(Some very true and real memories and thoughts and evaluations about the activity of the national issue of Albanians under Yugoslavia - Serbia Abdyl Krasniqi from Drenoc i Malisheva).

I met Abdyl Krasniq in the years 1976 - 1977. It was a time when all the Albanians were looking for each other, and found him on their own to unite and act and finally fight the invader, at that time Yugoslavian and finally Serbian. It was this mission that all the patriotic Albanians had set themselves, including Abdyli with his characteristics, his work and his dynamic commitment, to achieve what they doubted at the time, but that the people Albanians have always believed in the ideal of Abdyl and all the patriots engaged in winning the freedom of our occupied homeland. Time showed this.

To make an assessment of the figure of Abdyl Krasniqin will not be an easy task for me, who consider myself a collaborator with him.

It should be noted that Abdyli was born on May 1, 1939 in Drenoc, Malisheva. Who, after his first lessons in his hometown, would continue high school at the Prizren Normal School. While he completed his history-geography studies at the General High School in Gjakovë, and the Faculty of History in Tirana. After completing his studies, in addition to work, he would also take on the activity for the national issue, which would lead him to the doors of unemployment, UDB, torture and prison, but without compromising his will to do what was most valuable for the freedom of his country and his countrymen.

        Abdyli was a teacher in the Drenovc village school. He was an excellent educator of children both for knowledge and national education. He really was a special hero of his time. His work, his work had special dynamics. His life had the characteristics of a man of sacrifice for others. He seemed to have a penchant for doing jobs that others found difficult, impossible, or dared not do.

He was exactly the one whom fate would have appointed, or rather, he had taken his fate into his own hands, to exhume the remains of Azem Galica, the hero of the Albanians, the commander-in-chief of the Albanian Kachak movement, who he had been buried for about 50 years like no one else in the world in a deep grave, from where no one had dared to enter and take him out.

        Abdyli would have a different life from the time when he took out the remains of the hero - the freedom fighter from the cave of the Gllareva mountains. He had already been put on the record of the occupier and his torture mechanism, the UDB, as a declared nationalist, as an irredentist, as an anti-Slav, as a patriotic Albanian who would not tolerate the occupier and would not be obedient and subjected to this conqueror.

It should be noted that Abdyli was not alone in the first steps. He also had friends who were with him, were by his side and acted together with him. Since he had established connections in Albania as well, he had additional opportunities to further expand his activities on the national issue. That's how he acted all his life to be in the position that was of interest for what had to be done in the service of the motherland and the nation.

Abdyli had given proof of security and physical, spiritual, psychological and moral strength, that day when he took the responsibility to descend into the deepest grave in the world, to bring to light an important element of national historical values ​​such as the extraction from that depth of Azem Galica's bones.

He managed to get into that cave, where no one else had gone down except for Azem Galica. This would happen on May 22, 1971. When he would courageously take action that few could understand or imagine at the time. That cave was a mystery to everyone, no one could know what its depth was or its structure. Only Azem Galica had passed there before him, after he had surrendered his soul.

For 47 years, the remains of the leader had remained in that special tomb. Until Abdyl Krasniqi went down to that grave with a depth of 73 meters, he was almost a legend. But it would already turn into a tangible reality.

At that time, as a 20-year-old, I proudly experienced this symbolic action, which really gave us strength, to understand that we would be stronger from here on. It was possible to raise Azem Galica from the underground in the light of the sun, and this meant a lot for us young people, but especially for the young people who had taken upon themselves a mission, to fight for the homeland and national freedom. Under these conditions, Abdyli would become our goal to become a friend and active with him.

This magnificent work of Abdyl Krasniqi made a great impression on all Albanians. It was understood that actions could already be taken that filled us nationally. But one could not even think that such work could be done easily. Today may seem like a winter tale, to fill the time. But at that time of the brutal Yugoslavian Serbian occupation, for the least national activity that could be found, life was wasted. However, there were enough of them, like Abdyl Krasniqi, who did not consider the danger.

It is understood that the conqueror was also informed about Abdyl's work. So he would leave his job only 3 months later, arbitrarily removing his right to continue teaching children, a task he had a special passion for.

