Donjeta Berisha: Why did you decide to study in Belgrade?
Ramiz Kelmendi: Well, because the department of Albanian Language and Literature was in Belgrade, there was the Chair of Albanian Language and Literature, with Professor Vojslav Dančetović and with two assistants, Idriz Ajeti and Anton Çetta. And I registered in that department, it was called Albanian Language and Literature and I did my studies with Vojslav Dančetović in Belgrade, he was the Chair, but also Idriz Ajeti and Anton Çetta were professors. And there I completed my studies in Albanian Language and Literature, four years.
Donjeta Berisha: And afterwards you came back to Kosovo?
Ramiz Kelmendi: Later, I returned to Rilindja, because Rilindja gave me the scholarship, I wrote, I was a journalist. So, Rilindja gave me the scholarship, and took me on as soon as I returned and I worked ten years, I worked as editor of Rilindja, as journalist. I am among the oldest journalists in Kosovo.
Donjeta Berisha: How was life in Belgrade?
Ramiz Kelmendi: How to put it…student life – student life. It is more interesting that we were given the chance, we were given the chance, I loved Albanian language and literature, we were given the chance that the Chair of Albanian Language and Literature was established in the middle of Belgrade. I am indebted to this Chair that I was oriented toward Albanian literature and language, because I was oriented toward something completely different, and in that department we had a very rich library of Albanian books, which Vojslav Dančetović, the Chair, had brought from Tirana. But later we also published, we published Zëri i Rinisë in Belgrade. At one time there was this journal, we called it Zëri i Rinisë, and on the board of editors there was Gjon Shiroka, Musa Murtezai, the editor in chief Murat Morina, Rexhep Surroi and I. And we began to publish, we began to publish in Belgrade the magazine Zëri i Rinisë. In fact I began journalism and when I completed my studies, that Rilindja had given me a fellowship, and I returned to Rilindja, I became a reporter at large, as they say, a reporter at large, I mean, a reporter who wrote freely about different subjects, and not according to a format. And from there, as they say, from that time, I became a professional journalist.
In 1945, this means I was 15 years old because I was born in 1930, I had a terrifically big love for the fatherland, for Albania. I loved Albania so much, that a group of us students, but now we have a known name, we formed an anti-Yugoslav, an anti-Serb group, an Albanian group who was for the unification of Kosovo with Albania and we loved Albania. This was in 1945, when I was 15, and we formed a group, an organization that could be considered illegal, some five-six friends. It seems that one of those who was in our group betrayed us, and we were sent to prison. I was sent to prison at the age of 15. The UDBa of Peja sent me to prison, with my friends. And they kept us in the prison of Peja, later Prizren, which was the main center of Kosovo back then, and they took us to Prizren. In Prizren they linked us to the group of Marie Shllaku.[1] Marie Shllaku was a heroine from Shkodra who lived in Kosovo and worked in Kosovo and fought in Kosovo with guns, a courageous woman – I wrote the book, Shqipëria e Marie Shllakut [Marie Shllaku’s Albania] – they linked us to Marie Shllaku, they took us to a public trial in Prizren.
We were five-six friends who had published an anti-Communist, anti-Serb magazine, and they put us in prison. Prizren was the main center of Kosovo, they took us to the Palace of Culture, to a public trial. The prosecutor was Ali Shukriu, he judged us, sentenced us, in our group there was Marie Shllaku, but also Bernard LLupi, a priest from Peja, Gjergj Martini from Shkodra, and Kolë Parubi, and also our Albanian language teacher.
We were imprisoned, these four, whose leader was Marie Shllaku, a woman about whom I wrote a book, Shqipëria e Marie Shllakut [Marie Shllaku’s Albania]. Marie Shllaku, Bernard Llupi, Kolë Parubi, Albanian language teacher, and Gjergi Martini, were executed. Ali Shukriu sentenced them, and we were very young, we were 15, I was 15 and we were given one year in prison.
Donjeta Berisha: In which prison did you spend time, served your sentence?
Ramiz Kelmendi: In the prison of Prizren. I always had this stigma {hits the palm with his fist} as long as there was Communism, as long as there was Yugoslavia. I had that stigma {hits the palm with his fist} because I am a political prisoner, and I am a nationalist, because of course I loved Albania.
Donjeta Berisha: Did this influence you in your work when you got out of prison?
Ramiz Kelmendi: It had a great influence.
Donjeta Berisha: What were the consequences?
