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The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

2023-08-25 11:06:00, Blog Roland Qafoku
The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti
Illustrative photo

During the work for the preparation of the book "100 most sensational murders in the history of the Albanian state 1912-2017", Qazim Mullet's name came up twice. The first time he was involved in the assassination of King Zog on February 21, 1931 in Vienna, in which the adjutant Llesh Topollaj was killed and the minister of the Royal Court Eqrem Libohova was wounded.

As a reference I had not only Albanian and Austrian archival documents but also several Viennese newspapers of the time, especially "Wiener Neuse Nachrihten", which a few days after the event had published a list of the members of the conspiracy that the police had put in their cells. In addition to the two murderers Ndok Gjeloshi and Azis Çami, along with Hasan Prishtina, Rexhep Mitrovica, Angjelin Suma, Sejfi Vllamas, Menduh Angonin and Luigj Shkurtin, Qazim Mulleti was also on the list of organizers.

On May 15, 1933, the Military Court of Tirana sentenced Qazim Mullet to death in absentia along with 8 accomplices and executioners. It was a decision that was never executed because Mulleti lived in Vienna until the Second World War began and returned to his homeland only when it was well assured that Zogu would not return to Albania.

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

In the second murder, he was involved in the murder of Mine Peza on September 12, 1942 in Tirana in front of the Tirana prison. Prefect Qazim Mulleti was the one who ordered to open fire in the air for the guards in response to a group of women who were revolted there and shouted "Free our sons". A bullet that ricocheted off the prison wall wounded 70-year-old Mine Bilali Peza from Ndroqi, Tirana, and after being sent to the hospital, she died from the wound. Meanwhile, two gendarmes were also injured by the ricochet bullets, among them the assistant of prefect Mulleti.

In no case is it proven that the most courageous protest in Albania of 60 women, mainly from the villages of Tirana and who demanded the release of their arrested sons, was organized by the communists. Mine Peza was not even a communist and had nothing to do with the communists, but today what used to be called the street of Shkodra and the street "Princi i Piedmonti" bears its name. Even for the second incident, Qazim Mulleti was sentenced to death in absentia. Left after October 1944 from Albania, the name of the former prefect and former mayor was placed on the list of war criminals and wanted by Enver Hoxha's regime to be executed.

But even this decision was never executed. Qazim Mulleti left for Italy as soon as the war ended and died in a province of Rome on August 28, 1956 at the age of 63, leaving his wife and only son in Albania. So Qazim Mulleti was an extreme antizogist, just like Enver Hoxha and his regime after the war. For what he did to Ahmet Zog in Vienna, he was a hero to the opponents.

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

But Qazim Mulleti was an extreme anti-communist, as was Ahmet Zogu. In contrast to the first case, in the second event the prefect of Tirana under the Italian occupation was officially pro-fascist. Let the Albanian of 2021 share what Qazim Mulleti of 1933 and Qazim Mulleti of 1942 was. Difficult, very even. In the first case, a Fannolist hero who, as far as Vienna, aimed to eliminate Zog.

In the second case, a collaborator with the fascists. The Albanian who had fought with weapons in his hand against the Serbian forces, an active participant in the raising of the flag in Tirana on November 26, 1912, a participant in the Congress of Lushnja in 1920 and the "Tyronian" who opened his house to the government of Sulejman Delvina, turning it into the Minister of Agriculture, in Albania's talazes, suddenly turned into a character with the dilemma of what he represents for history.

But what was Qazim Mulleti really? Was he a hero, traitor, anti-Zogist, patriot, anti-Albanian, fascist, anti-communist, patriot, good local administrator or war criminal? Hardly in the world of the time he lived there is a character who took all these epithets and insults as Qazim Mulleti did, both alive and dead. And despite this epithet, the dilemmas for him do not end here.

THE COMEDY THAT DENIED IT SEVERELY

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

In 1974, an event took place in communist art that converged on a single figure, Qazim Mullet. In the National Theater and then in a screening, the comedy entitled "The Prefect" was staged, which portrayed the figure of Mullet as the communist regime wanted her to be and not as she really was. I have never been able to understand the author Besim Levonja about that product of his. I am more inclined that the work had co-authorship and dogmatic editing rather than a desecrated fantasy of Levonja, no matter how communist and anti-Mulletian he was.

