Today in history, 7 October: The killing of Jusuf and Bardhosh Gërvalla and Kadri Zeka

The recorded event closest to today's date in the archive calendar.

Date of the event: 17 January 1982
Place: Untergruppenbach
Evidence status: Evidence status: Documented. Supported by contemporaneous documents, institutional reports or independent studies that corroborate one another.

Bronze bust on a stone plinth in a square in front of the theatre building. — The bust of Jusuf Gërvalla in front of the city theatre in Peja. Photograph taken in August 2018.Photo: Shkurte ramushi · 2018-08-18 · CC BY-SA 4.0

On 17 January 1982, in Untergruppenbach, Germany, two unidentified gunmen shot the exile activists Jusuf Gërvalla, his brother Bardhosh and Kadri Zeka. All three died.

Two of them died at the scene and Jusuf Gërvalla a few hours later in hospital [1]. Suspicion fell on the Yugoslav secret service, but the case has never been judicially resolved; serious sources describe the killing as “allegedly” carried out by the Yugoslav secret service [2].

Full event record, with sources and map

Historical context

1981–1989

A decade that began with student protests and ended with the dismantling of autonomy: repression, rising nationalism and the mobilization of the miners and of Albanian society.

Read the chapter “From the 1981 demonstrations to the abolition of autonomy”

Historical context

Sources