Zog I

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Zog I
Zogu I
Victor Emmanuel III
President of Albania
In office31 January 1925 – 1 September 1928
PredecessorOffice established (de facto)
Xhemal Pasha Zogolli
MotherSadije Toptani
ReligionSunni Islam
Signature
This article is part of
a series about
Zog I

leader of Albania

1922-1939

Government

Battle

Life in exile and death

  • Life in exile and death

Legacy

Family

Zog I (Ahmed Muhtar Zogolli; 8 October 1895 – 9 April 1961) was the leader of Albania from 1922 to 1939. At age 27, he first served as Albania's youngest ever Prime Minister (1922–1924), then as president (1925–1928), and finally as king (1928–1939).

Born to a

Benito Mussolini's Italy. In September 1928, Albania was proclaimed a monarchy and he acceded to the throne as Zog I, King of the Albanians. He married Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony in 1938, and their only child Leka
was born a year later.

Albania fell further under Italian influence during Zog's reign, and by the end of the 1930s the country had become almost fully dependent on Italy despite Zog's resistance. In April 1939, Italy

Second World War but was barred from returning to Albania by Enver Hoxha's communist regime. Zog spent the rest of his life in France and died in April 1961 at the age of 65. His remains were buried at the Thiais Cemetery near Paris, before being transferred to the royal mausoleum in Tirana
in 2012.

Background and early political career

Zog was born as Ahmed Muhtar Zogolli in

Xhelal Bey Zogolli
.

In 1912, he participated in the

Fan S. Noli. In 1922, Zogolli formally changed his surname from Zogolli to Zogu, which sounds more Albanian.[3]

In 1923, he was shot and wounded in

Prime Minister
.

President of Albania

Standard used by Ahmet Zogu as President of the First Republic.

Zogu was officially elected as the first

President of Albania by the Constituent Assembly on 21 January 1925, taking office on 1 February for a seven-year term. A new constitution vested Zogu with sweeping executive and legislative powers, to the point that he was effectively a dictator.[5] He had the right to appoint all major government personnel, as well as one-third of the lower house.[6]

Zogu's government followed the European model, though large parts of Albania still maintained a social structure unchanged from the days of Ottoman rule, and most villages were serf plantations run by the Beys. On 28 June 1925, Zogu ceded

Sveti Naum to Yugoslavia in exchange for Peshkëpi (Pëshkupat) village and other concessions.[7][8]

Zogu enacted several major reforms. His principal ally during this period was the

Hasan Prishtina and Bajram Curri
, among others.

Royal sword commemorating the marriage of King Zog I

On the debit side, Zogu's Albania was a police state in which civil liberties were all but nonexistent and the press was closely censored. Political opponents were imprisoned and often killed. For all intents and purposes, he held all governing power in the nation.[6]

Albanian king

Ahmed Zogu
Main articles: Royal Albanian Army and Zogist salute

On 1 September 1928, Albania was transformed into a kingdom, and President Zogu declared himself to be Zog I, so-called King of the

Prince Wied, but this fell out of use).[9]

On the same day as he declared himself king (he was never technically crowned), he also declared himself

paper currency
.

Royal standard of Zog I and of the Army

Zog's mother, Sadije, was declared Queen Mother of Albania, and Zog also gave his brother and sisters Royal status as Prince and Princesses Zogu. One of his sisters,

Senije (c. 1897 – 1969), married Prince Shehzade Mehmed Abid Efendi of Turkey, a son of Sultan Abdul Hamid II
.

Zog's constitution forbade any Prince of the Royal House from serving as Prime Minister or a member of the Cabinet, and contained provisions for the potential extinction of the royal family. Ironically, in light of later events, the constitution also forbade the union of the Albanian throne with that of any other country. Under the Zogist constitution, the King of the Albanians, like the

Qur'an (the king being Muslim) in an attempt to unify the country. In 1929, King Zog abolished Islamic law in Albania, adopting in its place a civil code based on the Swiss one, as Atatürk's Turkey had done in the same decade.[10]

Royal monogram

The price for such modernization was high, though. Although nominally a constitutional monarch, in practice Zog retained the dictatorial powers he had enjoyed as president. Thus, in effect, Albania remained a military dictatorship.[6]

In 1938, as a result of a request from his advisor and friend Constantino Spanchis, Zog opened the borders of Albania to

Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany.[11]

Life as king

Reverse and obverse of a Zogian gold hundred-franc coin.
100-franc banknote of Zog's reign

Although born as an

ruling dynasty had Albanian origins. As king, he was honoured by the governments of Italy, Luxembourg, Egypt, Yugoslavia, France, Romania, Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria.[citation needed
]

Zog had been engaged to the daughter of

Shefqet Bey Verlaci before he became king. Soon after he became king, however, he broke off the engagement. According to traditional customs of blood vengeance prevalent in Albania at the time, Verlaci had the right and obligation to kill Zog. The king frequently surrounded himself with a personal guard and avoided public appearances. He also feared that he might be poisoned, so the mother of the king assumed supervision of the royal kitchen.[12]

In April 1938, Zog married

Crown Prince Leka
, was born in Albania on 5 April 1939.

