Scholars who spoke at the meeting organized in the hall “Cardinal Mikel Koliqi”, in Shkodra, stressed the fact that the Albanian diaspora played a special role in the development of Albanian thought, especially during the communist period, when free expression was banned in Albania and when , a number of well-known authors of Albanian literature and studies, were banned.
Professor Romeo Gurakuqi spoke about the existence of two important cultural centers of the Albanian diaspora, in America and Italy, which kept alive and intact the national culture.
“The enlightened Diaspora created the cultural, survival center of the Albanian being. Exactly, with two such centers of the political-cultural circle that Ernest Koliqi built in Rome around “Shejzave” and, together with him, a number of other patriots around the Independent National Bloc, around the Committee “Free Albania”, in New York , of Vatra or the “Albanian Catholic Bulletin”, directed by Gjon Sinishta in San Francisco “.
The researcher of the archives, Anton Kodrari, exhibited during the meeting parts of the correspondence of some of the personalities of the Albanian world in exile. He said that the archives of the Albanian diaspora as well as the epistolary of Albanian personalities in exile remain undiscovered and unstudied. They, he added, are important parts and evidence of national culture.
“The undiscovered archives of the diaspora are the archives of Professor Ernest Koliqi, the archive of Professor Zef Lekaj, the Mirditor erode, the archive of Professor Mhill Markut, the archive of the Gjomarkaj family, the archive of Gaspër Kiçi and some parts of the archive of Martin Camaj, etc., etc. . “I was able to focus more on manuscripts and correspondence.”
An important part of the meeting on the role of the diaspora in national culture was the revision of the book “The Red Pioneer” by Albanian-American professor Mhill Marku, who, although in exile, managed to convey a picture of the communist regime of the time.
Albanian-American Mhill Marku was born in Lotaj, Dukagjini in 1919 and died in America in 1966. He published a large number of articles on Albania and Albanians in foreign newspapers and magazines. For several years he was the director of the Albanian language at the Institute. of American Army languages.
