On July 3, 1927, the People’s Heroine, Qerime Galica, known as Shote Galica passed away.

Fighter for the liberation of Kosovo from the Serbian, Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian and Yugoslav invaders and for its union with the Albanian state. Shote Galica was born in Radishevë village of Drenica. She participated in the uprisings against the Ottomans (1909-1912) and in the armed resistance against the Serbs (1912-1915). In the fall of 1915, she joined the Drenica insurgent squad alongside his husband, Azem Galica. During the years 1916-1918, she participated in several actions against the Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian occupying forces. She took part in the autumn 1918 battles for the liberation of Drenica, Podgori and Peja.

After the First World War, she continued her resistance against the Serbian policy of violence and denationalization in Kosovo. In April-June 1919, she participated, alongside Azem Galica, in the Uprising of the Plain of Dukagjin and Drenica. In the years 1921-1923 she fought for the defense of the Neutral Zone of Junik and in 1923-1924 of the free zone of Drenica, in Small Arbaninia. After the murder, Azem Galica took over the leadership of the squad together with M. Deline and F. Berani. In the political confrontations in Albania from 1921-1924, she was a supporter of the democratic opposition and a supporter of Noli’s government. In December 1924, she joined the ranks of Bajram Curri’s fighters, who were waiting with weapons at the border for the forces of Ceno bey Kryeziu. He returned to Kosovo, where she kept the spirit of anti-Serbian resistance alive in the people.

In 1926, after 12 years of war, participating in over 40 important actions, in which she lost 22 family members, she returned to Albania, wounded and sick. She settled in Shullaz, near Milot, and then in Derven of Fushë-Kruja. Although in a difficult situation and without economic resources, she took care of three orphaned children of killed comrades-in-arms. She died in Fushë-Kruja.

/k.s/