Written by Kol Juncaj. Translation Petrit Latifi

In this article by Kol Juncaj, we can read of the Albanians of Dinosha in their resistance against the Serbo-Montenegrin attacks. In 1858, the Montenegrins, led by their lord Shqepan Mali, attacked the Bajrak of Koja, where the Montenegrin army slaughtered even the male babies according to the testimony of Kole Bardhi Krcaj from Koja. In 1862, during Montenegros invasion of Vranina, the Albanians of Dinosh guarded the border. These gentlemen also participated in the Battle of Shpuz and Zharnica.

Cited:

“Theroic Dinosha suffered a disturbing fate for centuries in successive wars with the enemy, the Serbo-Montenegrins. But it was never broken or bowed down before the furious enemy. In that Dinosh in the past and today the spirit of Albanian tradition remains where it is jealously preserved.

There was a saying of the highlanders; “You can’t take both, Dinosh and Vermosha, but keep one alive!”. Dinosha and Vermosha have been and are two pearls of the Great Highlands. The Dinosh people belong to the heroic banner of Gruda. They were Muslimized at the end of the 1700s and during the 800s, while they changed religion, they did not change nation, blood, language or homeland.

The old people used to say; “You can change your religion as much as you want, but you can’t change your nation or God”. Dinosha was and remains the undefeated stronghold of Albanianism. Since the times of the Vilayet, it was the capital and shield of the Greater Highlands against the barbarian invasion. In the Lodges of the assembly in Dinosh, important meetings of the Highlands’ chieftains were held to discuss how best to protect the Highlands from the princes and princes of Cetina.

The Muslim Albanian Dinosha was heavily armed with the most modern weapons of Turkey and they were also equipped with cannons, the barrels of which were pointed towards Cetina and Podgorica. In Dinosh, during the Turkish period, the highlanders were supplied with weapons; long rifles, cobras and swords, and later with weapons of the time, Hut-Martina, Manzerre Turkut and adhtia, ten Turks.

The people of Montenegro also suffered for their daily bread, and they waited for alms, kertojdha and millet from their mother, Russia, in Dinoshe, from Turkey, came; rice, high-quality Turkish coffee, sugar molds, udhirit oil, silk, etc. and these items were distributed throughout Malesi at a cheap price. The Dinoshjans led Malesi and fought side by side on many bloody but heroic fronts against Montenegro.

The Battle of Vranina

In the War of Vranina, the Dinoshjans and the highlanders guarded the border of Albanian lands, side by side with the boys of Oso Kuka. In 1858, the Zeku of Montenegro, brother Shqepan Mali, attacked the Bajrak of Koja, where the Montenegrin army slaughtered even male babies everywhere in the houses (the late Kole Bardhi Krcaj from Koja told me this).

The Battle of Shpuza and Zharnica in 1862

The Koja of Malesia abandoned the country due to Montenegrin violence and cruelty and found refuge in Dinosh. For 3 years, Koja remained a refugee sheltered by the Muslim brothers of Dinoshija. In the War of Spuzha in 1862 against the army of Prince Nikola (who had become a prince at the age of 22), the Dinoshija and the Highlanders led by Has Hoti and Bac Harapi (father of Sokol Baci) armed with Turkish weapons destroyed the Montenegrin army within three days. The War of Zharnica, which Father Gjergj Fishta immortalized, Malesia and Dinosh, led by Halil Haka and Palok Gjoka, made Mark Milani (Marko Miljanov) flee, who had set out to take Hoti and Gruda and the entire Malesia region.

Battle of Nokshiq

The Dinosha clan volunteered for Jakup Ferri and Cel Shabani in the Battle of Nokshiq in Plave-Gucisa, in 1880 against the hordes of Mark Milan. 3000 Albanian volunteers led by Jakup Ferri and Cel Shabani, destroyed an army of 8000 Montenegrin soldiers. In that war, Albania was divided with honor, they won the war and completely defeated the army of Mark Milan and General Konstantin Nikiqi.

When Turkey began to weaken, as did Malesia, somewhere around 1882, King Nikola, in revenge, attacked Dinosh with cannons and an army, killed and cut down Dinosh and turned it into a desert rock. But Dinosha, like that oak whose branches are cut off, revived by shooting new shoots.

Men like Mehmet Murati, Baca Kurti and Kole Kurti (Dinosha people), Om Haku, Beqir Bajri, Selman Juku, Zenel Cak Meli, Rame Cak Meli, Jusuf Zeka, Ahmet Osja, and others are not born with mothers. Kole Kurti, who was Baca Kurti’s brother and had his house opposite the old mosque in Dinosh, for the sake and respect of the Muslim brothers, had a man in the courtyard of the mosque. (perhaps the trunk of that mani tree still exists there today).

On the occasion of the renovation of the Dinosha mosque in the late 60s, the late Preng Gruda sent $1000. I don’t want to bore you, but entire books could have been written about the brave and loyal Dinosha, Jusuf Zeka, he was a phenomenon in the mountains. Jusuf Zeka resembled Preng Cali in physiognomy, he was brave and courageous, anti-secession, he fired his rifle as many times as he could.

Dinosha students participated side by side in demonstrations on the streets of Pristina with the Kosovar brothers in 1968, demanding the right to the Flag. They were imprisoned, beaten and tortured extensively in Alivanosje by the paramilitaries and the UDB.

The patriotism and manhood of the Dinoshjans with the quality of simple attitudes love their homeland, the Highlands with all their heart and soul and have never allowed the enemy to narrow their borders in the village or in their own region. The ideal Highlands for which many martyrs fell, the flower of the Albanian tribe, was reflected in Decic and with the raising of the Flag on the Top of Bratila.

Where the small first, the mountains and the wilderness merged into one will in one purpose, causing the astonishment of Istanbul and Podgorica. The wandering of the splendor of that day, that glory, helped us as Highlanders to refute the slanders of the Serbian-Montenegrin enemies who denied then and today the possibility of national and religious coexistence.

The mountaineers, old and young, Catholic and Muslim, amidst the turbulent ideological movements of the Montenegrins and their quislings, need to gather all their strength to overcome the frozen crisis that is looming in these dramatic times. We must therefore try to bring water to the mill of the Mountaineers and the homeland.

So, our Dinosha of the Mountaineers, with its historical events through which it has been swept, for hundreds of years, does not allow its ethnic Albanian instinct to be extinguished. With Albanians divided into faiths, regions and in different parts of the world, it was not easy, but the bond of common blood helps us find the path to reward.

The great work of Mehmet Murat, Baca Kurti, Om Hak, Zenel Caku, Smajl Martini, Dede Gjon Luli, Ali Zeku, etc. is based on the Albanian instinct hidden at the edge of our soul.

Stay healthy! Yours, Kole Juncaj”

Reference

Publication of Kol Juncaj.