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By:
Ardona Popova
- 17 January 2026 22:05
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On the 44th anniversary of the assassination in Germany of Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka, state leaders and political representatives paid tribute in their honor. President Vjosa Osmani and acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti called the activists flame-throwers who sacrificed everything for the freedom of Kosovo.
State leaders and political representatives paid homage on Saturday in honor of Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka, on the 44th anniversary of their murder in Germany, in an assassination attempt prepared by the Yugoslav secret service.
In Dubovik, Deçan, President Vjosa Osmani remembered them as activists who proved that they loved their homeland more than life.
"They became the voice of an enslaved people and in very difficult times they risked everything and became the torchbearers of our freedom. It was precisely their sacrifice that paved the way forward for our people, so that today we can enjoy this state for which they gave everything," said Osmani.
Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that they are proof that even before the suppression of autonomy, there were patriots and activists who sacrificed everything for freedom.
"Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka were killed less than a year after the 1981 demonstrations, at a time when numerous secret organizations of the time were coming together, and Yugoslavia and Serbia targeted Jusuf, Bardhosh and Kadri, at a time when the organization for the Republic of Kosovo and the liberation of our people was taking on ever greater proportions," Kurti said.
AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj also paid tribute to the Gërvalla brothers and Kadri Zeka.
"The brothers Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka were early activists of our national movement for freedom and independence. Their courage and early activism in the freedom movements were a source of inspiration for not stopping on the path to freedom, which was crowned with the war of the Kosovo Liberation Army," said Haradinaj.
And the mayor of Mitrovica, Faton Peci, said that they paved Kosovo's path to freedom.
"In the second half of the 20th century, the Albanians of Kosovo went through three decisive stages on the path to freedom. The first of them is the platform of Jusuf Gërvalla. The writer, artist, critic, revolutionary and avant-garde of political thought, Jusuf Gërvalla had been the bearer of the first platform for liberation and had inspired and united Albanians across the continent. It was the peak of this inspiration and action when, on January 17, 1982, the Yugoslav secret service assassinated Jusuf Gërvalla, his brother, Bardhoshi, and their friend, Kadri Zeka," said Peci, who co-leads the Guxo Party with Jusuf Gërvalla's daughter, Donika Gërvalla, who is the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka were executed a few meters after they left the garage of the house where they were living in Heilbronn, Germany. According to their neighbors, two people fired 12 bullets at their car and fled the scene.