Gjakmarrja

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A fortified tower used as refuge for men involved in a blood feud that are vulnerable to attack. Thethi, northern Albania.

In line with Albania's ancient social code known as Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit or simply Kanun (English: The Code of Lekë Dukagjini), someone is allowed to kill another person to avenge an earlier murder. Gjakmarrja (meaning "Blood feud" or "Revenge Killing") refers to this practice.

According to some reports^[1], there have been a revival of Gjakmarrja instances, due to the lack of state control, since the collapse of communism, in remote parts of Albania (mainly in the North of the country) and rare occasions in Kosovo. The Albanian Helsinki Committee considers one reason for the pervasiveness of the blood feud to be the malfunction of the judicial structure.

Ismet Elezi, a professor of law in Tirana University, believes that in spite of the Kanun's endorsement for blood vengeance, there are strict rules on how this may be carried out, banning the revenge killings of women, children or elderly persons.^[2]

The Albanian writer Ismail Kadare considers Gjakmarrja to be not an exclusive Albanian characteristic, but a historical one of the Balkans as a whole^[3] The Brazilian film Abril Despedaçado based on Kadare's novel Broken April deals with the subject of and ancestral blood feud between two landowning families. The storyline has been transplanted from rural Albania to the Brazilian badlands in 1910.

[edit] References

• Diana Gellçi (2005): GJAKMARRJA: Albanian Highlander's "Blood Feud" as Social Obligation, AIIS, Tirana, Albania

1. ^ http://judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/2004/J040860.yes.doc.htm
2. ^ http://www.rferl.org/features/2001/10/12102001123602.asp "Albania: Blood Feuds -- Blood For Blood", in Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, by Jolyon Naegele
3. ^ http://pajtimi.com/faqebrenda.php?newsID=40&lang=eng This Blood Feud with Kalashnikov is Barbarian, by Ismail Kadare

[edit] External links

• Republic of Albania Country Report published by the Country Information & Policy Unit, Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Home Office, United Kingdom
• "Albanians Turn Against Each Other, Associated Press, July 04 2000
• An Albanian refugee casework against the Australian Ministry for Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs
• A good summary of Albanian blood feuds for young people, ActNow, November 2005

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