Chandra Prakash Bhongir, Civil Engr, May04 - Repositories

prevalent. Writing in 1941, Vandeleur Robinson after visiting Albania in 1913 and 1926
noted a most peculiar fact. Albanians regarded the greatest event in their history
Scanderbeg’s stand against the Turks in the fifteenth century. 10 This observation is
hardly surprising since the Albanian nationalist movement which began in the middle of
the nineteenth century had as its main goal the fulfillment of Scanderbeg’s dream:
Albanian independence.
Scanderbeg’s return to Albania and his first declaration of independence has been
dated November 28, 1443. This date of independence is significant in Albanian history.
When Ismail Qemali declared independence in Vlora in 1912 he resurrected
Scanderbeg’s flag. The date for this declaration of independence was also November 28.
Since 1912 every regime in Albania, has rooted itself on the memory of Scanderbeg to
gain legitimacy, and November 28 has become a date pregnant of emotive meaning.
Derek Hall, a British journalist who has written extensively on Albania, also
recognizes the importance of Scanderbeg as a national symbol especially during the
communist regime, 1941-1990. The communists in Albania viewed Albanian liberation
from Nazi Germany as another kind of independence. They claimed Albania liberated
from foreign rule on November 29, 1944. But the connection to Scanderbeg was not lost.
Indeed the communist regime used the figure of Scanderbeg to its advantage. The Day of
the Flag, November 28, was restored as a national day; the main square of the capital,
Tirana, became Scanderbeg Square; Kruja, Scanderbeg’s capital was made into a Hero
City; and on the ruins of the old fortress, in 1980, the newest Scanderbeg Museum,
1941):13-15.
10 Robinson, Vandeleur, Albania’s Road to Freedom, (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd,
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