When Isa Boletini was killed, rare testimony is published

The clock anchors marked 21.13 on Sunday, January 23, 1916, when bullets waving around like raging wasps left Isa Boletin dead on the cobblestone of the Ribnica Bridge in Podgorica, Montenegro. A son of his time and who, along with his murder, was actually killed by Kosovo, removing Albania's body.

Could Isa Boletin himself make the 9th when on both sides of the Ribnica Bridge were 80 soldiers on sight? Either surrender or be killed fighting together.

Happening like fish in the net, the great Albanian did what would really lead to certain death, but as a hero: the shots were retorted by shots. The rifle guitar brought the tragic balance: the murder of Isa Boletin himself, but the killing of 12 Montenegrin gendarmes.

HOW OGGGANIZUA VRASA

With a thirst for revenge, Serbs and Montenegrins joined the Russians and French to eliminate Isa Boletin. What they had failed to do in frontal warfare on the battlefield, they did on the bridge of the neighbouring Montenegro state. The French consul in Podgorica, Bichoc, is the man who started applying the trap by inviting Isa Boletin to go to Cetinje, so that he could send him out of Montenegro.

Boletin believed this help without realizing that he was actually heading toward execution. While in Podgorica, he found himself in a trap that brought him death.

In fact, it was not just murder but slaughter. Evidence of an organised massacre comes from both sides -- victims and killers.

The first is Tafil Boletin, grandson of Isa Boletin, in a unique confession published in the study of Skender Lawaras.

“The 80 gendarmes were ambushed on both sides of the Ribnica Bridge, past the Prefecture, near the Catholic Church. I and the two brothers were on our way home to the uncle (Issa), the patrol at the top of the bridge waiting for the uncle to arrive, stopped us. When the officer orders the ban, the gendarmes with their rifles are about to fire:

Who is Isa Bolletini?! But the officer intervenes by saying: Cease fire, it's none of this! But that the three brothers are unable to announce Bolletin's decision on Montenegrins, as with rapes, under gun threat they are locked in a house and kept trapped.

By this time Isa Boletin, himself eight, had laid his first steps on the boards of the Ribnica Bridge without realizing that even behind his arms the gendarmes closed the way so that there would be no escape.

A commanding officer urges Albanians to hand over their weapons, but Isa Boletini objects: No commitment! I gave it up, I didn't give it up, I didn't give it up, I didn't give it to the king. And pull the gun. The first to shoot was some Pero Buriqi from Vasovic. Immediately, a flame of fire also answers Isa Boletini and his men with two revolvers in his hands.

Within minutes, surrounded by dozens of gendarmes, all are killed, Isa Boletini and two sons, Halili and Zahid, a student in Vienna, two grandchildren, Jonuzi and Halili, Hajdar Selim Radisheva, daughter-in-law of Jesse, son-in-law of Hajdari, Idriz Bilimi and Misin Bala of Isnqi. On the other hand, eight gendarmes were killed and twice as wounded. The show was observed by several Montenegrin ministers sheltered in the town's <x0).

Rarely does he confess to the author of a massacre murder, even if it happened 100 years ago. In the case of Isa Bolletin, we have not one, but two confessions. The first is I P.M.

Vojvodinaq, officer reserve, coauthor in this mass murder. His testimony is also unique, and fortunately he became part of a special publication in 1977.

“Isa Boletini was on the ground floor of the Montenegrin Army headquarters. I as a guard had orders not to go out the door. In an unexpected situation, guns were fired on the bridge, and Isa Boletin tried to help his proud men, but I wounded him by hitting him. In about 10 minutes, Nicolaus Djilas, Milovan Gnjila's father, has fired five times on him. He's been robbing Lisa's rifle and guns left by her hands.

Although mass murder was committed and few understood at the time what he did, there is no small value in the fact that Vojvodinac himself expresses regret:

I learned very late who I wounded. Today, I deeply regret what sin I have committed. If I confess I'm not guilty. I was just an officer carrying out orders. The order came from above. We realized this crime too late. Guilty is the French representative, government and king of Montenegro.”

Vojvokovski was and remains a low official and public profile, but the second testimony is far more important than that. Montenegrin Milovan Djilas, a prominent writer and politician during the communist regime in Yugoslavia, brings an even more unique testimony of his father, Nikola Djilas, the man who had killed Isa Boletin. Thanks to his talent as a writer, he's got a chance to get <x0...

Isa's “Battle with his volunteer soldiers had not gone on long, despite the strict heroism of Albanians. This had resulted in their leader and his devoted loyal ones. Isa's closest people were liquidated and others were scattered on four sides.

Isa Boletin had been killed, but he had fought valiantly - even for a long time - despite being on his own. Thus, he was wounded, beaten to his knees, and no matter how powerful he could carry his rifle, he shot at least to kill any of his enemies before he died. My father ran to him, and the invincible Albanian had passed the gun to his left hand, but he had not had time to fire.

A soldier had marked her, and Isa had fallen to the ground. Father had come running, and Isa had looked upon him with great eyes and blood, said what was in his native tongue, and at that moment he had given up his soul.

The wonder comes from the English historian Joseph Scyre who, in question, has been supplied by a letter that Edith Durham has sent to him on July 10, 19284 discovered in the British archive by scholar Beshullah Dastan, in which she tells of the testimony Qazim Castrati had given to Isa Bolettin. Castra was a child at the time, but he had witnessed the massacre.

