Terenc Toçi (1880–1945), journalist and politician, was born in the Arbëresh village of Strigar (Italian: San Cosmo Albanese) in Calabria. He studied at the Arbëresh college of Saint Adrian in San Demetrio (Italy) and completed his higher studies at the University of Urbino. In 1904, he started the legal activity in Rome, simultaneously working as editor and chief editor of “Gazzetta Albanese”, “La Nazione Albanese” of Anselmio Lorekio and “La Terza Italia”. In 1911, he founded and directed” La Revista dei Balcani” (“The Magazine of the Balkans”) in Rome, which was published in Italian and partially in Albanian. He came to Albania for the first time in March 1911, when he participated in the anti-Ottoman uprisings in the provinces of Mirdita and Malësi e Madhe. He founded and directed the newspapers “Taraboshi” (1913-1914, 1921) and “Shtypi” (1923). He served as the director of the Press Office (1922–1923) and was elected deputy of Dibra Prefecture in the Constitutional Assembly (1924). In the years of Ahmet Zogu’s reign (1925–1939), T.T. was appointed prefect in Gjirokastra and Vlora, consul of Albania in Cairo (Egypt), President of the Court of Dictation, Minister of State for Municipal Economy, as well as was elected deputy of Prefecture of Shkodra in the Parliament of Albania (1937–1939). With the fascist occupation of Albania, Terence Toçi was appointed to the composition of the Constitutional Assembly, which legitimized the annexation of Albania by the Kingdom of Italy (1939–1940), while in the years 1940–1943, he served as the chairman of the Supreme Corporate Fascist Council. In 1945, he was sentenced to death by the Special Court of Tirana and was shot. (In the photo: Terenc Toçi in the courtroom, 1945.)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2718.
Photo: © Xhoxhi L., personal archive
Graphic processing: AHCF
