In Thessaloniki, Hasan Prishtina, activist of the national movement of the Renaissance period, of the movement for a democratic state in Albania, for the liberation of Kosovo and for its union with the independent Albanian state, was assassinated. He was born in Vushtrri, Kosovo, in 1873. He attended the French high school in Thessaloniki and the high school of administration in Istanbul. He was elected a deputy in the Ottoman parliament three times, where he defended the national rights of the Albanians (1908-1912). At the beginning of 1912, together with Ismail Qemal Vlorë, he was among the initiators of the organization of the General Anti-Ottoman Uprising and its main leader. He supported the Declaration of Independence of Albania (1912) and was a minister of the Provisional Government of Vlora. During the period March-September 1914, he supported Vilhelm Vidi, whom he saw as a symbol of the independent Albanian state, and for several months (15.03.-20.05.1914) he participated in the government of Turhan Përmet as Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. During 1915, he stayed in hiding in the Highlands of Gjakova, where he was involved in the organization of the resistance in Kosovo and in other countries occupied by the Serbian and Montenegrin armies. In the period 1916-1918, he cooperated with the Austrian occupation authorities, hoping that this way the final union of Kosovo with the Albanian state could be achieved after the war. In April 1921, he was elected deputy of Dibra in the National Council. During the political crisis of December of that year, he was commissioned by the Supreme Council to form the government on December 7th, 1921, but resigned on December 12th in the interests of the country’s stability. During the years 1922-1923, he stood out as one of the opposition figures in Albania. Sheltered in the Neutral Zone of Junik to escape the persecution of Ahmet Zogu’s government, he tried to keep alive this base of the insurgents. In 1924, in addition to the activity as a leader and organizer of the armed Kaçak movement in Kosovo against the Serbian rule, he also participated in the preparation in Albania of the June Revolution of 1924, which brought the government of Fan Nol to power. After the victory of the June Uprising, he returned to Tirana. Accompanied Fan Noli to the League of Nations. At that time, as throughout his life as a political exile in the years 1925-1933, he worked tirelessly to ensure the support of world public opinion, international forums and the offices of the Great Powers for the Kosovo issue. Hasan Prishtina was a representative of the radical wing of the Albanian political exile. He saw the liberation of Kosovo as connected with the change of regime in Albania. He was the initiator of the cooperation with the national liberation organizations in Macedonia, Bosnia and Croatia, which were fighting to be freed from the Serbian yoke. He worked for the coordination of the war of the enslaved peoples of the Balkans. He hoped that with the creation of national states and the cessation of any form of hegemony over the peoples of the Balkans, the conditions for cooperation between them would be created. In cooperation with the members of the “National Union” organization, he participated in the preparation of the assassination that was carried out in Vienna against Ahmet Zogut (1931). Hasan Prishtina was attempted to be killed four times by political opponents; was imprisoned twice by the Serbian and Bulgarian invaders and sentenced to death six times (by the Young Turks, by Esad Toptani, by the Serbian government and three times by the government of Ahmet Zog). Hasan Prishtina has written a series of articles and a collection of memoirs about the anti-Ottoman Uprising of 1912, with genuine historical value. He was assassinated in 1933. Ahmet Zogu and the Yugoslav government were accused of organizing the assassination. In 1977, the remains of Hasan Prishtina were brought to Albania and reburied with official honors in Kukës. (In the photo: Hasan Prishtina)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2096-2097.
Photo: © https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasan_Prishtina
Graphic processing: AHCF
