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| Cover of the book "The Tellini Murder, from Ioannina to the Conquest of Corfu" by Andrea Giannasi and the portrait of Enrico Tellini |
If Enrico Tellini had not been killed, the border between Albania and Greece would have been across Ioannina. But that Monday of August 23, 1923, was fatal not only for the life of the Italian general, acting chairman of the International Boundary Commission between Albania and Greece but also for the fate of Albania.
In an ambush by a gang of 7 people, the Italian general was killed along with 4 other people who were in the car with him.
KILLING SCENE
The two-car escort, with General Tellini, was moving from Ioannina to Kakavija when several fallen trees blocked their way.
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With them was not the car with the Greek representatives, which did not continue the journey after a defect. As soon as the driver Reniggo Farneti and the Albanian translator, Thanas Kraveri, went out to remove the trees from the road, the members of a gang opened fire, killing them both. The rifle battery was also aimed at the people in the car.
Dr. Luiggi Corti was the third person to be killed. After him, adjutant Mario Bonacini was injured who, thanks to a maneuver, managed to get under the car.
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At this point, General Tellini tried to get out of the car by running and firing simultaneously with a pistol at the gang members. But he managed to take only a few steps towards the forest because the main target of the bandits remained killed on the spot.
HOW THE MURDER WAS ORGANIZED
He included the villages of Pobickë and Radat in Leksovik within the Albanian border. He included the villages of Peshkëpi, Rrëzë e Zeze, and Kakavija within the Albanian border.
He worked at a high pace in order to finish quickly. When Enrico Tellini was getting ready to take the Albanian border line to Kallama and all of Northern Chameria, including Ioannina and its environs, there was only one way for Greek circles to stop him: by physically eliminating him.
This situation was clearly reflected in the newspapers of the time.
"Tirana, September 6, 1923, our Representatives in Paris, London, Rome and Geneva inform us: General Tellini's last action, he decided to remain Albania on August 2, the baths of Vromoner, and this caused His murder… ”
The extent to which General Tellini was concerned can be seen from a report sent to the League of Nations on the work done so far:
"This delegation does not give me confidence for sincere cooperation. The delegation seeks with all means and pretexts to leave…
"Greek authorities and troops are creating various obstacles."
Greece's dissatisfaction began when the League of Nations, after the Paris Peace Conference, appointed Tellini as the chairman of the International Border Commission between Albania and Greece.
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| The newspaper "la Domenica del Corriere", September 9, 1923, number 36. On the front page, it shows the event of the assassination of the Italian general Enrico Tellini by the Greeks |
After dissatisfaction with words and mimicry, the Greeks gave way to concrete actions. Just a few days after taking office, the newspaper "Dielli" wrote that 50 Greek soldiers deliberately left in Korça as "sick", forcibly entered the commission building, to scare General Enrico Tellini and force him to include Korça within the Greek state (Illyria newspaper).
According to a report by the Italian consulate in Ioannina, during a discussion at a time of frustration, the Greek representative had said, "General Tellini should be killed."
WHO KILLED GENERAL TELLIN?
The Albanian representative at the International Commission and the representative of the Albanian government at the investigative group, Mehdi Frashëri, is the only person of the time who gives us the killers by name. He even gives details about the preparations made by the Greek authorities to make this murder look like it was done by Albanians. But, in fact, the Greeks had done it.
Frashëri gives a very interesting version of how the Greek state manipulated the criminals to say that Tellini's murder was committed by Albanians.
According to Mehdi Frashëri, the Greek criminal Koço Memo, who came to Albania, was imprisoned in Gjirokastra prison for the murder of Myfit Libohova's servant. In fact, the criminal wanted to kill Myfit Libohova from the outside of the wall of his palace but confused him with the servant.
The two instigators in this confusing murder, the Minister of War, Ismail Tatzati, and the Regional Commander of the Gendarmerie, Ahmet Selenica, also organized the escape of Koço Memo from prison. But here the story becomes even more confusing and intriguing.
After the escape, Koço Memo's new host was a member of the Karagjozati family, who asked Memo to kill their enemy, Boço Kalo.
"The Greeks, through the Greek cantors of Gjirokastra, were fully aware of these events and thought to forgive Koço Memo, to teach him well and to bring him as a witness before the International Commission, to whom they would report the preparation of the Albanians to kill Boço Kalo" with the correction that instead of the name Boço Kalo they mean the name of General Tellini".
This is where the implementation of the plan for Tellini's execution began and came to life. Mehdi Frashëri shows that the perpetrators of this murder were 5-6 bandits and together with them a criminal from Nivica, who was accidentally caught armed in Saranda. In the report that Frashëri sent in French to the investigative commission, he writes:
"From the pursuit of the gendarmerie, the Greek comrades of the gang had entered Greece again and the criminal from Nivica had remained in Albania, where he was caught armed. "According to Kol Tromara, this Greek gang had been the assassin of General Tellini and after the assassination had crossed the Albanian border to prepare evidence against Albanians."
TELLINI EXPERIMENTS
Experimentation was fashionable in Tellini's time. The Italian general encountered many obstacles and disagreements with the Greeks over their territorial claims to Albania.
Based on this he did an experiment that would turn him into a legend. He threw candy at a crowd of children and listened to what language they spoke when fighting to catch them.
Everyone spoke Albanian. That was enough for the Italian and he set the border leaving this village within the Albanian territory. This angered the Greeks immensely and there were many incidents with members of the commission.
FAILED INVESTIGATION
In the distant year, 1923 investigative techniques to detect a serious event had less to do with science than with intuition. This is more in line with the experiment carried out by the head of the investigative group, Japanese Colonel Shibo. Upon arriving at the place where Tellini was executed, the Japanese pulled out his pistol and fired twice into the air. Immediately a group of Greek soldiers, located near the scene, arrived for a few minutes and surrounded all the members of the investigative commission. At this point the Japanese colleague uttered the lapidary saying:
"The investigation is over. When the shots of two revolvers bullets were heard by the soldiers, how is it possible that hundreds of rifle shots were not heard from them ?!"
And while there is no doubt that the Greeks killed him, we Albanians have not given him the honor that the Italian general needs. A statue erected in 1933 by author Odhise Paskalin was demolished in the first years that the communists came to power. To understand his love and respect for Albanians, but also his lack of respect for him, it is enough to read these lines written by General Tellini himself.
"I love and honor Albanians because they are white-hearted and brave. Sadly, they are suffering the wrongdoings of their neighbors. I will try to reduce their hardships and alleviate their national pain so that Albanians can live freely like other nations."
Thus was killed an Italian who fought so hard for Albania and the Albanians, but because of this, he was killed by the Greeks.
* Taken from Ronald Qafoku's book "100 most sensational murders in the history of the Albanian state 1912-2017".