People's Liberation Council for Kosovo and the Dukagjin Field, December 31, 1943, and January 1, 1944", When it is said that Kosovo was "twice occupied", it refers to the occupation by the "Slavs" and by the "communists", as Xhafer Deva formulated in his letter to Mid’hat Frasheri. The article called for the celebration of November 28 together with the Prizren League, rather than separately.

Here, it is about establishing a connection between the Prizren League and the Bujan Conference, effectively synthesizing communist and anti-communist nationalist movements. This is an identical platform that simultaneously occurs in the Croatian and Ustasha emigrant movements, where Dr. Branko Jelic sought to connect right-wing and left-wing nationalism.

The leadership divided into the "moderate" and "traditional" wings, led by Xhafer Deva. However, the article caused great concern among other political parties. Although Rexhep Krasniqi reassured party leadership, claiming that the article did not deviate from the basic line and that Xhafer Deva would clarify all the views presented, representatives of political parties and organizations gathered on the eve of the Second Congress of the League in the offices of "Free Albania," where, at their request, Krasniqi wrote a letter that others signed.

In the letter, it was reiterated that the primary goal of all Albanian political parties was the creation of an "ethnic Albania", "regardless of the circumstances and the power and prestige that its obstacles have in the world". "In such crucial moments as today when unjust borders divide the Albanians, the ‘Committee for Free Albania’, Albanian political parties and organizations have followed and will continue to follow with perseverance and full confidence their programs summarized in one sacred word: ethnic Albania," the statement reads.

It states that the efforts of Kosovo Albanians for greater rights within the legal framework of Yugoslavia for beneficial evolutionary development are being closely monitored and will be closely monitored, but they will not accept, and they will not even become the inspirer of any disintegration that does not recognize the right of the Albanians in Yugoslavia to self-determination and unification with mother Albania.

In the end, it is stated that the "so-called decisions on the liberation of Albania or Yugoslavia, which are taken as a basis for the outbreak of the ethnic problem in Yugoslavia, are deceptive maneuvers to prepare Slovenian captivity for the Albanians in Yugoslavia, which has been accepted without any opposition by the treacherous regime". The letter was signed by Dr. Fuad Miftia, Aslan Zajeneli, and  Ragip Loxhi; for the BKI, Ismail Verlevi, Eng. Ago Agaj, and Tahir Kolgjini. For the "Committee for Free Albania", Dr. Rexhep Krasniqi and Vasil Xhermenji.

The letter was approved by the regional committees of the Balli Kombetar in the Dosti’s group led by Halim Begeja and the Albanian Democratic Union led by Isa Ndreu.

This group unequivocally rejected any doubt that Kosovo, as the seventh federal republic within Yugoslavia, would satisfy Albanian ambitions. The final and unambiguous goal remains "ethnic Albania", while all other orientations are considered tactical and a result of inevitable adaptation to circumstances and responses to pressures.

In 1966, on behalf of his organization, Xhafer Deva signed a Declaration of Mutual Struggle against the "Serbo-communist dictatorship" with Antun Bonifaciqin, one of the leaders of the Croatian Liberation Movement, an organization founded by Ante Pavelic along with a group of other high-ranking members of the Ustasha movement. Similar contacts intensified during the seventies.

The Marxist-Leninist current of Albanian emigration became increasingly strong in the late sixties. During the seventies, there were around ten organizations within it. The most powerful organization was the "Red People's Front", based in Germany, formed in 1980 by merging two smaller Marxist-Leninist groups, the "Red Front" and "Voice of Kosovo". The organization's program was a blend of extreme leftism and nationalism, fundamentally no different from the program of Enver Hoxha's Party of Labor of Albania (PLA). For the first stage of the "revolution", they envisioned ideologically exposing the Yugoslav regime (as "revisionists" – false communists) and raising the political consciousness of members based on literature they printed or received from Albania. In the second phase, they aimed to popularize the movement and exert pressure through demonstrations, while the third, final phase of the struggle was to be an armed uprising. The goal was the unification of Kosovo with Albania and the organization's entry into its People's Front under the leadership of the PLA.

Tomorrow: Dismissing "Uncle Adem" and his response