Adem Jashari, symbol of our national resistance
Just as the age of a majestic maple is determined by the rings of its trunk, so the pain of a nation can be determined by its fallen. These fallen for the high national ideal, the asses don't die, they don't disappear into the twilight.
of oblivion. Like the rings that show the age of a maple tree, their lives emphasize the degree of proud pain. Green peace infinitely honors them. The example of Adem Jashari, apart from being a symbol of endurance and heroism, is worth watching
also as a sacrifice in the name of a happy future for his nation. Drenica is born only brave... Listening to this epitaph verse, in the song dedicated to Adem Jashari, of course you are overcome by deep emotions. History, in this case, no longer serves only as a source of information, but I also forgive you such feelings that you can be proud of, that you were born in the Albanian land and carry this name everywhere.
Because you are inclined to know about today's heroism of Drenica, come to your memory as in the celluloid of a movie, glorious events and dates, cries of wars, songs of bravery and oil songs, that's all, bravery and heroism. Enter the conversation confidential
with your past. In Drenica, still today, among the high peaks is the village of Kopiliq. Here, six centuries ago, Milosh Kopiliq was born and grew up, that rare brave man, for whom even today the legends are divided, whether he was a Serb or
Albanian. I'm talking about legends because in numerous documents of the Ottoman Empire as well as of Europe, Milosh Kopiliki appears from the villages of Drenica. disregarding the danger, he runs through the Turks, striking Sultan Murat I to death. This is how Drenica entered the annals of history for the bravery of her son. And according to the ancient Albanian custom, when someone did something honorable and glorious for his village and province, he was called by the name of the village.
He was thus honored and immortalized in songs and legends. Many years later, in its heavy towers, another brave man, who would soon become a legend, was called Isa Boletini, and from his dedication, the Turkish armies and the Serbian hordes were scared for tens of years. Towers of Isa they were burned and flattened several times.
Father, brother, sons and grandsons were killed, fighting with Turks and Albanians. The Ibër River flowed for whole days and nights with the blood of Boletins who wanted to live as mountain Albanians.
But Isa was not afraid, Isa did not waver. Only a betrayal by the Serbo-Montenegros would cause his chest to be filled with bullets and his voice to stop. But there were also Azem and Shote Galica.
Their names are still heard today by the winds of the mountains of Drenica, the snows of Sharri still cannot cover the traces of their blood, the silence of the years can never face the crackling of their rifles. Here is Albania, similar they still say, this is the land of our grandfathers, say the thunders of Llapi, we forgive our lives, but not the honor of the hearths. Azemi, falling in the fight with the skjau, prayed that the battle would continue. Shota at the head of the detachment conveyed the bequest of the leader and the husband. Then, when she also fell on the battlefield, there was a whole army of men from Drenice, who they continued on their way.
To come like this until the wild winter of 1944-1945. An Isa, an Azem, and a Shota, they gave dedication, in step and voice, to a man, whose name was Shaban Polluzha. He was also born near the songs and the bravery of Polluzha, he also breathed air from the free mountains of Drenica. And, when he saw that the trust of the ancestors was being violated, and when he felt that the pure blood of the other brave men of Drenica wanted to make him a victim of ideologies, he could not bear it anymore. Communism, this hateful disease, would make itself felt very closely in the towers of Drenica.
The five-pointed star, coming from the Slavs, could not light up the beautiful foreheads of the boys where the love for the free eagle lived. Polluzha, organizing the first anti-Slavic-communist revolt of Drenica, gave them the clear message of a continuous war between honest Albanian nationalism and proletarian internationalism, or in other words, towards proletarians without a homeland. At dusk in Tirana, Ylli Mici, once a career officer in the Albanian army, seeing my insistence on the arrivals from Kosovo, tells me: "We were called to the command of the "Skenderbej" Military Academy in Tirana, and we were briefed on what we were going to do. We had to train a group of men who came from Kosovo. Their preparation, in our military structures, would consist of the tactical one, of fire materials and those of physical preparation. The order of the General Staff of the Albanian Army was, that none but us, the cadres of the military academy "Skanderbeg" was not supposed to know about this mission. From the first days of fire training, I noticed the interest and seriousness of Adem Jashari.
