Mid'hat Frashëri

Early life Mid'hat bey Frashëri was the son of prominent Albanian politician and statesman from 19th century Abdyl Frashëri (who initiated the movement of a wide autonomy from Ottoman Empire) and nephew of the poets and nationalists Naim Frashëri and Sami Frashëri. where his family worked in the Ottoman administration and organised the Albanian nationalist movement. In 1897 Mid'hat Frashëri was arrested by Ottoman authorities for having a copy of the newspaper Albania, and was released after intervention by his uncle Sami Frashëri. During 1901, Mid'hat Frashëri published a biography on his uncle Naim Frashëri. Giving up his studies of pharmacology, he worked for the Ottoman administration in the vilayet of Salonika from 1905 to 1910. Using the pen name Lumo Skendo, he began publishing the weekly newspaper "Lirija" in Salonika, which lasted until 1910. He participated in the Congress of Monastir in 1908, and in January of the next year, he began editing a monthly magazine entitled "Diturija", a magazine based on the cultural, literary and scholarly interest of Albania. Ottoman authorities forbid writing in Albanian that resulted in publications being published abroad and like other writers of the time Frashëri used a pseudonym Mali Kokojka to bypass those restrictions for his works. By late 1911, Frashëri had joined the Freedom and Accord Party which was founded by him and ten others who were opponents of the Young Turks and advocated for Ottomanism, government decentralisation and the rights of ethnic minorities. Congress of Monastir According to Mid'hat Frashëri, the foundation of knowledge and citizenship was the Albanian language. The struggle for language is another form of struggle for survival. For this existential reason, he presided over the Congress of Monastir. Mid'hat Frashëri was one of the fifty delegates that who helped form the modern Albanian alphabet. along with Parashqevi Qiriazi who was chairwoman of the commission of the alphabet. During the alphabet congress Frashëri supported the adoption of the Latin character Istanbul alphabet for writing the Albanian language. Albanian Declaration of Independence Mid'hat bey's political views took on a nationalist character during the Balkan Wars and in the final collapse of the Ottoman Empire when Albania was on the verge of being carved up by its Balkan neighbours. Unlike some of his cousins who remained in what later became Turkey, Frashëri moved to Albania after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Mid'hat Frashëri was one of the eighty-three leaders meeting in Vlorë in November 1912. He was one of the signers of the declaration of independence and became the Minister of Public Works in the Provisional Government of Albania. Mid'hat did not stay in this role for long as Ismail Qemali invited all Albanian officers and militias who were on different fronts in the Balkan War to return to their homes. Mid'hat was against the order from the Prime Minister and went twice from Vlora to Ioannina to encourage the Albanian reservists to continue the war until the end, thinking that this could bring Çameria to be a part of Albania. Mid'hat could not do this as a Minister of the Albanian government, but as an individual and caused a further rift between himself and Ismail Qemali. On March 30, 1913, Mid'hat resigned from office due to indignation against the attitude of the prime minister (Ismail Qemali) towards the siege of Ioannina. After resigning from Public office, Mid'hat began writing for newspaper "''Përlindj' e Shqipënia''". Under the Përmeti I Government and the arrival of Prince Wilhem zu Wied, a Peasant Revolt emerged. Mid'hat published articles condemning Essad Pasha Toptani, writing "Essadism took shape and form under an apocalyptic trinity: Essad Toptani, mufti Musa Qazimi and Haxhi Qamili, three heads of grace who represented ambition, betrayal and greed". Mid'hat, as the chairman of the Albanian delegation in the League of Nations, successfully countered Slobodan Jovanović, the Yugoslav delegate, on the legitimacy of an Albanian state. Jovanovic made accusations that the 'Tirana government' was a tool of 'muslim landowners' and did not represent all Albanians, using the de facto Mirdita Republic as an example. Mit'hat argued that the Tirana government was not a Mohammedan government and its cabinet consists of representatives from all Albanian religions. A renewed appeal, made by Mid'hat Frasheri, President of the Albanian Delegation, on April 29, 1921, after dilating upon the trouble with Yugoslavia, called attention to the difficulties with Greece. This latter state, it was asserted, continued ‘to occupy a district containing twenty Albanian villages east of Korçë, pending a decision of the Great Powers with regard to its evacuation.’ Frasheri and Bishop Fan Noli countered the Greek opposition, Frangoulis, arguing that the frontiers of Albania were those established at London and Florence in 1913, since the ‘treaties’ then made had not been abrogated. It was pointed out that the government was in possession of the territory defined in 1913, with the exception of an area encircling the district of Korçë, which was occupied by Greek troops after the withdrawal of the French troops in May, 1920. In December 1925, he resigned from this position due to Ahmet Zog (then President of Albania) signing of the agreement by which Saint Naum and Vermosh were given to Yugoslavia. Quiet period , Mid'hat Frashëri, Thoma Orollogaj (from left to right) in Berat. Under the Zog regime in 1925, Mid'hat left public life and opened up the Lumo Skëndo 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. In February 1938, he offered his collection to the Institute of Albanian Studies. Ahmet Zogu, now King Zog, offered Mid'hat a role in his government cabinet but refused, believing it would dishonour his family name to be a part of Zogu's government. His cousin, Mehdi Frashëri, served as Albanian Prime Minister under a German-backed Albanian Government. After World War II and death 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. 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 and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in New York. However witnesses described that Frashëri was "a man full of life and energy" before he died and his death may not have been caused by a tired heart. At his funeral ceremony, fellow anti-communists Sejfi Protopapa and Father Paul Rado delivered the speech. Imam Vehbi Ismaili, who came from Detroit, made the religious prayers of exhortation. The coffin with Mid'hat Frashëri's body was covered with the National Flag and was honoured by nearly 200 people. His remains were reburied in Grand Park of Tirana in November 2018, alongside the tombs of his father and uncles, Abdyl Frashëri, Naim Frashëri and Sami Frashëri. ==Legacy==

