Petrit Latifi
Azem Makolli, 81 years old, is one of the few men that people sing songs to while they are still alive. He dedicated his entire life to national issues for which he was also one of the political prisoners. Makolli killed the infamous Serb who had murdered his grandfather when he was 5 years old.
Azem Makolli, now 81, is one of the few men being celebrated with songs while still alive. He dedicated his entire life to national causes and was once a political prisoner.
His grandfather was among the Albanians who aimed to unify the Albanian people.
“My great-grandfather was imprisoned in Podujevë, but escaped and went into the mountains. He became a commander in the Ballist movement. One morning, armed Serbs came, surrounded my great‑grandfather while he was working—they surrounded us too. I was five years old; I remember it like it was yesterday. When they surrounded my great‑grandfather, he told Ymeri ‘take the kids and get out of here.’ Ymeri left. But a guest we had in the house escaped, and they killed him,” Makolli recalled, explaining how the entire story began
Makolli recounted how his grandfather died after being shot by one of the Serbs and falling on his back. According to tradition, if someone dies face‑down (“falls on their back”), it demands blood revenge; if they die face‑up, it does not.
“They shot my great‑grandfather with rifles and machine guns; they grabbed him and he fell on his back. In our tradition, a death on the back requires blood,” he explained. “That man killed six of our people.”
Since he was five, Makolli says he grew up fueled by the spirit of revenge.
“From that day when he killed my great‑grandfather, I just waited until I grew up. From age five, I planned to kill the one who did it.”
He described how he traveled to Belgrade and Bosnia to work and earn money to buy a gun to kill the Serb:
“I bought the weapon and returned to Kosovo. I left Pristina by train, went to a Serb neighbor’s house, and asked for directions to someone’s home. He didn’t know and gave me a plum. As he gave me plums, I reached for my gun to kill him—but I thought, ‘How can I kill him when he just gave me fruit?’ Seven days passed before I saw him again.”
He waited for the final encounter, the day he could avenge his grandfather. Makolli was just 15 at the time:
“I went to the market and saw sacks being sold by those guys. When I asked ‘whose are these sacks?’ they told me, ‘Today that Serb will come to get them.’ I removed my friends so they wouldn’t be arrested. When I saw the Serb approaching, he recognized me and reached for his gun, but I drew mine faster and shot him straight in the heart.”
That’s how Makolli avenged his grandfather, finally fulfilling a vengeance that had tracked him since childhood.
Reference
Balkan Academia 