Wikipedia

Mid'hat Frashëri

Albanian diplomat and poet (1880-1949)

Mid'hat Frashëri (also known as Lumo Skëndo) was an Albanian diplomat, writer, and politician. He was born on March 25, 1880, and died on October 3, 1949. His father was Abdyl Frashëri, a key figure in the Albanian National Awakening. In 1908, he took part in the Congress of Monastir.[2] In 1942, he became the president of the Balli Kombëtar, a group that worked with fascists during World War II.[3][4][5][6] Frashëri is known as one of the founders of modern Albanian nationalism.[7]

Mid'hat Frashëri

Bey
Founder of Balli Kombëtar
Personal details
Born(1880-03-25)25 March 1880
Yanya, Yanya Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
(now Ioannina, Greece)
Died3 October 1949(1949-10-03) (aged 69)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting placeFerncliff Cemetery, New York
NationalityAlbanian
Political partyBalli Kombëtar
RelationsAbdyl Frashëri (Father)
Naim Frashëri (Uncle)
Sami Frashëri (Uncle)
Mehdi Frashëri (Cousin)
Ali Sami Yen (Cousin)
OccupationPharmacist
AwardsOrder of Freedom (Kosovo)[1]
Signature

Biography

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Early life

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Mid'hat bey Frashëri was the son of a well-known Albanian politician, Abdyl Frashëri, who worked for more autonomy from the Ottoman Empire. He was also the nephew of poets and nationalists Naim and Sami Frashëri.[8][9] Mid'hat was born in Yanya (now Ioannina, Greece) in 1880 and grew up in Istanbul,[10] where his family was involved in the Ottoman government and the Albanian nationalist movement. In 1897, he was arrested for having a copy of a newspaper called Albania but was released thanks to his uncle Sami.[11] In 1901, he wrote a biography of his uncle Naim.[12] After quitting his studies in pharmacology, he worked for the Ottoman government in Salonika from 1905 to 1910.[10] He published a yearly almanac called "Kalendari Kombiar" (National Calendar) in Sofia, promoting Albanian unity, education, and literature while opposing foreign influence in Albania.[8] He also wanted government reforms and an alliance with Macedonians but was against armed conflict. He held anti-Austro-Hungarian and anti-Italian views.[13] Using the pen name Lumo Skendo, he started the weekly newspaper "Lirija" in Salonika, which ran until 1910.[10][14][9]

In 1908, he took part in the Congress of Monastir. In January of the next year, he started editing a monthly magazine called "Diturija," which focused on Albanian culture, literature, and scholarship.[10][9] That same year, an Albanian club for cultural and political issues was created in Salonika. Frashëri was chosen as its president by 400 Albanian delegates.[15][9] He wanted the Salonika club to be the main center for the Bashkimi (Union) Society, but other Albanian clubs worried about the influence of the Young Turks and preferred the Monastir club. The Ottoman authorities banned writing in Albanian, which led to publications being made abroad. Like other writers, Frashëri used the fake name Mali Kokojka to get around these rules.[16] By late 1911, he had joined the Freedom and Accord Party, which he helped create with ten others. They opposed the Young Turks and supported ideas like Ottomanism, government decentralization, and the rights of ethnic minorities.[17]

Congress of Monastir

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See the main article: Congress of Manastir
 
Mid'hat Frashëri in the 1910s

Mid'hat Frashëri was one of the fifty people who helped create the modern Albanian alphabet. He became the vice-chairman of the group. Frashëri was also chosen as the leader of the congress that organized different alphabet ideas,[18][9] along with Parashqevi Qiriazi, who was the chairwoman of the alphabet group. During the congress, Frashëri supported using the Latin alphabet from Istanbul for writing in Albanian.[18]

Albanian Declaration of Independence

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See the main article: Albanian Declaration of Independence
 
Albanian Declaration of Independence

Mid'hat Bey's political ideas became more nationalistic during the Balkan Wars and the fall of the Ottoman Empire,[19] when Albania was at risk of being divided by its neighbors. Unlike some of his cousins who stayed in what is now Turkey, he moved to Albania after the empire fell. He was one of the eighty-three leaders who met in Vlorë in November 1912, where he signed the declaration of independence and became the Minister of Public Works in the Provisional Government of Albania. Later, he served as the Albanian consul general in Belgrade and as postmaster general.[10] At the start of World War I, he was held in Romania for a while, but after he was released, he returned to writing. He lived in Lausanne for a time with his cousin Mehdi Frashëri, writing newspaper articles and essays. On November 25, 1920, he was made the head of the Albanian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, staying until 1922.[10] In Paris, he continued to write for French newspapers to promote Albania's interests in postwar Europe. He later held other government positions and was the Albanian ambassador to Greece and the United States from 1922 to 1926.

