After being sentenced to death, Dalip Merlika, a nationalist and military figure, was executed. He was the fifth son of Haxhi Faj Merlika. He was born in Krujë in 1911. He completed his urban education in Krujë. In 1927, he began secondary school in Italy. From there, he settled in Zara, Dalmatia. He completed three years of school in Zara, and in his fourth year, he attended a one-year course for aircraft motorist in Trieste. He also obtained a third pilot’s license for military fighter planes. From there, he went to Ancona and studied at the industrial school of the Ferm Institute (1930–1936). In 1937, he returned to Albania. With the intervention of Abaz Kupi, he completed the officers’ training school in Tirana, and after finishing the military, he was appointed as the technical administrator of oil wells in Kuçova. After the Italian occupation, he left Kuçova. At the proposal of the mayor of Krujë, Qamil Belegu, he was appointed secretary of the municipality, a position he held until 1944. In September of the same year, he joined the nationalist volunteer forces commanded by Abaz Kupi until his departure from Albania. He continued the resistance against communist forces until November 3, 1949, when he was arrested in Hamallaj, Durrës, by government forces, betrayed by his host Dung Tufa, who poisoned his food. He was arrested in a semi-dead state. He was secretly hospitalized in the Durrës hospital. By decision no. 370, dated September 9, 1950, the Military Court of Tirana declared him guilty of “crimes against the people and the state” and sentenced him to death by shooting, confiscation of movable and immovable property, and loss of civil-political rights. (In the photo: Dalip Merlika)
Text: Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Victims of Communist Terror – Vol. V, “West Print,” Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, Tirana, 2016, pages 298–299.
Photo: © https://kujto.al/personat/dalip-merlika/
Graphic processing: AHCF
