Albania became the only country in Eastern Europe that actually freed itself from Nazi occupation on its own. This largely determined the independence of the domestic and foreign policy of the country when it was a socialist state. In 1945, the first secretary of the Albanian Party of Labor, Enver Hoxha, became the de facto head of state, a staunch Stalinist who embarked on a course of building socialism and communism in Albania. On January 11, 1946, the monarchy was officially abolished, and the country received a new name - the People's Republic of Albania (NRA).
The coming to power of the communists was perceived ambiguously by the Albanian nationalists. Although some of the nationalists, together with the communists, participated in the anti-fascist partisan movement, most of the Albanian nationalists still supported the Bally Kombetar collaborationist regime, which collaborated with the Nazis. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, many prominent members of the Balli Kombetar government fled the country and settled in the West. Several leaders of the collaborationist leadership, including ex-premier Malik-bey Bushati and representatives of Orthodox and Catholics in the regency council Lef Nosi and Anton Harapi, were arrested and executed on January 14, 1946 for collaboration with the Nazi regime. The remaining members of the "Balli Kombetar", nevertheless, tried to organize anti-communist resistance, but to no avail - the tough Enver Hoxha rather quickly suppressed the centers of armed resistance in the country. The center of the Albanian nationalist movement moved into exile.
The camp of the opponents of the communist government by the end of the 1940s. consisted of two main forces - representatives of the nationalist organization "Balli Kombetar" and the monarchists from the organization "Lëvizja Legalitetit", who considered it necessary to revive the monarchy in Albania. The most popular figure among the monarchists was Abaz Kupi. The Albanian anti-communists were patronized by British and American special services interested in destabilizing the situation in Albania and weakening Soviet influence on the Balkan Peninsula. On July 8, 1949, the Free Albania National Committee was founded, which included representatives of the nationalist organization Bally Kombetar, monarchists from the Lëvizja Legalitetit, members of the Peasant League and the Agrarian League, and former military personnel from the Independent Combat Group. The organization was headed by the leader and ideologist of "Balli Kombetar" Midhat Frasheri.
The members of "Free Albania" have approached the former Albanian king Ahmet Zog with an offer of cooperation. Living in Paris with his wife Geraldine, the 54-year-old retired monarch continued to consider himself the legitimate ruler of Albania. Therefore, he refused to side with the Free Albania National Committee, considering this organization illegitimate. Therefore, in its future activities, the organization could not count on the support of the former Albanian king. But this did not greatly depress the creators of Free Albania. The main thing is that they continued to receive financial and organizational support from the British and American intelligence services.
On October 3, 1949, 69-year-old Midhat Bey Frasheri, one of the most prominent leaders of the Albanian nationalists, died suddenly in New York. "Free Albania" was headed by Hassan Dosti (1895-1991) - one of the leaders of the "Balli Kombetar", after the victory of the communists fled from Albania to Italy on a boat provided by the Nazi Abwehr. Like many other collaborators, Dosti quickly changed his "senior comrades" and began to cooperate with the American and British intelligence services.
One of the important centers of the Albanian anti-communist emigration in the late 1940s - early 1950s. was in Australia. Such prominent collaborators as Recep Krasniqi and Jafer Deva settled there. Although Jafer Deva, the "Albanian Himmler", was directly involved in the preparation and organization of subversive activities against socialist Albania, for a long time his cooperation with the "Free Albania" committee was not advertised - the British and Americans still did not want to discredit their wards by links with outspoken collaborators and Hitler's allies. However, the experience of Virgo could not but be useful to the Western special services. In 1950, Deva took part in organizing the deployment of paratroopers - saboteurs to Albania.
In 1954, the leadership of Free Albania changed. Hasan Dosti gave up the post of leader of the organization to Recep Krasniqi (1906-1999) - an Albanian nationalist, scientist and historian who collaborated with collaborators during the Nazi occupation. He moved from Australia to the United States, where by the mid-1950s the center of the Albanian anti-communist emigration had shifted. Jafer Deva also moved there in 1956 and established close ties with the US Central Intelligence Agency.
Since the late 1940s. Abas Ermenyi (1913-2003) began to play an active role in the activities of the National Committee "Free Albania". A graduate of the Sorbonne and a historian by profession, Ermeñy was a much more acceptable figure than the former collaborationist leaders. Back in 1939, he opposed the Italian occupation of Albania, took part in the creation of "Balli Kombetar", and then commanded his own detachment, in the best times, numbering 4 thousand people and fought against the Italian troops. Ermenyi was an opponent of the Italian and then German occupation of Albania, but at the same time he was on radical anti-communist positions. Such a person, untainted by cooperation with the fascists, was of great value for the Albanian anti-communist emigration.
It was Ermenyi, after the communists came to power in the country, who tried to organize armed resistance to the government of Enver Hoxha. He even tried to capture the city of Shkoder, but the anti-communist squad was defeated. In the fall of 1945, Ermeny fled to Greece. The Albanian authorities sentenced him to death in absentia. In Greece, Ermenya was arrested, but then released. He headed the "Balli Kombetar" branch, coordinating the activities of Albanian nationalists in the preparation of sabotage and incursions into the territory of Albania. Abas Ermenyi put forward a plan for the airlifting of paratroopers, saboteurs, to Albania, who could raise the Albanian people to active actions. But after several unsuccessful sorties, American and British intelligence services abandoned these plans. Abas Ermenyi left Greece and settled in France, where he became actively involved in the propaganda activities of "Free Albania".
