Rexhep Ramë Balidemaj – A brilliant Albanian professor

Written by Ramiz Lushaj. Translated and edited by Petrit Latifi.

“The 18-year-old young Rexhep Rama (Balidemaj) crossed the Adriatic in the fall of ’38. From the Shkodra State Gymnasium he went to the Military Academy in Milan, Italy. His choice was a tradition of the troll, of the tower, of his world formation. He had a rifle for his tribe like the Kelmendas, the Plavë-Gucias, the Martinajs. He had sports for his soul. He had genetic, natural, bookish, vital intelligence, with a thirst for light.

Towards the West. As a pro-Westerner. That’s how Rexhep Rama went since the “Time of the Bird”. To take in Western culture. To dress as a high-ranking military man. He was led by the eyes of the soul, the mind of the heart, the steps of his upbringing. Systems, conquests, regimes often changed, but he did not change in his being and soul, in his family, in his path.

Kelmendi tribe

Rexhep Rama was and remains a pro-Western Albanian, like his Kelmendi tribe. A large tribe, with emblems like the principality of Skanderbeg’s Kastriots, a tribe with its own counts, a tribe with alliances with the Papacy of Rome and the Austrian Empire in the Anti-Turkish Uprising (1689) led by Bishop Pjetër Bogdani, etc. A tribe with its own high civilization in ethnic settlements from the coast to the Alps, with its own glorious history over the centuries.

Selcë family

Rexhep Rama is from the Selcë tribe and root-branch, of one of the four great brothers of the historical Kelmendi tribe. He is a Trojan of Kelmendi of the Plain (low, plain) in the valleys of Gucia, Plava, Gërbaja… He is from the village of Martinaj. His genealogical tree goes back 26 generations of ethnic Albanians, up to the 16th century. XII, to the ancestors of his tribe that the German Encyclopedia (1854) describes as one of the “old Illyrian tribes”.

Always in blood, in thought and walk, he has revived and exemplified his own tribe, the Kelmends. And in names. His wife, Mamica, a lady, had the second name Vera. Just like the mother of Kelmend (Kelmecia) – the first of the Kelmend tribe, who had two names: Vera and Shota (See: “Nokshiqi i Historisë”. Monograph. Albanian Forum of Culture, Education and Science. Tirana, 2013, p. 35)

He was from the Martinaj village

Rexhep Rama has his old lands in the ethnic Albanian village of Martinaj. On the shore of the lake of the city of Plav. Very close to the city of Gucia, in its administrative jurisdiction. The Martinaj are right among them. Geographically. Ethnically. Historically. As a privilege of God, as part of their backbone, as part of their ethno-historical core. These two Illyrian cities were even rebuilt by the Roman emperor of Illyrian origin, Constantine the Great.

Until the time of the ethnic division with the unjust geopolitical borders of 1913, Gucia – also called “Kelmendi’s City”, which in those times of the Albanian People’s Republic had over 400 houses, over 11 thousand inhabitants, over 50 shops for qeleshe (plisa), for jewelry, etc.

Not infrequently, some sinners, motivated by clan political intrigues or ethno-cultural ignorance, spit back with national blindness, calling Martinaj, the homeland of Rexhep Rama and his daughter Liri Berisha – former First Lady of Albania (1992-’97), a “Slavic country”, “Slavic people”. This is making me pause a little as if to reflect on some of the most recent facts, of the 21st century, of its second decade:

First of all, today, Martinaj, as a large Albanian village, is in a local administrative community with Gucinë, a completely new municipality (157 km2), which – after Ulcinj and Tuzi, comes third in terms of Albanian population in the small state of Montenegro. Secondly, Martinaj itself is one of the five villages under Montenegro with a population of over 500 Albanian inhabitants.

Thirdly, Martinaj is the second largest village in terms of territory and ethnic Albanian population in the entire Albanian Alps under Montenegro. According to the Montenegrin state census of 2011, Martinaj has 172 houses and 532 inhabitants (of which 501 are ethnic Albanians), while Vuthaj in Guci has 644 Albanians, Dakaj in the Rrozhaja municipality 362 Albanians.

All other villages in Montenegro with over 90 percent of Albanian population, otherwise 49 such, large and mostly small, very small, are in the Ulcinj Coast, as in Ulcinj and Tuz, in Tivar and Podgorica.
Martinaj, even in these last three years of this Euro-Atlantic century, they are facing the Montenegrin state chauvinism of Podgorica and Çetina, after they gradually grabbed a large part of its mountains twenty years ago, unfairly passing it to the neighboring municipality of Andrijavica.