Mid'hat Frashëri was a man of short stature with a speech impediment. He was described by an Italian journalist as a man who dressed very properly with very clean white cuffs and very white hair. His library, one of the finest in the Balkans, became the basis for the Albanian National Library. 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. Opinions Mid'hat was viewed by many as a staunch patriot who helped create the modern Albanian alphabet and founded the country’s Institute of Albanology. His nationalist ideology, from advocating the Albanian Vilayet to forming "Ethnic Albania" through the Balli Kombëtar has caused controversy. The repatriation and reburial of the remains of Mid'hat Frashëri to Tirana was met with vary opinions within Albania, particularly those with some form of connection to the Communist Party of Albania. Uran Butka, one of the founding members of the National Association of Political Prisoners, says that "Midhat Frashëri passionately defended Kosovo against the ruling policies of the neighboring states. Even when he was ambassador of Albania in Greece, he defended the Çam issue, facing the anti-Albanian policies of displacement and depopulation of Albanians". Odise Porodini, a member of a Communist veterans’ group, was critical of the official tributes paid to Frasheri. He stated that Mid'hat was against his country with his political activity and he doesn’t deserve a state ceremony. Muharrem Xhafa, a former official of the Albanian Communist Party labelled Mid'hat Frashëri a "pseudo-patriot" and "traitor" who wanted to exterminate LANÇ. Although Frashëri was one of the signers of the Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912, the Albanian Communists, after taking over in 1945, deleted his name from the official documents in an attempt to remove historical evidence of his contribution to Albania. On 22 December 2022, The grave and the memorial of Mithat Frasheri, was heavily damaged by unknown attackers in what seems to be a hate attack. ==Quotes==

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." :"Albanians, although mostly Muslims, have never considered themselves Turks. On the contrary, they had a clear notion of their own individuality, and a deep gulf prevented them from mixing with the race of the conquerors." On the Epirus Question: :"For whom was Greece, in the person of Zographos, demanding privileges? Who were the Greeks of Epirus? We have already stated, and can do so again here that “there is not a single Greek within the borders of Albania” as defined by the Powers at the conference in Florence. Those whom Greece called Greeks are none other than Albanian Orthodox Christians." In regards to the Albanian character: :"Albanians will win all conflicts, after finishing the last conflict among themselves." In regards to Albanian Communists: :"Communism is a terrible disease, like the rabies of dogs and wolves, it is a cholera that destroys not only the body, but even more, the heart and soul of man." To summarize the ideals of the National Front: :"What should be our ideal? It should be the greatness and honor of the Albanian, the unity and unity of the nation, happiness and general progress." ==References==