Although Kastrati has confessed in a child's sincerity, the event comes with a twist from Scyr 5. In his book This History Goes Three lines in which the English most confuses details rather than explain them. He writes that Montenegrins provoked a dispute and more cast doubts about the presence of Boletin in Podgorica, that he details a massacre for which Qazim Kastrati was given more than valid details. Here's the section of Kastrat's letter that Joseph Shire has not seen fit to put in the book:

A group of Montenegrins encountered two of Isa Boletin's sons near the bridge, stopped them and asked them to hand over their weapons. Like everyone else in Montenegro, they freely carried guns. Asking someone to hand over the gun was a big offense, so the two boys refused.

Montenegrins tried to talk to them and then the rifle shot. Other Bolletin people and Isa came to rescue. A great battle began. The Boletins could be grouped into a country from which to protect themselves, but remained surrounded by Montenegrins who were most numerous. The war lasted about three hours.

Finally, Montenegrins used one machine gun and mowed all -- nine people in all. ”

ARMS THAT VRAU BOLETIN, A RECENT RIVING

How important it has been for Serbs and Montenegrins to kill Isa Boletin shows a trophy still located at the Djilas family home in Belgrade. Nikola Djilas, Milovan Djilas' father, was one of the authors who shot the body of Isa Boletin. He stopped using this weapon, but preserved it at home as a trophy without knowing that his son Milovan Djilas would make a career as secretary of the Yugoslav Political Bureau and deputy prime minister and one of the closest associates of Joseph Broz Tito.

In this way, the weapon that killed a safi Albanian and symbol of resistance to them would be more than symbolic: it was a boasting about this family. The new Gjilas has translated in selected words the description of the Albanian hero.

Father had taken his long handcuffed silver handle and preserved it as the most expensive memory. To our surprise, we children felt regret and mourning over Isa Bolet. Father too felt sorry, although he was proud to have been killed by his own group. This was a particular grief, it was rather a admiration for a fearless Albanian hero who had fought to the end in a naked field, in the middle of the great road, without praying to any and forgiving anyone, as it were standing, helpless.

The admiration for him was also part of our grief. If a person should die, it would be good to fall just as Isa Boletin had fallen. Let him be remembered for ever from those who saw him, and from those who heard of him.

Much later, we told Father and harassed him because we had read that Isa Boletin had died in Shkodra. Father did not accept that. But it didn't matter to him whether this one had been Isa Boletini himself, or any of his officers, the main one was that Albanians who had fought in that battle and, especially their leader, who could not have been anyone other than Isa Boletini, had been killed. Father had been told that this was Jesus. And that was enough for him, the fact that his fall had been tested for life with rifle fire of”.

V EARN

In January 2014 all news agencies, newspapers, and television published news related to the murder of Isa Boletin 98 years ago. The Institute of Legal Medicine at Strasbourg University confirmed that the remains sent there for examination were of Isa Boletin.

Isa Boletini was buried two after the murder in Podgorica, surprisingly at a ceremony of mass participation, while Nasuf Dizdari of Shkodra also gave a speech during the procession. Since then, many events - not only honor but also mention of the name Isa Boletin - were recorded as a crime. For years the tomb was abandoned, no one went there - it was called a lost tomb. But in 1973, during that time called the liberalisation of Tito's regime towards Kosovo, the first requirement for the return of bones to their homeland was made. Thanks to the efforts of family members and scholars, the tomb was discovered, and on November 15, 1979, the required exhumation was carried out.

In fact, this process was accelerated by a Podgorica municipal project that in the land where the bones were cut, a park would be built. Along with the remains of Isa Boletin were the remains of the seven others killed in the January 23rd 1916 massacre. There were two facts proving that those bones belonged to Isa Boletin: The epithephus on the gravestone but also a lack of the middle finger bones in the left hand.

According to the Boletini family, Isa had cut off this finger at the age of three with axes. The bones were carefully placed in an ark and buried in a corner of the courtyard in the Mitrovica mosque in total secrecy. Muhamet Shukriu, Latif Berisha, Aslan Murati were the three people who swore to each other that they would not tell anyone this secret. A secret that was kept up to the freedom of Kosovo and then to build a special memorial.

Meanwhile, after the 100th anniversary of independence, the process of verifying bones began to perform an official burial ceremony. After verification, the first was Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who declared that the remains of Isa Boletin would be buried in Vlora near the tomb of Ismail Kemal. Rama also appointed June 10, 2015, as the date of this ceremony.

But, as in living and as in the dead the path of Isa Boletin to Vlora, the town where the Albanian state was conceived, had the same fate. Albania declared independence on November 29, 1912, but Isa Boletini failed to be an attendee in time. After 103 years his bones couldn't even get there. On June 10, 2015, Isa Boletini was buried for the third time, but not in Vlora as Prime Minister Rama declared, but in the courtyard of his tower in Boletin, Mitrovica. It was the family's insistence on doing so.

True Vlora was the weak spot of Isa Boletin, but Mitrovica was and will forever be the hero's greatest love, for which he melted life.

By Roland Qafoku- received from the book “100 most spectacular murders in the history of Albanian state 1912-2017”