Ramiz Kelmendi: Well, the consequences, they had a very bad attitude towards me. They considered me a nationalist, which meant an enemy of Serbia, of Yugoslavia, and of Communism. And I really was an enemy of Communism and an enemy of Serbia and I had problems. However, what saved me, the pen saved me.
My father was a merchant, what they called ratni bogataš, I mean, a war profiteer. And Serbs considered me and a group of friends, who made the magazine Drita e lirisë [Light of Freedom] an anti-Communist, anti-Serb magazine, nationalist.
Donjeta Berisha: Later you applied for a scholarship. What scholarship did you apply for, that you were rejected?
Ramiz Kelmendi: Yes, I applied for a scholarship to study in Belgrade, they did not give it to me and I began to cry. My father found me in front of the door crying. “What’s wrong son?” my father worked with horses, brought the mail in Peja, brought it from the station and he did it to support eight children, six sons and two daughters. I said, “I am crying, dad, because they did not give me the scholarship.” He said, “What haven’t they given you?” because my father did not know what a scholarship was. But I said, “They did not give me a scholarship.” “What did you say?” he said, I said, “Yes, they did not give me money to study!” “Fine,” he said, “this is why you’re crying for?” He was…he worked with horses, and he slapped the horses, the two horses, “I will sell the horses, I will sell the house, and you will go to school.” And my father sent me to study.
My father was radni bogataš, as they called it, a war profiteer, he was a merchant. And they sent him to jail, my father, UDBa sent him to jail. They considered the whole family enemy, because they were against the Communists. And when I began to work they asked for my salary, they did not give me a salary because they said I was the son of an enemy of the people. They sent my father to jail as a war profiteer, he was in trade.
Donjeta Berisha: For how many years was he in jail? For how long they kept him in jail?
Ramiz Kelmendi: They took him there… in fact he was kept in jail for almost one year, they took him also to Niš. They sentenced him to jail, and they took all his property. He was in trade. And they sentenced him, my father, one year.
But with us there was also Isa Çavolli, our teacher, a professor. And the idea or the vision of Ali Shukriu, who sentenced us and was our prosecutor, was that all our misdeeds, of those who were 15 years old, Viktor Gashi, Kamber Pajaziti, Ramiz Kelmendi… they attributed the misdeeds to Isa Çavolli because their goal was to execute him. But Isa Çavolli, I cannot say he played any role, but it seemed like they were dealing with children, because I was 15, and they wanted to leave all the guilt with Isa Çavolli because it was illogical to sentence us with execution, as was the plan of Ali Shukriu and UDBa at the time, to executed as many enemies of the people as possible, they called them Ballistas.[2] They wanted Isa Çavolli to take all the blame because it was incomprehensible that for example, children such as Viktor Gashi, Osman Basha, Ramiz Kelmendi would be sentenced to death…
They sentenced to death, by firing squad, Marie Shllaku, Bernard Llupi, Kolë Parubi, and Gjergi Martini. Gjergi Martini was a teacher in Gjakova from Shodra as well, but Marie Shllaku, she was the person who was attacked the most and the person who almost took all the responsibility for the group that was anti-Communist, anti-Serbian.
For example, I remember a detail that I want to tell you, Ali Shukriu… I was being accused of having made, of having published an anti-Communist, anti-Serbian magazine, and when time came they wanted to throw this magazine, the publication of this magazine, upon Isa Çavolli, the father of Liliana Çavolli,[3] so they could execute him. And Ali Shukriu could not believe that I, Shefqet Kelmendi and the rest, children, had published the magazine and knew how to write. For example, they asked me, “Who wrote this?” “I wrote it.” He said, “I went to school for twenty years, and I have not written two articles, and you did it!” I said, “ Comrade prosecutor, if you don’t believe that I have written this, bring me a piece of paper.” The public trial was in the Palace of Culture of Prizren. I said, “Bring me a piece of paper and I will write.” “I,” he said, “I went to school for twenty years and did not write this, you did!” (smiles). I said, “Are you convinced that I can write or I cannot write?” “Sit down,” he said, “on the bench of the donkeys, you fool!”
Migjen Kelmendi: Did he curse at you?
Ramiz Kelmendi: Yes, yes, “On the benches of the donkeys, you fool!” At the same time that I was in the UDBa prison here, my father was in prison in the Kulla e Sheremetit. At the time, there were two prisons of the UDBa police. One, was in the Academy of Painting…of Arts in Peja, and the other was the prison of Sheremet, of the Kulla of Sheremet, it was called like this. My father was in the prison of the Kulla of Sheremet and I was in the UDBa prison here.