Of course, Abdyli was doing actions that enlivened the Albanian national spirit. But these caused him personally and his family and children to suffer a lot. However, that family trunk constantly gave themselves and the nation pride with their endurance and their activity in the interest of the homeland and the nation.

I am allowed to say that activities like Abdyl Krasniqi's are great and magnificent. They are the ones that make us proud. They are the ones that give us security. They are the ones that make our vision for the national future clear. The world creates such national figures out of nothing. But we have the privilege of having them among us. We have the privilege of being fellow travelers, contemporaries, collaborators and fellow fighters with them. Therefore, on this occasion, I would appeal to be careful with such figures. They ask us nothing, except that we value their work, to keep their work fresh and not to forget the challenges of the history through which we have come. To feel good to talk even in class with the children at school about the aspects of the heroic history of Albanians as a whole and the war against the invaders in particular, coming to the most recent war, the Liberation War of Kosovo which gave us freedom and it gives us pride in all times to come, as a model, to face any kind of danger that may threaten the homeland of the nation.

        Abdyl's courage was unique from the courage of many. His courage was public. He does not hesitate for a moment to confront the invader publicly. And always without disconnecting the secret activity for the national issue to which he was dedicated. Thus, he did 19 court hearings with the occupying state machinery, until he finally returned to work as innocent. And to undertake such public actions accusing the occupier and at the same time to continue the illegal war by extending it to all the occupied spaces, this truth is not only a brave activity, but also with a studied strategy of the security of the continuation of the patriotic activity .

        That bequest of Azem Galica in the moments of change of life left to his friends: "Brothers! Trust the homeland, protect it and fight unitedly for its freedom. You escort the wounded and orphaned children to Albania. You Shote, don't be part of the pack. I know that you have never forgotten your name and your bravery. Goodbye brothers! Kosovo and you gave me strength, heart and fighting arm. Even dead, I want to fight with you. Therefore, burn my body or throw me into an endless well. The enemy must not know of my death. The brave have no time for tears. Tighten your arms, the war must not be stopped...". It seems that in Abdyl Krasniqi's spirit, morals and strength, he had taken more place than in any other Albanian. He seemed to live practically with the giants of Albanian history. He made every effort to be at the height of the heroes in history. That's why he never got married.

My collaboration with Abdyl has been intense. Although over the years from 1976 to 1989, she was arrested and imprisoned many times and kept in Peja prison. He remained publicly inaudible to the Yugoslav-Serbian state, which kept our land occupied and all the Albanians of these lands under the yoke of its laws.

        I appreciate that he was a very determined activist to fight the Yugoslav-Serbian invader and to bring freedom to the people of occupied Kosovo. There was no wavering in all his activity. He was always in a hurry. He wanted to do everything at once, today and without any problems. From that time it seemed as if he saw Kosovo liberated, as if he saw all the Albanian territories united. It was the model of national morality.

His sufferings were great. The conqueror had him under surveillance at all times. But he also always stood in front of them without wavering. And with this public confrontation, I think he had found the safest way to carry out his duties within the framework of the illegal activity, which was very intense and unstoppable and uninterrupted. As if he had found the key to hiding his illegal national activity. Once the opinion was created that Abdyli is so rebellious, disobedient, unsubmissive, declarative, untenable, but there is nothing further from him. Thus, at that time it could not be thought that this declarative Abdyli had his connections in all the occupied lands and even up to Tirana, to complete his mission which he had taken upon himself to organize by all means the national activity for liberation.

However, this method of action, I said, put him under the handcuffs of the UDB and the Yugoslav-Serbian police. He put him under continuous torture, which I face with great spiritual strength. But he was always very alert. Despite the successive raids on the family, they never managed to find those things that should not be found. He was a master of illegality through legality. However, the great abuse and torture that the UDB did to him took its toll, he was severely physically harmed in the torture. So much damage was done to his body that he was unable to work. But they failed to make him unable to continue the fight for the liberation of the homeland and the unification of the nation. And although he is unfit for work, the UDB will continue to keep an eye on him, but in no case will they be able to trace his illegal work. And although in these conditions and politically differentiated, as was the case at that time for all those who were not subject to the conqueror, he stood on his feet to walk towards the freedom for which he had worked all his life, being convinced that he would one day he would reach her, the freedom he had never dreamed of, but had invested his whole life and his whole family and children to reach.

