Albanian Gjakmarrja

Albanian Gjakmarrja is an name for a social obligation to commit a murder in order to restore a honour of a family that was questioned by an earlier murder or some kind of moral humiliation. This principle is dictated by albanian Kanun.

Although the concept of killing people in the name of family's honor seems barbaric we have to remember that albanian blood feud was regulated by many laws. First of all, when we read on internet about albanian Gjakmarrja we offen can find informentions about cases in which one murder leaded to unending chain of crimes that could last even for generations. I have to agree that those situations indeed have occured in the past but we have to emphasize the fact that they are unaccebable by traditional Kanun. According to albanian customary code a family creates basic cell of society. Well being of a family is often determinded by a number of a grown-up men that it has. If a man from one family kills a man from another family, he's making a blood debt that he and his relatives have to pay.

I think it will help us understand this principle better if we would explain it on a example: so let's say that two men have argued in a bar, one of them takes out his gun and in fury kills the other incuring blood debt to his family. The frist thing that he does after comiting a crime is probabbly running away to his home where acording  to Kanun he can not be harmed because "a man's home is his fortress". In the first 24 hours after a murder the assasin's family has to be extra caution - this is a time of so called "hot blood" when a victim's family can vengance their loss basicly without any regulations.

24 hours after the murder is it customary for the victim's family to give the perpetrator's relatives some time of peace so they could regulate their personal matters. This promise of peace is called "besa" and braking it is one of the greatest crimes according to albanian Kanun. It is also customary for the murderer to attend the victim's funeral and also the victim's wake. After the time of besa, all men on the side of the perpetrator have to stay in home for this is the only place where according to Kanun they can not be harmed. In traditional albanian law feud aplies only to grown-up males for only they have value to the family - they can work.

Albanian rules of blood feud are based on the laws of talion. For example, if person designated for providing a vengeance (alb. gjakos) tried to assassinate one of the perpetrator's relatives but only injured him he no longer gets to kill someone from murder's family (one murder+one injury is more then one murder). He can not also kill someone by delivering several injuries - he has to do it in one clean shot. If he fails family no longer has a right for murdering relatives of actual perpetrator. However, it doesn't mean that the debt is paid - in those cases village elders were deciding what should be done: rest of the debt could be paid with money or livestock.

However, if the avenger was a good shooter and he managed to kill the murderer's relative with one clean shot he still had some things to do. He had to approach the body, lie it flat on the back and place his weapon near his head. He also had to tell the closest person that is a "blood avenger" and that he took the blood that the other family owned his family and then he was allowed to leave. For negligence of those principles he could incur other blood debt - this time ti his own family.