Ali Shefqet Shkupi | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Native name | Ali Shefqet Shkupi |
Birth name | Ali Hysen Shefqeti |
Born | September 1883 Uskub, Ottoman Empire |
Died | 3 December 1953 Shkoder, Albania |
Buried | |
Allegiance | Ottoman Empire (1905 - 1912) Principality of Albania (April 1913 - December 1924) |
Rank | Lieutenant Colonel [1] |
Awards | "Patriotic Activity of First Class" (Albania) |
Lieutenant Colonel Ali Shefqet Shkupi, also known as Ali Shefqet Bey, was the first Chief of Supreme Staff of the Albanian Army bearing the functions of the Supreme Commander in the Albanian Government of Ismail Qemal Vlora. [1]
Ali Shefqeti was the son of Hysen Shefqeti, and Albanian originating from İpek who had settled in Uskub. His mother was a local Albanian woman from a rich family. Ali was born in Uskub in September 1883. His brother was Naxhi Shkupi, another Albanian nationalist who invested most of his wealth into the Albanian new state. [2] [3]
Ali took his elementary education in Salonika, later followed the Monastir Military High School, later the Turkish Military Academy (Kara Harp Okulu), ending with Academy of General Staff in Istanbul, which he finished in 1905. At the end of the academy he was given the rank captain. Later, he served various positions in the Ottoman Third Army in Macedonia. He supported the Young Turks movement, being part of the military units which attacked Istanbul in 1908. [3] (See: Young Turk Revolution)
Disappointed from the Young Turks, and taking advantage of his location in Macedonia where most of the Albanian nationalist movements were situated, he got in touch with Albanian patriotic circles. The end of Albanian Revolt of 1912 would find him in Istanbul with the rank major (binbashi). Ali Shkupi received information that he was on the list to get arrested, therefore escaped to Romania with the support of Albanian community. Later he moved in Trieste (back then part of Austro-Hungary). In March 1913, he participated in the Albanian Congress of Trieste. [3] [4]
Ali Shkupi could not reach Vlora because of the blockage from the Greek Navy although his desire was to join the Albanian government. He managed to land near Fier (Seman delta) area from an Austro-Hungarian ship. He was immediately assigned with the organization of the Ministry of War which he succeeded. Ali Shkupi put in place all the experience he had gathered from the extended military education and military service in the Ottoman Army. On May 5, 1913, Vlora Government would approve the "Statute for the temporary organization of the Ministry of War", and the General Staff Office which he was in command of. The newly created Ministry of War would also have Back Lines Office, Personnel Office, and Medical Office. The statute was detailed and included all necessary structures and mechanisms of a modern army. [3]
On 31 May 1913, the General Staff of Shkupi informed the Albanian Ministry of War for the creation of "model" military units, which would server as basis for the army. The Albanian Army so far consisted mostly of irregulars. Shkupi proposed the mandatory military service. He also built a special commission engaged with military terminology, together with former Ottoman military figures Mustafa Maksuti and Kamber Sejdini (the later an Albanian from Elbasan, who had served as French language teacher in the Monastir Military High School).
After the resignation of Ismail Qemali's government on 22 January 1914, Shkupi still held high military positions under Prince Wied. With the break out of World War I, he settled in Shkoder. With the Montenegrin occupation of Shkoder, he got arrested and released only in 1916 when Austro-Hungary invaded Montenegro. He was a supporter of Congress of Lushnje. The government that came out of the congress in January 1920 would assign him first "Commander of the General Command", and later "Chief of the General Staff" (after the recreation of the Ministry of War). [3]
Ali Shkupi was a supporter of Hasan Prishtina and the June Revolution of Bishop Noli. With the return of Ahmet Zogu in power in December 1924, he would be arrested and interned twice. He was accused as a main organizer of the Fier Revolt of 1935, [5] and got sentenced to death, [6] but due to protests from inside and outside Albania, he was sentenced to jail and released in 1938. [3]
Ali Shkupi was not active during World War II, although he was an opponent of the Italian invasion, as well as the German one. The Nazis would burn his house in Tirana. After the war, he resettled in Shkodër. He died on 3 December 1953 and was buried in Shkoder. He was reburied in Tirana in the '80s. In 1992, Ali Shefqet Shkupi was decorated for "Patriotic Activity of First Class" by the Albanian government. [3]
Ismail Qemali, was an Albanian politician and statesman who is regarded as the founder of modern Albania. He served as the first prime minister of Albania from December 1912 until his resignation in January 1914.
Isa Boletini was an Albanian revolutionary commander and politician and rilindas from Kosovo.
Dobi is a family name (surname) originating in Hungary. It is mostly prevalent in Hungary, Albania, Serbia and the United States.
