Ndoc Nikaj was born in Shkodër, Catholic priest, prose writer, “father of the Albanian novel”, translator, publisher, member of the association “Bashkimi”. He studied at the Albanian Pontifical College, in Shkodër. He was ordained in 1888 and was a parish priest in Malesia e Shkreli. In 1909, he founded his small publishing company “Stypshkroja Nikaj”. As a publisher, on January 1st, 1910, he published the first issue of the weekly “Koha” in the second issue under the changed name “Bashkimi”. In the spring of 1913, he founded another newspaper, “Besa Shqyptare”, which appeared two to four times a week, until 1921. For a short period, from July 29th, 1915, this same newspaper was published with the title ” Zani of Shkodra”. In 1921, he was arrested and spent 46 days in prison in Tirana, for unknown reasons. Beginning in 1924, he no longer wrote. He was arrested in Shkodër, on September 9th, 1946, at the age of 82, on the very day of the Postriba uprising. After the uprising was suppressed, he was mounted on a donkey and paraded through the city, with a rusty gun at his side. They accused him of being a participant in the movement and after torturing him for several months in the interrogator, where they asked him to reveal his connections with the rebels, they sentenced him to five years in prison, from which he never came out. He passed away in 1951. (In the photo: Ndoc Nikaj)
Text: Encyclopedic dictionary of victims of communist terror – Vol. VI , “West Print”, Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, Tirana, 2017, page 104.
Photo: © https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ndoc_Nikaj
Graphic processing: AHCF