I remember with great feeling that statement of his that was not only in his mouth, but also in his mind, soul and heart: "To be born - begs to die!" So he saw death for the country as the birth of the country, as the birth of freedom. I remember a moment during the Kosovo Liberation War, when we met. It was immediately after Fehmi Lladrovci and Xheva had fallen on the war front fighting heroically. And after he said those words of the soul that they belonged to the country and fell for it, a voice came from his heart, I would say: She was simply my daughter, she was my friend. I remember that moment with a lot of feeling even today, because I also had that girl - Xheva, as a friend.

         But I think Abdyli all his children boys and girls had friends. I always appreciate them, I always trust them, I always charge them with tasks, which they carry out with dignity, but he also never acted worried or careful, to avoid his children and his family members from danger. For him, the first thing was the duty to the motherland, then the others. Therefore, even during the Liberation War of Kosovo, he himself first and all his family and children after him were in the ranks of the army where there was the greatest danger, where there was the greatest need, where the situation was the most difficult.

Abdyli was in regular contact with me from 1976-1977, as I explained above. At that time I was working as a chemistry professor at the "Luigj Gurakuqi" school, in Klina and in the separate parallel in Kijeva.

        Abdyli had his children students at the "Luigj Gurakuqi" school, in Kijeva, which I remember were Xheva, Servetja, Sabrija. Sabrija belonged to Abdyl's Ibrahim (aunt), an old man at the time, but with clear patriotic orientation and convictions. Ibrahim Krasniqi, Abdyl's aunt, was a quiet man, very sensitive and intelligent in his thoughts and brave not to listen to the regime of the Yugoslav-Serbian conqueror.

        Abdyli and Atxha Ibrahimi had caught the eye of the conqueror as opponents of him and of the regime he had installed in the occupied Albanian territories.

        Abdyli was such that regardless of the rest of us, he was supplied with illegal patriotic literature from the Republic of Albania, as he had his own connections and supply lines from there.

Abdyli had connections with various Albanian people and families throughout Kosovo and the territories occupied by Yugoslavia - Serbia.

         I briefly went through this mammoth life, because I cannot detail all his activities, without saying that the numerous court hearings, the psycho-physical tortures in the interrogators' rooms and the long sufferings in the dark dungeons of various Yugoslavian Serbian prisons represent a a story that I don't even think I can present, because it is very busy, as my life is also busy, but for now I have left it in the shadows, because it takes time and peace of mind to deal with to. The peace that I still don't have and that I wish to have when the war ends and we feel completely liberated.

         Abdyli, as a public activist for his homeland and nation from 1971 to 1996, has been sentenced over ten times from seven days to five years in prison.

And yet the raids and persecutions of his family had no end. Thus, within the month of October 1995 alone, there were eight raids on his house, during which all the furniture was demolished, looking for weapons and his son, Fitim. And in those days, his daughter, Servetja, a regular student of the Faculty of Agriculture in Pristina, and for a long time held in Smrekonica Prison, without knowing anything about her fate, was also kidnapped.

This was followed by the arrest and imprisonment of his three sons: Atom, Hlim and Fitim, on April 14, 1994, then the mistreatment of the younger son, Kushtrim in the eighth grade, etc.

        Abdyli in 1981, when mass demonstrations took place in Kosovo, was ready to take responsibility as a national, organizational, resistance and even armed resistance for the Republic of Kosovo.

In the events of April 1981, we, our group led by Mehmet Hajrizi, Hydajet Hyseni, Gani Syla, Nezir Myrta and many others, against the time of the events developed, made the processing from which the "Theses of the Front for the Republic of Kosovo" emerged. .

In this organization, in the territory of Klinë - Kijavë and beyond, we recruited and organized around 60-70 members for the "Front of the Republic". That Abdyl Krasniqi, with his children and a wide circle of well-known people of the ideal, was tasked to be one of the leaders in this territory and beyond.

I had direct ties with the state of Albania, but Abdyli also had his own direct ties with the state of Albania.

In the years 1978 to 1989, I made the movements to Albania as needed.

Abdyl and I had full confidence to talk to each other, but in our relations with the Albanian state, we each acted in particular for the work we performed.

