Colonel Fiqri Dine (5 May 1897 [1] or 3 August 1897 [2] –26 November 1960) was Prime Minister of Albania under Nazi Germany's military occupation. [3] He was the chieftain of the Dine clan from Debar. [4]
Fiqiri Dine was born on 5 May 1897 in Dibra,Ottoman Empire (now Albania),the only son of Dine Maqellara an Albanian tribesman and patriot. His father was active during the Albanian revolt of 1910. He finished elementary school at Debar “Shehër”. Afterwards,he went to a military academy in Wels Austria-Hungary at 1914 until 1919 when he returned in Albania as lieutenant in Shkodër.
Despite being chosen as the Prime minister of Albania,Dine was mainly influenced by Mehdi Frashëri and Abaz Kupi. Frashëri,using Dine's connection to the Legaliteti,requested that Kupi join the government. Kupi agreed after the Albanian partisans began attacking Kupi's territory. [5] However,the Germans refused to accept Dine and Mehdi Frashëri's proposed cabinet or Frashëri's choice to succeed Fuat Dibra,who died in February,as Regent. Dine and Frasheri proposed that a Gheg coalition should be formed. [5] The plan was to coordinate Ballist and Zogist strength and,in cooperation with the Germans,drive back the Communists. At the same time,they hoped to convince the Allies that they were acting on behalf of an independent Albania and therefore deserved,if not direct Allied support,at least a respite from active Allied resistance. [5] Initial military operations against the partisans were seemingly quite successful. Germans and Zogist forces,without directly cooperating,managed to drive the partisans from Mati at the end of July. Mehmet Shehu forces that controlled Debar,forced the partisans to retreat for the time being. [5] However,the Allied forces began dropping supplies to partisan territory and helping them rebuild a new offensive. The Ballist-Zogist gamble had failed. A series of ominous international events during the last days of August made it abundantly clear to even the most pro-German Albanians that the German occupation of Albania would soon end. The German elite within Albania grew wary of Dine and Frasheri. Martin Schliep and Josef Fitzthum where enraged after discovering Dine's contact with the Allies,replaced him with Ibrahim Biçakçiu on 29 August 1944. [5] Dine was Prime minister for only 43 days.
After the war Dine,together with Muharrem Bajraktari,worked for the Albanian Committee in Paris. [6] Dine fled from Yugoslavia to Brussels,Belgium,where he died on 26 November 1960,aged 63.
In Albania,World War II began with its invasion by Italy in April 1939. Fascist Italy set up Albania as its protectorate or puppet state. The resistance was largely carried out by Communist groups against the Italian and then German occupation in Albania. At first independent,the Communist groups united in the beginning of 1942,which ultimately led to the successful liberation of the country in 1944.
Debar is a city in the western part of North Macedonia,near the border with Albania,off the road from Struga to Gostivar. It is the seat of Debar Municipality. Debar has an ethnic Albanian majority of 74% and is North Macedonia's only city where ethnic Macedonians do not rank first or second demographically. The official languages are Macedonian and Albanian.
Mid'hat Bey Frashëri was an Albanian diplomat,writer and politician. The son of Abdyl Frashëri,one of the most important activists of the Albanian National Awakening in 1908 he participated in the Congress of Monastir. In 1942 he became the president of Balli Kombëtar,an Albanian fascist collaborationist and anti-communist movement during the Second World War. Frashëri is referred to as one of the fathers of modern Albanian nationalism.
The Balli Kombëtar was an Albanian nationalist,collaborationist,and anti-communist resistance movement during the Second World War. It was led by Ali Këlcyra and by Midhat Frashëri. The movement was formed by members from the landowning elite,liberal nationalists opposed to communism,and other sectors of society in Albania.
The Second League of Prizren was an organisation founded by Albanian officials in occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia,modern-day Kosovo in September 1943 to campaign for the ethnic unification of Albanians in Albania.
