Abaz Ermenji was so determined in criticizing and condemning the stance of the “Albanian collaborators” of World War II that he accepted the fight and even the reprimands and separation with them. He, with his life activity, turns out to be a model of correctness, because as early as April 7, 1939, (a history professor at the Korça High School), he welcomed the Italian occupiers with weapons, while on November 28, 1939, he demonstrated at the head of the Korça youth, against the Italian fascists. Later he was imprisoned by the fascists, was interned in Italy and when he returned, he fought directly, both the Italian and German occupiers, despite always being in the position of an anti-communist nationalist. Abaz Ermenji was born on December 12, 1913, in the small and noble village of Gërmenj, between the mountains and groves of Skrapar and Gramsh, which was then included in the district of Berat.
He completed primary school in Berat and high school at the Shkodra Gymnasium and for 4 years, during the years 1934 - 1937, he completed his higher studies in France at the Faculty of Literature of the Sorbonne, specializing in History. In 1937, Abaz Ermenji returned to Albania and surprisingly, was called up for military service. In early 1938, Abaz Ermenji was promoted to second lieutenant and in October 1938, he was released from the army and appointed professor of Literature and History at the French Lyceum of Korça.
In April 1939, with the beginning of the occupation of Albania by fascist Italy, Abaz Ermenji, formed an anti-fascist resistance group in the city of Korça with his students and colleagues. Albania was occupied within a few days by the Italian fascists, his declared opponents, so he, in danger, fled to Greece, from where he began to work to expand the resistance against fascism. He stayed for a short time in the villages of the Kastori province, from where he was arrested by the Greek authorities in Florina, where they held him for 4 months. There he contacted other refugees from Albania, went as far as Athens and made efforts to connect with Albanians in Egypt, the USA and other countries, to create a nationalist organization active in the fight against fascism.
During his stay in Greece, he received several invitations from the Italian authorities to return to Albania, with the promise that nothing unpleasant would happen to him. Thinking that he would find more ground for resistance from within Albania, he accepted the invitation and returned to Albania in October 1939, in an attempt to create anti-fascist resistance cells in several cities. On the anniversary of National Independence, November 28, 1939, a demonstration was organized in Korça for the national celebration, as well as spontaneously in many cities of the country. In this large demonstration, Professor Abazi stood out as the main leader and on December 15, 1939, he was arrested in Elbasan and imprisoned. (Abaz Ermenji was arrested and not some communist, as is claimed to be a front leader). Initially, he was held in Elbasan prison for two weeks, from where he was transferred to Bari, Italy, where he remained in prison for two months and then was sent (along with Safet Butka, Llazar Fundo and Selman Riza) to the island of Ventotene, where many other Albanian and Italian anti-fascist authorities were also held.
Llazar FundoHere he learned that he had been sentenced by the Tirana Court to 5 years in prison. In August 1941, Abaz Ermenji, along with many other Albanian intellectuals, were released, on the pretext that they needed teachers, especially for the now Albanian province of Kosovo. On the other hand, the Italians thought that the situation in Albania and the Balkans had calmed down and, for diplomacy and popular sympathy, they decided to grant an amnesty to a large number of prisoners. On August 20, 1941, Abaz Ermenji returned to Albania, where he expanded his anti-fascist activity. At this time, encouraged by the Serbs and under Russian influence, the Albanian communists had also penetrated many of the nationalist resistance groups, including Myslym Peza, Haxhi Lleshi, Dali Ndreu, Abaz Kupi, etc., to draw them behind them, towards the final goal of seizing power.
Since Abaz Ermenji was closely watched and threatened by the Italian Police, he decided to go to the mountains, where armed groups had begun to be formed. As a prominent intellectual with military knowledge, he helped organize and expand the movement and, with his provincial group, participated in several attacks on Italian military posts. Gradually, the nationalist and partisan groups, in cooperation and separately, gained strength and authority and became a real threat to the Italian authorities, from whom they were taking weapons and ammunition and even food, not only within the country, but also as far as Greece and Yugoslavia.
