Essad Toptani (politician)
Essad Toptani Minister of War | |
---|---|
In office 14 March 1914 – 20 June 1914 | |
Monarch | Prince Wilhelm |
Prime Minister | Turhan Përmeti |
Preceded by | Mehmet Deralla |
Succeeded by | Kara Seit Pasha |
Personal details | |
Born | 1863 or 1875 Siege of Scutari (1912–1913) |
Essad Toptani (1863/4[2] or 1875[3] – 13 June 1920) was an Albanian politician who served as prime minister of Albania from 1914 to 1916. He previously established the Republic of Central Albania based in Durrës. An Ottoman army officer, he served as the Albanian deputy in the Ottoman Parliament and later cooperated with the Balkan League after the Balkan Wars.[4][5]
Life and career
Early life
Essad Toptani was born in 1863 in
First Balkan War
In 1912 during the
In July 1913 he was persuaded by the Vlora family to accept a position of minister of the interior in the provisional government, but on 16 October 1913, to frustrate Ismail Qemali, Toptani who depicted Qemali as a Greek agent, set up a rival government of his own in Durrës, called the Republic of Central Albania. Officially Serbia simultaneously helped a number of other small tribal chiefs who resisted Ismail Qemali's government, directing them towards cooperation with Toptani.[4]
Peasant Revolt
He reluctantly stepped down when forced to do so by the Great Powers on 1 February 1914, being given as a consolation prize the right to lead the Albanian delegation that travelled to Neuwied on the Rhine, in Germany, to offer the Albanian throne to Prince Wilhelm. Back in Albania, relations between the Prince and the scheming Toptani, now minister of war and minister of the interior soon soured. Toptani led a faction of his own in the Peasant Revolt against Prince Wilhem. He was the only person in Albania to have a self-contained army of his own, and strove to grab as much of the country as he could. On 9 January, his men tried to take Elbasan, but they were repulsed by the governor of the town, Aqif Pasha Elbasani.[14]
On 19 May 1914, when Toptani refused to lay down his weapons, armed forces under Dutch gendarmerie officer Johan Sluys surrounded and shelled his house in Durrës, forcing him to surrender. He was arrested for conspiracy, though after consultations with Wilhelm, he was not court-martialled but sent to Bari in southern Italy and banned from returning to Albania.[15][16]
Exile and the Treaty of Niš
From exile in Rome, he maintained close links with the Serbian and Montenegrin governments. After the outbreak of the First World War, Toptani travelled to
His power base in central Albania was weakened in November 1914 by an uprising of Muslim rebels who turned against him, but he managed, with Italian support, to hold on to the town of Durrës. Toptani's rule was not stable because of the
For the next two years, Toptani remained in
Death
On 13 June 1920, Avni Rustemi assassinated Toptani in Paris when he left the Hotel Continental. Toptani was buried in the Serbian Military Cemetery in Paris,[20][5] after staying for a long time unburied in the mortuary.[21]
Legacy
Awards
For his service in the Greco-Turkish War (1897) the High Porte awarded him with the Order of Osmanieh of 2nd Class and afterwards he was ranked Miralay.[22] Furthermore, for his contribution in the Macedonian front as an ally of the Entente, he was awarded with the title Officier of the Legion of Honour and with the Croix de Guerre.[20] He was awarded Order of the White Eagle.[23]
Historical
Toptani had a reputation as an unscrupulous opportunist,[6] Edith Durham viewed Toptani as "a strange relic of the middle ages ... one with the handsome swashbucklers who sold themselves and their services to the rival monarchs, princelings and dukes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and cheerfully transferred themselves to the enemy if he offered better pay – men in whom the sense of nationality was not developed at all, and whose sense of honour was, to put it mildly, deficient."[24]
Perception
Toptani is remembered among Albanians as one of the most negative historical figures and the symbol of treason.[25][26][27]
In 2014, the Serbian Minister of Labor, Aleksandar Vulin paid homage at his grave, for his contributions to Serbia.[28]
Films
Two shots in Paris (sq:Dy krisma në Paris) is a drama by Sheri Mita, Pëllumb Kulla with the subject of Essad Toptani murder in Paris and trial of Avni Rustemi[29]
Notes
- Albanian Republic
References
- ^ ASA 2009, p. 2156
- ISBN 9789994356225.
- ISBN 99927-780-6-7.
