Rome 5-X-1951

Kol Bib Mirakaj received the following letter from Yugoslavia without date and without indication of the place of departure: _

“Dearest Mr. Nicola, we hope this finds you in good health. We here are also well, so don’t worry about us. Together with Pal¹ we thought of writing you these lines to announce that we are alive and healthy. Surely you remember me because we worked together and then your deceased brother saved my life, which leads me to consider you as a member of our family. Regarding what Pal told me, I would like to have a meeting with you where and when you consider it most appropriate. I want to have the opportunity to relieve your nostalgia, I believe, by being together. Give Pal an answer. Pal made a trip to Belgrade where I saw Lula² who is well and in good health. We greet you from afar with the motto – Fight for a truly free, independent, undivided, republican and democratic Albania! With fraternal hugs Apostol Tanefi – Pal Biba.“

Pal adds this sentence in his own handwriting: “Until I know the place fixed for my residence, send me the letters to the address of Fahrije 5.“

COMMENT: Apostol Tanefi is the president of the Prizrend Committee. We can be sure that the letter was written under dictation, or after having been reviewed by some high Yugoslavian official. The President of the Prizrend Committee could not move freely and come to an appointment outside Yugoslavia without the consent or permission of the authorities of that country. It is significant that the Yugoslavs want to work for a rapprochement with the Bloc on the one hand with Ndue Pjetri and on the other with Pal Biba and Apostol Tanefi. It could also be a maneuver to learn, from two different sources, the intentions of the Bloc exponents regarding them. The appearance on the scene of the Titoist Apostol Tanefi increases our doubts about a possible agreement between us and the Yugoslavs on a healthy basis. We must wait for further developments of the approaches that are increasingly intensifying.

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Rome, October 16, 1951

Further notes on the letter of Apostol Tenefi.

After careful examination of the unexpected proposal addressed to Mirakaj by the President of the Prizrend Committee, we have come to the conclusion that it constitutes an insidious move by the Yugoslavs. Tenefi is an avowed communist. We are sorry to see Pal Biba’s name next to his. He must have been forced to sign this letter. Pal, in the other letters sent by us, never mentions Apostol Tenefi.

The Yugoslav intention may be twofold, that is:

1) To see how far the exponents of the Bloc are determined to remain faithful to their principles and whether there is any possibility of enfeoffing the nationalist forces to the Titoist-brand Committee of Prizrend;

2) To see if Kol Bib Mirakaj and the current of refugees in Yugoslavia that follows him prove to be less intransigent than Ndue Pjetri, who has explicitly declared that he does not want collusion with elements compromised before the healthy Albanian public opinion.

To this probable Yugoslav maneuver we are determined to respond that the exponents of the Bloc, inspired by realistic considerations, are ready to reach an agreement with the Yugoslav government on the basis of mutual interest and respecting the principles already stated several times, but that they do not intend at all to deal with or proceed to agreements with Albanians included in the Presidency of the Prizrend Committee, until this does not proportionally represent all the political currents of the Albanian refugees in Yugoslavia. Up to now the Prizrend Committee represents above all one tendency, that is the national-communist one.

Naturally, we will present this position of ours to our people in Yugoslavia with polite severity, without inappropriate protest tones, in order to convince the Yugoslavs to follow the channel of Ndue Pjetri without the interference of representatives of the Prizrend Committee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Translation courtesy of Bianca Gjomarkaj