In May 1943, this was also ascertained and reported in writing by the First British Military Mission, which came to Albania from Greece with Major Maclein and Captain Smajli. They were accompanied by Abaz Ermenji from the border with Albania, which was also witnessed by the Greek EAM groups. Then, Ermenji was the intermediary who introduced them to the communist groups in Albania, known as the National Liberation Front, but also to other nationalist groups in action. It must be said that the Balli Kombëtar was formed in 1942 under the leadership of Mit'hat Frashëri, a dominant political figure, who had behind him other patriotic, ballist and nationalist figures, including: Hysni Lepenica, Safet Butka, Skënder Muço, Zef Pali, Isuf Luzaj, Abaz Ermenji, without excluding the leaders of other major Nationalist formations: Abaz Kupi, Muharrem Bajraktari, etc.
The National Liberation Front took care from the beginning of the British Military Mission to influence other groups to be excluded from contact with the British, giving them the impression that they were the only active groups in the country.
Major Maclein and his group retreated to the Leshnja mountains in the Skrapar area, where he set up his headquarters in the area controlled by the partisan detachments. Skrapar, being the area of Ermenji's birth, sent a group of 50 men to Maclein's headquarters, along with a letter to him.
Major Maclein was pleased with the contents of the letter. They met with Abaz Ermenji at the end of May near the village of Përrenjas. The British Military Mission began to supply Ermenji's people with weapons and ammunition, as well as technical operational instructions and orders. In June 1943, they met again with Major Maclein, who demanded that both groups unite in a common front and under one command. Ermenji accepted such a coalition, on the condition that cooperation would be only in the military field.
In early August 1943, Abaz Ermenji and his platoon were preparing an attack on an oil base in Kuçova. At this time, Major Neel, sent by Maclein, arrived at his side, in order to combine the operation militarily and for further coordination with the surrounding partisan forces, according to the agreement. For this, Ermenji received an order from Maclein to postpone the attack and first hold a joint coordination meeting with the partisan representatives in the presence of Major Neel. The meeting took place in the village of Bogdan on the night of August 9 and 10, 1943. The communists began to discuss not the organization of the attack, but the politics and the future of the government, and proposed to postpone or cancel the attack, on the pretext that they had too few forces. They thought that the merits of this action would go to the Balli Kombëtar.
Ermenji lost his patience and decided to attack when the partisan forces left him alone. He launched the attack with numerous forces that reached almost three thousand people. But the enemy was superior in numbers and weapons, so the forces retreated, leaving 50 killed. This action was praised in a special letter from Maclein, which described and approved the attack and the bravery of Ermenji's people. He received a promise from the British major that more aid and ammunition and weapons would come to him. Also, in Julian Amer's book, "Sons of Albania", some facts are given about the successful actions against German convoys, organized by Abaz Ermenji. The British had as a principle to supply those who fought the enemy with weapons, ammunition and food, which actually confirms the actions of Abaz Ermenji.
In August 1943, a historic joint meeting was held between representatives of the National Front and the National Liberation Front in Mukje (where Abaz Ermenji, engaged in combat actions, did not participate). As is known, an agreement was reached in Mukje by the parties regarding joint military operations, as well as Kosovo and the future government, but this agreement, approved by the communist representatives and enthusiastically welcomed by the Albanian people, under Yugoslav pressure, was rejected by Enver Hoxha. In September 1943, with the capitulation of fascist Italy, resistance groups, such as those led by Ermenji and the partisans, entered Berat. The Germans then came and occupied the city, demanding that they leave. Abaz Ermenji decided to fight and resist them, precisely in the village of Kousitin. The Communists again made no move, then had to condemn the "compromise" of their representative, Gjin Marku.
In October, the communists attacked Abaz Ermenji's formation, forcing him to leave the Berat district. During the evacuation, he met with Major Maclein and Captain Smajl where he expressed disappointment with the entire situation. During this meeting, Ermenji also denounced a letter from the Communist Party, after the Second Labinot Conference, which instructed all its members to; "fight the Ballists everywhere". Although the British requested the letter before leaving for Italy, Ermenji, in his last efforts for unification, refused to give it to them. He stayed in the mountains and attempted to reorganize his forces, but always under the concern of the Germans, and now also the communists, until he was forced to temporarily suspend the intensity of his military operations.