To create a clear conviction of how great was the trust and connection between us, I remember that at one point, Abdyli tells me that I need to go to Albania, but I can't because I have one leg sick and can't walk. (Of course, in those days the roads to Albania were very dangerous, as apart from having to walk through the mountains, it was cold, snow and frosty, or hot and without water or bread, but the danger was even greater to be dictated to and killed or to be beaten and tortured continuously and to be sentenced to long prison terms or even to be liquidated .) That's why he told me, since you are going to the faith, I will give you a child with me if you accept my friend Azem.

I agreed to take one of the children with me, I don't remember which of the girls was Xheva, Servetja, or Sabrija, which I will have to clarify in my later memories, since one of these came with me on that journey to in Albania.

The girl who was with me on that journey had Abdyl's orders with her, together with a written material of about 50 or 60 pages.

While I had my own issues to deal with and for which I had taken this journey. We made the trip together on the way out and back.

Note: It was a strictly defined rule that the movements in Albania and contacts should not be known even by members of the group in which I was organized. For me, such an action was of great importance as it ensured the secrecy of the action. But as you said with Abdyl, the ties were very strong and we acted together, although without fully revealing the secret of the action between us.

        Let's go to the years 1989 - 1990 - 1991 - 1992 - 1993, when the conditions were created for the thought and action of the armed resistance for the freedom of Kosovo.

        Now Abdyl Krasniqi had his whole family - or all his children - ready to contribute to the armed struggle of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

        In 1993-1994, Halim Abdyl Krasniqi, together with his brother Atomin, were arrested in Macedonia, carrying weapons for the preparation of the armament of the KLA.

        Halimi and Atomi in Macedonia are caught by the police. They were also accompanied on this journey by Ali Ahmet's brother - Fakriu and Fazli Veliu's brother - whose name I can't remember at the moment, and Behxhet Luzha.

        The son of Abdyl the Great, Selajdini, was a worker in Switzerland, who was also organized and very active in the ranks of the LPK and a constant contributor to the war, the freedom of Kosovo, without stopping to the limit.

        Similarly, Selim Abdyl Krasniqi, returned from Germany, is engaged in the KLA, doing a great work for the liberation of Kosovo. As well as Oath, Consecration, etc.

Abdyli himself already closely followed all the movements for organization and for the combat activity of his sons and daughters and all Albanians in the ranks of the KLA. He was constantly near the structures of the KLA, taking care, searching, helping, advising to do the best for the war and liberation from the occupation and the victory of freedom for which he had sacrificed everything without hesitation throughout his life.

So, Abdyl himself was active in the KLA, but so were all his sons and daughters, as I remember Atom, Selim, Halim, Fitim, Shqipa, etc.

        But he would make a continuous appeal to everyone who appreciates and observes the oppressive and suffocating situation in Kosovo, when the violence and terror of the Serbo-Slavic conqueror on the occupied Albanian people continues with alarming proportions, violating all rights: civic, human and national, of a people, that seeks these rights and equality like any other people, all political forces in Kosovo are invited, to be serious and unique in the service of the time and the nation in general, within the framework of defining, standing , the will, the decision and the word of the people, which was the armed struggle for the liberation of the country from the 100-year Yugoslav and Serbian occupation.

        So, Abdyl Krasniqi was one of the initiators of the creation of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who started the path to get there early. He was known, loved and respected by all the leadership of the war and was always there with all his power to do the best. As if throughout his life he would have been everywhere in the occupied Albanian lands, always keeping in action the entire formation of his children, who gave all their capacities to the motherland and continued even after liberation to have problems with those whose attitude and war has broken the harmony with the Yugoslavs and Serbs. Just as the entire KLA is accused, the children - now men and women - of Abdyl Krasniqi have not been spared either.  

Abdyli passed away on December 20, 2009, he was born on May 1, 1939 in Drenoc, Malisheva. He saw and experienced Kosovo declared an independent state, and I am convinced that he went with a fulfilled dream because this was not achieved without his and his children's sacrifices, as well as without the sacrifices of all honest Albanians. patriots.

Today there are still Albanians who curse and slander the KLA. Now even armies are looking for another, even warriors are looking for others, only those who fought are not good. The war was done. Well done. Those who gave their lives were good. But those who freed us are evil. I feel sorry for those Albanians who have fallen to this level. I pity them. But he did not forgive them.

Azem Syla – Commander-in-Chief of the KLA