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“Power, blood and silence: the mystery of the murder of Neki Starova”

2026-04-13 18:43:00, Opinione Aleksandër Cangonja

“Power, blood and silence: the mystery of the murder of Neki
A photograph faded by time, showing a man dressed in a dark suit and a stern look, is one of the rare remaining testimonies of Neki Bey Starova — a name that in the 1940s became the center of an assassination with echoes in the southeast of the country.
An archival document from the Ministry of Internal Affairs fund, from June 1940, sheds light on the event. It mentions three suspected perpetrators of the murder, among them a person from the Çërrava area. But beyond the dry official language, contemporary accounts and local memory identify the assassin as Kajo Karafili, otherwise known by his real surname Oshafi, from the village of Blace in Pogradec.

According to unofficial sources, but widely circulated in local accounts, Karafili did not act alone. He is rumored to have been pushed — even paid — by Aqif and Haxhi Lleshi, two well-known figures of the time. This shifts the story from a simple crime to an organized act with possible political and personal backgrounds.

A blood chain that begins in 1923

The motive for the assassination seems to be linked to an earlier history. The Lleshi brothers allegedly held Neki Bey Starova responsible for the murder of their father, Halit Lleshi, in 1923. At that time, Starova served as prefect in Debar — a turbulent time when local government was often intertwined with strong political and personal conflicts.
Another document, stamped with the note “Prefect of Debar,” directly connects Starova to that period and places him at the center of the developments of that time. Although there is no definitive evidence implicating him in the 1923 event, the suspicions carried over the years seem to have turned into a motive for revenge. The 1940 document also mentions that the perpetrators took refuge in Pogradec after the murder and then fled in an unknown direction, helped by other people — which suggests the existence of a support network and a broader organization.

Between document and narrative

The case of the murder of Neki Bey Starova remains a point where official and oral history intertwine, without fully matching. The archival document provides names and concrete facts, but does not fully explain the motive. On the other hand, the accounts of the time shed light on a long conflict, where personal revenge and political interests may have played a decisive role.
In the absence of a definitive version, this event remains one of the episodes that show how in Albania at that time, the border between the state, politics and revenge was often unclear.