- ^ a b c d Serbian government and Essad Pasha Toptani
- ^ a b Robert Elsie, Essad Pasha Toptani Archived 17 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ISBN 978-1-78076-431-3.
- ^ Pettifer, James (1 June 2001). "Ihsan Bey Toptani". Retrieved 5 December 2014.
The Toptani family were in many ways the founders of contemporary Tirana
- ^ a b c d Gawrych 2006, p. 167.
- ISBN 978-1-4008-4776-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84511-287-5.
- Shkodra: Shtypshkroja Franciskane. Archived from the originalon 23 July 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
Essad Pasha assured us that he could manage things in Central Albania and Mirdita.
- ^ ISBN 978-9928-190-91-8.
- ISBN 9781860645419.
- ^ Elsie, Robert. "Albania under prince Wied". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
It was obvious to Wied and the Dutch officers that Essad Pasha had his hand in the unrest.
- ^ Heaton-Armstrong, Duncan (2005). "An Uprising in the Six-Month Kingdom". Gervase Belfield and Bejtullah Destani (I.B. Tauris, in association with the Centre for Albanian Studies). Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
Essad would be sent into exile, without a trial.
- ^ Elsie, Robert. "Albania under prince Wied". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
to exile Essad Pasha to Italy
- ISBN 86-447-0006-5, archived from the originalon 6 September 2010, retrieved 19 January 2011,
Essad Pasha signed a secret alliance treaty with Pasic on September 17.
- ISBN 978-0-88033-181-4, p. 358: "In return, Essad reconfirmed a promise he had made in the fall of 1914 to support Greece's annexation of North Epirus. However, while he was willing to come to a secret agreement with the Greek government on this question, he indicated that in order to be able to counterbalance the weight of the common adversary, that is Italy, and to stabilize his influence in Albania he could not recognize publicly Greece's claim."
- ProQuest 1724503382. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ a b Ikonomi 2016, p. 523.
- ^ "ESSAD PASHA'S BODY STILL WAITS BURIAL; Great Albanian, Shot in Paris 14 Months Ago, Lies With Unknowns in the Mortuary.", New York Times, 7 August 1921, retrieved 31 October 2013
- ^ Ikonomi 2016, p. 16.
- ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 579.
- ISBN 1 903616-09-3.
- ^ Firma e Esat Pashës për bashkimin e Shqipërisë me Serbinë [Signature of Essad Pasha for annexation of Albania into Serbia] (in Albanian), Bota Sot, 6 April 2013, retrieved 31 October 2013
- ^ Puto: Esat Pashë Toptani nuk ka rehabilitim [Puto: There is no rehabilitation for Essad Pasha Toptani] (in Albanian), AMA News, 10 November 2012, retrieved 31 October 2013
- ^ Gazeta Zëri (2 October 2014). "Serbia përkujton Esat Pashë Toptanin". Zëri.info (in Albanian). Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
- ^ GAZETAEXPRESS (15 November 2014). "Më në fund edhe Esat Pashës i bëhen nderimet pranë varrit - nga Serbia". Gazeta Express (in Albanian). Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- ^ "Zeri.info | Avni Rrustemi gjatë procesit gjyqësor në Paris (Foto+Video)". Archived from the original on 26 October 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
Sources
- Fjalor enciklopedik shqiptar: N-Zh dhe një shtojcë (in Albanian). ISBN 978-9-9956-1032-6. Archivedfrom the original on 21 October 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
- Akademia e studimeve albanologjike (2017). Historia e shqiptarëve gjatë shekullit XX. Botime Albanologjike.
- Prifti, Kristaq; Shpuza, Gazmend (2007). Historia e popullit shqiptar: vëllimi i tretë (in Albanian). Toena.
- Patrice Najbor, Histoire de l'Albanie et de sa Maison Royale (5 volumes), JePublie, Paris, 2008, (ISBN 978-2-9532382-0-4).
- Patrice Najbor, la dynastye des Zogu, Textes & Prétextes, Paris, 2002
- Biodata on Essad Pasha by O.S. Pearson, who authored Albania and King Zog (ISBN 1-84511-013-7), 2005.[permanent dead link]
External links
Media related to Essad Pasha Toptani at Wikimedia Commons
- Essad Pasha Toptani, Memorandum on Albania, 1919
- Endres, Franz Carl (1922). Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). .
- (in French) Maison royale d'Albanie, site officiel
- (in English) Famille royale d'Albanie, site officiel
- Newspaper clippings about Essad Toptani in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW