By Ahmet Xhavit Delvina

The first part

Memorie.al / I do not intend to go into the biography of our family, but I want to describe only some aspects of the life of my father, Neki Delvina, who sacrificed himself like many of his friends, for the so-called "Motherland" and who unjustly took his life. He was born and raised in Istanbul in the "Gallata Saraj" neighborhood and as a result, his family enjoyed Turkish citizenship from an early age. He graduated with a Doctor of Laws from the Istanbul Faculty of Law. In 1913-1914, after completing his post-graduate studies according to all the administrative rules of the Turkish government, he was appointed a judge in the Turkish city of Kars, but he never started working there, after he responded to the call made by his uncle, Fejzi Bey Alizoti, who had also raised him, because his father Sherif Bey had left him when he was young after he had passed away. The call was to come to Albania, because the needs for him or his profession were great, as the new Albanian state had just been created and Fejzi Bey held the position of Secretary General of State.

His aunt's son Faik Konica, along with his uncles' sons Sulejman and Namik Delvina, also insisted on his arrival in Albania, with the motivation that in this new state, he too should contribute to laying the foundations of Albanian justice. This stance or obligation that our father had for his true homeland, he should not discuss because it "mixed the bones of the ancestors of the family", who had contributed to this country that was being reborn.

He was completely convinced and immediately left for Albania to live forever. He was coming to Albania for the first time and as he told us himself, he had a hard time adjusting, but he had no choice, love for his homeland demanded this sacrifice and also positively fulfilled the ancient tradition of a patriotic family, as ours was considered.

In 1914, he began his duties as a conciliation judge in Skrapar and then continued as a prosecutor and president in various districts of the country, such as; Lezhë, Elbasan, Berat, Vlorë, Delvinë and Tirana, and after 12 years of work in these duties, he was appointed a member of the Court of Cassation in the Criminal and Civil Branch in Tirana, until 1944, the year that the so-called "Liberation" of the country took place and that communism was finally installed in Albania for more than half a century.

The communist government of that time renamed the same judicial body again, but with a new name; “Supreme Court”. The reorganization of the judicial power did not make any changes in terms of the individuals, because it was universally known throughout the country that they were non-political and uncompromising people, they were also considered the first pioneers or founders of Albanian Justice, not to mention their high professional skills.

However, these considerations or assessments, in the new popular power, gradually or very quickly changed, because they no longer cared about their political indifference. With the new demands, which were also constructed by law with communist political overtones, they demanded that all high-ranking cadres without exception in state structures, be first and foremost political people and obedient soldiers of the Party. These recommendations had to be implemented blindly, because the Party now stood above the laws.

But the new conditions for an overwhelming part of the Supreme Court College were unbearable because, after so many years of honest work that they had done with dedication, they could not break their character, they had no way of accepting these new conditions, or of entering and playing dishonest roles that were in flagrant contradiction with the ethics of the judge, or the rules of world justice!

They had taken into account what the consequences would be for these “stubbornnesses”, but they would never become blind tools of the Party-State. The first incidents for our father began as soon as he visited with his father and uncle, his friend and close friend in prison, Dr. Sami Visoka, who at that time was accused of political guilt, because he had published a book entitled “Mother Kosovo”, a book that did not coincide positively with the current Albanian-Yugoslav politics.

Anyone who preached patriotism was considered a traitor, especially since we were a function of Yugoslav politics and had recently officially sold Kosovo, on August 27, 1944, to Visa in Croatia, as I have described above. This situation was also greatly aggravated by the doctor being in pre-trial detention, i.e. under investigation, but he could not be stopped by the prison officers when our father presented the document as a Member of the Supreme Court.

This visit was considered a serious political mistake and a violation of the situation, which was greatly aggravated by the doctor's being in pre-trial detention, i.e. under investigation, but which could not be stopped by the prison staff when our father presented the document as a Member of the Supreme Court. This visit was considered a serious political mistake and a violation of the rules of the new communist policy.

The second mistake, for our father, but a serious one, was the judgment of an appeal made against a gynecologist named Dr. Çupishti, against the decision of the First Instance Court of the Vlora District, which had severely punished him, for a crime he had not committed. According to the father's interpretation, the sentence that had been given to him was not justified because we were not dealing with a crime committed by the doctor and, consequently, the father overturned that decision twice.

And in the second case, when he was retried, it was at this time that the Assistant Member of the Supreme Court and at the same time Secretary of the Party Organization of the Ministry of Justice – Bilbil Klosi, a close associate of the Bosniak Ramiz Alia, intervened, who suggested to our father that he give up insisting on the doctor's innocence, because it was the recommendation of the Vlora District Party Committee that that "reactionary" should remain in prison because he posed a danger to the interests of the Party.

"Unfortunately" the father was not willing to fulfill the "recommendation", or in Albanian the order of the Party, he did not accept, nor the interventions of some influential people in the ministry, on this issue. After two consecutive retrials in the Vlora Court of First Instance and with the father's constant insistence, even for violation of human rights, he was released in the courtroom and unfortunately for us, upon leaving prison, he very quickly organized an escape with the whole family, by sea.

After this scandal, my father was immediately summoned to report by the Minister of Justice of that time, Manol Konomi, an evil and very vile communist, to express that; "this whole issue that shamed us all, even us as Ministers, let alone as a Party Organization, stemmed solely from your political immaturity, your lack of trust in the Party, not to mention that you handled the issue of Dr. Çupishti, only to oppose the Party with malicious intent, I hope it is a slip of the tongue, because you 'changed', you know the consequences that await you".