Until the mid-1950s, the leaders of "Free Albania" met with all-round support from Western states. Thus, the leader of the committee, Recep Krasniqi, was considered the official representative of the Albanian government - until, in 1955, Albania joined the United Nations. An impressive Albanian diaspora has settled in the United States, which includes about 15 thousand emigrants from communist Albania. In addition to the struggle against the communist government in Albania, the Albanian nationalists in exile continued to focus on the liberation of Kosovo and Metohija as one of the main goals of the Albanian nationalist movement.
In 1966, the Third Prizren League was founded. Recall that the First Prizren League was created in 1878 to oppose the transfer of a number of ethnic Albanian regions of Montenegro and Greece. The Second Prizren League existed during the Second World War and set itself the goal of uniting the lands inhabited by Albanians into "Great Albania". The Third Prizren League also put on the agenda the issue of the consolidation of the Albanians not only within Albania, but throughout the entire Balkan Peninsula. First of all, the Albanian nationalists were interested in Kosovo. At the head of the Third Prizren League was Jafer Deva, who by this time was closely cooperating with the CIA. As you know, even during the war years, Deva tried to rely on the support of the Kosovars and, in general, paid great attention to the Kosovo issue.
It is noteworthy that on the issue of Kosovo, Jafer Deva quickly found a common language with Sigurimi, the secret service of communist Albania. As you know, the Albanian communist leader Enver Hoxha was also no stranger to the desire to unite all ethnic Albanians within Albania. He very negatively assessed the policy of Yugoslavia in Kosovo, and even when Josip Broz Tito granted autonomy to Kosovo and opened Albanian schools for the Kosovars, Khoja continued to talk about discrimination against Albanians in Kosovo.
The creation of the Third Prizren League coincided with the departure from the post of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Yugoslavia, Alexander Rankovic (1909-1983), a tough leader who suppressed any separatist inclinations of the Kosovar Albanians. In 1969, Kosovo received the status of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo. By this time, nationalist sentiments had intensified in the region. They were separated by a significant part of the Albanian youth and intelligentsia. Not without the active propaganda of the Albanian emigrants, supported by the West. For the United States and Great Britain, support for the Albanian national movement in Kosovo was of great interest, since the Albanians were traditionally viewed as opposition to the Slavic, and therefore Russian, Soviet influence in the Balkan Peninsula. The activities of nationalists in Kosovo led to the fact that living conditions in the province became less and less comfortable for non-Albanians, especially for Serbs. For twenty years from 1961 to 1980. More than 90 thousand Serbs and more than 20 thousand people from Montenegro left Kosovo. Although economic factors also played an important role in the departure of Serbs, security considerations were still in the first place - the activation of the Albanian national movement in the province was accompanied by an increase in provocations against the Serb population.
In March - April 1981, the nationalists provoked another wave of riots in Kosovo, which ended in armed clashes between the Kosovars and units of the Yugoslav People's Army. In the riots, 5 JNA soldiers and 9 (according to official data) Kosovars were killed (Western human rights activists cited numbers up to 1,000 people allegedly killed by the Yugoslav special services). Albanian nationalists demanded the immediate withdrawal of Kosovo from the SFRY, which provoked retaliatory measures from the Yugoslav law enforcement agencies and the army.
In addition to promoting the Kosovo theme, the Albanian emigrants were also planning subversive activities against the regime of Enver Hoxha. One of the most famous episodes in this struggle was the landing of the Shevdet group. On September 25, 1982, a group of four people - Mustafa Shevdet (pictured), Khalit Bayrami, Sabaudin Hasnedar and Fadil Katseli - landed on the Adriatic coast of Albania. At the head of the group was Sabaudin Hasnedar, nicknamed "Dino" - a former communist, opposition to Khoja, who fled to Greece in 1950. However, in reality, the most significant role in the group was played by Mustafa Shevdet, associated with the Albanian mafia groups operating in the countries of Western and Eastern Europe. However, the Albanian counterintelligence "Sigurimi" became aware of Shevdet's plans. Units of the army and security forces with a total strength of up to 10 thousand people were concentrated in the coastal area. The group members were neutralized one by one. Nevertheless, Shevdet Mustafa managed to get out of the encirclement. He killed several people before being surrounded on 27 September 1982 in the former mosque in the village of Kovacs. Shevdet killed the owner of the house and took five of his daughters hostage. The special operation of the Albanian Ministry of Internal Affairs lasted for several hours. Ultimately, Shevdet Mustafa was destroyed in the shootout.
The Albanian authorities managed to take alive Khalit Bayrami (pictured), a former communist, an emigrant who had previously lived in New Zealand and was friends with the leader of the Dino group.
He testified about involvement in the landing of the US CIA and the intelligence of Yugoslavia, as well as that the current Defense Minister of Albania, Kadri Hazbiu, was associated with American intelligence. Apparently, these testimonies were dictated by the Bayrami on purpose - after them Kadri Hazbiu was dismissed and shot, while Bayrami himself, surprisingly, was not touched and released, deported to New Zealand.
The fall of the communist government in Albania allowed many prominent figures of the nationalist and anti-communist emigration to return to their homeland. They were already elderly people, but in the wake of anti-communist hysteria they were greeted almost as national heroes. 88-year-old Abas Ermenyi returned to Albania, who was elected honorary chairman of the nationalist party "Bally Kombetar", revived in the country.
After the overthrow of the communists, the main goal of the Albanian nationalists was the liberation of Kosovo. In realizing this goal, the Albanians, as before, enlisted the support of the United States and a number of other Western states. Albanian nationalists, including emigrants, played an important role in the formation of the Albanian national movement in Kosovo, which played a key role in the bloody armed conflict. Interestingly, in the creation of the Kosovo Liberation Army, both nationalists, including pro-fascist ones, who inherited the Bally Kombetar line, and radical communists, the Stalinists, took almost equal part.
