BIRN: The Albanian Parliament "honors" the figure of dictator Enver Hoxha

His name is listed alongside other figures in Albanian history who were born or died in the month of October, such as Sulejman Delvina, Prime Minister of the government formed by the Congress of Lushnja; Franciscan priests who contributed to ethnology and literature; Father Shtjefën Gjeçovi; Father Gjergj Fishta; the Albanian National Renaissance figures Abdyl and Naim Frashëri; King Zog I; writer Dritëro Agolli; and others.

In an “informative” document sent to MPs, titled “National Figures (October)” and distributed via email to 140 members of the Albanian Parliament by the Parliamentary Institute, Hoxha is described as a “Hero of the People” and “Hero of Socialist Labor,” while his biography mentions him as the leader of the Albanian state, the Communist Party, and later the Party of Labor.

The email prompted immediate reactions from opposition MPs, historians, and civil society organizations, who condemned the action by the Parliament’s services as an unprecedented act that created division and insulted the victims of communism.

MP Erald Kapri from the Mundësia Party officially requested that Parliament withdraw the documents and issue an apology, describing the act as “scandalous.”

“How can the Parliament of Albania ask MPs to respect a former dictator responsible for thousands of deaths, imprisonments, and internments?” Kapri wrote in an email sent to the office responsible for producing the document.

Belind Këlliçi from the Democratic Party also described the document as an attempt to “revive” the dictator.

“Such tendencies to manipulate history show a malicious effort to resurrect the myths of communist historiography, where criminals are considered heroes of the people and totalitarian thinking poisons young minds, making the monist regime not only acceptable but even desirable,” Këlliçi wrote in a Facebook post.

The organization “Qendresa Qytetare” also took a stand, calling it a “scandalous act” that “promotes division and offense.”

“Inserting Enver Hoxha’s name on the list of October personalities in Parliament is like placing Hitler’s name in the halls of the Bundestag,” the organization stated.

The Albanian Parliament did not retract the document nor issue an apology.

In a brief statement to the media, the press office described the case as a “routine practice” of the Parliamentary library sector, “which periodically informs MPs with historical and archival data, aiming to provide general information about events, dates, or other elements of historical character.”

Furthermore, the Parliament justified the material by stating that it was entirely based on data from the *Albanian Encyclopedic Dictionary*, published by the Academy of Sciences of Albania (2008).

“The Parliament of Albania has not planned any specific activity related to the figures mentioned in this material and has not expressed any evaluative stance, positive or negative, regarding any of them,” the statement suggested.

Niko Peleshi, the Speaker of Parliament, did not respond to BIRN’s question on how the institution he leads, which has condemned Hoxha’s crimes in at least two previously adopted resolutions (2006; 2016), describes the dictator in glorifying terms.

Meanwhile, Peleshi’s office provided several pages from the Academy of Sciences’ Encyclopedia to justify what they called a “specialist’s error.”

The encyclopedia contains two pages dedicated to Hoxha, noting, among other things, that the system he led followed a ‘Stalinist’ model with harsh class struggle, which pushed the country into an economic crisis through the abolition of private property and total isolation. At the end of the description, the contributing author mentions that Hoxha held the titles of “hero,” but does not note that these titles were revoked after 1990, nor the 2006 parliamentary resolution condemning crimes committed by the communist state under his leadership.

For historian and lecturer Enriketa Papa, this act cannot be dismissed lightly.

“This is not only an insult to the victims, but an act that reopens wounds and undermines efforts for a democratic culture and social reconciliation,” Papa wrote in a Facebook post.

Albania was ruled by Enver Hoxha from 1944 until his death in 1985, during which Albanians were deprived of basic human rights. Archival documents report thousands of deaths due to hunger, torture, forced exile, compulsory labor, and both physical and psychological terror in prisons, investigations, internment camps, and labor camps established by his regime. Religious freedom was banned, and clergy primarily Catholic faced unprecedented repression, a persecution for which the Albanian Parliament adopted a special resolution in 2016, preceding the beatification ceremony of several Catholic clerics unjustly killed by the communist regime.

“KORÇA BOOM”