During the winter of 1943-1944, Ermenji was completely out of any possibility of help and cooperation, and began to lose many of his people, who had no other alternative and escape route, so they either deserted and left for home, or went with the partisans. His group began to disintegrate and only a few loyal ones remained by his side. In conclusion: Ermenji leads a series of battles against Italian and German forces, in particular, in Skrapar, Kuçovë, Mallakastër, Berat and Pogradec…! There are numerous foreign and Albanian documents that inform us about these wars, which, despite being overlooked by the 50-year communist historiography, along with the wars of the partisan platoons and brigades, have entered and are part of the golden fund of the wars of our people against foreign invaders.
In May 1944, Abaz Ermenji, between two fires, tired, desperate and with no way out, met once again with the group of British Captain Hand, who was preparing to leave for Italy. The British captain, seeing that the roads to the coast were well guarded by Ermenji's forces, decided to stay with him and listen to and learn about the difficult situation in which Ermenji was. He gave him the needs for vital military aid in a letter to Maclein. (At this time Maclein was outside Tirana, with Abaz Kupi's group). In response, he communicated to Captain Hands, to leave peacefully for Italy, that for Abaz Ermenji's forces, the necessary military aid would arrive soon. The captain left for Italy, with another letter of request from Ermenji, with the order that it be handed over to the high British authorities.
In September 1944, Ermenji met with the three British officers Maclein, Smajli and Amery and it was agreed to form a joint group to fight the Germans vigorously. With the withdrawal of German troops in November 1944, the British officers also left for Italy. During Maclein's departure, Ermenji received the news that, with the end of the war, no resistance group would be supported with aid. Under these conditions, he dispersed his men, as he saw the organized military units as unnecessary, that the enemy had left and there was nothing left to do but to enter into a fratricidal and civil war. Abaz Ermenji had the opportunity to leave with Abaz Kupi for Italy, but he stayed in Albania, with his lifelong dream of forming the group "Liberal Democratic Movement", which would operate outside the National Liberation Front, with the hope of political pluralism, as in Western democracies.
Abaz Ermenji, from December 1944 to October 1945, worked hard to create a strong opposition party, as well as to return Albania to a democratic regime. But, apparently, he had made the calculations simply as a dreamer. The communist stance was strong and even annihilating, so much so that opposition was considered a political crime, completely unacceptable. Seeing that there was no longer any financial, moral and political support from the allies, Abaz Ermenji decided to leave the country abroad, in search of new paths. Historian Abaz Ermenji analyzes and explains the causes of the failure of the National Front as follows: "The truth is that the National Front, although numerically it had a large majority of peasants and scholars, as a fighting force, was seen from the beginning to be of a lower organizational level and with a weak Party, without discipline and authority and with all the flaws of human nature, or of the special mentality of the Albanian.
While the communists first prepared disciplined cadres from the urban youth and then gathered the peasantry among them, the Balli Kombëtar began its work from the villages, in order to have the largest possible number and the cadres of its chetas, or armed forces, remained peasants until the end. These had neither the skill, nor the conviction, nor the discipline of the fanatical and youthful communist cadres. The youth of the Balli Kombëtar did not enter the villages and did not play a role in leading the peasant masses. In the Central Committee of the Communist Party and in its high cadres, there was one point of view, one opinion, one decision. Those who thought differently were quickly eliminated, while the Balli Kombëtar remained, until the end, an agreement between people with different and often opposing views and interests.
The National Front did not receive any help from the so-called nationalists of Central and Northern Albania. Apparently, they implied, or even said themselves, that they were doing it on purpose, so that the nationalists and communists would eat each other's heads, so that the latter would finally have power...! Abaz Ermenji crossed the Greek border on October 26, 1945, with 18 of his supporters. In Greece, he was arrested by the Greek authorities and interned in the Gladstone camp in Thessaloniki, where he remained imprisoned for more than six months, suspected of being a collaborator with the Germans. Ermenji was interrogated by British officers, Lieutenant Young, who then forwarded his testimony to the higher authorities. Ermenji declared and proved that he had not collaborated with the Germans, then that he had fought and shed blood, against the Italian and German occupiers, for the freedom of his country, for which he was tried by the British and released.