Tall, with a beard and moustache, his eyes almost read everything I explained. In general, the entire teaching group had knowledge of the machine gun, while they had little knowledge of other infantry weapons. The truth is that we
we had planned six full hours of teaching, but I never finished the lesson on time, because even after the one they had set, our brothers, who came from Kosovo, did not bother with the cabinet. They took the weapons, dismantled them,
they touched with curiosity, even it seemed to me with a lot of love. One day, while I was leaving the office, Adem Jashari came back to me and said: Teacher Ylli, can I ask him something?
Speak, I told him, don't be shy! After he was silent for a while, with a deep look he asked me again: Do we have all these weapons in our army? I smiled, because I understood his concern. For reasons of military secrecy, I couldn't tell everyone, but one day I took Adam to some warehouses of the guilds. He saw the weapons, ammunition, military equipment, and, I still remember today how, hugging me, he told me: "From now on, I don't have any worries!" I once learned that the great, Sami Frashëri, wrote that the Albanian must fight with knowledge and pen, but also have a full rifle. Now I understand this better. That's when you don't speak to your neighbor listen, then even modern civilization can't find a language to deal with it, let the guns speak.
It is not a beautiful thing, but it is necessary, so that our history, one of the oldest in the Balkans, does not disappear". Years later, I understood the concern of the hero, Adem Jashari".
The severed wings of the eagle The truth is that March of 1998 could not have come with such violence, without first having other massacres and other battlefields. Thus, in the last days of November 1997, in Drenica, especially in the villages, Rakinicë, Rezalë, Vojnik and Llaushë, the Serbian police took a series of surprising actions against vulnerable family members.
Rather, they sought to impose a psychological terror, to stop the winds of independence and self-determination, which had begun to blow in those gorges. Therefore, to show openly who this terror and war was directed against, the Serbs shot the grave (more precisely the photograph) of the student Selman Vojvoda, who was killed in the great demonstrations of the Albanian youth, in Mitrovica, in 1990. The re-murder of this the student, who stood up to demand the rights of his nation, naturally could not pass without a feeling of great hatred among his family, friends and all the students who escorted Selman Vojvoda to the cemetery, covered with the red and black flag.
And just then, when this revolt had started to wave, when boys and men from Drenica filled the ranks of the KLA, from the drawers of the Serbian military commands, the plans for the big strikes, cruel murders and mistreatment of the defenseless Albanian population were taken out. And if there was a "series" of strikes, it would undoubtedly start with the Jasharaj family in Prekaz, as the Serbs would not forget the January event. 2008. Thus, together with the heavy snow that fell at midnight on January 22, 1998, special groups of the Serbo-Chetnik fascist army surrounded the towers of Jasharaj in complete silence. They had taken all measures so that the blow was immediate, powerful, deadly, predicting that at the end of this battle, the revolt of Drenica would fluctuate, just as fortunes fluctuate in the chest of the mountain. And precisely, because this is how they have calculated most of the time, the Serbs have always failed. It was 5 o'clock in the morning on January 22, 1998, when in a single moment, the ground where the towers of Jasharaj were, shook from an unusual number of cracks.
On the walls of the towers, thousands of cannonballs, grenades, machine gun and machine gun shells were poured at once, as if fighting on a regular war front. From the amount and especially the type of armaments that were used there, it is understood that already in aid of
of the police, were the formations of the bloodthirsty Serbian army. In this flurry of shells, the premises of the towers, where women and children were thought to be, were especially targeted.
