Riza Cerova, an activist of the national, democratic, and communist movement and Hero of the People, was killed in Mokër, Pogradec. Born in the village of Cerovë in Skrapar in 1896, he attended primary and secondary school in Thessaloniki and Istanbul before returning to his homeland in 1911. He began his patriotic activities as a volunteer in the detachments fighting against the Greek andart gangs in South Albania from 1913 to 1914. Cerova participated in the forces that defended the proceedings of the Congress of Lushnja in January 1920 and took part in the attack to liberate Tepelena and Vlora from Italian invaders in June of the same year. From 1921 to 1924, he aligned with the democratic movement, becoming a key activist in the June 1924 Democratic Revolution and supporting Fan S. Noli’s democratic government program. In December 1924, he fought against the return of Ahmet Zogu but, after the revolution’s suppression, emigrated abroad, becoming a prominent member of the National Revolutionary Committee and later the National Liberation Committee in Vienna and Geneva, where he joined the communist faction. Between 1925 and 1935, he wrote articles in the newspaper “Liria Kombëtare” (“National Freedom”) against the monarchist regime, imperialism, and fascism, advocating for a popular revolution. Cerova returned to Albania in April 1935 to oppose Ahmet Zogu’s government and helped organize the Fier Uprising of 1935 as one of its main leaders. He faced government forces alongside his fellow villagers until he fell during the struggle in Mokër. (In the photo: Riza Cerova)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 361-362.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riza_Cerova
Graphic processing: AHCF