– “You,” Manol pointed at you with a very revolted finger, “today and forever you must understand that the Party’s suggestions stand above written laws and above everything else in this world. Do you understand or not?” The poor father, after this meeting with the minister, was completely perverted, because he had heard about Manol Konomi and Bilbil Klosi, who had completed their studies in Law in France, and he immediately thought how it was possible to study Law in the West and despise it! “How is it possible to fall so low”?
“Surprise… – Surprise…”!

His third and last mistake before receiving the "Ferra urata" was his refusal to parade in front of the central tribune on the occasion of May 1st of that year, enthusiastically cheering for the Party and comrade Enver. – “I thought, he said – how can we, the body of the Supreme Court with banners and slogans, parade in front of Enver Hoxha, where diplomats from Foreign Diplomatic Missions will surely be there, shouting 'Long live the Party', with these actions we will show them that we are totally politicized, then what justice will we provide”?!

– “I can't 'imagine' these illegal actions, why don't you say that Justice in Albania has ended and this path we are following is a national tragedy”? Ever since these three cases happened, Manol Konomi and Bilbil Klosi, looked at our father with irony, laughed at him and this clearly meant that; “you will see what will happen to you, and then you will recognize us”.

These mistakes of his were consistently considered very serious political guilt and as a result he no longer deserved to hold high positions in the justice system, for this he had to be held responsible and punished, to become an example for others and to find the sources from which he was inspired for these hostile attitudes. Thus, he was initially thrown out of office, as unnecessary and irreparable, to put him on the path of the future, which would be that of slow annihilation.

As I mentioned above, Enver Hoxha was very well-known to our family and the reason for this acquaintance with this "manure" was, as we have said, our uncle, or father's brother-in-law, Esat Dishnica, who considered Enver a "twin" brother and, consequently, our mother, who idealized her brother Esat, naturally, out of inertia, also considered the "sample" Enver a second brother, so our father had no choice but to respect his "brother-in-law".

After some time of early acquaintance with Enver, our family relations reached confidential limits, he frequented our visits, outings, lunches and dinners. Enver's ties with Esat now and then strengthened even further, because he became the main manager in Esat's business, in the tobacco-cigarette industry and the food trade that he traded wholesale and in these commercial activities, the profits were very considerable.

Another coincidence was that Enver was also Bahri Omar's brother-in-law, who, in addition to the great friendship he had with our father, was also the neighbor of the four white Italian apartments, behind the "Shallvars", so the entrances and exits between the two families became frequent, Enver's two sisters, Fahrija - Bahri's wife and Sanoja, were with our mother in the morning and afternoon, drinking coffee in their respective houses.

Apparently, our mother, due to carelessness or naivety in these now familiar and friendly environments, had let slip in conversations that Hiqmet Delvina, the son of my father's uncle, former Speaker of Parliament and Minister of Justice during the time of King Zog I, when he left Albania in 1939 with the King's escort with his entire family, not having any certainty about the journey they would make to "escape", left our father in "trust", for safekeeping, a considerable amount of gold coins, 20 francs, or as they say "Napoleon Gold", for his and our own troubles.

Apparently this conversation reached Enver's ears exactly as the truth was. Surprisingly, before long, he said to our mother - "Listen, Cime (this is how they called their mother in the family), - you tell Neki Bey, who would do well to listen to us, that we are well-informed, that the traitor Hiqmet Bey Delvina, has left a sum of money in gold, which would serve the National Liberation Movement that we are organizing, so if he gives us this money, he will remain for good in the history of the Nation that is being written". This message in the same form continued to come to us from him even during the time when they went to the mountains, because these values ​​of that "traitor" that our father guarded, would serve the war very well.

–“This same noise,” said the mother, “continued to come to me even after I was “liberated” from it, through my sister, Meli, and my brother, Esat. When I once brought this issue up with Neki very tactfully and somewhat indirectly, even without mentioning Enver, but the people of the Movement, who said, ‘I don’t know where they found out that we have that money,’ he immediately reacted very nervously against their predatory desire.” He could not conceive of what right they had to interfere in completely private matters, heard all around, and for him this was a real “Banditism.”

In 1945, Hiqmet Bey Delvina's son came, together with his mother, Inajeti, from Florence where they lived, to get the money left with us and return to where they had come from. Their round trip to Italy at that time was completely possible, not only because here in Albania were the representatives of the English, American allies, etc., but we had not yet shown our true terrorist, criminal and completely communist face.

They felt even more secure, since they already had Italian citizenship and were equipped with regular Italian passports, so they never considered a possible ban on returning to Italy. It also removed any doubt that they might not achieve the purpose of their arrival, because they claimed that their money was completely clean and did not flow from any criminal path, that money belonged to a wealthy and old family with high state positions, moreover, it was kept in custody by a Member of the Supreme Court, currently in office.

Thus, based on the above logic and thoughts, they finally arrived safely in Albania, directly to our home. Doctor Dragushi had graduated in medicine in Bologna, he was a trained doctor but he was completely unaware of the situation and what had happened in Albania, of course, neither was his mother Inajeti.

They immediately presented our father with two letters, 1 – one authorizing both of them (mother and son) to receive the money left with us, and the other, 2 – was the letter that our father had issued to Hiqmet Bey, when he had received the money from him. This letter was torn in the presence of third parties and after they counted the money one by one, they issued our father the “unfortunate letter” of receipt of the amount of money, which corresponded to the letter they tore. Thus, this matter was closed, according to all official rules.

But it was precisely after this that the tragedy for the two families began, by the communist government of that time, both for those two unfortunate people and for us. The events that followed did not flow according to the correct human logic, but flowed according to the communist policy of terror. They were no longer allowed to return to Italy, completely illegally, on the pretext that the political situation had already changed. Memorie.al