Then, the introduction of mine-throwers into combat proved that this action of the Serbian invaders in the evening required the complete extermination of this great family of brave men. In fact, according to the later testimonies of the villagers of Prekazi, the battle lasted only 35-40 minutes. because on the flanks and backs of the Serbian military-police gangs, after that, an equally decisive attack with weapons has begun on the part of KLA. This has forced the withdrawal of Serbian forces without being able to achieve their final goal.
Equipped with steel tools, they hastily left, continuing the terror and killing innocent people in the streets. After that, everyone realized that the diplomacy between the Serbs and the Albanians had completely failed. The war was declared. This war, between the two old Balkan ethnicities, it was not the first. However, the misty fate seemed to foresee it as the last.
Ten days later, on March 1, 1998, early in the morning, large Chetnik and police paramilitary units were directed towards the villages of Likoshan and Qirez. Taking advantage of the noise and the wooded terrain, many residents of these villages, convinced of the danger large, they hid in the woods. Two or three helicopters that observed the movements bombed almost all the areas. They left in the dark after destroying many houses and killing and injuring dozens of people from these countries.
In fact, on March 5, the great epic will begin. The truth is that the night before, large movements of the Serbian military and police forces were noticed. Re etc., it was clear that Serbian violence would not spare anyone.
However, contrary to what the Serbs thought, the brave men and women of Drenica felt indomitable in their eyes, inspired by the great ideal of freedom and independence.
Thus, eyewitnesses from the village of Polac, a few minutes away from the neighborhood of Jasharaj, have already affirmed the determination of this heroic family.
The truth is that while the area around Prekaz was being surrounded, some villagers went to the Jasharaj house and were able to talk with the elder Shaban about the possibility of their secret departure, as the history of two previous Serbian attacks on this tribe was known. Shaban Jashari, that brave old man, that determined ballista who raised the flag in Pllocica, was silent for a few moments and then called the two boys and his, Hamëz and Adem Jasharin, proposing that they leave with women and children, while he met the hordes of Hasmi as he had met them in his youth, with rifle in hand, however the sons did not support this, with all the great respect they had always shown for his son. On that occasion, it is learned that Adam replied to his son that, "we cannot leave with our heads Serbs will come to burn the towers and kill our neighbors, friends and lovers.
It's better that you saved my life, you gave it to me for Kosovo and the whole of Albania". Baba Shaban, a nationalist leader heard in Prekaz and Drenica, that's when he kissed his sons on the forehead, as a nationalist custom, he kissed his granddaughters. own grandchildren, being convinced that their lives, their springs, so moist and expensive, will serve as a path, from where it will come the freedom of Kosovo, he knew well the enemy who attacked him. The battle started at 3 o'clock in the morning.
Towards the towers of Jasharaj, like a kennel of wolves, a misery of policemen, Chetniks and the Serbian army, determined to extinguish every trace of life there.
Tanks, cannons, armored vehicles, helicopters, have poured throughout the day, such a large amount of fire, that the flames of the ruins continued until March 8. From the tower of Jasharaj, the resistance was immediate, complete.
But the resistance of these great men was nothing but rifles and hearts, because tanks, airplanes and cannons were at the disposal of the forces of several thousand Serbian occupiers. Even anticipating a possible attack by the KLA, around the village of Prekaz at a distance of 10-15 kilometers, Serbian military forces formed another encircling ring, opening fire with all kinds of weapons.
It is difficult to find in the history of the wars of this century such an extreme paradox of the warring parties. On the one hand, the regular army, equipped with the most modern weapons, while on the other hand, the innocent and defenseless people.
Thus, among the flames and thunder, among that horror of shells and bombs, fell one by one the brave men of the Jasharaj Tower, the men of the invincible Castle-Kosovo. Thus, even Adam, this oak with roots in freedom, this mountain, where it rested its chest and head, the very Kosovar resistance of this one
the end of the century.
Excerpts from the book: Flori Bruqi, Albanian Olympia, Prishtinë, 2009. Pages 437-442