Assassination attempts

About 600

blood feuds reportedly existed against Zog,[13] and during his reign he reputedly survived more than 55 assassination attempts.[14]
One of these occurred inside the corridors of the Albanian Parliament premises on 23 February 1924.
Ali Klissura. Zog stepped down briefly from political activity,[19] but promised to forgive Valteri. Valteri, a member of the revolutionary Bashkimi ("The union") committee led by Avni Rustemi,[20] was set free by the Court of Tirana after declaring that it was an individual act.[21] Meanwhile, all rumors pointed to the opposition, specifically to Rustemi. Two weeks later Zog and Valteri would meet in private. Soon after, Rustemi would be shot.[18]

Another attempt occurred on 21 February 1931, while Zog was visiting the

Eqrem Libohova who was wounded, while Zog's guard Llesh Topallaj was mistaken for Zog by Gjeloshi, who shot him three times in the back of the head. Çami's gun was stuck and did not fire. Zog came out of the event unharmed, thanks also to the prompt intervention of Albanian Consul Zef Serreqi and local police.[14] The Austrian authorities arrested Çami, Gjeloshi, and later Qazim Mulleti, Rexhep Mitrovica, Menduh Angoni, Angjelin Suma, Luigj Shkurti, Sejfi Vllamasi, etc.[14][24] All the Albanian political émigrés in Vienna were subsequently arrested, beside Hasan Prishtina. Most of them were quickly released and expelled from Austria. Gjeloshi was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months of jail, while Çami got 2 years and 6 months.[25]

Relations with Italy

The fascist government of

First Treaty of Tirana (1926), although Zog still retained British officers in the Gendarmerie
as a counterbalance against the Italians, who had pressured Zog to remove them.

During the

Balkan states. Albania then drifted back into the Italian orbit.[26]

Two days after the birth of Zog's son and heir apparent, on 7 April 1939 (Good Friday), Mussolini Italy invaded, facing no significant resistance. The Albanian army was ill-equipped to resist, as it was almost entirely dominated by Italian advisors and officers and was no match for the Italian Army. The Italians were, however, resisted by small elements in the gendarmerie and general population. The royal family, realising that their lives were in danger, fled into exile, taking with them a considerable amount of gold from the National Bank of Tirana and Durrës.[27][28] Since the royal family had expected an Italian invasion, the gathering of gold had started in advance.[29] "Oh God, it was so short" were King Zog's last words to Geraldine on Albanian soil. Mussolini declared Albania a protectorate under Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III. While some Albanians continued to resist, "a large part of the population ... welcomed the Italians with cheers", according to one contemporary account.[30]

Former heir presumptive

Prior to the birth of Prince Leka, the position of

Tati Esad Murad Kryziu, Prince of Kosova, who was born 24 December 1923 in Tirana, and who was the son of the King's sister, Princess Nafije. He became an honorary General of the Royal Albanian Army
in 1928, at age five. He was made Heir Presumptive with the style of His Highness and title of "Prince of Kosova" (Princ i Kosovës) in 1931. After the royal house's exile, he moved to France, where he died in August 1993, aged 69.

Life in exile and death

The royal family fled to

Daladier. Zog went on to declare, "We prefer to die, from the littlest child to the oldest man, to show our independence is not for sale." The world, aware that Zog and his entourage had carried off most of the Albanian treasury's gold, was not impressed.[31] After a short stay in Greece, the Zog party went to Istanbul in Turkey, then fled through Romania, Poland, Latvia, Sweden, Norway, Belgium to Paris. Zog and his family lived a time in France and fled when the Germans invaded. Their escape from France was helped by Prince Mehmed Orhan Osmanoğlu from the Ottoman Imperial Dynasty, who was aide-de-camp of Zog I.[32][33]

The royal family then settled in England. Their first residence was at

The Ritz in London. This was followed in 1941 by a brief stay at Forest Ridge, a house in the South Ascot area of Sunninghill in Berkshire, near where Zog's nieces had been at school in Ascot. In 1941 they moved to Parmoor House, Parmoor, near Frieth in Buckinghamshire, with some staff of the court living in locations around Lane End.[34]

Cimetière de Thiais
near Paris

In 1946, Zog and most of his family left England and went to live in

was overthrown in 1952
, and the family left for France in 1955.