Yes we were all Albanian, whether from Kosovo, or Macedonia, who studied at the Department of Albanian Language and Literature of Dançetović. You may ask why was a Department of Albanian Language and Literature in the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade opened. Only to settle someone in a position? Vojslav Dančetović who came from Tirana. Vojslav Dançetović is, he lived a long time in Tirana and I don’t know, he did a lot of work there. Both for the dictionary and the language, so much so that when they brought him [back], they brought him as the head of the chair… he opened the department of Albanian Language and Literature and took Idriz Ajeti and Anton Çetta as his assistants. And we…I loved Albanian language and literature, without hesitation I registered immediately, together with some colleagues, friends of mine.
We did, we organized a Literary Club, and we had, we students had a literary hour every week in the department of Albanian Language and Literature. And the department of Albanian Language and Literature was a stimulus, an open door, how to say, as …an organizer of a very pro-Albanian work. Where did we get it from, and my [intellectual] nourishment, for example, where did it come from? I did not name my second son after Migjen, Visar, by chance. Why? The chair of the department of Albanian Language and Literature, Dančetović, had brought from Tirana a very rich library. In fact I learned a lot and from that library that Dančetović brought from Tirana to the department of Albanian Language and Literature in the Yugoslav, Serb faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, because I forgot what I learned in school.
He brought us Visaret e kombit [Treasures of the Nation],[4] which was a collection, a collection how to say, a library with the title Visaret e kombit. In that series of volumes with the common title Visaret e Kombit there was the folk literature and I liked the words treasures of the nation, treasure, treasures of the nation, it means wealth of the nation. I did not know what the word treasure means, later I thought and named my son, which you here did not know, I named my second son after Migjen, because I had an idol, I had a very great and beloved poet, more than Naim [Frashëri] and whomever I say…We did not have then Filip Shiroka and we did not have writers. I had Migjen.[5]
On 25 May 1955, I was 25, in the morning of 25 May, in that department, in the classes of the department where was the Albanian Language and Literature Chair, in the Philosophy Faculty of Belgrade, I was sitting with two women students from Gjakova. And not much later, while we were reading and conversing, what do I know, the door opened and two dour, dirty faces, said, “Ramiz Kelmendi?’ I said, “Here.” “Come immediately with us.” They took me by the arms, they dragged me down, the department of Languages was on the fourth floor of the Philosophy Faculty in Belgrade. They dragged me down and down to the barica – the car of the Serbian police was called barica, and I once wrote some black humor, I wrote [about this] and published it – they put me inside, in single file and they closed the door. However, the partition of those drivers… drivers…those UDBa who were taking me to jail, was open and they talked. And now, I had a black humor and published it. They shoved me all by myself [in the car] and locked me up. However, the window of the drivers… drivers… of those UDBa people who imprisoned me was open and they were talking. And now – I did some black humor, I published it somewhere – they are taking me to prison, they’re imprisoning me and they talk all the time among themselves, “Have you been to the market today? How much for the peppers? How much for the cucumbers?” And I wrote it and made some irony, black humor, that I was going to jail and they talked about ordinary things, how much for the peppers… what was [in the market] and what wasn’t.
When they put me in a [room], it was a large room with a floor like this one {shows it with his hands}, next, the floor had buckled, and they put me in a room where I was not alone, there were also about ten others. Later I understood who [was there], a famous philosopher, Dada, you know him, you must know him {addresses Migjen}.
[1] Marie Shllaku was an Albanian nationalist and political activist, involved in the resistance against the Communist partisans. She was executed by a firing squad in 1946 after a 13-day mock-trial.
[2] The Ballistas were members of the Albanian Balli Kombëtar movement, headed by Midhat Frashëri, and supported the unification of Albanian inhabited lands. After a failed attempt to join forces with the partisans in 1943, Balli Kombëtar continued to fight both the occupiers and the Communist resistance.
[3] Popular singer.
[4] Visaret e Kombit is a series of publications collecting for the first time Albanian folklore, proverbs and hero songs. The first issue was published in Tirana in 1937 by the Franciscan monks Bernardin Palaj and Donat Kurti.
[5] Millosh Gjergj Nikolla (1911-1938), known as Migjeni, a well-known poet and writer born in Shkodra.