Mehdi bey Frashëri was an Albanian intellectual and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Albania in the 1930s and as Chairman of the Provisional Administration Committee in the Albanian puppet government under Nazi Germany.
Xhemail Hasani,known as Xhem Hasa and Xhem Gostivari,was an Albanian nationalist and Axis collaborator,in charge of the Balli Kombëtar's activities in the western regions of Yugoslav Macedonia,a part of Yugoslavia occupied by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during World War II.
The Order of Skanderbeg was originally instituted in 1925 as an order of merit of the Albanian Republic. It was replaced by the Communist government in 1945 with a new award of the same name. Skanderbeg is the national hero of the Albanian people.
The National Liberation Movement,also translated as National Liberation Front,was an Albanian communist resistance organization that fought in World War II. It was created on 16 September 1942,in a conference held in Pezë,a village near Tirana,and was led by Enver Hoxha. Apart from the figures which had the majority in the General Council it also included known nationalists like Myslim Peza. In May 1944,the Albanian National Liberation Front was transformed into the government of Albania and its leaders became government members,and in August 1945,it was replaced by the Democratic Front.
Abaz Kupi or Abas Kupi. He was also known as Bazi i Canës. He was an Albanian military officer.
Mefail Shehu,also known as Mefaili i Madh or Mefail Zajazi,was a Balli Kombëtar military commander and leader of the Kicevo region during World War II. He was a close associate of Xhem Hasa.
The Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo was an Albanian organization founded in Shkodër on 1 May 1918. It mainly consisted of the political exiles from Kosovo and was led by Hoxha Kadri from Pristina. It had existed in looser form since May 1915.
Gajur Dëralla[a] was captain of the Luboten Battalion. The Luboten Battalion was a military division of the Balli Kombëtar which operated in Albania under Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
Muharrem Bajraktari was an Albanian Muslim guerrilla fighter from Lumëin northern Albania,and a political figure during World War II.
"Free Albania" National Committee,also known as "Free Albania" National-Democratic Committee,also National Committee for a Free Albania or NCFA,was a political organization of post-World War II Albanian emigres based in the Western countries. It was supported by the CIA as part of the Albanian Subversion and was a member of the National Committee for a Free Europe. The committee's aim was organizing the Albanian diaspora and cooperating with western powers in overthrowing Enver Hoxha's Communist regime in Albania.
The committee's creation was initiated in Rome and was completed in Paris in the summer of 1949.
The following lists events that happened during 1944 in the People's Republic of Albania.
Mustafa Gjinishi was an Albanian communist from Peqin,central Albania. He was known for having opposed Enver Hoxha and the Italian invasion of Albania.
The insurgency in Karadak–Gollak,also known as the War in Eastern Kosovo,was a series of Albanian riots in the Karadak and Gollak regions with spillover into the Anamorava regions. Initially directed against Bulgarian,German,and Italian occupation following the Invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941,it later targeted the Yugoslav Partisans who were attempting to gain control of the area.
Zija Dibra was an Ottoman and later Albanian officer and politician,Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of War of Albania.
Mulla Jusuf Baftjari,also known as HoxhëLipovica,was a prominent Albanian Imam,later Mullah,Kachak and Ballist commander during the Insurgency in Karadak in World War II,a region predominantly inhabited by Muslim Albanians. He participated in the popular resistance against the Bulgarian fascists,Yugoslav Partisans and Chetniks in the Karadak region. Jusuf Baftjari,was renowned for his wisdom and religious leadership and emerged as a prominent figure among the Albanians of Karadak. Jusuf Baftjari led significant battles in Karadak,Anamorava and Gollak including the one in Rainca of Presheva. On Eid al-Adha in 1944,Jusuf Baftjari organized and led the fighting during the First Battle of Preševo. Even after the end of World War II,Jusuf Baftjari continued the armed resistance against Yugoslavia,being one of the last Ballist leaders in Kosovo to do so.