Background
He was born in Kaskaveli of Thebes in central Greece, the area which is inhabited mainly by Arvanites.
He was born in Kaskaveli of Thebes in central Greece, the area which is inhabited mainly by Arvanites.
He was also president of the Association of the Arvanites Marko Bocari. His death is still considered mysterious and it has been alleged that Greece or Serbia"s secret services may have been involved in his death. Kola was of Arvanite origin.
Kola, as well as thousands of his compatriots, were educated in the spirit of love for the traditions of the Arvanite community.
In 1968 Kola obtained a jurisprudence degree in Athens, and worked as a lawyer until 1980, when he started to devote his time to the study of national traditions of the Arvanites in Greece. His major work, "Arvanites and the origin of the Greeks", made a wide resonance in the Arvanite world.
The book was reprinted into nine editions in only ten years. Kola"s magazine published "Besa", and the "Arvanon" magazines, which reflected the life and traditions of the Arvanite world.
Aristidh Kola cooperated with all districts of the Albanian diaspora in the United States.
He maintained connections and collaborated with Italian Arberesh, Albanian Americans, Kosovo intellectuals, Turkey and Albania. He was also associated with the arberesh of Corsica. Kola became known in Greece especially for the moral support that gave to the Kosovo Liberation Army in the Kosovo War by appearing in several Greek television shows.
This elicited some pro-Serb groups, which fought him in court.
In association offices Arvanite "Marko Boçari" politico-cultural activities organized for Albania, as well as important personalities Arvanite Greece. Kola had worked persistently for the affirmation of the Arvanites in Greece.
He began compiling the dictionary Arvanites, but death did not let him finish. Kola died in 2000 because of leukemia.
According to journalist Ilir Malindi, expert in the Albania-Greece relations Kola was poisoned by Greece"s secret services, but, in 2008, history professor Arben Llalla rejected this hypothesis and asserted that it could be the Serbian secret services that may be responsible for Kola"s death.
According to Llalla, this was the reaction of Serbia against the pro-Kosovo activism that Kola displayed in the 1990s. Kola"s contribution to the Albanians cause was recognized by the Albanian government (both former presidents Sali Berisha and Rexhep Mejdani have decorated him for national merits). In 2004 Bajram Rexhepi, then Prime Minister of Kosovo, consigned posthumously to the widow of Kola a decoration her spouse contributions in the defense of the rights to the people of Kosovo.
In addition, the municipality of Skënderaj, i made Kola a citizen of honour of the city.