Klara Mirakaj-Merlika, considered one of the figures of anti-communist resistance in Albania and a survivor of internments during the communist dictatorship, has passed away.
She was the daughter of Pashuk Bibë Mirakaj and the wife of Fatos Merlika, the son of former Prime Minister Mustafa Kruja. According to data made public by representatives of former political persecutees, Mirakaj-Merlika spent about 45 years in internment in several camps across the country, including Tepelena, Berat, and Lushnja.
She was interned from childhood and spent most of her life under the restrictions and pressure of the regime of the time, returning to Tirana after the 1990s.
In a public reaction, the President of the National Union for the Integration of Political Prisoners and Persecutees, Besim Ndregjoni, described her as an "icon of anti-communist resistance" and a living testimony to the crimes of the dictatorship.
According to this reaction, Klara Mirakaj-Merlika represented the history of many persecuted families and was direct evidence of the internments and imprisonments during the communist regime.
The announcement emphasizes that with her passing, the family and the community of former persecutees lose a symbolic figure of resistance and historical memory of that period.
An anti-communist icon, Klara Mirakaj-Merlika, has passed away!
These days, an iconic woman of anti-communist resistance has passed away, interned for 45 years by the communist dictatorship, daughter of the anti-communist fighter Pashuk Bibë Mirakaj—bride of the son of Albanian Prime Minister Mustafa Merlika Kruja! She was interned as a child in the infamous camps of Tepelena, Berat, and Lushnja, went as a young girl with all her youthful dreams, and returned to Tirana tired and broken by the tortures of the State Security in 1991 in Tirana. She had a resilience and pride in the face of the massacres of communism, but during the dictatorship, she had a joy: she married Fatos Merlika, the distinguished son of Mustafa Kruja Merlika. Her family knew prisons and internments, but she faced all of these as an unconquered Nora of Kelmendi! With the arrival of pluralism, she was an eyewitness to the crimes of communism that had destroyed the noble families of the North by the bloodthirsty regime of the cruel criminal dictator Enver Hoxha. The family, the National Union, and her fellow sufferers have lost a resilient icon but an anti-communist heroine. One less witness for Albanian society, which is ruled by the successors of the dictatorship and has taken democracy hostage, for which Klara Mirakaj and hundreds of thousands of Klaras fought to bring to Albania!
With the passing of the anti-communist, survivor of the dictatorship, daughter of the Mirakaj family and wife of the nobleman Fatos Merlika, the respected Klara Mirakaj-Merlika, the National Union for the Integration of Political Prisoners and Persecutees of Albania expresses its sincere condolences to the Mirakaj and Merlika families for the loss of this anti-communist heroine, who is highly honored—her sacrifices and resistance to the crimes of communism make her work as a surviving human being unforgettable for us anti-communists! May she be in paradise, and may her sacrifices bring peace to Albania!
Integration of Political Prisoners and Persecutees