He made his final home in France, where he died at the Foch Hospital, Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine on 9 April 1961, aged 65, of an undisclosed condition.[citation needed] Zog was said to have regularly smoked 200 cigarettes a day, giving him a possible claim to the dubious title of the world's heaviest smoker in 1929,[35] but had been seriously ill for some time. He was survived by his wife and son, and was initially buried at the cimetière parisien de Thiais, near Paris. On his death, his son Leka was pronounced H. M. King Leka of the Albanians by the exiled Albanian community.[36]

His widow, Geraldine, died of natural causes in 2002 at the age of 87[36] in a military hospital in Tirana.

Political legacy

Statue of Zog on the eponymous Zogu I Boulevard in Tirana, Albania

During World War II, three resistance groups were operating in Albania: the nationalists, the royalists and the communists. Some of the Albanian establishment opted for collaboration. The communist partisans refused to co-operate with the other resistance groups and eventually took control of the country. They were able to defeat the Nazi remnants and had full control of Albania in November 1944.

Zog attempted to reclaim his throne after the war. However, when the new Communist-dominated government seized power, one of its first acts was to ban Zog from ever returning to Albania. It formally deposed him in 1946.

In 1952, his representatives met with the representatives of the Yugoslavian government over possible collaboration.[37] Sponsored by

infiltrations into the country, but most were ambushed due to intelligence sent to the Soviet Union by spy Kim Philby
.

A referendum in 1997 – seven years after the end of Communist rule – proposed to restore the monarchy in the person of Zog's son

Leka Zogu who, since 1961, had been styled "Leka I, King of the Albanians". The official but disputed results stated that about two-thirds of voters favoured a continued republican government. Leka, believing the result to be fraudulent, attempted an armed uprising: he was unsuccessful and was forced into exile, although he later returned and lived in Tirana until his death on 30 November 2011. A main street in Tirana was later renamed "Boulevard Zog I
" by the Albanian government.

Repatriation to Albania

In October 2012, the government of Albania decided to bring back the remains of the former king from France, where he died in 1961. Zog's body was exhumed from the Thiais Cemetery, Paris on 15 November 2012.[38] A guard of honour was provided by the French President, in the form of French Legionnaires in ceremonial dress.

Zog's remains were returned in a state ceremony on 17 November 2012, coinciding with celebrations for Albania's independence centennial. The bodies of the king and his family members now lie in the reconstructed royal mausoleum in the capital Tirana.[39] The interment was attended by the government of Albania, including the President and Prime Minister, and representatives of the former royal families of Romania, Montenegro, Russia and Albania.

Honours and awards

In Albania:[citation needed]

  • Sovereign Head of the Royal Albanian Collar of Honour[40]
  • Order of Fidelity
  • Order of Skanderbeg
  • Sovereign Head of the Order of Bravery & Military Merit: First Class or Hero, breast star
  • National Flag Order (posthumous)[41]

From other countries:

Cultural references

Zog's name was in use by 1972 in the English language

Lower Carboniferous System of Great Britain (namely Cleistopora, which geologists decided to call 'zone k', Zaphrentis, Caninia, Seminula and Dibanophylum): "King Zog caught syphilis and died".[43]

In the James Bond novel The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming writes of the villainous Francisco Scaramanga telling his compatriots that the Rastafari of Jamaica "believes it owes allegiance" to the King of Ethiopia, this "King Zog or what-have-you." Fleming had been assigned with the task of escorting Zog when in exile after Albania was annexed by Italy.[citation needed]

In Aria, a 1987 British anthology film, Zog was a character in the first of ten short self-contained segments, each by a different director and each featuring a different opera aria. This segment, entitled 'Un ballo in maschera' after the Giuseppe Verdi opera, was directed by Nicolas Roeg, with actor Theresa Russell playing King Zog during a fictionalized account of his visit to Vienna in 1931 and the assassination attempt on the steps of that city's opera house (as noted earlier, Zog had actually seen a performance of 'Pagliacci' before the real attack).