Mount Jerina, residence of the Illyrian princess Jerina

They have built on Kodër Jerina – in the residence of the ancient Illyrian princess Jerina, an anti-ecological landfill, poisoning life and land, with the aim of depopulation for the inhabitants of that place, where misbehaved waste from the surrounding municipalities up to and from Berane and beyond is piled up.

Amfilohije Radović and his oppression of Albanians of Martinaj

Every three years, the Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church for Montenegro and the Littoral, the ultranationalist bishop of Çetina, Amfilohije Radović, often comes to Martinaj with his suite in black velour and a squad of police and soldiers with batons, guns and handcuffs, because he desperately wants to build a Slavic Orthodox church there where there are no residents of the only of the Orthodox faith, wants to put the black Montenegrin cap on the graves of Albanians bloodily killed by the incoming Serbs, etc.

The Martinajs, the local Martinas, are still being imprisoned and punished by the Montenegrin state just because they actively seek their constitutional, Euro-Atlantic rights; they are still being deprived of employment, municipal services, etc.; they are still fighting, sacrificing and challenging as living heroes to live and die as ethnic Albanians, with Albanian language, virtues, traditions and culture, with Albanian descendants.

Fortuna Balidemaj, poet from Martinaj

A 20-year-old poet, Fortuna Balidemaj (Mehaj) was born and raised in the historical Martinaj, in her poetic volume “Light in the Heart” (Writers’ Club. Peja, 2012, p. 99) with a high national spirit she gushes the epic verse: “I fight the devils / With the black bajlozi / To defeat the song of the cuckoos /…“Here are the graves of my ancestors”/ and gives him in Albanian, as an appeal and challenge, the troll’s bequests, which “I will write on the Red and Black Flag”.

Rexhep Rama, a young man over 23 years old, tall and clear-headed, after completing his higher studies at the Military Academy in Milan, was told to stay there as a lecturer. He needed his mind, virtues and values. He did not accept the rare offer. He thanked them. He returned to Albania, to Shkodra – the capital of the vilayets and sanjaks of Northern Albania that until the 19th century included Plavë-Guci and its Martinaj.

It was the year 1942. It was a war. In Italy, he had learned the ’39 War of the fascist occupation of Albania. And the Second World War found him there. Rexhep Rama was against the anti-Albanian borders of 1878, 1913, 1919. He did not want Valbona and Lim to be separated from each other. Nor Gucia and Plava with Vermosh, Peja, the Sanjak (Tregu i Ri).

Nor Shkodra with Skopje and Mitrovica. Nor Chameria with Kosovo. He wanted Albania in its true, Trojan, ancient borders. In the memoir and memorial monograph “Professor Rexhep Ramaj model of the perfect intellectual 1920-2006” (Grand Prind. Tirana, 2009), written by two of his true friends, by prof. dr. Qemal Shalsi and academician Gudar Beqiraj – at that time president of the Academy of Sciences of Albania, we find readable another peak dimension of this academic officer:

“In 1942, he returned to Shkodër and immediately traveled to Kosovo where he gave his contribution to the liberation of Kosovo until 1944, when he returned to Tirana” (p. 15). With this ‘high act’, Rexhep Rama (Balidemaj), this freedom fighter, breaks the marrow and bones of his own gene troll. Of the mind in military strategy. Of the rifle in the Partisan War.

The rifle in a wise mind becomes even stronger in share, glory, justice, glory. He went to war for nationalism, for freedom and independence; for Martinaj of origin and Shkodra of his upbringing, for Guci-Plavë and his Nation. The American daily “The Sun” of July 28, 1907 writes: “Of all the Albanian tribes, the Guciaj are considered to be the proudest and most warlike. The mountaineers of Plavë and Gucia are considered the most respectable and loyal among them for every promise they make…”.

The Grand Master and Teacher of the People, Rexhep Rama, felt pride until the eternity of his generations for the Martinaj of Plavë-Gucia, this territory raised and left in the war… This region, often, in Illyrian Antiquity, under the Roman and Ottoman occupation, was an “Independent Province”. Autochthonous. Autonomous. During the war years of the Albanian League of Prizren (LSHP), it was called “Little Albania.”

