COURAGE virtual exhibition / COURAGE webkiállítás

Collisions

The section entitled Collisions presents open confrontations with the system, including individual and group initiatives and brave and daring acts (protests, strikes, and the at times shockingly bold acts committed by individuals) which had unambiguous political messages and which were very clearly visible to the regime and the public.

Opposition on the eve of the Luxemburg-Liebknecht Demonst...

Ecological Protests against the Chlorine Pollution in Rousse

Human rights activists and relief smugglers in Ceauşescu’...

Bratislava aloud

"Candle Demonstration" on 25 March 1988 in Bratislava

Valsts drošības arhīvi: noslēpumi un publiskums

Protest against the construction of the Czechoslovak-Hung...

Alla Horska

Resistance of Turkish Minority in Bulgaria

Interview with Shukrije Gashi

Collisions

2015

Interview with Shukrije Gashi

KOHI interviewed Shukrije Gashi in two sessions, on 14 February and 21 March, 2015. Gashi was born on 22 May 22 1960 in Pristina. A former political prisoner during Yugoslav times, she worked to promote peace for more than twenty years, and took part in around 400 cases of conflict resolution. Gashi studied law at the University of Pristina, and currently directs the “Partners Kosova Center for Conflict Management”.

In 1983, she was arrested and charged as an accessory to “the perpetration of criminal acts against the people and the state of Yugoslavia,” the official charges according to the country’s penal code, and spent two years in prison. Shukrije Gashi was found guilty of being a member of the then-illegal Albanian national movement, a loose network of small groups advocating the Republic of Kosovo. As a prisoner of conscience, she was given drugs, forced to work, and subjected to physical and psychological torture, which included being told that her boyfriend and fellow activist had been killed (which was true).

Gashi’s story is a young woman’s gripping account of determination (she was 21 when she was finally arrested after an adventurous escape from the Yugoslav secret police), in order to take a leadership role in the underground Albanian national movement. Gashi drew courage and will from her grandmother, a charismatic local figure who was involved in the “Campaign to Reconcile Blood Feuds” and national mobilization efforts – acts of feminism before the term was globally recognized. Because of their political opinions and activities, Gashi and other members of her family were under constant surveillance, which involved police harassment, pressure to change jobs, and difficulty to navigate the Yugoslav system, in which Albanian demands in Kosovo – for more autonomy and improved living conditions – were considered sedition.

Reclaiming the access to the Stasi records

Soviet Moldavian KGB. Romanian flag made by Gheorghe Muru...

Sursa: Arhiva Serviciului de Informații și Securitate al Republicii MoldovaFoto: Igor Cașu

Collisions

1966

Soviet Moldavian KGB. Romanian flag made by Gheorghe Muruziuc, 1966. Photo

După ce prima încercare a lui Muruziuc de a coase și arbora un drapel românesc a fost împiedicată de soția sa, pe data de 12 iunie 1966, Muruziuc și-a planificat următoarea acțiune mult mai minuțios, acordându-i o încărcătură simbolică deosebit de puternică. El a confecționat drapelul de unul singur, în propria magazie, pe 27 iunie 1966. El a cumpărat doi metri de țesătură roșie din magazinul satului, pe 26 iunie. Cu o zi mai devreme, el cumpărase 1 metru de țesătură albastră din satul vecin, Alexăndreni. Muruziuc a folosit un cearșaf vechi pentru porțiunea galbenă a drapelului. Conform unei expertize efectuate mai târziu de angajații KGB, drapelul avea 2 metri 57 cm lungime și 78 cm lățime. Nefiind descoperit de vreun consătean în ziua precedentă, Muruziuc a intrat pe teritoriul fabricii în dimineața următoare. El s-a urcat pe coșul fabricii și a fixat drapelul pe paratrăsnetul clădirii, astfel încât acesta era vizibil în întregul sat. După arestarea lui Muruziuc, drapelul a fost confiscat de KGB și a constituit o piesă incriminatorie esențială și principala probă materială în timpul judecării dosarului său. Acesta a fost, se pare, primul caz de arborare publică a unui drapel românesc pe teritoriul RSSM de după 28 iunie 1940. Drapelul a fost distrus de către angajații KGB pe 13 ianuarie 1967. Această fotografie rămâne singura dovadă a existenței drapelului confecționat de Muruziuc.

Secretly taken photo from the forced labour camp in Belene

Collisions

1985

Secretly taken photo from the forced labour camp in Belene

The masterpiece of the collection is a scan of a photograph from the personal archive of Süleyman Kazımov Saadettinov, who showed it to the collector during an interview in March 2010.

Süleyman Kazımov Saadettinov was born on 9 April 1951, in the village of Bashevo, Kardzhali province, Bulgaria. He worked as a mechanical engineer. Süleyman Saadettinov resisted against the so-called “Revival Process” implemented by Communist Party and its campaign of forced name-changing in December 1984 and refused to change his Turkish name to Bulgarian. His resistance was peaceful; he attended a small protest against the “Revival Process”. Because of his resistance, he was arrested and sent to prison and the forced labour camp or the ”concentration camp’, as the collectors define it, in Belene, on the island Persin on Danube river. After about one year he was released and kept on probation until deportation from the country during the summer of 1989. Süleyman Kazımov Saadettinov was expelled with his family from Bulgaria in the summer of 1989, before the collapse of the socialist regime. He and his family found refuge in Turkey. He took the Turkish citizenship. Now he lives in Bursa and has double citizenship – Bulgarian and Turkish.

According to the account of Süleyman, the photograph was secretly taken at a moment when camp prisoners were removed from the camp to work outside of the camp area, near to ordinary workers. In the working area, Süleyman and his friends saw a photographer, taking photos of ordinary workers. They asked the unknown photographer to take a photo of them. The photographer secretly took the photo of the group of prisoners and a week later brought them the developed photograph. When Süleyman was set free from the camp, he took the photo with him.