In the "new" Doc Savage pulp fiction novel, The Whistling Wraith (July 1993, Bantam/Spectra), from the original notes of Lester Dent (primary writer of the sagas) but now completed as a novel by Will Murray, the life & person of Zog, as well as Albania's political problems and foreign policy issues with Mussolini's Italy are key to the plot. The story slots into the Doc Savage timeline in 1938 (a few weeks after The Motion Menace, per p. 61). Egil Goz the First is clearly standing in for King Zog I, for both are Muslims and both were first president before being the first king of their Balkan nation. (Italy is Santa Bellanca, which is behaving badly in Africa in the work, a tie to the invasion and conquest of Ethiopia.)

In the animated series Disenchantment, King Zog is referenced as the first and only King of Albania.[44]

In episode 13 of Monty Python's Flying Circus he is mentioned as a reporter for made-up news show called ProbeAround but suddenly dies.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Zog I, King of Albania
  2. ^ "BEG". Encyclopædia Iranica. 15 December 1989. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  3. ISBN 978-9637326615
    . Ahmet Zogu (who had changed his name from the Turkish sounding 'Zogolli' to the more Albanian sounding 'Zogu')
  4. ^ ″Врангелове команде у Врању и Скопљу″. // Politika, 4 December 2017, p. 19.
  5. ISBN 978-1107017733
  6. ^
    LCCN 93042885
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1845110130
    .
  8. ^ Dashnor Kaloçi (5 August 2010). "Mehdi Bej Frashëri: "Pse ia dhashë Shën-Naumin Serbisë"" [Mehdi bey Frasheri: Why St Naum was given to Serbia] (in Albanian). Archived from the original on 10 January 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2014. ...por kufini në vend që të vazhdonte që nga kodra e Zagoriçanit gjer te Qafa e Plloçit, ku ndodheshin dy versante: versanti i Maliqit dhe Liqeni i Ohrit, vija e kufinit të hidhej ke Mali i Thatë, e të përfshinte katundin shqiptaro-orthodoks Pëshkupat...
  9. ^ Michael Schmidt-Neke, Die Verfassungen Albaniens: mit einem Anhang: Die Verfassung der Republik Kosova von 1990. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2009, p. 34
  10. ^ Swiss Laws, Greek Patriarch, Time magazine, 15 April 1929
  11. ^ Besa: The Promise > Bios
  12. ^
    ISBN 8073590026
    .
  13. ^ Gunther, John (1940). Inside Europe. Harper & Brothers. p. 468.
  14. ^
    ISBN 1860645410
    .
  15. ISBN 9992771313, archived from the original
    on 20 February 2014, Ky i fundit paska qënë një djalosh 17-vjeçar, Beqir Valteri, nga fshati Vinjall i Matit, të cilin Zogu e paska ndihmuar duke e dërguar në Itali për të studjuar.
  16. OCLC 39444050
    , ...Beqir Valteri, student nga Mati...[Beqir Valteri, e student from Mat]
  17. OCLC 38785427
  18. ^ a b Blendi Fevziu (30 October 2012), Si e pushkatuan komunistët atentatorin e Ahmet Zogut [How the gunman who shot Ahmet Zogu was executed by the communists] (in Albanian), Gazeta MAPO, archived from the original on 2 February 2014, retrieved 26 January 2014, Më 23 Shkurt 1924, gati të gjithë ne deputetët, thuajse kishim zënë vendet tona për seancën e pasdites të Asamblesë. Mungonte vetëm Qeveria, pra edhe Kryeministri Ahmet Zogu. Unë rrija si gjithmonë pranë metropolitit Fan Noli, në bankën e radhës së parë pranë hyrjes. Më ra në sy se atë ditë, grupi i Partisë Demokratike prapa meje po rrinte çuditërisht i heshtur dhe i merakosur. Befas ushtuan dy krisma në shkallët e ndërtesës, që u pasuan nga një qetësi e ngrirë. Pastaj u hapën me vrull dyert e sallës dhe brenda hyri Ahmet Zogu me revolver në dorë. Ai ishte prerë në fytyrë, por ecte me shtatin drejt dhe pas disa çastesh e mori veten, madje buzëqeshi dhe vajti me çap të sigurt tek bangoja e qeverisë, ku u ul në një vend të caktuar për sekretarët...
    Ahmet Zogu që ishte paralajmëruar për atentatin 2 javë më parë arriti të mësonte se Valteri ishte i shtyrë nga kundërshtarët e tij. Kujtimet e shumë protagonistëve të kohës, shënojnë faktin që ai u takua edhe vetë kokë më kokë me atentatorin. Në fakt atentati i Zogut përflitej në çdo kafene të Tiranës dhe njerëzit e tij, vunë gishtin mbi Avni Rustemin si organizator.