Battle of Nokshiq

At that time, in the War of Nokshiq – also known as the War of the Upper Lim Valley (December 4, 1879-January 11, 1880), the Albanian National Flag of Skanderbeg was raised for the first time in a frontal battle. This Great War was led by Ali Beg (Pasha) Gucia and Haxhi Zekë Byberi with the LSHP against the decisions of the Seven Great Powers (England, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, in conjunction with the Ottoman Empire), which at the Congress of Berlin (1878) demanded the surrender of the ethnic Albanian territory of the Gucia kaza (Plavë-Guci) to the chauvinist Principality of Montenegro of Czar Nicholas I.

In this war of international proportions, after the crushing defeat of the Montenegrin army, four Russian flags remained there, on the battlefield. History is proving: this extraordinary war was the Prelude to the Declaration of Albanian Independence in 1912 in Vlora under the Flag of Ismail Qemali. “New York Daily Tribune”, an American newspaper of April 20, 1903, documents: “The moment came when the inhabitants of Plav and Guci would write history. It was the period after the decisions of the Berlin Congress in 1878.

Its decisions were received with indignation by the Albanian population and leaders, who, organized in the League of Prizren, managed to successfully withstand frequent and unequal clashes with the Montenegrin army, making it practically in the years 1878-1912, enjoy the de facto status of an independent self-governing republic, not allowing even the Ottoman governors to exercise their administrative functions and openly challenging the decision of the of the Great Powers.

Annextion of Albanian lands by Montenegro

After the London Conference in 1913, these regions were finally annexed to the Principality of Montenegro”. Plavë-Gucia, together with the 70 towers of the Martinaj (Selci Balidemaj, Vukeljani Kelmanda in three brotherhoods: Hasangjekaj – Bajraktar Gate, Prelvukaj and Lecaj) showed extraordinary resistance against the military-combat offensive of the Kingdom of Montenegro.

Previsë massacre of 1913

There were unprecedented sacrifices. From October 1912 of the barbaric invasion to November 1913 of the territorial annexation of Plavë-Gucia, there was a tragic and bloody massacre, (un)known in history as the “Previsa Massacre”, where as the people’s song recounts: “Seven hundred people were shot / Not a single living person has ever been spared…”.

This is one of the greatest massacres in the history of the globe since the time of Christ and Muhammad. A massacre carried out by the Kingdom of Montenegro of Czar Nicholas I, by this small artificial Balkan state and the centuries-old “protectorate” of Great Russia. The International Court of Justice in The Hague must examine this extraordinary anti-Albanian massacre, as it contains five universally condemnable elements: Genocide. Terrorism. Crimes against Humanity. War Crimes. Ethnic Cleansing.

On the day when today’s planetary world will learn fully and scientifically about this great massacre, we will see that the Albanians of Plavë-Gucia and Martinaj will be at the top of the world list as among the most discriminated against in the globe by their future Slavic Balkan neighbors, by the state of multiethnic Montenegro.
Trepça, one of the oldest settlements in the Plav-Gucia region, mentioned by the Albanologist Franc Nopça (“From Shala to Kelmend. Translation. Sarajevo. 1910), there, around the 18th century, it took on another popular and official name: Martinaj, in honor and commemoration of a Selcë hero.

An Albanian from Martinaj in 1689 during the Austrian occupation

Known as Martin of sacrifices and challenges. He was killed in disloyalty, treacherously, immediately after his active participation in the Anti-Ottoman Uprising of the Kelmends in alliance with the Austrians (1689). This Martini was the first of the Selcian Balidemaj brotherhood of Rexhep Rama. Bali Dema of the Martinajs was distinguished as a successful leader of the uprisings against the Tanzimat.

Historian Rexhep Dedushaj claims that “for this very reason, Ali Beg Gucia chose him as his deputy during the wars for the defense of Plava with Guci in the years 1879-1880”, who “especially excelled in the battles that took place in Gërçar, Martinaj and Vizitor, defending Gucia from the hordes of Teodor Milan, in those cold winter days” (R. Dedushaj “100 years of war”. New York. 1999, p. 40).

French newspaper “Le Petit Journal” mentions Jerina, Albanian warrior female from Martinaj

He was a legendary warrior who became a legend. He remained the surname of a great and strong Selcian brotherhood, the earliest surname of Rexhep Rama. In the war for the defense of their ethnic lands, in addition to the men, the women of Martinaj also distinguished themselves. The American newspaper “New York Times” of May 21, 1911 and the French newspaper “Le Petit Journal” of May 28, 1911 describe the warrior leader Jerina, the daughter of the Martinaj flag bearer, as the “Albanian Joan of Arc”.