There are not a few who show that tampering with a work of art during the regime was the most normal thing that was done and not even the "Prefect" of Levonja was exempt from this syndrome. However, due to the fact that what was done to Qazim Mullet by specific name and with an extreme denigration that was not done to anyone, there is no justification. In addition to anti-communist, anti-national, traitor and all kinds of epithets,

Qazim Mulleti appeared deformed, ignorant, Anatolian, backward, cowardly to the core and a figure that simply caused humor even thanks to the non-official slang of speech. From a figure who is one of the most educated, rarely anyone in Albania who started with the "Zosimea" gymnasium, a graduate of the Imperial College of Istanbul and an equally rare polyglot, Qazimi Mulleti became the synonym of a past regime that it created the impression that it was our great fate that we had left him behind.

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

For those who do not know Qazim Mullet at all, this comedy was an idiotic medicine for the sick soul of how well they lived in communism that had overthrown the old, ignorance and anti-Albanianism. But for those who know his figure by heart and by voice, they knew very well that that comedy was a literary and national shame together.

The comedy "The Prefect" stirred the soul of Qazim Mullet but also of many family members he left behind in Albania, why not also the Tyrones who did not know their bey like that. Not only did Qazimi Mulleti not deserve that treatment, he should also get some credit for what he had done in life. But when? During communism? It was out of the question.

After 1990, the public was given the opportunity to get to know his figure little by little, and the media has left quite a bit of space for the real story on the pages of newspapers. The son, Reshit, has been part of many interviews and those who have known him closely have learned not only the spiritual wealth of his father, but also the sufferings that he and his mother suffered from the regime because of Qazim and especially because of comedy "The Prefect". But was there any medicine to heal the wound caused by the communist regime? That wound could never be healed. 

AGAIN FOR DICTATORSHIP FILMS

The comedy "The Prefect" was not the only one that during the communist regime denigrated figures who were anti-communist. More than 20 years ago I was stunned when I discovered in the USA the real character Sali Protopapa and how different he was from the movie "Eighth in the Bronx" that we had seen over and over again in cinemas and television with a character who was not only a traitor but a grotesquely fleshy character and a village strongman who killed partisans in collaboration with the Germans.

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

In fact, the real Protopapa was an engineer who had worked for 30 years at the secret Los Alamos nuclear bomb laboratory. "But what have I done to Albania that did this to me", Protopapa often repeated to me about the character in the film. And ironically with the Protopapa these days in Albania, the debate about the films of the communist era has returned again. Of course, there is a lot of propaganda in those films and works like "The Prefect", "The Eighth in the Bronx" and others should not be part of public broadcasts, but only part of studies. But wait! This does not mean that together with all these films of Kinostudio "New Albania" should not be broadcast.

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

The film "The Bride and the Curfew" was the poster of the international festival a few years ago in Vienna with the theme of the resistance of the Second World War. "The last winter", "Mountains with covered purchase", "Tomka and his friends", regardless of any sequence with indoctrination, basically have the theme of resistance and that's it. But to erase all the creativity of that time is as criminal as that regime did with art and culture before 1944 that wiped it all out.

That regime even deleted works produced during communism itself, only because the authors were new enemies. Few people know today that in the 70s and 80s, the films "Skënderbeu", "Tana", "Vite e pe", "Ngadhnjim mubi datana", "Skëterrë 43" and others were forbidden to be shown, precisely because in the staffs that had produced them were a bunch of Hoxha's enemies. Not to go to the soundtracks, which are assets in themselves and the master Kujtim Laro remains a Hans Zimmer of Albanian films.

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

But today we have no film that gives a different version of the resistance of the Second World War and that rejects the films of communism. Today we do not have any actor with the weight and authority of Robert Ndrenika, Sandër Prosi, Sulejman Pitarka, Margarita Xhepa, Tinka Kurti, Edi Luaras and others.

I have written it before. Make the movies better and I won't watch the old ones at all! But to pass a law banning every film produced in a dictatorship is like all books and art and culture being erased during Zog's time. We had the masterpiece "Lahuta e Malcia" by Gjergj Fishta, but we didn't know that it was banned by the communist regime.