From November 1944 until the spring of 1946, Ermenji, alongside the Kazazi brothers, Muharrem Bajraktari, Hysni Dema and other nationalist leaders of Kosovo and the territories of Albanian Macedonia, would intervene several times within the Albanian border and carry out a series of actions, confessing in addition to his anti-communism and other qualities, as a military leader. His rifle would be felt in Postribë, Çermë, in Malësia e Madhe, Golaj, in Orosh and Bajzë, while the Government of Tirana had declared him a war criminal and had imprisoned his father. Later, when the fight of the nationalist leaders in Albania became completely impossible, Professor Ermenji finally left his homeland, convinced in his conscience that he would never stop helping his nation, to eradicate communism, in place of pluralism and democracy. He settled in Paris, where he headed the National Democratic Committee "Free Albania", which played a major role in the efforts for an Albania free from the communist regime, as well as for the liberation of Kosovo from Serbian oppression and tyranny.
After the overthrow of the communist regime and the establishment of pluralism, Abaz Ermenji was given the opportunity to recreate, with even more advanced principles, the National Front in Albania, and this since 1991. He returned to politics and was elected chairman of this party twice in a row, in 1994 and 1998. During this period, despite his advanced age, he contributed to raising the national feeling of Albanians, through a series of meetings and conferences, throughout Albania. Professor Abaz Ermenji was decorated by the USA with the high decoration "Eisenhower", with the motivation; "Distinguished fighter in the fight against communism".
Finally, we can say that Professor Abaz Ermenji, as a determined anti-communist, was at the same time an ardent defender of the Albanian cause and, furthermore, of the Albanian nation, across ethnic borders. He had as his main motive to decide over parties, Albania, by fighting in several battles, and later on a common front with the partisans, against the Italian and German invaders. His anti-communist efforts did not stop until he died. With numerous articles, published in the newspapers “Flamuri”, “Balli i Kombit”, in the collection “Albania” etc., which is what his scholarly work aims for; “The Place Skanderbeg Holds in the History of Albania”, a magnificent Albanian apology.
Abaz Ermenji died on March 10, 2003 in Paris, France, as a patriot, nationalist and determined anti-communist, as such never to be forgotten by his followers and sympathizers, and was escorted to his final resting place on March 14, 2003, with a magnificent ceremony, in the capital of his country, Tirana.
Place of birth: Ermenj, Skrapar.
Date of birth: 12.12.1913.
Education: primary in Berat, higher at the Faculte de Lettres, Sorbonnes, Paris 1934-1938.
Profession: History Professor.
Professional activity: 1938-1939, Professor at the Korça Lyceum in 1939, at the "Normal" in Elbasan.
Political activity: 1939 organizer of the youth of the Korça Lyceum against the Italian occupation.
1939-1941, internment in Ventotene by the Italians.
1941, member of the National Front.
1943, member of the Central Committee of the National Front.
1948, member of the National Democratic Committee "Free Albania" created by Mid'hat Frashëri in exile on August 26, 1949.
1955, one of the organizers of the "Kosovo League".
March 10, 1957, chairman of the National Democratic Committee "Free Albania" until 1992.
1992 to December 2002 chairman of the National Front.
Member of the "European Movement" and participant in all its congresses.
PUBLICATIONS:
1968, “The place that Skanderbeg occupies in the history of Albania”.
A study on the history of Albania, first edition Rome, Italy and second edition Tirana.
National culture and morality. Author of many articles and writings on Albania and the Albanian issue in the newspapers "Flamuri", "Le Monde", "Përmledhja", "Albania", "Balli i Kombit", etc.
Honored with the Eisenhower Medal as a fighter for the protection of human rights
