Spiro Koleka
| Spiro Koleka | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
7 July 1908 Vuno, Janina Vilayet, Ottoman Empire now Albania |
| Died | 22 August 2001 (aged 93) Tirana, Albania |
| Nationality | Albanian |
| Other names | Spiro Thoma Koleka |
| Political party | Party of Labour of Albania |
| Spouse(s) | Lica Koleka |
Spiro Koleka (7 July 1908 – 22 August 2001) was an important Albanian statesman, communist politician and a high-ranking military officer during World War II. He was a civil engineer by profession. Spiro Koleka served as a parliament member in all legislatures from 1944 until 1990. Koleka was a member of the Politburo of the Party of Labor of Albania during the years 1948 to 1981. As part of his political career he also served as Chairman of the State Planning Commission, Minister of Industry and Construction of Albania, as well as Vice Prime Minister.
According to British academics James Pettifer and Miranda Vickers, Koleka was born into an ethnic Greek family and was one of the few members of the Greek minority serving in the Socialist People's Republic of Albania political system. As such he was unpopular among the minority and was accused by various ethnic Greeks of implementing an anti-Greek agenda of the regime, including forced relocations of people of the same ethnicity as himself. Spiro Koleka was a distant relative of Spiro Jorgo Koleka (1879 or 1880–1940), a leader of the Albanian national movement and later interwar government minister.Edi Rama, a maternal descendant of the Koleka family, said that the family is of Mirditor origin, and that the surname was derived from Kol Leka.
Koleka was born in the village of Vuno, an Orthodox Albanian village part of Himara, a predominantly Greek speaking region.
After completing his secondary education in the Italo–Albanian college of San Demetrio Corone (Collegio of Sant'Adriano), in the Italian province of Cosenza, Spiro Koleka continued his higher education at the University of Pisa (1930–1934) where he graduated as a civil engineer. After his return to Albania, he was involved in anti-Zogist and anti-Italian activities; in 1935 he participated in the Fier rebellion against King Zog and shortly after found himself arrested by the authorities.
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