The ship "Besa" of Jozha Horvati and the biography of Vebi Velija

What does a voyage around the world of a Croatian writer in the years 1965-1976 and the life of an Albanian businessman from Gostivar to Zagreb teach us about history?

1.

On an August day in 1965, a sailing ship started sailing from the Adriatic coast. There were five people on board. They were printed by Croatian captain and writer Jozha Horvat. This team had big plans: they wanted to bring the world around. By ship! When Jozha Horvat started talking about his plan, many people did not believe him. Some laughed at him. Jozha Horvat responded in a creative way: he named his ship "Besa". And after sailing around the world for two years, in 1967 he returned to Croatia. He had promised that he would sail the seas and oceans of the world and return. That's how it happened.

With the Albanian word "Besa", Jozha Horvat also titled his diary, which was published in 1973. There Jozha Horvat writes: "My beautiful ship, sail across our Adriatic, sail to distant seas and oceans, but always return good fortune in the waters of the homeland. Fill those who go with you with joy. Resist hardships and storms, protect the lives of my dearest, keep with dignity the name with which I am baptizing you - faith".

The Albanian word "besa" seemed to Jozha Horvat to be the most appropriate. Because "faith" is more than a given word, more than a promise, more than an obligation that is assumed. In his diary, Horvat writes: "Words... words of honor? Suddenly I remember - faith! Powerful word! Here, then, is the name for our ship! I entered the first bookstore I came across, asked the saleswoman to give me the first volume of the Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia. I wanted to check if there is anything marked for this word. I found it! What it says: 'BESA. Arbor word of honor, which is given to the guest (...) by the host to protect him. It is given by the individual, family, village or tribe. (...) Besa is also given to the Albanians of Yugoslavia''. Besa, continues Horvat, is a short and beautiful word. In terms of content, it is a deeply human word, it is an ancient word of Illyrian origin. “A fitting name for our ship. Faith!" Jozha Horvat was born in 1915 and passed away in 2012. He lived for almost a century. He went through many storms of life. He took the word "besa" to many ports of the world - from Sicily, Italy to Casablanca, Morocco, then to Northwest Africa and the Atlantic, the Panama Canal and the Galapagos Islands. At the end of the first volume of the travelogue, or better to say his sea description, Jozha Horvat writes: a sailor is a man who climbs on a ship and when he arrives at the open sea he dreams of land. A sailor is a man who lands at the port and when he sets foot on land he misses the sea.

2.

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Not only in the sea, but also in Zagreb, a piece of Kosovo's history was written. If you walk the streets of Pristina, you can surely catch the eye of an old man, dressed elegantly, they call him Mujë Krasniqi. Few among Albanians know that Mujë Krasniqi was one of the leaders of the Croatian Spring in 1971, a movement that opposed Yugoslav unitarism. In the documents of the Yugoslav secret service of that time, which are now public, it is stated that: "On the occasion of the election of Drazhen Budisha as the president of the Student League of Zagreb, Mujë Krasniqi said: 'Whoever has not lived in Kosovo does not know what it is like. suppressed the Albanian people'".

3.

When the space of freedom was terribly narrowed in Kosovo, Zagreb was a biotope where the Albanians of Yugoslavia could express themselves more freely. Every Sunday in Britanski trg, vendors sell various items, from old mobiles to books, newspapers and magazines from decades past. I have often visited this bazaar in Britanski trg to buy or browse old issues of "Danas" magazine. At the end of the 80s, many publicists, writers and philosophers from Kosovo published articles in this Croatian magazine. Their big supporter, not only financial, was the businessman Vebi Velija from Gostivari. On "Jurišićeva" street in the center of Zagreb, a door under a facade that seems to have been eaten by the ravages of time and damaged by the consequences of the earthquake in 2020 destroyed the restaurant "Gjirafa" (Žiraffa Mood). The media of Zagreb do not have good words about the quality of the food of this bar with Latin American cuisine. The newspaper "Jutarnji list" nostalgically recalled in 2008 that here, in this entrance that leads to a basement, in the early 80s, the Albanian businessman from Gostivar, Vebi Velija, opened the first Chinese restaurant in Zagreb. It was called "Phoenix". From the mid-80s, "Phoenix" was transformed into an Argentinian restaurant. It was among the first three restaurants in Zagreb specializing in meat preparation (Steakhouse).

4.

Vebi Velija was much more than a restaurant owner in Zagreb. He belonged to the class of Albanian businessmen of Yugoslavia who generously distributed his wealth for the general good, but also to enable different personalities to live with dignity. At the beginning of the 90s, Vebi Velija in the center of Zagreb, in front of the "Dubrovnik" hotel, rented an apartment - so that Adem Demaçi, who had just been released from prison, could live there. In the late 80s and early 90s, almost the entire political elite of Kosovo came to visit Zagreb. Personalities from Pristina used to meet here with Croatian dissidents, with politicians who had just begun to engage in active politics, with activists for human rights, with intellectuals who denounced Serbian repression in Kosovo. Vebi Velija was at their service, opening his heart, wallet and kitchen of his restaurant.

5.

Shuip Ziberi, an engineer from Tetova, who has been living and working in Zagreb for decades, tells how after the fall of communism in Albania, a delegation of high-level politicians from Tirana came to visit Zagreb. They were poorly dressed. And that was no surprise. The communist regime had transformed Albania into a kind of North Korea in the Mediterranean. The people were malnourished – and the shadow of misery was visible not only on their faces but also on their gray suits that looked like uniforms. Vebi Velija and Muzafer Rexhepi, owner of the famous confectionery "Zagreb", handed Shuip Ziber a bag full of money and told him: take the entire delegation of politicians from Albania and go to the "Varteks" store in "Republic Square" (today Ban Jelačić Square). There the politicians from Tirana were dressed in suitable clothes and thus they were given back a part of their dignity. Because clothes are part of human dignity. When the authorities in Belgrade threatened to close the magazine "Koha" that began to be published in Pristina in the early 90s, Vebi Velija found a solution: he registered the magazine in his name in Zagreb.

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6.

Until a few years ago, the flag of the Republic of Albania flew in "Ban Jelačić" square. The Embassy of Albania was located there. It was a representative place which had been found by the members of the Albanian community of Zagreb - Albanians from Macedonia and Kosovo. For these honest people it was important that Albania was properly presented in the center of Zagreb. For this to become possible, the Albanian community of Zagreb for several years even paid the rent of the Embassy of Albania in Zagreb. Albanian restaurants hosted diplomats from Albania with immeasurable generosity. The Embassy of Albania is no longer in the central square of Zagreb, its location is less representative now. Vebi Velija, founder of Alsat television, died in 2009 at the age of 61. He was buried in his native village, in Gradec near Gostivar.