Original by BAJRAM ÇELIKU – BALI. For publication, forwarded by: Kalosh Celiku, writer.
Selim Imbraim Braja was born in the village of Kollarë in Kërçova, in 1807, into a famous and brave family called “Braje”. This family is a large family, which we encounter in the village of Zajas and another part of it is also located in the village of Kollarë. The village, the birthplace of the famous kaçak Selim Braja, about whom we will write in this historical article.
It is said that: the “Braje” family is an old family, which with a rifle in hand, fought the Turks for several centuries, and later the Serbian and Bulgarian invaders, defending with dignity the Albanian Ethnic Territories, whenever the need arose. The bravery of these fearless men, who write history, was also sung by various rhapsodists, in men’s odes and wedding inns. One of these songs is the song of Mefmet Beg (Braje), which tells about the resistance of this family against the government Turkish at the time of Sultan Aziz.
So, as we understand from the folk song itself, the Braje family was not afraid of Baba Dovlet of Istanbul, but not of others. One of these brave men, my grandfather told me, was Selim Braja, a brave man with a slender body and seven feet tall.
This fearless brave man, my grandfather told me, in 1844, together with many other brave men from Zajas, joined Emin Çeliku, or Emin Xhambazi – Kicevo, as history knows it, in the fight against the Tanzimat Reforms, brought in the time of Sultan Mexhiti, a black beard, according to which Albanians were obliged to give one son of the house to the Turkish army, in wars outside the borders of ethnic Albanians, who had reached the age of 18.
Against this Reform, the grandfather recounted, all Albanians rose up wherever they lived. Also, the Albanians of Kicevo, led by Emin Çeliku, or Emin Xhambazi – Kicevo as history knows it, and Selim Brajë, in a sign of revolt attacked the Kicevo Barracks, which were in the hands of the Turkish army, and for a short time it fell into the hands of the Albanian insurgents.
Two Turkish soldiers are set free to go to the Pasha of Manastir, and tell him that the Kicevo Barracks have fallen into the hands of the Albanian insurgents. This bitter news is given to the Pasha of Manastir, and he conveys it to Sultan Mexhit, the latter orders Hajredin Pasha, with 5000 soldiers, to set off towards Kicevo, and establish order as before. Upon hearing that Hajredin Pasha had set out for Kicevo, under the command of Emin Çeliku and Selim Braja, with 500 men, the brave men set up a well in the village of Sop, southeast of Kicevo.
This village no longer exists today, because in 1913, it was burned and massacred by Serbian rebel gangs, razing it to the ground, and only a few survived, settling in Staroec or Kicevo. Emin Çeliku and Selim Braja, my grandfather said, were not only brave, but also wise men. After taking the Turkish barracks, they removed the weapons and ammunition from the barracks to another place in order to use them again when they needed them.
In the village of Sop, a fierce battle takes place, where the Albanian forces, although much smaller in number, halve Hajredin Pasha’s army, but our brave men run out of ammunition and are forced to retreat through the mountains, and some go to Kicevo to resupply with ammunition. During the retreat, some of the brave Albanian men fall into the hands of the Turks.
The Pasha, thinking that he has defeated the Albanians, sets off with the captured prisoners towards Manastir and stops for a rest near Sopotnica. Emin Çeliku and Selim Braja, after being supplied with ammunition, follow Hajredin Pasha, and in Sopotnica they attack him with a furious attack, causing the Pasha heavy losses, saving the captured Albanian soldiers, and returning safely to their families in Kicevo.
Not long after, in the spring of 1844, Dervish Cara from Tetovo sent word to Emin Çeliku and Selim Braja to join forces and begin liberating Albanian lands from the clutches of Turkish rule, starting with Skopje, which they liberated without any problems, and continuing to Veles, Prilep, Manastir and other areas inhabited by Albanians. Large Turkish forces led by Hajredin Pasha and Mefmet Pasha Llatasin, an Islamized Croat, also equipped with cannons, set out against the Albanian forces, placing themselves opposite each other in Katllanovë and Gryka e Taor, where Emin Çeliku and Selim Braja were operating.
As Aleksandar Matkoski writes, the brave men of Kcrcova, during three nights while they were stationed near the village of Taor, before dawn, attacked the tents of the Turkish soldiers, causing considerable damage to the people, and retreating back to their previous positions without loss. However, foreign consuls intervened to stop the war, and the Albanian leaders were called to talks where they were accused of treachery by the Turks who captured Dervish Cara and Emin Celiku.
After capturing Dervish Cara, they sent him to Istanbul in the open air where he died, and Emin Celiku, after being surrounded by the Turks, decided not to surrender alive, because he knew that his head was wanted, so that he would be handed over to the Sultan, dead or alive. In an unequal war, surrounded on all sides, the brave man of Cervica fought like a dragon like Skanderbeg, killing the Turks around him.
Selim Braja and his friends hear the crack of rifle fire and shout: “With hands, men – with hands, for they have killed our “Commander”!” And, with a daring attack like that of an eagle defending its nest, they attack the Turkish forces, striking fear into their bones, saving their commander, who during that clash had received several wounds, which he later healed in Kosovo, and continuing the fight all the way to Cetinje in Montenegro.
In the autumn of 1844, Emin Çeliku (Emin Xhambazi), and Selim Braja, returning from Cetinje and Kosovo, also help the Dibrani in the war against Hajredin Pasha, giving him the strongest blow that Turkey had never expected from the united Albanians. Later, the brave Kërçovërs, after arriving in their lands, are divided into groups, where Emin Çeliku stops in the “Dibrës Mountains”, specifically in the village of Rimnicë, in Upper Reka, where he acts together with Kaçak, Halil Kosumi, or known as Halil Reka.
Meanwhile, Selim Braja helps Baftir Shitova, by hanging Gjorgje Sugare Vojvoda on ropes at Shadërvani in Prilep, a voivode who had committed many terrors on villages inhabited by Albanians, supposedly Turkish. Difficult days also came for Selim Braja, the brave man of Kollara turned over 100 years old, it was the year 1913, Serbia entered, killing men, women, old people and children.
And, the brave man could no longer take the mountain and fight the Serbs. His two sons, unable to tolerate the Serbian flag in the nearby village of Milincë, set fire to the tower of voivode Gavre, and they had taken Gavre’s two grandsons and the cattle out of the house. The tower burned down with the flag. Selim Braja’s sons took the mountain, and the brave and fearless Selim Braja remained at home with weapons in hand for the Day After Tomorrow.
To hide his father-in-law, the daughters-in-law had covered him with several blankets in the “Hamamxhik” (bathroom), a place where a bath was held inside the house, knowing that the butcher Gavre would come to take revenge on the Braje family. It didn’t take long for Gavre to show up at their house and ask the women where the men of the house are? And the women told him that they had taken the mountains.
Yes, Uncle Selimi, where is he? Yes, he apparently took the mountains too, they replied. No, Gavre shouted, that’s impossible, he turned back, he is over 100 years old and can no longer climb the mountains!
Suddenly, unable to bear it, the old man, over 100 years old, throws the blankets off his body and like a dragon shouts to Gavre: Here I am, kill me because I am not afraid of you! Then, Gavre, surprised by what he saw with his eyes, turns to Selim Braja, I do not have the courage to kill you, because: my hands and arms are dry.
Because, you raised two Azgana boys who set fire to my house, burning the Serbian flags, but they left my two grandchildren alive, they also left my cattle that were in Aher (animal prison) alive. No, I cannot harm you, and you leave Selim Braja’s house.
Article
https://fjala.info/selim-ibraim-braja-1807-1916/
