Bekir Balluk's secret meeting with Tito and his refusal to offer

“United to our father, Becir Balluk, who for years held the post of Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister in the government headed by Mehmet Shehu, began in June 1974 with the expanded Army Active Meeting, which was held at the Zogu Mosque in the city of Durres. The crackdown on him was prepared on the basis of a scenario well drawn up by the top leaders of the “pyramid” of the PPSH, with specific people within the ranks of the Ministry of Defence.

This is confirmed by the fact that the charges against him were initiated at a time that the material with the clothes to be presented for discussion at the Defence Council had not yet been made public and was locked in the office safe at the Ministry of Defence. After that, he was also tested at meetings of the Political Bureau, where Enver Hoxha gave the first orientation of the attacks on him, accusing him of being the biggest traitor Albania had had had until then.

After those meetings of the Political Bureau, Father was tested in the Fifth Plenum of the PPSH Central Committee, held on July 25th 1974, where he was attacked by someone more and less. At the end of that Plenum he was expelled and dismissed from all party and state functions. After that meeting, Father was not arrested as many of the former senior communist leadership personnel who were hit years ago, but was released to come home.

I remember when Father came home after that meeting and told us all that was possible in that Plenum, as well as the decisions that were made there at the address of his person. At the heart of those words that Father spoke to the afternoon father in our home, where all of us family members were gathered, was what he was not a traitor and had never betrayed the Party and Enver Hoxha. After that day, Father stayed for about ten more days without leaving home, since even those who hit him had not yet decided where he would be sent.

During those ten days that Father did not leave the house, in the vicinity of our villa in Block, security measures were strengthened, which was also evident by the addition of the Guard soldiers. During that time, in his talks with us, Beqiri for the first time spoke out against the party's top leadership, telling us that she was hitting him for nothing and all that was said at his address was manipulated”. Balluku1

The liberation Balluk, the eldest son of former Defence Minister, member of the Political Bureau and the first prime minister in the communist government led by Mehmet Shehu, recounts his father's unknown entire history, Becir Balluk, considered one of the most popular leaders of the communist regime of Enver Hoxha, who was shot at November 5th 1975 in a secret tunnel in the suburb of Tirana near the village of Linza, along with his two subordinates, the Chief of the Supreme States, Petritary Dün, Director of the military, Potto, Cacon.

Who was Becir Balluk, his origin and background, and where was he educated? How did Beqiri first connect with Communist groups, who were his closest associates during the war, and how did he first become acquainted with Enver Hoxha in 1943? What were the charges brought to Becir Balluk from Enver Hoxha at the meetings of the Political Bureau and the fifth Plenum, held on July 25th 1974, and what did Beqiri tell his family after that meeting, where he was expelled from all party and state functions?

What happened to Beqiri those ten days that he remained isolated in his block villa, who was the only man who could enter his house, and what orders did he give his children? What did Albanian Radio-Television Party Secretary Liberation, Beqiri's eldest son, ask him when he called to his office and what was the response he received from him? How did Beqiri get out of his bloc's villa to be exiled to Roskovec, Fieri, and how was he arrested on December 7, 1974, when he was exiled to Selenica, Vlora? How did the Balluk family learn Beqiri's execution, and how were they treated from that time until 1991 when they remained exiled to Selenica, Vlora?

The liberation Balluk is the eldest son from the six children of Becir Balluk, former Defence Minister, MP, member of the Political Bureau and the first deputy prime minister in the communist government of Mehmet Shehu, who remained in those high positions until 1974, when he was charged and hit by Enver Hoxha, calling himself a sabotator, an enemy and head of “Puci Military <x1, aimed at bringing down popular power in Albania.

As the chief of the Balluk family, the liberation remembers them very well and experienced many of the events of the distant time when his father was at the highest peak of Enver Hoxha's communist regime, as well as later when he was attacked by Enver on charges from the worst, which have already been made public for the extensive reader from numerous publications in the daily press after the 1990s. 41d08068b547e09cc985c9c9ba2b730d L

Mr. Deliverance, it's been said that Bekir Balluk by 1974 was Enver Hoxha's most trusted man, and that was related to the fact that he saved Enver twice. The first case is in 1948 when Josip Broz Tito urged Beqiri to sign the command to accept and introduce two Yugoslav military divisions within our border into the Korca area, which Beqiri rejected. While the second case is about 1960 when Albania was breaking relations with the Soviet Union. One of the members of the Political Bureau of the time, has testified to Memorial.al saying that at the time that Enver, Hysni, Mehmet, Kadri and Ramiz were in Moscow, the Soviet military attaché that was in Tirana, in drinking, provoked Beqiri by saying: “How do you say, let the four leave you out and give you the keys of Albania<1>? And the Soviet military diplomat's extremely clear insistence, Beqiri replied sharply: “If anything happened to the five in Moscow, I'm going to hang on the “Square Skenderbej” of 5,000 Russians in Albania”. Do you know, and how is the truth about these two events?

I can say that for these two events, I've heard naturally from different people, (not the rank of leadership), who after so many years cannot clearly and precisely determine who they were. But I think the fact, you know. Who were those people who spoke in Father's presence about those two historic moments where they were, as well as other family members, did not matter very much.

But I noticed that regarding the history of those two events and their argument, Father, Beqiri, did not like to be discussed at all, and the people who spoke about them immediately stopped talking. Of course, not being familiar with those events, especially with that of 1948, the curiosity of my age, I was interested in learning more than I had heard from the mouth of those I said earlier. Given what I said and also from the political and international personality that Yugoslavia's leader, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, at the time, had asked my father how the truth about that event stood. And the father's answer was what I'm saying to you in my own words, according to what I remember from my conversation with him.

During a working visit to Belgrade sometime in 1948, when Father was in the post of Albanian Army Chief of General Staff Marshal Tito had called Beqiri to a meeting outside the programme of visits and working meetings he had anticipated before leaving Albania for Belgrade. During that conversation, after voicing concern over an evident risk that could come to Albania from its southern neighbour Greece, Josip Broz Tito, had asked Beqiri, with the quality of Albanian Chief of Staff, to sign a document saying he agreed to introduce Yugoslav troops within Albanian territory.

We should bear in mind that this moment, the search for the signing of that document, refers to the time when Josip Broz Tito was declared and considered Albania's greatest friend.

What was Becir Balluk's response to that request made to Joseph Broz Tito?

The response Father had given Tito was this: “Albania does not have any potential risk of being attacked by Greece, but even if that happens, we are able to defend our own borders with all the military arsenals we are in command. But the main thing is that I'm not authorized to sign such a document”. Perhaps this story we are talking about is related to another unknown event involving the collapse of the Yugoslav military plane that Father was returning from Belgrade to Tirana after the end of that visit. During that flight to Tirana, the Yugoslav pilot made a forced landing somewhere in a field working near Lake Pogradec. This happened, our mother, Taib, (Bekir Balluk's wife) remembered her while she was alive, fearing that she felt the moment she learned of the event that had happened to Father on the Yugoslav plane.

What about the next incident, that of 1960 with the Soviet military attaché in Tirana?

As for the 1960 event, what it is about the crisis that involved Albania's relations with the Soviet Union, I have heard from others, like at the time, or read them in the post-90s Albanian press. As far as you asked, I think the form of how Father responded to the Soviet attaché (general) in Tirana after his provocation or suggestion, because the most important thing is the content of the response Bekiri gave him. But, as I put it elsewhere during this interview, I wanted to add: given my father's great commitment during those events, I remember perfectly well that we as a child felt his absence in the family. / Memorial. al