Historian Enriketa Papa has shared on social media a fragment from Mehdi Frashëri's notes, bringing to attention one of the most dramatic moments in Albanian history: the days preceding the Italian invasion of April 7, 1939.
In a Facebook post, the Pope explains that the reason why history remains so fascinating is precisely related to these direct testimonies of people who were protagonists of the events that changed the fate of the country.
"Why do I love history? For these reading discoveries, of witnesses to events that have changed the fate of the country," she writes.
According to her, parts of Mehdi Frashëri's notes reveal the tense atmosphere of those days, with uncertainty, debates and different positions among the political leaders of the time. The notes begin on April 3, 1939 and end on April 7, the day when Italian troops landed in Albania.
In one of the most significant fragments, Mehdi Frashëri describes a conversation with King Zog regarding the Italian proposals:
"The king asked me my impressions of the Italians' proposal. I replied by saying that these proposals resemble the words of a man who presents himself as a friend but asks another for his wife. In the face of such a thing, there is nothing left but to respond with weapons when it crosses the threshold of the house, and I added that I cannot participate in such a commission."
Continuing the notes, Frashëri states that he advised the King to prepare for war and immediately remove his family from the country.
"In the end I fled and as I fled I took the king aside, and advised him to send the child away an hour earlier and prepare for war. I too, with my two sons, will go to war. Such a sacrifice would create historical rights for us, it could even provoke a general war."
According to Papa, such documents are direct evidence of the clash of ideas and dilemmas that Albania's leaders experienced on the eve of the invasion, offering a more vivid perspective on the decisions and debates of that time.
