Koçi Xoxe

Koçi Xoxe (pronounced [ˈkɔtʃi ˈdzɔdzɛ]; May 1, 1911 – June 11, 1949) was the Defence and Interior Minister of Albania for some time under Enver Hoxha.

Life

Xoxe was born in 1911 in Negovan, near Florina in Greece, back then part of the Manastir Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.^[1] Negovan (today: Flampouro/Φλάμπουρο) had a majority Orthodox Albanian population of whom identified with the Greek orientated Patriarchist Orthodox church and a minority of Vlachs.^[2] According to some sources, Xoxe was an ethnic Macedonian^[3][4] or ethnic Bulgarian^[5] from Aegean Macedonia and was initially a tinsmith.

Around 1937 he emerged among others, such as Enver Hoxha and Koco Tashko as prominent leaders of Albanian communism. He was a rival of Hoxha, and the Yugoslavs supported him.

He was purged for "pro-Yugoslav activities" after Josip Broz Tito broke relations with Hoxha's ally, Joseph Stalin. After a secret trial in May 1949, Xoxe was executed. He allegedly admitted that he was working for the British intelligence and that he was a conspirator with Tito. Xoxe was executed by a firing squad in June 1949.^[6]

References

1. United States Congressional serial set. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1948. p. 2.
2. Aarbakke, Vemund (2015). "The Influence of the Orthodox Church on the Christian Albanians’ national orientation in the Period Before 1912". Albanohellenica. 6: 3. "In the period before the Balkan Wars the Christian Albanians in Florina, Bitola and Thessaloniki recognized the Greek church authorities and attended Greek schools."; pp. 4-5. "Kǔnchov has the following to say about their situation: In Ano and Kato Kotori they were Christian Albanians mixed with Bulgarians and liable to be assimilated to the latter. In Bel Kamen and Negovan they were Christian Albanians and some Vlachs. These two villages had relocated from the Konitsa kaza in Ipirus. They came to Bel Kamen around 1840 and to Negovan around 1860… The village Negovan, on the other hand, withstood Bulgarian pressures to participate in preparations for the Ilinden uprising in 1903. Greek diplomats felt the village was relatively safe from the Bulgarians, but had greater apprehension of the Romanian propaganda (Δραγούμης 2000, 78, 180, 372). The villages Belkamen, Negovan and Lehovo became heavily involved on the Greek side in the Macedonian Struggle."; p. 5. "In the wake of the Young Turk revolution a new self-assertion could be traced among the Christian Albanians and the Greek clergy struggled to contain the nationalist Albanians in Korçë and Bitola (Bridge 1976, 401-2). This condition also extended into the kaza of Florina. Albanian and Vlach nationalists also challenged the Greek supremacy in the villages Bel Kamen, Negovan and Lehovo. In the village Negovan the Albanians were able to secure the use of the Patriarchist church by force (Bridge 1976, 418-9, 451-2)."
3. Balevski, Milčo (1987). Albanija po Enver Hodža (in Macedonian). Skopje, Macedonia: Makedonska kniga.
4. Elsie, Robert (2010). Historical Dictionary of Albania. p. 420.
5. Мете, Серж. „История на албанците" (Serge Métais, "Histoire des Albanais"), С., Рива, 2007, стр. 286
6. Berend, Ivan T. Central and easter europe 1944-1993 U.K. page 65.66

External links

• Miranda Vickers, James Pettifer, Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1997.
• Owen Pearson, Albania in the twentieth century: a history, I. B. Tauris, 2004, volume 3.
• Karen Dawisha, Bruce Parrott, Politics, power, and the struggle for democracy in South-East Europe, Cambridge University Press, 1997.