Mehdi bey Frashëri (28 February 1872 – 25 May 1963) was an Albanian intellectual and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Albania in the 1930s and as Chairman of the Provisional Administration Committee in the Albanian puppet government under

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

Biography

Early life

Mehdi Frashëri was born on 28 February 1872 in Frashër,

Janina Vilayet The Vilayet of Janina, Yanya or Ioannina () was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire, established in 1867. In the late 19th century, it reportedly had an area of .

, then

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. His father was Ragip bey

kaymakam Kaymakam, also known by #Names, many other romanizations, was a title used by various officials of the Ottoman Empire, including acting grand viziers, governors of provincial sanjaks, and administrators of district kazas. The title has been reta ...

Metsovo Metsovo (; ) is a town in Epirus (region), Epirus, in the mountains of Pindus in northern Greece, between Ioannina to the west and Meteora to the east. The largest centre of Aromanians, Aromanian (Vlach) life in Greece, Metsovo is a large regio ...

. Frashëri studied in Konica and Monastir and graduated from the Mekteb-i Mülkiye in

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in 1897. While in Istanbul, in 1901, he was charged with establishing a small press in a local house cellar for printing Albanian nationalistic materials together with a small group of Albanians.

Early political career and interwar period

Frashëri served as

Kaymakam Kaymakam, also known by #Names, many other romanizations, was a title used by various officials of the Ottoman Empire, including acting grand viziers, governors of provincial sanjaks, and administrators of district kazas. The title has been reta ...

of Peqin in central Albania between 1901 and 1903. After that he moved to Ohrid, where he joined the Secret Committee for the Liberation of Albania. He was denounced by a group of local Muslims as an Albanian nationalist and a pro- Young Turk. He was governor of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem under the Ottomans, mayor of Durrës under Prince Wied, minister in the Albanian government of 1918, and minister of the interior in 1920. On May 17, 1914, as a member of the International Commission of Control he signed the Protocol of Corfu. He participated in the Congress of Durrës in December 1918. In 1923, he was also Albania's representative in the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. During the 1930s he held significant posts, including that of the Prime Minister from 1935 to 1936. In the early 1930s he participated in the civil code reforms committees along with Thoma Orologa and Hasan Dosti.

Italian occupation

Frashëri was against

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

and disliked his policy of invading Albania. Frasheri took it upon himself to broadcast scathing attacks against the invasion as well as addressing a remonstrance to Mussolini. Following the departure of the government of

Tirana Tirana ( , ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in Albania, largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest ov ...

, he urged young men with revolvers to distribute themselves to preserve order. When the invading troops were at the gates he sought asylum in the Turkish Legation, continuing to refuse to sign a declaration in support of the Italians. His personal courage impressed even the German minister, who successfully appealed to Rome to allow Frashëri to return home. Despite Italian guarantees, Frashëri was soon arrested and interned in Italy. Frashëri participated as "Honorary Chairman" of the Conference of Pezë, where Albanian anti-fascist factors gathered in 1942, a fact that would be suppressed by the communist regime later. Frashëri, who had sympathy for the Germans partly because he had studied in Austria, worked with German minister , in the hopes of establishing closer relations and to gain some protection for the Albanians from the Italians.

German occupation

After the capitulation of Italy,

took control of the Balkans. The Germans were apprised of his significance and began to search for him immediately after the invasion. Frasheri was found and agreed, on 16 September, to return to

for talks with Hermann Neubacher, Major and . After the end of the meeting, it was agreed that Albania would have its own sovereignty under Nazi Germany, similar to the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

. Frashëri agreed to serve as regent as well as head the council. The leadership of the council was originally designed to rotate, but Lef Nosi declined for health reasons, and Anton Harapi argued that as a Catholic monk, he could accept no position in which he would be forced to sanction the death penalty.

After World War II

When the Partisans declared victory in Albania, the Germans evacuated, taking Mehdi Frashëri with them. Frashëri moved to Vienna and eventually settled in Rome, where he lived until his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frasheri, Mehdi Frasheri, Bej, Mehdi Albanian Sufis 1872 births 1963 deaths Albanian collaborators with Nazi Germany Albanian anti-communists 19th-century Albanian politicians 20th-century Albanian politicians People from Janina vilayet Interior ministers of Albania Foreign ministers of Albania Bektashi Order Mekteb-i Mülkiye alumni Mehdi Government of Durrës People from Gjirokastër County Albanian people from the Ottoman Empire Albanian expatriates in Italy Albanian exiles