Translation Petrit Latifi

Abstract

Nehat Hyseni’s analysis delves into the complexities of Serbian control over Josip Broz Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia, and the resulting impact on the Albanian population within the former Yugoslav Federation. Despite Tito’s Croatian background, Serbian influence, particularly through figures like Aleksandar Ranković, was pivotal in shaping the policies that marginalized Albanians. The article explores the tension between Tito’s leadership and Serbian political strategies, revealing the intricate balance of power and how it affected Albanians, especially during the period of suppression and ethnic persecution. Hyseni also critiques Tito’s actions and the role of Serbia in defining Yugoslavia’s treatment of its Albanian citizens.

Nehat Hyseni: Serbian Control over Tito and the Position of Albanians in Yugoslavia

Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980) was the charismatic leader of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, who led the People’s Liberation Army during World War II from 1941 to 1945 and served as the President of the State, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY), Commander of the Armed Forces, and President of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) until his death on May 4, 1980.

As a non-Serb leader, with Croatian national origins, looking from today’s perspective, it seems absurd and strange how Josip Broz Tito managed to maintain control with the Serbs as the largest nation in Yugoslavia and with Serbia itself.

We are also interested in how Tito treated the Albanians. Furthermore, we are curious about the Serbian influences in Tito’s attitudes and decisions towards Albanians.

In socialist Yugoslavia, Albanians initially endured “Dante’s hell,” as they were accused of collaborating with Nazi fascism, much like the Muslim Chams in Greece.

However, after 1966, following the fall of Aleksandar Ranković, Albanian intelligence and the Albanian population in Yugoslavia made great progress and development, unprecedented in our national history.

Ranković and Jovanka – Tito’s Supervisors

Aleksandar Ranković was a Serbian figure ranked as the second most important personality, just after Tito, in the state’s hierarchy as the Vice President of the People’s Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This position was installed in the political system through the Constitutional Law of January 15, 1953, as a “guard” or supervisor of the Croatian President of the SFRY, Josip Broz Tito.

At the time, Serbia, wanting to have Tito under its full control, imposed a divorce on him from his Jewish wife with an Austrian father, the intellectual Herta Haas, a woman with rare beauty and European traditions, born on March 29, 1914, in Slovenska Bistrica, who passed away at 95 years old on March 5, 2010, in Belgrade.

In 1952, the Serbian clique imposed Tito’s marriage to the former Serbian partisan from Lika, Jovanka Budisavljević, 36 years younger than him, a colonel in the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). Witnesses say that Tito’s Serbian wife, Jovanka Broz, never moved without a revolver in her bag during the day, and at night she kept it under her pillow!

She even hesitated at times to point the revolver at Tito! For this reason, Stane Dollanc, a Slovenian communist, was personally assigned to ensure Tito’s physical security and had forbidden her from having direct contact with him.

Thus, the Serbian control over Josip Broz Tito was realized both from the “inside” through Jovanka Budisavljević and from the “outside” through Aleksandar Ranković.

Ranković as Head of UDB

Aleksandar Ranković also held the position of the Head of the infamous UDBA (State Security), which had broad and virtually unlimited powers over the control of state institutions and political, state, educational, economic, cultural, etc., cadres. UDBA was essentially a “gendarme” or master of society and the state.

UDBA was above the state!
Moreover, UDBA even had the authority to control the head of state, and Tito was no exception!

Albanians suffered greatly, especially after 1956, when the so-called “weapons collection campaign” began, organized as a fierce campaign of pressure, violence, and anti-Albanian terror by UDBA. This campaign forced Albanians to “convert” to Turks and migrate en masse to Turkey to save their lives from the unbearable violence and terror.

The Mass Exodus of Albanians to Turkey

Thus, socialist Yugoslavia under Tito resumed the implementation of the infamous plan by the fascist academic Vaso Čubrilić from before World War II (1938).

Since power and state violence were highly concentrated in the hands of the State Security (UDBA) and its head, Aleksandar Ranković, this had become a challenge and posed a real threat to the state and political leadership, headed by Tito.

In reality, in the former communist countries, state security had become a serious problem and challenge across the entire socialist bloc. The infamous KGB in the former Soviet Union had killed, tortured, and massacred approximately 50 million innocent victims. The head of the KGB, Beria, even threatened the leader of the state, Stalin.

For this reason, with great tact and wisdom, Stalin liquidated the all-powerful and terrifying head of the KGB, Beria. Even the State Security in Albania, which was led by Koče Xoxi (of Macedonian descent), was liquidated by Enver Hoxha in 1949, under the accusation of being a “Yugoslav spy.”

Aleksandar Ranković’s bloodthirstiness and the rampant violence of UDBA led to the mass deportation of over half a million Albanians from Kosovo and other Albanian-inhabited areas.

However, this was not the main reason for Aleksandar Ranković’s removal from all public and state functions, as well as from membership in the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY), during the Plenary Session in 1966.