106 years since the death of Ismail Qemali

Today marks 106 years since the death of the father of Albanian independence, the great Albanian Ismail Qemali. He is suspected of being poisoned.

He was born in Vlora, in 1844, the son of Mahmut Nedim Bey. He completed his primary school in his hometown. He then continued at the Zosime High School in Ioannina, where he learned ancient Greek, Latin and French. In 1860, at a very young age, only when he was 16 years old, due to the languages ​​he mastered, he began working at the Translation Office of the Sublime Porte in Istanbul.

Until 1900, Ismail Qemali worked in various positions in the Ottoman administration, in the Vilayet of Ioannina (1862), in the Vilayet of the Danube (1866-1876), in Filibe (1876), in Mardin 1883), in Bollu (1884-1889), in Beirut (1889).

In 1900, when he was serving as kaymakam in Kesrije, due to persecution for his collaboration with the Young Turks and his ideas of achieving an organization of Albanians, he left his post, fled to Greece and from there crossed over to Europe. In the trial that was held in absentia, he was sentenced to death.

In 1902, Ismail Qemali participated in the Young Turk Congress organized under the leadership of Prince Sabaheddin and Lutfullah in Paris. Only after the re-proclamation of the Constitution (1908) did Ismail Qemali return from Europe. In the elections held after the re-proclamation of the Constitution, Ismail Qemali was elected as a deputy for Berat and became part of the opposition party “Osmanlı Ahrar Fırkası”.

During the period of Albanian uprisings against the violence exercised by the Young Turk administration that was in power, Ismail Qemali tried to secure support from European states to create an autonomous administration within the Ottoman Empire.

During the uprising of the Greater Highlands (1911) he went to Cetinje in Montenegro, where on his initiative the 12-point memorandum of the Greek Parliament was signed. With the uprising of 1912, an autonomy of the Albanians within the Ottoman Empire was achieved, but the beginning of the Balkan War not only interrupted the formation of such a structure, but also brought about the occupation and fragmentation of the Albanian territories. Ismail Qemali led the movement and the meeting that was held in the Vlora family palace, where on November 28, 1912, the Independence of Albania was declared and he was elected chairman of the Provisional Government of Vlora.

In March 1913, through the Duke of Montpensier, he passed to Brindisi and then visited the capitals of European states to secure support for the Albanian cause at the Conference of Ambassadors in London. On January 22, 1914, Ismail Qemali resigned from the Provisional Government of Vlora, handed over power to the International Commission and left with his family for France.

He died on January 24, 1919, in Perugia and on February 12, he was buried in the courtyard of the Tekke in Kanina, above Vlora. Kosovapress (A2 Televizion)