Abstract

This testimony presents the lived experiences of Garip Ademi and Ilir Dema as members of the Albanian nationalist organization “BESA” during the late interwar and World War II period. Beginning in 1937, they served as couriers under the direction of senior activists, transporting clandestine correspondence, educational primers, and symbolic materials between Albanian diplomatic representatives, organizational centers, and rural communities in Polog and surrounding regions. The account illuminates the dense transnational network of activists operating across present-day North Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, and Romania, as well as the organization’s role in sustaining national consciousness. Particular emphasis is placed on participation in the 1941 flag-raising in Prizren, postwar continuity of resistance, and the severe repression faced under communist regimes, including imprisonment, property destruction, and family persecution. The testimony stands as a historical record of sacrifice, resilience, and enduring national commitment.

Testimony from Garip Ademi and Ilir Dema.

In 1937 Garip Ademi and Ilir Dema were hired as couriers in the “BESA” organization, under the instructions of Liman Avdiut-Dragoshi, an old activist who was familiar with the leaders of the “BESA” organization, as well as Mulla Imer Tefiku, the village priest who had collaborated with our rebirthers in Romania and those in Albania before the Albanian state was formed in 1912, but Liman Avdiut-Dragoshi from the same village, according to Garip Ademi, told his parent that: “your son and Abedin Hasan must be activated as couriers in the “BESA” organization, because they are quite capable and can help the association.”

From 1937 to 1940, Garip Ademi and Abedin Hasani carried mail, primers and reliable materials from Xhavit Leskoviqi, the Albanian Ambassador to Skopje during the time of King Zog, and once a year, with the directive of the “BESA” organization, they delivered them to Hakik Korita in Sëllarce e Epërme, who then accompanied them to the center of the organization.
From Skopje, they brought the materials by train to the village of Zhelinë and then traveled on foot through Strimnica, Çelopek, Miletinë to Sëllarce e Epërme to Hakik Korita.

According to Garip Ademi, besides him and Abedin Hasani from the village of Pirok, there were other activists who had acted earlier for the national cause, such as Zilfi Ademi, Garip Ademi’s grandfather, Halil Isaku, Zenullah Kurteshi, Hakik Kurteshi and many other activists who had worked in Wallachia (Romania), while other activists mentioned in the villages: in Sëllarce Hakik Korita, a wise old man and an unparalleled patriot, who was authorized by the center of the “BESA” organization to accept all illegal materials from the Albanian embassy, ​​from Negotina and Polog activists were Emin Ismaili and many activists in Romania as well as supporters of the First League of Prizren of 1878, from Dobërdoll, Reçan, Gostivar, Kićevo and many other places.

Upon arriving in Prizren, where they participated in the solemn act of raising the national flag in the square of this legendary city, Garip Ademi proudly states that by order of Fejzi Alizoti, representative of the Albanian government, Garip Ademi was the youngest member of this delegation, on which occasion he raised the national flag at the fountain of Prizren with his right hand.

But, he says that until the dissolution of the “BESA” organization on 15.11.1944, he was an active member. Also, after the end of World War II, he held regular meetings with friends of the “BESA” center, where they mentioned: Hisen Xhaferi, Ismail Xhaferi, Selim Luma, Gani Luma, Selman Luma, Haxhi Haki-Luma, and many others.

Garip Ademi was sentenced to three prisons, as he says, in Enver Hoxha’s Albania, such as the security prisons of the center of Tirana, the police center, and the political prison of the center of Tirana and Shkodra, where he says he spent six weeks in a cell with Sabri Koçi, then in prisons in Montenegro, such as in Podgorica, Cetinje, Bogdanovkraj, Boka Kotor, where he was later transferred to the infamous prison of the UDB center of Macedonia in Skopje, to the Skopje Castle prison, and finally to the Idrizovo prison, where he served 18 months of a heavy sentence for anti-communist activities. Today, he lives as a pensioner in his native village of Pirok, boasting and proud that he is a grandfather with grandchildren behind him. He passed away in 2009.

THE “BESA” ORGANIZATION EXPANDED ITS ACTIVITY TO THE VILLAGES OF POLLOG

All the reliable materials of the “BESA” organization were in the village of Shipkovica with Mulla Hamdi-Gajre, a reliable person of the organization.
Although as a courier Garip Ademi mentioned in his activity that in 1938 from Xhavit Leskovic, the ambassador of Zogist Albania, in a secret meeting that was the duty of the organization, in addition to secret materials, he also received a national flag, which he raised in April 1941 when these countries joined Ethnic Albania.

But in 1945 the Albanian collaborators in cooperation with the communists, UDB and OZN took revenge on him and demolished his house in revenge, but before demolishing the house of this patriot, the communist authorities beat his mother Kumrishahe Ismaili, who was the daughter of Ismail Pal from Negotina e Polog with originally from the Mirdita Highlands, a well-known activist of the national cause in Wallachia (Romania).

After beating her, they demand that she give them the national flag and tell them where Garip Ademi and his friends are, but she was a woman of high national virtues, except that she refused to give the national flag, she had told them that she would rather die than have you take the flag from me, while as for where her son is, she had told them that he is with an automatic rifle on his arm in the Sharr mountains with his friends, if you are men, go and take it.

Garip Ademi, although old, is still strong and recalls that he has been to Prizren many times on secret duty for the “BESA” organization, where Garip Ademi and Abedin Hasani always had a small bottle of gasoline with them in case the gendarmerie caught them at the Serbian village of Veshallë where they had their police station, to burn the materials-mail so that the national organization ‘BESA’ would not be discovered.

However, he singles out the case of going to Prizren in April when the Yugoslavia of the Serbian king capitulated, where this delegation included: Hisen Xhaferi, Ismail Xhaferi, Haxhi Haki-Luma, Idriz Ibrahim-Cërcëri, Selim efendi Shehap-Luma, Gani Luma, Selman efendiu-Luma and Fejzi Alizoti, a representative of the Albanian government, who traveled on foot through Sharr, where they spent one night in the village of Veshallë in the guest house of the generous and brave highlander Beqir Veshallë.

Testimony and sources:

*Abedin Hasan Dragoshi, born on February 15, 1912, in the village of Pirok, these materials were given to me by Mr. prof. Mefail Tahiri-Dragoshi on September 19, 2007;
*Testimony from Garip Ademi-ILIR DEMA born on April 15, 1918 in the village of Pirok, Tetovo, conversation in August 2004.
Source: Material excerpted from the monograph ” ISMET JONUZI-KROSI “NATIONAL ORGANIZATION “BESA” TETOVA BRANCH 1935-1944″, Published by the Tringa printing house in Tetovo, 2008, pp. 176, 177, 178, 179, 180 and 181/