Andrijevica massacre of Albanians and crimes by Vuksan Dragovic in 1943

A very serious comparison, since Joan of Arc (1412-1431) is the National Heroine of France, who was “Blessed” in 1909 and declared a “Saint of Christianity” in 1920. The chauvinistic bio-political revenge of the Montenegrin kingdom struck again, treacherously and savagely, at the great door of Bali Dema, in Balidemaj. The Vasovics who came from Andrijavica killed his two brave nephews: Bajram Haxhi Balidemaj and Arif Avdyl Balidemaj in the genocidal Massacre of Previsa, along with several Martina martyrs such as Buti Kasem Çukaj, Hysen Delia, Nezir Cufi, Zekë Haxhia, Salih Kasem Çukaj and others.

At that time, 11 houses in Martinaj were burned by Captain Vuksan Dragović, a member of the Military Court in the occupied Plavë-Guci. In 1943, the Martina fighter, Demë Reku of Balidemaj, was killed in Cecu near Previsa by the Chetniks of Gjorgje Llashiqi.

Shkodër massares of 1919

The sons of Martinaj became an invincible dam in the defense of the Gucië and Plavë region from Majat e Vizitorit to Vermosh, which is why the Serbs attacked them fiercely and bloody. Historian Rexhep Dedushaj testifies: “After the massacres of the Shkodra in March 1919, the Martinajs moved to Shkodra. Some returned later and the others were settled by Zogu in Gurëz, where they are still today with the surname Martini” (See: R. Dedushaj: “The Plavë-Gucia Region Through the Ages”. New York, 1993).

New York Daily Tribune (1903) mentions the Gucia Albanians.

And finally, two facts that speak magnificently about the family of Rexhep Ramë Balidemaj: An American newspaper “New York Daily Tribune” (April 20, 1903) from across the Atlantic informs the world: “The Guciaj are brave and invincible: If you don’t mention them, you haven’t said anything about Albania”. Our great piece to his masterpiece “The Malcies’ Lahuta” (Zarë, 1925) deifies: “I went to the land of Gucis / The white hour of Albania! /.

Professor Rexhep Rama

Rexhep Rama had the honor of heading the Military Academy in Milan and was lucky enough to also head the “War Academy” in Kosovo. A rare case for a senior military officer. So, so to speak, he had two complete academies, as a continuation and elevation of the one another. He returned to Tirana in 1945. The 25-year-old boy from Martinaj, Gucia, and a citizen of Shkodra were taken to the coastal city of Vlora, to the Military Division there.

Ali Ohri, from the Albanian national aristocratic class of Independence from the Sandzak of Ohrid, a senior officer of King Zog’s Guard and a comrade-in-arms of Abaz Kupi, founder of the modern Albanian cavalry, persecuted and survivor of the communist regime, “Chamberlan” from 2003 and then minister of the Royal Court of King Leka Zogu I until he passed away (2010), was a peer, friend and colleague of Rexhep Rama since the Military Academy in Milan.

He, in the monograph “Professor Rexhep Ramaj…” (p. 15-16) writes his memories: “Rexhep had a desire to learn a lot and everything. He always read and studied. When I met him, he was either reading or writing. The desire to study never failed him. This work became a habit… Rexhep at school (Italy) made his face shine not only for himself, but also for his friends. He stood out from the rest”.

At the entrance to the Sports Academy (former IKFS) stands the name of one of its lecturers, Rexhep Rama. He completed his studies at IKFS. It was his second university. He managed to be among his exemplary lecturers from then on and still is today. He taught boxing and wrestling, as well as weightlifting and fencing. His name lives on in generations of students, in the memory of time.

One of his former students (1962-’63) and his colleague at KKFS in Tirana, prof. dr. Ilia Gaxho ûjevaro culminates with his assessments: “Professor Rexhep Ramaj is the most multifaceted figure that Albanian sports have produced… He was never defeated wherever he worked. He had a strong character, a humanist and a perfect professional. With his authority, horizon and honesty, he had very good relations with people, who loved him very much.