Quiet period

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Balli Kombëtar leaders Ali Këlcyra, Mid'hat Frashëri, Thoma Orollogaj (from left to right) in Berat.

Under the Zog regime in 1925, Mid'hat left public life and opened a bookstore in Tirana, and also worked as a pharmacist. He himself possessed an exceptionally large private library of some 20,000 volumes, the largest collection in the country at the time. With the rise of Germany and World War II looking inevitable, Mid'hat began forming Balli Kombëtar (the National Front) to use in the war to create Ethnic Albania.

Balli Kombëtar presidency

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See the main article: Balli Kombëtar

He was the leader of the Balli Kombëtar nationalist movement during the Second World War. Balli Kombëtar was a political organization that mainly fought for an Ethnic Albania and fought communist groups in alliance with the German occupation forces. During 1944 he joined the German Forces as an ally and fought the anti-nazi guerrilla groups.[20] His cousin became the prime minister of Albania.

After World War II and death

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In 1945, the communists won the war in Albania. Mid'hat escaped the communists by fleeing to southern Italy. The early years of the Cold War found Mid'hat Frashëri in the West trying to patch together a coalition of anti-communist opposition forces in Britain and the United States.[10] In August 1949, he was elected as head of a "Free Albania" National Committee. He died of a heart attack at the Lexington Hotel on Lexington Avenue in New York[10] and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in New York. His remains were reburied in Tirana in November 2018.

His cousin, Mehdi Frashëri, served as Albanian Prime Minister under a German-backed Albanian Government.

Legacy

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Frashëri's entire library of some 20,000 volumes, the largest in Albania at that time, was confiscated by the new regime. The library included significant albanological works inherited from Franz Nopcsa von Felsö-Szilvás.[21]

Quotes

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When Albania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire:

"Until now the Albanians have lived very little for themselves; their activity, their blood, their talents have profited their neighbors. They have consecrated their best for the good of others. Now they must live and work for themselves, for their Albania.[22]

In regards to Albanian Communists:

"Quislings who collaborated with Tito"[23]

He added that these 'Quislings' were no longer Albanian, that they have forgotten how to be Albanian for they no longer respect the right of hospitality.[23]

References

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  1. ↑ "Awarded Honours".
  2. ↑ Osmani, Tomor (1999). "Historia e alfabetit" [History of the Alphabet]. Udha e shkronjave shqipe [The Pathway of the Albanian Letters] (in Albanian). pp. 461–496.
  3. ↑ World Peace Council (1951). First Session of the World Peace Council, Berlin, February 21-26, 1951: (Report and Documents). p. 16.
  4. ↑ Rashke, Richard (2013-01-22). Useful Enemies: America's Open-Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals. Open Road Media. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-4804-0159-4.
  5. ↑ Fischer, Bernd Jürgen (1999). Albania at War, 1939-1945. Hurst. p. 274. ISBN 978-1-85065-531-2.
  6. ↑ Isakovic, Zlatko (2019-05-24). Identity and Security in Former Yugoslavia. Routledge. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-351-73349-6.
  7. ↑ Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, Bernd Jürgen Fischer, Albanian identities: myth and history, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2002, p. 91.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cite error: The named reference Skendi185186 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Gawrych 2006, p. 165.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 Robert Elsie. "Mid'hat bey Frashëri:The Epirus Question - the Martyrdom of a People". Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
  11. ↑ Gawrych 2006, p. 91.
  12. ↑ Gawrych 2006, p. 90.
  13. ↑ Skendi 1967, p. 369.
  14. ↑ Skendi 1967, pp. 360, 370.
  15. ↑ Skendi 1967, pp. 331, 346.
  16. ↑ Skendi 1967, p. 128.
  17. ↑ Gawrych 2006, p. 190.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Skendi, Stavro (1967). The Albanian national awakening. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 370–372. ISBN 9781400847761.
  19. ↑ Gawrych, George (2006). The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913. London: IB Tauris. p. 200. ISBN 9781845112875.
  20. ↑ Petter Abbott, Partisan Warfare 1941 - 45, 27, Owen Pearson, II, 379, Bideleux Robert & Jeffries Ian, The Balkans - A post - communist History, 2007, 525
  21. ↑ The issue of Epirus in political writings of Mid'hat bey Frashëri - Halili, Rigels - Nationalities Affairs – Issue 31/2007. [1].
  22. ↑ Jacques, Edwin E. (1995). "the Fourteen Successive Ineffective Governments (1912-1925)". The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present. p. 334.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Frances Trix, The Sufi journey of Baba Rexheb, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009, p. 93.
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