Ali Demi (18 January 1918 – 29 December 1943) was an Albanian resistance fighter of World War II and a communist.Balkan Newspaper article of Tirana Observer newspaper He was killed in battle fighting German forces in Vlora, Albania in 1943. A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History By Robert Elsie, pages 101-2.
Biography He was born in Filiates, Greece (Çamëria), to a Cham Albanian family. Later Ali Demi studied at the Lyceum, in Tirana, Albania and in 1939 he participated in antifascist demonstrations. He was also one of the founders of the Communist party of Albania. He was sentenced to death by the Italian forces but he managed to escape and join the partisans. In 1943, Demi was killed in a battle against German forces in Kaninë village, near Vlora.
Aftermath In May 1944, the Greek People's Liberation Army formed and named a mixed unit of both Greeks and Cham Albanians in his honor, the IV "Ali Demi" battalion of 15th regiment."...in May 1944 ”a mixed battalion of the Cham minority that was formed within ELAS-fighting units under the command of the 15th regiment in the village of Kastanjë”, was named “Ali Demi” and comprised in the time of its formation 460 men..." Kretsi, Georgia: Verfolgung und Gedächtnis in Albanien: Eine Analyse postsozialistischer Erinnerungsstrategien,
Ali Demi Street and Ali Demi (neighborhood) in Tirana, are named after him. There is a statue of Ali Demi in Tirana stating on it “ALI DEMI HERO I POPULLIT” - in English “Ali Demi hero of the people”.
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