For his erudition and the foreign languages ​​he spoke, even foreigners spoke with respect…” (Book “Professor Rexhep Ramaj…”. p. 77-78). Prof. Dr. Guido Subashi expresses about his pedagogue and colleague (1960-’70) Rexhep Rama with an extremely high assessment: “With his sweet, warm, friendly and kind behavior, Prof. Rexhep imposed his authority on us with conscious and sincere respect. We awaited his lessons with great desire and anticipation, he did not communicate in a harsh tone, on the contrary, he was gentle, but demanding. He gave orders and commands with expressive gestures and angelic looks towards us…” (Ibid. p. 78).

The People’s Teacher, Rexhep Ramaj, at the age of about fifty, graduated from the third university for law. Knowledge of the law gives you strength, paves the way, above all it is a vital and professional culture. He, thus, became a member of three noble schools.

In the consciousness of his objectives, he wanted to give to sports, the school of the Albanian time, and also to be able to stand well on foot and in walking the communist system for decades. His whole life became a school and the school most of the time became his life itself. Student at the Shkodra gymnasium. Student at the Military Academy in Milan. Teacher at the “Skënderbej” military school in Tirana. Pedagogue at the University of Sports (IKFS). Teacher at the School of Economics in Tirana.

Usually good athletes run away from bad politics, but sometimes politics with some of its evils pursues good athletes, especially in severe and long-lasting dictatorships. Rexhep Ramaj seems to have had both. It is enough to observe his movements in various state duties and functions such as in the army, sports, education and anyone is convinced of such a reality in some historical eras of the nation. Even when politics was involved, he did not deal with politics. He knew the time and himself.

Dr. Muhamet Malo

Dr. Muhamet Malo, Meritorious Master of Sports, great philanthropist and humanist, successful owner of Euro-Lloto, TeleSport, Dajti Express cable car and shareholder in Credins Bank, president of the Albanian Wrestling Federation, decorated by AFCES with the “Pjetër Bogdani” Prize, above all a Nobel man – good and kind, in the monograph “Professor Rexhep Ramaj…” (p. 55) speaks with spirit about this rare man of Albanian sports: “he had such energy that when we saw him, we had to fly to be equal to him. I say that it is a pity that this country lacks such Albanians”.

Rexhep Rama, of Balidemaj, seems to have been born in Shkodran of history and citizenship only for Albanian Sports. God and his genetics gave him everything he needed to deal with sports and he won and gave everything he could for sports in his time and for generations. He grew up with sports and sports grew him. He has his CV, he has his height, he has his last name.

He and Sports were not two, but one and only one. No one could separate them: not all kinds of difficulties, numerous, frequent; not the most bitter politics; not even the first or third age. No one. Never. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, some sports walk with his name, as the foundation of heights, in walking steps and in achievement quotas.

Agron Sejamini

Journalist and activist Agron Sejamini, master of Albanian digital graphics and the clean writing of dozens of portraits in newspapers and books, he said a few words full of merit about the merits of Rexhep Ramaj: “God brought him into life to do sports… And he justified this mission and faith. It was lucky for Albania that in that period of renaissance, it had Rexhep Ramaj in its bosom.

An educated and prepared man who would be a luxury perhaps even for developed Western countries. Graduated from the Military Academy in Milan, equipped with extensive knowledge and scientific information for the development of sports, master of four foreign languages ​​and above all a patriot dedicated to moving the nation forward as much as possible”. (A. Sejamini “Rexhep Ramaj – one of the peaks of Albanian sport” (RD. September 25, 2008, p. 14-15).

Rexhep Ramaj, the honoree with the “Olympic Order”, speaks in his memoirs: “I started my sports activity at a young age. Especially as a boarder at the state gymnasium in Shkodra. Then I was active in athletics, gymnastics, basketball and swimming. During the summer vacations with groups of friends I did scouting, tourism and mountaineering mostly in the mountains and the Northern Alps… In swimming I participated in relays and in long swims to cross Lake Shkodra.

We had a lot of passion for basketball, at first I was active with the class team then in the school team that was also of the city of Shkodra…” (Work “Professor Rexhep Ramaj…” p. 12). It was Thus, Zog’s time itself raised great talents of Albanian sports, after in the Ministry of Education, Minister Mirash Ivanaj, had created a special sector for sports with the head prof.

Luigj Shala

Luigj Shala and there were steps and fruits to international. Shkodra was also a place with opportunities and spaces for sports. In the years 1934-’36, a sports complex was built in the Shkodra gymnasium that had three basketball courts, while in the capital Tirana there was only one at Shallvaret. There was also Rexhep Rama himself, passionate, contributory, active, qualitative, who in the spring of ’36, participated and won in competitions and championships. He practiced sports even when he was at the Military Academy in Milan.

