In the spring of 1964, an elderly woman, worn out by years and losses, sat down to write a letter that was neither a complaint nor a formal request, but a last human attempt to be heard. Mediha Frashëri was 72 years old at the time. The widow of Professor Refat Frashëri and the mother of Vedat Frashëri, a martyr of the National Liberation War, she addressed Enver Hoxha not as a political figure, but as another mother, in the hope that beyond power a shred of mercy might still be found.
Left homeless, sheltered for years in the house of the painter Sali Shijaku, she lived with her deaf-mute daughter, dividing her life between poverty, aging, and a pain that had no voice. Meanwhile, the eldest daughter had been living in Istanbul for thirty years, far from her mother and far from her country, and the desire to see her even one last time had become an existential need for her pain.
The request to travel to Turkey was not immediately rejected. On the contrary, it followed the formal institutional path of the time and, according to archival documents, was initially reviewed by the competent state bodies. The Ministry of Internal Affairs carried out the relevant verifications and, after their completion, gave a positive opinion on allowing Mediha Frashëri to travel as a tourist to Turkey. This approval was also communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which meant that the procedure was considered closed and that the trip was officially permitted.
But the process took an immediate turn when it was discovered that Mediha Frashëri had also written a personal letter to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Albanian People's Party, Enver Hoxha. The fact that the ministry had notified the interested party of the approval of the permit without the First Secretary's prior comment was considered a procedural violation.
Although this error was recognized, the decision was not corrected in favor of Mediha Frashëri. On the contrary, with the direct intervention of Enver Hoxha, the previously granted travel permit was canceled, turning a completed administrative process into an act of political and personal rejection.
Thus, a request approved by state institutions was rejected not on the basis of danger, violation, or legal objection, but simply because the dictator did not find it reasonable for Mediha Frashëri to travel to Istanbul to meet her daughter after 30 years of separation.
Full text of the letter:
Our dear son Enver,
I, who am writing this letter to you, am the widow of Prof. Refat Frashëri, patriot of the Renaissance and mother of Vedat Frashëri, martyr of the National Liberation War. I am a 72-year-old woman, my name is Mediha, I live with my 36-year-old daughter, who is unfortunate because she is deaf and mute. We are very grateful and deeply grateful to the Party that has appreciated the patriotic merits of my husband and my only son, and we both receive their pensions; we live very well, because the living loves everything.
But, what drives me, my son, to come to you with this letter?
We don't have a house. For the last 7-8 years, Sali Shijaku's mother has kept us in a room in their house as a friend. We feel bad that we have taken over other people's house. We have prayed to the Executive Committee of the President to give us a room and a kitchen in the many houses that the state has built, but unfortunately they are not listening to us at all. I am an old man with one foot in the grave, one above the grave, I just feel sorry for this unfortunate girl.
Second, I have a great-grandmother who has been living in Istanbul for 30 years, because I am of Turkish descent. The grandmother asked us to be a guest in Istanbul, because we missed her. I made a request to the Ministry and they informed me that I cannot go to Istanbul as a guest like many others. Why shouldn't I be allowed to see my daughter and return to Albania, to our homeland, where I have lost the bones of my good husband and the bones of my only son, who has burned my soul.
I, my son, the most precious of all mothers, await your answer.
I hug you with great love.
Tirana, 29.III.1964
Mediha Refat Frashëri
