Beqir Balluku
| Beqir Balluku | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 14, 1917 Tirana, (Albania) |
| Died | November 5, 1974 (aged 57) Tirana, (Albania) |
| Years of service | 32 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Beqir Balluku (February 14, 1917 – November 5, 1974) was an Albanian politician, military leader, and Minister of Defense of Albania. Balluku assisted Enver Hoxha in carrying out the 1956 purge in the Communist Party of Albania. However, in 1974, Balluku himself, along with a group of other government members, was accused by Hoxha of an attempted coup d'état against the Albanian Communist Government. He was executed that same year.
Balluku was born on February 14, 1917 in Tirana, Albania. He studied at a technical high school in Tirana. While he was doing his military service, he joined the ranks of the Albanian resistance against the Axis during the partisan war in Albania.
On May 20, 1943, he was appointed commander of the Communist partisan battalion "Krujë Ishëm", and on September 18, 1943, he was named commissary of the third brigade. Later he was appointed commander of the second brigade.
On January 28, 1948, Balluku was named Chief of the Head Command of the Albanian Army. In 1948, in the first Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania (formerly the Communist Party of Albania), he was elected as a member of the Politburo, a post he held until his arrest, and in 1952 he was named Minister of Defense. One year later he gained the military rank of Lieutenant General. From 1948 to 1974 he was a member of the Albanian parliament.
In 1953 he graduated from the General Staff Academy (Russia) (former Marshal Voroshilov Military Academy of the USSR Army General Staff). Earlier, in December 1952 the Yugoslav State radio of Belgrade and the newspaper Politika had announced that he had been killed and his family interned, but it turned out that it was just speculation: he had been busy with his studies in Moscow.
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