Rexhep Rama was multi-sport and multi-valued. He participated and took places of honor in athletics competitions (Tirana, spring, 1945), in the first national shooting competitions (Tirana, 1946), etc. In fencing he was declared national champion, etc.

In 1947, having already returned from Vlora to Tirana with the task of a teacher at the “Skënderbej” school, he was entrusted with being the technical responsible for the organization by the Tirana Garrison of the first Gymnastics Manifestation. Until the 1950s, he was involved with military sports teams in basketball, volleyball, etc. In 1946, he made a fundamental contribution to the establishment of the “Partizani” sports club, etc.

The first Albanian national boxing event of 1947

In 1947, Rexhep Rama, together with Sotir Polena, Ali Kastrati, Luigj Shala, Myftar Marku, organized the first national boxing championship. In 1947, in addition to his “paid work”, he was assigned another task: the establishment of the women’s basketball team, the Tirana team, which he successfully carried out, also supporting master Adem Karapici.

With this team, they managed to win five women’s basketball championships (1947-1952). Coach Rexhep Rama had his concept and assessment of basketball as an “exciting, attractive, combative and spectacular sport”.

Prof. Rexhep Rama, together with Luigj Shala, are the founders of Albanian weightlifting since 1949 and, according to Ilir Krajë, general secretary of the FSHP (2009), they put this sport “on strong tracks, with high achievements and results, based on the traditions and strong character of the Albanians”. He was the coach and selector of the Albanian national basketball teams for men and women in the Balkan Games of 1946, 1947 and 1948, which took place in Tirana, Sofia, Bucharest.

Awards of 1947

In 1947, Rexhep Rama was awarded the title of “International Referee” in Romania. He was the first Albanian FIBA ​​referee. Otherwise: only after two decades, the World Basketball Federation would give such a title, the second, to another Albanian referee. For over three years he was a teacher at the military school in Tirana and established several sports teams in the municipality with the respective fields: basketball, fencing, shooting…

He also completed several international qualifications for sports as a coach and referee. Wherever he went, he left behind a good name and wherever he went, he brought great hope for sports… Rexhep Rama, like a rare person, had an eye and a hand in selecting new elements that over the years became emblems of Albanian sports. When he was serving in the military in Vlora, he spotted and even prepared the young Italian Giacomino Poseli, who remained there after the last war, to be the goalkeeper of the Albanian national team.

Albania won the Balkan Football Championship of 1946

In the Balkan Football Championship (7-13 December 1946) Albania was declared champion of the Balkans, where this goalkeeper selected by Rexhep Rama was a key factor in the victory. This was the first and last foreign goalkeeper until the turn of the 21st century.

All those personalities of Albanian sports as the deserved masters of sports P etrit Murzaku, Skënder Plasari…, FIBA ​​referee Virgjil Karaj, etc. dedicate their sporting achievements spiritually and worldly to him, in whole or in part. Rexhep Rama “gave up” to the former Skënderbeg player Petrit Murzaku in dealing with the sports of basketball, football, volleyball and boxing, so much so that in St. Petersburg (USSR-Russia) they awarded him the “Trud” gold medal and called him the “sports combine”.

He considers him not only the first coach, but also the “coach of life” and adds to his assessment: “He is a great teacher and master. Tireless, modest, serious in every job, model, loving, extremely communicative, exemplary husband, parent and grandfather” (Work “Professor Rexhep Ramaj…” p. 23). International judge V. Karaj, sportsman and lawyer, compares Rexhep Ramaj as a “colossus” and “senator” of Albanian sport, who “imposed respect, had absolute objectivity in judgment” and “above all, he did not undertake to solve something that he had not previously solved in his mind” (Ibid., p. 43)

All these achievements were achieved only in the five post-war years, in those difficult years of the reconstruction of post-war Albania when Rexhep Rama was active in Tirana and Vlora for the (re)establishment of sports and high sporting achievements in (inter)national activities. The 1950s find him in the position of inspector in the Tirana Physical Culture Committee and recently, as a need of the time and personal merit, he was elected its chairman.

Throughout this time, he radiated. He was at the peak of his age and achievements. In the capital, he gave sport dimensions and height, massiveness and quality. One of the personalities of Albanian sports, Nexhmi Kadiu, in the monograph “Professor Rexhep Ramaj…” (p. 44) recalled an episode from the time when the KSHKFS was subordinate to the Ministry of Health.