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

We had the masterpiece "Albania, the rock garden of Southeast Europe" by Faik Konica, but we did not know it because it was banned by the communist regime and many, many other works. We had books, we had theaters and cinemas, and in 1944, all of them were suddenly erased and it seemed that the new wind began to blow after having no tradition.

No! Art is art, therefore it is divided into stages. This of the years 1944-1990 was indoctrinated communist art, in function of Hoxha's bloodthirsty regime and worthless in many cases. But disappearing and erasing would be an absurd decision that not only does not help but damages the memory of society.

The new generation must first get to know communism through studies and archives and not by erasing these archives as a blank slate. That would be unforgivable. Researchers, teachers and professors must explain to the new generation what this art was, what it meant and what it brought, but not so that they are not looked at as if they never existed.

THE COMEDY THAT AMAZES US MORE THAN CONFUSES US

In comedy, he looks stupid, and in reality, Qazim Mulleti had an IQ that left everyone behind at the time he lived. We must say that anti-Zogist and anti-communist were his two most outstanding qualities. And we never have the courage to say that he was like that with all the truths he lived.

The parties separate; or Qazim Mulleti was the good, knowledgeable, righteous, innocent and the other that Qazim Mulleti was the enemy, the murderer, the anti-Albanian. Tamam with the same language that politics still fights today. For the left, what is Sali Berisha and Lulzim Basha? Everyone is anti-national, anti-Albanian, murderer, traitor and other serious epithets. For the right, what are Fatos Nano, Edi Rama, Ilir Meta? Traitor, thief, criminal, anti-Albanian, robber of territories and others and others. Well, this is the style and meter of how our politicians define each other today, returning to our culture, and they did not expect that with that of the first century, including Qazim Mullet, there would be another meter. He was both lying and truthful, just as if he were still alive today. 

Meanwhile, the National Theater had for some time started work to stage "The Prefect" again. Here, to begin with, there is a major problem that without seeing the new version, all 3 million Albanians give their opinion. Hervin Çuli was clear when he said that the figure of Mullet in this work comes revised and in a completely different version. But let's believe Çuli and the actors when they are tired of the big and small like the communists after 1944 Qazim Mullet. The actor Arben Derhemi, who comes from a family from Tirana, had an even stronger reaction as he commented ironically:

"I know that today we live in the world of the Internet and social networks have given the right to every "intellectual being" to fabricate and slander what interests him and suits him, but I don't understand where these tyrants have touched indeed, the reading we made of the grotesque work "The Prefect", in a different perspective and to highlight him as a great historical figure. You who fall flat on the ojf-ist patriotism deserve only a joke with which the work closes. The mountains were lowered, the dumps were raised". However, neither Çuli nor Derhemi can withstand the kennel of critics on Facebook.

While Qazim Muleti was the one who was . You can love his figure, but you can also hate him. But damn he took a piece of land 2 square meters to rest his body in Albania, this man deserves what happened to him. Those who scream on Facebook, in addition to the sweat they pour out with the writing, it is good to do some concrete work with the figure of Qazim Mullet. This state did not rehabilitate its figure in these 31 years.

The false Qazim Mulleti and the real Qazim Mulleti

He did not bring it properly and this is a serious mistake. But at least these Facebook intellectuals should collect some money with the income from the private lands that they give for gradaciela and bring his remains to Tirana with them. It is a state but also a social shame that the remains of Qazim Mullet are not even put in the ground, but have been for decades in an aluminum box and placed in a warehouse in the cemetery of the Rocca di Pappa province of Rome where he died 65 years ago . It is the minimum honor they should give to Qazim Mullet.

For this whole debate that was opened and closed, the most accurate answer was given by his niece Fatbardha Mulleti with a chuckle that seems to resemble her uncle: "Qazimi laughs from heaven how this country that experienced 50 years of communism wants to denigrate his image again". To these words we can add the epitaph phrase from the mouth of the character Qazim Mulleti: "I called you here to keep the partisans, but you turned out to be partisans yourself"! This joke was from the old "Prefect" comedy. We don't know if we will be lucky enough to see this new one.

(Article published on December 6, 2021 in the "Fjala" newspaper, in the new summer in the old barrel column)./ CNA





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