Xhevat Korça
Xhevat Korça or Djevat Kortsha (Korça, 10 January 1893 - Burrel prison, 27 July 1959) was a teacher, historian and Minister of Education of the Kruja government.[1]
He left translations of documents on Albanians from the Austrian archives, translations which are found in the State Archive in Tirana.[2]
Studies[edit]
He was born on January 10, 1893 in Korça, where he completed his primary education. As a young man he joined the squads of Themistokli Germeni and Spiro Ballkameni, for which reason he was sentenced to death by both the Ottoman authorities and the Greeks.[3]
He attended the gymnasium of Ioannina, Zosimea.[4] With the interest of Germenji and the support of Bajram Curri, the Albanian administration during the Austro-Hungarian occupation sent Xhevat together with some other boys with studies in Vienna. He studied at the Faculty of Philosophy, history department, from 1917 and completed his studies with the grade "summa cum laude" in 1922.[5] On December 15, 1918 together with fellow students Jani Basho, Remzi Baçi, Nush Bushati, Raqi Buda, Fuad Asllani, Gjovalin Gjadri , Luigj Kakarriqi presented a prayer to the American President Wilson where they ask "in the name of the Albanian boyhood and the Albanian nation to take this unfortunate nation under your protection".
Career[edit]
In 1922 he was appointed a teacher in Shkodra, when the state gymnasium was founded, together with Anton Paluca, Kostaq Cipon, Kole Margjini, Gabriel Meksi, Gjergj Kokoshi, Simon Rrota, etc. He was a member of the [[National Wing] organization]. In 1923 he was appointed the first director of the Shkodra Gymnasium. At that time he published in the Nikaj printing house in Tirana the study "Three questions from the life of Skanderbeg".
He supported the June Movement, which is why, after Zog returned with the Triumph of Legality in December 1924, he left for the Yugoslav Kingdom. It was joined by prof. Henrik Bariq as a lecturer of the Albanian language in the course-seminar that the albanologist held at that time. The Council of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade, at the initiative of Prof. Bariqi, had approved on May 31, 1925 the creation of the "Seminar for Albanian philology". Thus in 1925 Xhevat Kortsha was appointed by Bariq as a part-time lecturer for the Albanian language and literature, while during the academic year 1927-28 he held the course "Albanian language for beginners". The fruit of this cooperation are also the two reviews that Xh. Kortsha published in Bariq's magazine: "Arhiv za arbansku starinu, jezik i etnologiju" in 1926 (lib. III, n. 1-2), one published in Serbian belongs to "Skanderbeg's History" that Fan Noli had published in Boston in 1921. While the other written in German critically analyzes the German translation that Gustav Weigand had made in 1925 in the pages of his "Balkan Archive" some parts of Lahuta e Malcís. According to his cousin Sejfi Vllamasi, Korça had told him that he had organized and accompanied Alqiviadh Bebi to Prague, where the latter shot Ceno beg Kryeziu with three bullets in the head. The reason for which he was accused by the military authorities of the Yugoslav royal court of being complicit in the murder was that he had been fired and had barely left Yugoslav soil. [8] He took part in Konare, from where he left in 1927 after the Comintern conditioned the provision of aid on the communist conversion of aid workers. After 1927 he began to receive aid from fascist Italy.
In Austria, where he continued to live as a political emigrant, he gave up after translating the documents of the Austrian State Archive on the Albanian national history. After the assassination attempt of Azis Çami and Ndok Gjeloshi on Zog in Vienna, Kortsha was expelled from Vienna and moved to Graz. Kortsha was then forced to move to Italy, where he settled in Fiume.
In the days of the Italian occupation he crossed the bridge separating the Italian Fiuma from the Yugoslav town of Sushak to telegraph to King Zog from there - since in Italy censorship could easily block telegraphic communication. The object of the communication was the request he made to the old political opponent to open the borders to allow the patriots to flee to defend the homeland. He returned to Albania five months after the fascist occupation.
In 1940 he will accept the appointment as a member of the State Council together with Riza Dani, Sejfi Vllamasi, Omer Nishani, Fuad Asllani, Dhimitër Beratti, etc. With the appointment of his friend Mustafa Kruja as the country's prime minister in 1942, Xhevat Kortsha agreed to be part of the ministerial cabinet, taking over the burden of the Ministry of Education, but with two conditions:
Italian should be removed as a compulsory language from primary schools in Albania and Kosovo. All Albanian interned teachers should be released from the internment camp in Ventotene, Italy.
The reason why the Italian fascist authorities released Ermeni, Mr. Palin, V. Andoni, Butka and many other anti-fascists, whom he sent on as teachers in Kosovo who had already joined the motherland.
Another important cultural enterprise of that period, in which Xhevat Kortsha also participated, was the establishment of the Institute of Albanian Studies. The assassination of Qazim Koculi in Vlora pushed the prime minister to resign in protest.
Last years[edit]
With the departure of the Mustafa Kruja government, the political adventure of Xhevat Kortsha ends, whom the taking of power by the communists will find in his house in Tirana. This was immediately followed by the arrest of him and his son Genc, who had fought with the "Besnik Çano" battalion in Kosovo against the Yugoslav Chetniks and partisans. In April 1945 Kortsha appeared before the Special Court, chaired by Bedri Spahiu and Koçi Xoxes. He was sentenced to death, but later commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. In 1949 Xhevat was hospitalized in the prison.
He left the hospital without receiving any treatment, and continued his sentence in Burrell Prison, where after some time he decided to end his life by means of a hunger strike from which he died on July 27, 1959.
References[edit]
- ↑ Sina, Beqir (22 shkurt 2016). "Në Detroit vdiq në moshën 92 vjeçare intelektuali i shquar në diasporë Genc Korça - Kortsha" (in shqip). Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ Imeraj, Prenjo (24 korrik 2012). "Greva e urisë e patriotit Xhevat Korça, dhe fjalët e babait të Liri Gegës në burg". Metropol (in shqip). 2725: 16–17. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ Ndreca, Ardian. [alsiva.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/xhevat-kortsha-shembull-i-qendrimit-moral-per-intelektualet-shqiptare/ "Xhevat Kortsha: shembull i qëndrimit moral për intelektualët shqiptarë"] Check
|url=value (help). Metropol. - ↑ Dervishi, Kastriot (2012). Kryeministrat dhe ministrat e shtetit shqiptar në 100 vjet (in shqip). Tiranë: 55. p. 160. ISBN 9789994356225. Search this book on
- ↑ Me 15 dhetor 1918 së bashku me bashkëstudentët Jani Basho, Remzi Baçi, Nush Bushati, Raqi Buda, Fuad Asllani, Gjovalin Gjadri, Luigj Kakarriqi i paraqitën presidentit amerikan Wilson një lutje ku i kërkojnë "në emër të djelmërisë shqiptare e të kombit shqiptar të merrni këtë komb fatkeq nën mbrojtjen Tuaj».
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