– Enver Hoxha, 1981 –
Excerpt from The Titoites
The aircraft came and the first delegation of the Government of the People’s Republic of Albania set out for Belgrade on a friendly visit.[1]
Looking down from the aircraft on the territory of Montenegro and other regions of Yugoslavia I thought with deep grief and great respect of the hundreds of my partisan comrades who were killed in these parts while fighting the German nazis. On the order which I issued from Berat on the eve of the complete liberation of Albania two divisions of young men and women of Albania crossed the border and won fame in those parts for their heroism, self-sacrifice, discipline, internationalism and fighting skill, in fierce battles with the occupiers. Sitting in the aircraft I thought about those dear Albanian mothers who unhesitatingly sent their sons and daughters to join in the war for the liberation of the Homeland, a war which required these sons and daughters, educated by the Party of communists, to think about and go to shed their blood for the freedom of the neighbouring peoples, too. Thousands returned from these heroic battles, but hundreds fell on the battlefield in the territory of Yugoslavia, and at those moments I thought about the hundreds of Albanian mothers who were waiting for us to bring the sacred remains of their sons and daughters home. “We shall do it!” I said to myself, “It is our duty! They will lie in the most beautiful places in the Homeland where the generations will sing to their glory and heroism throughout history.”[2]
Notes
[1] The visit of the government delegation of the PR of Albania headed by Comrade Enver Hoxha, to the FR of Yugoslavia continued from June 23 to July 2, 1946.
[2] The remains of hundreds of our martyrs who fell in Kosova, Montenegro and elsewhere were brought back to Albania and buried in the Cemetery of the Martyrs of the Nation or in the martyrs’ cemeteries of the respective districts in 1947 and in 1975.