  19. ISBN 978-0299250843
  20. ISBN 978-3486543216
  21. OCLC 1607360
  22. OCLC 39444050
    .
  23. ^ Ben Andoni (21 May 2012), Qazim Mulleti – Antizogisti që u shërbeu fashistëve [Qazim Mulleti, the anti-Zogist who served the Fascists] (in Albanian), archived from the original on 1 January 2014, retrieved 31 December 2013
  24. ^ Fatos Veliu (8 September 2012). "Tanush Mulleti: Qazimi ishte pjesëmarrës në atentatin kundër Zogut në Vjenë" (in Albanian). Gazeta Shqiptare. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  25. ISBN 9992771313, archived from the original
    on 20 February 2014, Me gjithë këto fakte, hetuesia më 28 prill 1931 vendosi për ndalim gjyqi dhe na liroi, kurse në muajin korrik, liroi me po atë mënyrë Angjelin Sumën dhe Qazim Mulletin. Por, ndërkohë, policia na dëboi nga Vjena, me kusht që të mos kemi të drejtë edhe një herë të hyjmë në Austri.
    Për atë arësye, qeveria e Vjenës, për t'i bërë një kompliment Italisë, vendosi ta bëjë gjyqin në një vend të vogël, ku populli ka qënë katolik fetar, pasues i Partisë Popullore; nga ana tjetër, për t'u bërë qejfin emigrantëve politikë, neve na liroi, me ndalim gjyqi, Gjyqi Ndok Gjeloshin e dënoi me tre vjet e gjysmë privim lirie dhe Azis Çamin me dy vjet e gjysmë.
  26. OCLC 123562997
  27. ^ Royal Claimants, Life, 24 June 1957, p. 98, retrieved 11 October 2013
  28. ISBN 978-0754617273
    , retrieved 13 October 2011
  29. ISBN 978-9994357581
    , retrieved 11 October 2013
  30. ^ "Fascist Soldiers Take over Tirana (...)". The New York Times. New York City. 9 April 1939. p. 33. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  31. ^ "The comments of King Zog". The Montreal Gazette. 168 (87): 8. 12 April 1939 – via Google news.
  32. ISBN 978-6257231206
    .
  33. ^ "Oldest Ottoman to come home at last". The Independent. 22 October 2011. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  34. ^ "Naçi collection". AIM25, Archives in London and the M25 area. AIM25. January 2003. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2007.
  35. ^ "King Zog". Albanian Royal Family. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  36. ^ a b "Queen Geraldine of Albania: Geraldine Apponyi, a queen for 354 days, died on October 22nd, aged 87". Obituary. The Economist. 7 November 2002. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  37. ^ "Meeting of Representatives of King Zog and Marshall Tito" (PDF). CIA.gov. CIA Reading Room. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  38. ^ Remains of King Zog repatriated from France to Albania. Retrieved 2012-11-16.
  39. ^ Albania to bring home exiled king's remains Archived 3 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  40. ^ Royal Orders of the House of Zogu
  41. ^ Presidenti Nishani dekoron Naltmadhninë e Tij Zogun I, Mbretin e Shqiptarëve (Pas vdekjes) me "Urdhrin e Flamurit Kombëtar" Archived 7 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Presidenti.al, 2012-11-17 (in Albananin)
  42. ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 129.
  43. ^ A Dictionary of Mnemonics. Eyre Methuen, Psychology Library Editions. 1972. p. 32.
  44. ^ Disenchantment (TV Series 2018– ), retrieved 26 March 2020 – via IMDb

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Zog I of Albania.
Zog I
Born: 8 October 1895 Died: 9 April 1961
Political offices
Preceded by Prime Minister of Albania
1922–1924 		Succeeded by
Shefqet Bej Verlaci
Preceded by
Ilias Bej Vrioni
 Prime Minister of Albania
1925 		Vacant
Title next held by
Koço Kota
New title President of Albania
1925–1928 		Vacant
Title next held by
Omer Nishani
Regnal titles
Vacant
Title last held by
William of Wied

as Prince of Albania
King of the Albanians

1928–1939 		Succeeded by
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
Preceded by Hereditary Governor of Mati
1911–1939 		Succeeded by
Leka Zogu
Titles in pretence
Loss of title
Italian invasion, communist regime
 — TITULAR —
King of the Albanians

1939–1961 		Succeeded by
Leka Zogu
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zog_I&oldid=1218042678"