{"id":6822,"date":"2026-04-28T00:06:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/2023\/10\/12\/vatra-federation\/---529f3701-1c4a-4b98-9405-dcf889b32d99"},"modified":"2026-04-28T00:06:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T00:06:46","slug":"vatra-federation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/2023\/10\/12\/vatra-federation\/","title":{"rendered":"“Vatra” federation"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 28, 1912 <\/strong>, the “Vatra” federation was founded in Boston (USA), a patriotic society of Albanian immigrants in the United States of America; one of the largest, most important and longest-lived in the Albanian diaspora. Its first leader, in the position of secretary, was elected Fan Noli. Its organ was and continues to be the newspaper “Dielli”. “Vatra” was organized on democratic principles. She and her organization “Dielli” became an expression of the national and democratic aspirations of immigrants and the entire Albanian people in the international arena. “Vatra” supported the fight for freedom and the declaration of independence, as well as carried out useful diplomatic activities at moments of historical importance for Albania. The peak of its activity was marked in the years of the First World War and during the development of the Peace Conference in Paris (1919), when “Vatra” acted energetically for the re-recognition of the Albanian state and ensuring its territorial integrity. It drafted memorandums, financed and sent its delegations to the capitals of the Great Powers, as well as to the Peace Conference. In the years 1920-1924, “Vatra” supported the efforts of Albanians for the reconstruction and democratization of the Albanian state. It supported the Democratic Revolution of June 1924 and the activities of Fan Noli’s government. After the failure of the Revolution, “Vatra”, headed by Faik Konica, called on the parties for national unity and made the policy of neutrality official. But, step by step, it gave full support to the politics of Ahmet Zogu, which brought long debate in its bosom, the creation of internal fractions and a decrease in the number of members. The crisis of the “Vatra” federation deepened due to the lack of funds. From the summer of 1936, until World War II, two “Vatra” organizations operated in parallel, with two “Dielli” newspapers, based in Detroit and Boston. However, members of \u201cVatra\u201d made great efforts to preserve their organization, for the affirmation of the Albanian state in the international arena, for an educational, cultural movement, etc. The “Vatra” Federation after the fascist invasion of Albania, with deep indignation, sent a series of protests to the Western Powers, organized several rallies, etc. At the end of World War II in Albania (1944), for the sake of national interests, “Vatra” took a supportive position towards Enver Hoxha’s government, supported the activity for Albania’s admission to the United Nations Organization, for the protection of its territorial integrity, etc. After the mid-1950s, “Vatra” began to be critical of the communist regime in Albania and opened its doors without reservation to political immigrants. From the end of the 80s, her criticism of the communist regime in Albania became more frequent and harsher. In the 90s, it supported democratic processes in Albania. In the 80s and 90s, its ranks were increased with new immigrants from Kosova and the Republic of Albania. It cooperated widely with the Kosovar emigration organizations, condemned the violence and genocide perpetrated against the Albanian population in the former Yugoslav Federation. In all periods, “Vatra” kept the national language and traditions alive, developed many educational, cultural, scientific activities, etc., constantly served as a bridge between the Albanian people and the American people. (In the photo: The seal of the federation “Vatra”.)<\/i> <\/p>\n

Text:<\/strong> Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 <\/i>, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 652-653. <\/p>\n

Photo: <\/strong>\u00a9 https:\/\/sq.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Federata_Panshqiptare_Vatra <\/p>\n

Graphic processing: <\/strong>AHCF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 28, 1912 , the “Vatra” federation was founded in Boston (USA), a patriotic society of Albanian immigrants in the United States of America; one of the largest, most important and longest-lived in the Albanian diaspora.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ngjarje"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9413,"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6822\/revisions\/9413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.albanianheritage.al\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}