At that time, in the annual analysis of sports, Dr. Ibrahim Dervishi, minister (1955-’56), gave the floor to Rexhep Rama, addressing him publicly, quite specifically: “Speak, you tall, rare, wise one”.
5-It was the year 1949. The Albanian athlete, coach and referee, Rexhep Rama, married with love a girl of ancient Albanian origin, Milica, born in Belgrade.

She was “a dignified Yugoslav citizen” (p. 21), a “magnificent woman” (p. 39) as the honorable Prof. Dr. Qemal Shalsi, Meritorious Master of Sports, National Trainer, Albanian Sports Honor. Mamica’s name reminds you of that of Skanderbeg’s sister.

This marriage to Milica (Vera) also marked his departure from teaching at the Military School in Tirana and his promotion to inspector at the KKFS of the Albanian capital. There were times when the waves of class warfare from far, high and near hit Rexhep Rama, the missionary man of sports who, as his companions constantly said: “he softened even the stone”, “he had the potential for everything”… or as the “Teacher of the People”, sports commentator Ismet Bellova says “we had our idol, he was our inspiration” (p. 23).

Ahmet Golemi

Ahmet Golemi, the journalist, sports writer and boxer, who had Rexhep Rama as a teacher, trainer and friend, compares him to an “ambitious height” saying that “in the eyes of many, standing on the peak (mountain) as a metaphor would suit” this “colossus” with contributions, initiative and tradition “in building the foundations of several sports”… and, at the same time, he sculpts his portrait with physical spectrum, virtue and value with the description as “a tall and slender body and a straight and unbending character.

In his speech, in the rites of courtesy and education and even in his gait, one quickly reads the stoic man…”, as he was “The man to whom everyone has taken off their hat…”. (A. Golemi. Work: “Plejada e olympistëve” / Profile / Part One. Tirana, 2006).

Mamica lived in her holiness, never knowing or wanting to do harm to anyone and spreading a full radiance of kindness, honor, gratitude. She is (pre)judged badly, slanderously, then and now, now 65 years, in her life and afterlife, as a foreigner: sometimes as a Serb, sometimes as a Montenegrin, sometimes as a Bosnian… Politics, the clan political scene, is sometimes heartless and shameless as with this fact of Mamica’s (Vera’s) origin.

This politics attacked not only her life partner, Rexhep Rama, but also her children, her son-in-law Sali Berisha – a politician of (inter)national levels, as well as her grandchildren and, these October days, even her great-granddaughter. Attacks in four generations. Like rarely anywhere in the world. Like rarely or, perhaps, like no one in Albania.

Didn’t Ismail Qemali, the “father of Independence”, the founder and first president of the modern Albanian state, also have his Greek wife, Kleoniqi Anton Surmeli from Adrineja, born in Bulgaria and died in Spain, who with today’s status and protocol was the “First Lady of Albania” (1912-’14)?! Prof. Dr. Ilia Gaxho, while remembering Rexhep Rama and his family with respect, realistically states: “Fortunately, I also had them as neighbors. Even in the palace, his family was exemplary. He solved problems with kindness.

Milica from the Kuci tribe

His wife, Milica, experienced the repression of the dictatorship and always remained generous and full of gas…”(Ibid. p. 77) Milica Rama in her genetic roots comes from the Albanian tribe of Kuçi, from the ethno-historical three-branched territory: Kuçi i Vjetër, Kuçi i Ri (Drekalët), Triepshi (Trieshët).

This ancient and large tribe, according to academic Mark Krasniqi, “had a territorial extension in the southeast of the Bërda mountains to the north of the Komi Mountains, in the west from the Moraça River and its branch Malla Rijeka, from the south to the Dolani plain (north of Podgorica) and the mountains on the right side of the Cem River, from the east to the upper basin of the Vermosh River”. (M. Krasniqi. Gjurmë e grugime. Prishtina. 1979. p. 266).

Kuçi’s Albanian ethnicity is also evidenced by the “History of the Albanian People” (Tirana, 2002), the “Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary” (Tirana, 2008), etc., by Albanian historians in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, etc., by Albanologists Franz Baron Nopça, Karl Palç, Edith Durham, etc., by the bloody voivode Mark Milan himself, cultivated, exalted and thrown by the Serbs of Montenegro and Krajl Nicholas I.

