✍️ “The escaped language has more life than the one held captive under that flag,” wrote Camaj to Arshi Pipa, while the dark web of the Sigurimi was weaving traps for him in Stalinist Tirana.
To honor Martin Camaj on the 100th anniversary of his birth, we joined the discussion at the National Center for Books and Reading with albanologists Enkeleida Kapia and Belfjore Qose, researcher Behar Gjoka, writer Namik Dokle, and others. The conversation delved deeply into his qualities as an albanologist, linguist, thinker, and master of Albanian literature, distinguished by his extraordinary style.
Through Altin Hoxha, member of the Authority, and Selami Zalli, Director of Information at AIDSSH, we also discussed his fate as an intellectual and citizen, marked by the establishment of the communist regime, his escape following the pressures of the former State Security, and his designation as an “enemy” by the regime.
🗣“Koha ku ai jetoi dhe krijoi, ashtu siç ishte fati i gjithë intelektualëve shqiptarë të diasporës – të refuzuar, të arratisur për shkak të dhunës nga vendi – shënoi edhe mungesën e tij të gjatë në diskursin shqiptar të komunikimit mbi trashëgiminë e tij”, – tha Alda Bardhyli, Drejtore e Qëndrës Kombëtare të Librit dhe Leximit.
✅️Camaj: Tirana has turned into a laboratory of a commanded language.
🗣 Enkeleida Kapia, Head of the Department of Albanology at the Institute of Linguistics, shared insights from the correspondence between Camaj and Arshi Pipa, revealing Camaj’s perception of Tirana at that time — a view marked by both his love for the homeland and the Albanian language, and his pain that Tirana had turned into “a laboratory of a commanded language” — a place deprived of freedom, where scientific and cultural life was heavily influenced by politics and directly inspired by Stalin. Yet, in Camaj’s view, Eqrem Çabej stood out as the only linguist who preserved the purity of the language and remained untainted by official politics.
“Tirana has turned into a place where language has ceased to be a means of communication and has become a means of persuasion.”
✅️Administrative investigation: Camaj resisted every attempt by the State Security to manipulate or recruit him.
While he was creating and working for the Albanian language and literature in Italy, Munich, and the United States, the State Security in communist Albania was surveilling him and compiling files about him — just as it did for his closest companions and collaborators in political exile, figures denounced by communist historiography such as Ernest Koliqi and Arshi Pipa.
🗣 Regarding this, Altin Hoxha, member of the Authority, spoke about several dimensions of Camaj’s persecution by the State Security, as well as the attempts to tarnish his reputation through threats to his life and failed schemes to recruit him
At the conclusion of the Authority’s administrative investigation into Camaj’s file, Altin Hoxha stated that Camaj not only refused to collaborate with the State Security, but there is also no reporting document or version that tarnishes his reputation. He resisted every attempt by the State Security to manipulate or recruit him.
🗣 Likewise, Selami Zalli, Director of Information, in a study of archival documents, concluded through his analysis that the documents attempting to cast a shadow over Camaj were manipulated with the aim of diminishing his academic influence as an albanologist and writer in high-level academic forums, not only in Europe but also in the United States of America.
✅️ “Anyone who tries to speak about Camaj’s file is disgusting.”
🗣 Meanwhile, writer and former Speaker of the Albanian Parliament, Namik Dokle, said:
The truth is good for everyone to hear, but anyone who speaks about Camaj’s file is disgusting. Martin Camaj is a writer, linguist, and patriot. In the old mindset, he was called a traitor, but like many others, he left his homeland with pain, knowing that if he stayed, his life would be at risk, the pressure would increase, and he would lose his dignity.
Anyone who tries to speak about Camaj’s file is disgusting. They are under the illusion that by throwing stones at a tree, they become the tree. But no — they remain stones, while Camaj remains a Tree.
Camaj never returned physically to his homeland, but his language returned to all of us. Today, Camaj’s words are free again, unshadowed by the dark hand of the former State Security, which, through slander, sought to absolve itself from criminalization.
The memory of Martin Camaj is an act of honor to those who preserved the light of the Albanian language and thought beyond the walls of isolation and poison.
The Authority and the National Center for Books and Reading continue to illuminate the path of truth through documents and testimonies that restore the recognition of silenced figures in Albanian culture.
National Center for Books and Reading Alda Bardhyli, Altin Hoxha, Selami Zalli, Brunilda Çërraga, Behar Gjoka, Namik Dokle
#Autoritetidosjeve #AdministrativeInvestigation #GentianaSula #MartinCamaj #AIDSSHArchive
✍️Migena Demirxhi
