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Moreover, Rusha continues that both, Noli and Zogu were responsible for incidents in
Himarë/Himara. Rusha describes a tragic incident which happened after the inhabitants
denied paying land taxes or xhelep and the crop taxes ordered by Fan Noli. Therefore:
Azis Çami ordered gendarmes to use force and prohibit the women of Himara to work
in the vineyards. Women opposed the prohibition and revolted with the billhooks.
Gendarmes killed two women while the women wounded two gendarmes and its
leader. This had happened on October 3, 1924 (Rusha 2001: 124, translations mine).
In the continuation Rusha gives an account of a folk song, which describes the resistance and
murder of two local women. Rusha comments on this song with the following words:
The murders in Himara resulted in a revolt not only against Azis Çami, Qazim Kuculli
who were the initiators of this act but also against the democratic party of Fan Noli
(Rusha 2001: 126, translations mine).
This incident is also mentioned in the edited proceedings of the Pan-Himariot Conference:
In 1924 the government of Noli established democracy and tried to abolish the system
of venome. Besides Noli there were also two other men who were important in the
history of this area, the prefect of Vlorë Qazim Kuculli and the commandant of the
gendarmerie of Vlorë region, Azis Çami.
The majority in the party of Fan Noli held an opinion that in this unique country/area
(shtet unik) [Himarë/Himara] the autonomy is not possible. The main argument that is
important nowadays as it was 80 or 50 years before is that the democracy of Fan Noli
was not experienced democracy at all.
Noli’s Democratic Party used the police force over the local people. On October 3 rd ,
1924, gendarmes killed two women and women wounded two gendarmes and one
officer. As a result of that the government raised its hands from the area. This event is
also described in the folk song of Himarë (Çakalli, Papa et. al. 2006: 226, translations
mine).
The Albanian historiographer Muin Çami – who has (incidentally) the same surname as one
of the initiators of the revolt in Himarë/Himara, Azis Çami – in his essay in the edited
collection of the Albanian Academy of Science gives a slightly different view on the political
situation in Himarë/Himara. Instead of the incident he writes about the disunion and
ambiguity of the Himarë/Himara people:
In the period between 1921 and 1924 the people of Himarë were divided between two
groups. One supported progressive forces and democratic, anti-feudal leadership [Fan
Noli], while the other was on the side of the conservatives [local elders of
Himarë/Himara] who insisted on the recognition of the particular rights that they
enjoyed in the past [the unwritten law venome]
(Çami 2004: 210, translations mine).
The paragraphs above confirm the Schwandner-Sievers’ point on mythohistories, which are
constructed by exposing some events and avoiding the others in order to support current
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