History of the Kuci tribe: Vita Kuci, Pjeter Kuci and Lale Drekali

Kuçi appears for the first time in the name of the builder of the Deçan Monastery (1327-1335), the Franciscan Vita Kuçi, who came from Kotor (a branch of Medun), in the name of one of the owners of its land, Haka Kuçi, and within the monastery walls is the grave of a Kuçiot citizen, while in Tuz (1335) Pjetër Kuçi is mentioned, etc. Voivode Dre Kali (Drekali) of Kuçi, whom legends also link to the dynasty of Skanderbeg, left behind a genetic and throne successor, Lalë Drekali (with 1,500 warriors under arms), count, great hero of the Albanian nation.

Assembly of Moraça in 1608

This, the second Drekali, was one of the (chief) organizers of the Assembly at the Monastery of Moraça (1608) near Lake Skadar, in the Hoti troll, with Albanian, Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian leaders; of the Assembly of Kuç (in two sessions, July 15 and September 3, 1614), gathered in its tower, as the first assembly of general Balkan proportions; of the Assembly of Prokuplje (1616) and the Assembly of Belgrade (1620), with numerous representatives from ethnic Albanian territories and neighboring countries.

Over the centuries, Kuçi was attacked from all sides according to the Serbian-Montenegrin-Russian strategy, mainly by the Montenegrins and the Ottomans. Part of Kuçi was forced to submit to the Montenegrin invasion and annexation, changing their national and religious identity. Another part remained Trojan Albanians, especially Triepshi in the present-day urban municipality of Tuzi.

A large part openly migrated to the Albanian coast as far as Kotor, but mainly migrated to Northern Albania along the banks of the Drini, Tara, Lim, Sitnica … up to Belgrade, keeping the surnames Kuçi, Berisha, etc. Mamica Rama’s ancestors until the 19th century. XVII were Albanians from Kuçio of the Catholic religion, who faced the Ottomans in war and were defeated by them and a group was uprooted from Kuçi, returning to Montenegrin citizenship and the Orthodox religion somewhere in the ethnic Albanian Kolashin with an Albanian population and, from there, they went to Belgrade and were recognized there as Serbian citizens.

In Belgrade there were also others of their brotherhood from another direction, another path, who had gone there earlier. (R. Lushaj. Albanians in Montenegro. Work in manuscript. Tirana, 2011-’14).
Mamica, after her arrival in Albania (1949), returned to her old Albanian identity, becoming in her motherhood more true Albanian than hundreds of thousands of Albanians born and raised in Albania and in Albanian territories in the Balkans.

This new realization of her was also influenced by what the famous athlete, head coach and pedagogue Met Spahiu says: “Professor Rexhep Rama was in the full sense of the word “a highland man for work, mind and assembly”… In conversations we would bring out our longing for our homelands… (Plavë-Gucia of Kosovo). I was passionate, he was as usual measured and balanced.

He was highly cultured, but I would put a lot of emphasis on history and geography. He spoke in detail about dates and events, about Kosovo, Montenegro and Chameria. I heard from him things that others had not told me. He also knew the Balkans and Europe very well… Rexhep also had a crush on Enver Hoxha, because when he went to Yugoslavia for a visit, invited by Tito, he met Miladin Popovic’s mother, while he did not go to Kosovo to meet the Kosovars…” (Work “Professor Rexhep Ramaj…” p. 65-66).

Of course, Mamica, under this earth that does not feel us and above the sky that sees us, must be said kindly that she has fulfilled her sacred mission in this and that world: as a worthy wife of Rexhep Rama, as a brilliant mother of three children, Liria, Agimit and Vjollca (with symbolic names), as an angelic grandmother with many grandchildren up to four genetic generations.

Meritorious Master of Sports, Marjeta Zaçe-Pronjari, MP, former Secretary of State for Sports, shares with the reader her memories of Rexhep Rama: “I would consider it even more fortunate to meet his wife, “Mama Milica” as her granddaughters called her, who together were a model couple, in terms of their relationship, the way of communication and the behavior that they conveyed in the family and society. They reflected those qualities in their noble appearance, fortunately inherited by their children” (RD, September 25, 2008, p. 15).

Medicine knows that of the approximately one hundred trillion cells in the human body, nearly 300 million of them die per minute and are replaced and renewed at the same time, but in the body and days of Rexhep Rama (Balidemaj) there has never died a single cell of love and activity for his sacred trinity: Family, Nation, Sport.