Qazim Koculi, political activist of the independence period, passed away. He was born in Kocul of Vlora. He completed the Naval Academy in Istanbul, where he received the rank of lieutenant. He participated in the Assembly of Vlora (1912) and served in the administration of the Provisional Government of Vlora. During the years of the First World War, he was engaged in national activities, which influenced his election as a delegate from Vlora to the Congress of Lushnja (1920). In the parliamentary elections of 1921, he won the mandate of deputy. He joined the political forces that were for the democratization of the country’s life and in the democratic government of Fan Noli, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture (1924). After the suppression of the Democratic Revolution of June 1924, he went into political exile. With the invasion of the country by Italy in 1939, he returned to his homeland, collaborated with the Italian invaders, and was appointed a member of the Supreme Council of State. At the end of 1942, he was appointed, by the Italian invaders, extraordinary commissar in Vlora. He was assassinated in Vlora by the Italian invaders, as a result of their defeat in the Battle of Gjorm (1943). (In the photo: Qazim Koculi)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1195.
Photo: © National History Museum
Graphic processing: AHCF
