The Albanian Kingdom - the promoter of the Anti-Fascist War

Ekrem Spahiu

History provides all the historical, political, legal, and military evidence that the Albanian Kingdom promoted resistance and the Anti-Fascist War.    

Communist historiography, despite inalienable evidence and impartial reasoning, fabricated alibi for Zog's relationship with Italy, as if he sold Albania as if he welcomed the fascist invasion with open arms, and as if he abandoned the country.

But historical truth is not determined ideologically.

It is a fact that Zogu addressed the largest volume of economic and military relations with Italy. But we ask: What time and which Albanian citizen has not considered Italy the greatest strategic partner? Even the Albanian communist state considered that "Our relations with Italy are normal, they have improved continuously, and there are all possibilities for their further improvement."   

It is important to point out that at the moment when King Zog found that Italy had far-reaching goals of conquering Albania, he did not accept the Italian fascist invitations, requests, ultimatums, or pressures to bind Albania eternally to the so-called "treaties of common defenses," which were political instruments of military pre-occupation, a "suffocating embrace of Italy," as one researcher would describe it. Italy probably prejudged King Zog as a statesman who could "give in to an Italian pressure against his will, or his interests". Within this bias, the Italian side had thought that the financial threat could be used as pressure to accept the renewal of the Treaty and that "the policy of tightening the screws, cutting off aid, i.e., the suspension of the payment of the loan installment... would be Archimedes' lever that would break the king". But these pressures, as proven in many documents, "failed to shake him from his irrevocable position."  

It is already proven by authentic documents that "From the middle of February 1939, the Italian-Shipitaro relations took a further turn for the worse when the king of the Albanians started playing with open cards" and that King Zog's efforts to denounce Italian subversive activity, the Italian side sought to suffocate them through its efforts even "to eliminate King Zog", as the main obstacle to the invasion plans. 

If King Zog had "sold" Albania, as communist historiography suggests, then Italy would have come to Albania with tourist yachts. On the contrary, it is already universally known that Italy invaded Albania with a well-studied military plan through a real military operation, where the forces of large operational units of over 25,000 soldiers, hundreds of warplanes, dozens of warships, etc., were engaged.

Meanwhile, the dignified resistance of the Albanian army and gendarmerie, led by Major Abaz Kupit, one of Zog's loyal soldiers, is also officially recognized.     

Communist historiography, even the later one, has anathematized the departure of King Zog from Albania as if it constituted "abandonment of the anti-fascist war". But with sound, not blind reasoning, we find Haakon VII of Norway refused to bow to German pressure in World War II to abdicate, inspired army resistance, went into exile in England, and returned from exile to Norway in June 1945, thus enjoying the respect of the Norwegian people. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was subjected to almost the same fate. Despite this, King Leopold III of Belgium stayed put but, forced by German military supremacy, was forced to surrender, which cost him a long political and humiliating ordeal until the loss of the throne.

King George II of Greece, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, King Peter II of Yugoslavia, President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia, and President Vladysłav Raczkievicz of Poland went into exile during the Nazi occupation of their countries. 

No one declared these heads of state "traitors" of their countries. They simply did not accept the invasion and, therefore, they would not accept the humiliation that they would suffer from a power tens of times larger and more ferocious than Nazi Germany.

Then, even the sound reasoning of Albanian historiography should write in large letters that Zog's departure from Albania was an expression of the rejection of the invasion, sparing the prestige of Albania and itself the humiliation from the fascist or Nazi invaders.  

If we were to accept the communist thesis that Zogu "sold" Albania, we would also have to accept the thesis that he would naturally go to settle in some villa in Italy, where he would be greeted with flowers. But, as is well known, Zogu never set foot in Italy his entire life. Despite this, he chose to stay and work for the anti-fascist war precisely in Britain. This country led the war against fascism and Nazism to exercise its anti-fascist and anti-Nazi commitment through active diplomacy in London and the activation of Zogist forces inside Albania in support and support of the Great Anti-Fascist Alliance.

Meanwhile, his loyal forces in this war, led by Abaz Kupi, continued the anti-fascist resistance, precisely in the period when no other political force had started this war. Abaz Kupi preserved exactly the anti-fascist legacy and loyalty of the King, continuing the anti-fascist resistance even further, accepting, at the same time, to cooperate with the other anti-fascist military forces of the country, being accepted for this attitude and contribution as an equal member of the Staff of General Antifascist.

Thus, history has all the historical, political, legal, and military evidence and justifications that the Albanian Kingdom promoted resistance and the Anti-Fascist War. History is not made with ideological reasoning. Therefore, just as the Kingdom was monumentalized as a state, so its anti-fascist contribution, that of Ahmet Zogu and the Albanian royalists, should and will be officially monumentalized.