| Monopoly massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of World War II | |
| File:Monopoly of Tetovo.jpg a photo of the Tetovo Monopoly | |
| Location | Tetovo, Yugoslavia |
| Date | August 19, 1944 – January 3, 1945 |
| Target | Albanian civilians suspected of being members of Balli Kombetar[1] |
Attack type | Mass murder by rifles and execution by knife |
| Deaths | Unknown |
| Perpetrators | Macedonian Partisans |
The Monopoly massacre (Albanian: Masakra e Monopolit) was the mass execution of many Albanian men accused of being a part of Balli Kombetar[2], which took place on the year 1944,The main headquarters of the so-called Yugoslav National Liberation Army for Macedonia had started its terror against ethnic Albanians, especially since the ratio of the forces on the ground was in favor of chauvinist violence. The German forces had almost completely withdrawn from the Albanian Macedonian territories by the end of August 1944, so the partisans had a free hand to act against the Albanians, who in the years 1941-1944 had shown by words and deeds that they wanted to join them. native lands.
Background
editOn September 8, 1944, the secretary of the Regional National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Macedonia, Vidoe Smilevski-Bato, in a letter sent to the General Staff of the "National Liberation Movement (Albania)", requested that Albanian troops be sent to facilitate combat operations. He would slyly praise the great role of the Albanian partisans, in order to help the plan of the Macedonian forces to liquidate the "reactionary waste" of Xhem Gostivari and Mefail Zajazi.
Although it was expected that the Communists of Tirana would take a reprimanding attitude towards the Slavic-Macedonian reprisals on the Albanians, they will, with political and moral servility, send partisans to Albanian villages outside the political borders, such as in Tetovo and other cities of Albanian Macedonia, inciting the fratricidal war.
On the other hand,Skopje, in coordination with Belgrade, on October 24-25, 1944, will forcefully abduct about 40 boys from the Orthodox village of Volkovi in Tetovo, under the pretext that it will arm them and send them to the Syrmian front, in the war against the Germans. Sadly, a few days later, their corpses were found on the shores of Vardar River.
Massacre
editThe Macedonian partisans, being under the direct influence of national liberation army of yugoslavia, on November 19, 1944 surrounded the buildings of the Tobacco Monopoly in Tetovo, where within a few days they gathered over 10,000 Albanians from the city of Tetovo and the surrounding villages. The concentration of such a large number of people in a few days was done with measures of violence and terror never before seen in these parts. Men, old and young, were kidnapped from their homes and taken at gunpoint to the concentration camp in the Tobacco Monopoly in Tetovo.
During the stay in the most inhumane conditions of thousands of people in the dark rooms of the monopoly, many people had died, while many others, according to the lists prepared by the communist leaders, had been liquidated without trial and without any guilt, throwing their bodies away without life in some canals not far from this monopoly. All those who raised their voices against such a genocide were shot in the head.
Precisely in these difficult days of massacres against Albanians, not only in the Monopoly facility in Tetovo, but also in Gostivar and Kičevo, they were turning into mass death camps for innocent Albanians, while some of the Albanian leaders of the partisan aradhes had raised their voices in the face of this situation, but the highest political authorities in Macedonia, especially the Headquarters of the first Macedonian brigade, declared that the fate of the Albanians imprisoned and tortured in the Tetovo Monopoly, as well as thousands of other Albanians, was only in the hands of national liberation army of yugoslavia
Despite the strict measures to keep secret the barbaric actions of the Yugoslav national liberation army of yugoslavia in the Tetovo Monopoly, the Albanian nationalists had again realized what a tragedy was happening inside this camp, so they had made some attempts at some combat action to approached this extermination camp, but this was impossible due to the concentration of large forces led by General Ilic, commander of the 48th Yugoslav Division, who had surrounded Tetovo with 17 thousand soldiers, armed and authorized to open fire against every Albanian.
In the first days of January 1945, officers of the Macedonian military units had entered the Monopoly camp in Tetovo and had selected about 500 young Albanians capable of rifles, who would fight in the formations of the Seventh National Liberation Brigade at the Syrmian front. In the first opposition shown by two young Albanians from Tetovo, they opened fire.
The Macedonian political and military authorities did what was possible so that the events in the extermination camp of Tetovo were forgotten and never commented on. The massacre of the Tobacco Monopoly in Tetovo, however, even today cannot amnesty the perpetrators of the genocide. The organizers of this massacre, even after so many decades, must be in the trial of their conscience, but also in the history of inter-ethnic crimes.
Aftermath
editNexhat Agolli from Debar, who had a high position in the communist hierarchy and in the new government, together with his brother, Qemal Agolli, as well as other communists, such as Haqif Lleshi, Sali Lisi, etc., had raised their voices to Serbian and Macedonian leaders, such as Svetozar Vukmanovic-Tempo and Lazar Kolishevski, for the release of ten thousand Albanians who were kept locked up and under torture in the Tobacco Monopoly facility in Tetovo, with no hope of rescue. According to some data, in one night more prisoners were taken from Monopoly and liquidated near Tetovo, just as it happened in Gostivar,Kičevo, Debar and elsewhere, only because they were Albanians and were accused by the new Macedonian government as "collaborators of fascism".
Nexhat Agolli's intervention to the Serbian-Macedonian political leader was quite brave and was a great patriotic act, because it had saved thousands of Albanian lives from certain death. Many Albanian families will never forget this gesture of his, calling it the savior of their lives.
For such a patriotic activity of Nexhat Agolli, the new government took notice of this fearless patriot. Very soon the Serbian-Macedonian UDB will arrest him in his apartment, subjecting him to the most inhumane tortures, to force him to betray the sacred national cause and his illegal comrades in Pristina and Skopje.
Nexhat Agolli was not one of those who could remain indifferent, neither to accusations nor to anti-Albanian crimes. He had a broad national vision and noticed everything that was happening against the Albanian population. He had raised his voice for Albanians to be given the promised rights and freedoms, national equality and their historical symbols, the right to use the language and the right to educate the Albanian masses in their mother tongue, equality of representation in the legislative and executive power and linguistic.
With special dedication, he ensured the opening of the Albanian Pedagogical Course in Skopje, in addition to those that were opened in Prizren and Pristina and were assisted by several dozen teachers from Albania. In 1945, he opened the elementary school "Liria" in the Albanian language, while later in cooperation with his comrades, he will publish the newspaper in the Albanian language "Flaka".
The figure of Nexhat Agolli becomes even bigger through the confrontations with the government between 1946-49, being part of the anti-Albanian plans of the Serbo-Yugoslav ruling circles. His thoughts and attitudes were not closed in themselves, they found their reflection in the organization of illegal and programmed activity, the essence of which was and remained the nationwide Albanian union.
Nexhat Agolli, having strong connections with other prominent patriots in Kosovo, had attracted the attention of the central UDB of Yugoslavia. For this reason, in May 1948 he will be dismissed from the executive functions of the Macedonian government, while at midnight on April 15-16, 1949 he will be arrested in his apartment, until ten days later, on April 27-28, will be executed in an insidious and barbaric manner in prison, while after midnight his lifeless body will be taken out in the Skopje square, where the secret police will fire a volley of bullets at him allegedly killing him on the run, for which a report will be made formal for the event that had been staged, will remember on one occasion this bright figure, the fighter and professor Shaban Braha from Tirana, in a symposium on the occasion of the 56th anniversary of the murder of Nexhat Agolli.