In 1997, widespread civil unrest struck Albania due to economic problems in the country that were caused by the collapse of pyramid schemes. Due to the large quantities of money robbed from the government to fund the schemes, the Democratic Party's government collapsed in January 1997. More than 2,000 people were killed in the conflict until its end in August 1997. The creation of a new government came as the revolutionaries surrounded Tirana. Various other sources also describe the violence that ensued as a rebellion or even a civil war.
The Principality of Albania was a short-lived monarchy in Albania, headed by Wilhelm, Prince of Albania, that lasted from the Treaty of London of 1913 which ended the First Balkan War, through the invasions of Albania during World War I and the subsequent disputes over Albanian independence during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, until 1925, when the monarchy was abolished and the Albanian Republic declared.
The Albanian Declaration of Independence was the declaration of independence of Albania from the Ottoman Empire. Independent Albania was proclaimed in Vlorë on 28 November 1912. Six days later the Assembly of Vlorë formed the first Government of Albania which was led by Ismail Kemal and the Council of Elders (Pleqnia).
Xhemal Deliallisi was a prominent figure of the 19th century in the Shijak area of Albania. He was one of 40 signatories of the Albanian Declaration of Independence alongside his cousin Ymer Deliallisi. His tribe was one of the most influential in the area of central Albania where is his father, Sali bey Deliallisi, is thought to have been the founder of the modern city of Shijak.
Riza Kryeziu (1847-1917), known as Riza Bey Gjakova, was an Albanian nationalist figure and guerrilla fighter, an influential bey in the Gjakova region, then part of the Vilayet of Kosovo, Ottoman Empire, and one of the activists of Albanian national movements of early 20th century.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces, is the highest military structure of the Albanian Armed Forces. It was established as a joint strategic staff and functions according to NATO standards. The incumbent Chief of the General Staff is Major General Arben Kingji.
Fehim bey Zavalani (1859-1935) was an Albanian landowner from the Kolonjë area, journalist and activist of the Albanian National Awakening. He was also the editor of Bashkimi i Kombit, one of the most important Albanian newspapers of the era. In 1908 he became one of the head organizers of the Congress of Monastir, in which the Albanian alphabet was standardized.
The Uprising of Dervish Cara was a 19th-century uprising in northern Ottoman Albania directed against the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms which started in 1839 and were gradually being put in action in the regions of Albania. Some historians include the actions in Dibër of the same time under the same historical name, though the events in Dibër were independent and headed by other leaders.
The Albanian revolts of 1833–1839 took place in Albania as a reaction against the new centralizing policy of Ottoman administration.
The All-Albanian Congress was a held in Vlorë on November 28, 1912. Congress participants constituted the Assembly of Vlorë which established Albanian Provisional Government and elected Ismail Kemal as its president.
Kadri Prishtina (1878–1925), better known as Hoxha Kadri, was an Albanian political figure of the early 1920s.
Hysni Curri (?–1925) was a Kosovar Albanian military figure and a prominent leader of the Kachak movement and the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo.
Aqif Pasha Biçaku mostly known as Aqif Pashë Elbasani was an Ottoman Albanian political figure in the Sanjak of Elbasan and after the Young Turk Revolution became an activist for the Albanian national cause.
Kristo Floqi was an Albanian patriot, playwright, politician, and lawyer.
The Second Congress of Manastir was an Albanian congress held on 2–3 April 1910 in Manastir, back then Ottoman Empire, today's Bitola in the Republic of North Macedonia. It dealt with the challenges that the Albanian language and schools faced at the time within the context of the empire, and the platform to overcome them.
Menduh Zavalani (1889–1914) was an Albanian revolutionary and political leader active during the last years of the Albanian National Awakening. He formed his own revolutionary band and was one of the leaders that liberated Përmet and the environs from the Ottoman Empire. Menduh was an appointed delegate from his hometown Korça to the Albanian National Congress that proclaimed the Independence of Albania. In the intellectual level Menduh was noted for the translation of Friedrich Schiller's drama Wilhelm Tell into Albanian. He was assassinated at a very young age near Pogradec by a local collaborationist band.
The Taksim meeting alternatively known as the Taksim Plot and less commonly as the Taksim Assembly was a secret meeting held in January 1912 by Albanian nationalist deputies of the Ottoman parliament and other prominent Albanian political figures. The event gets its name from Taksim Square because of the location of the house where it was held. The meeting was organized on the initiative of Hasan Prishtina and Ismail Qemali, Albanian politicians, who invited most of the MPs of Albanian origin and aimed at launching an armed general uprising in Albanian territories against the central government headed by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). The meeting followed two other Albanian uprisings of 1910 in the Vilayet of Kosovo and 1911 in the mountains of upper Shkodra. The Taksim meeting resulted in an uprising the same year, with armed uprisings in Shkodër, Lezhë, Mirditë, Krujë and other Albanian provinces, which exceeded the organizers' expectations. The biggest uprising was in Kosovo, where the rebels were more organized and managed to take over important cities like Prizren, Peja, Gjakova, Mitrovica and others.