Abdyl Frashëri

Political activity

Work for the Autonomy of Albania (1860s-late 1870s) Abdul Frashëri distinguished himself as a prominent Albanian statesman and political personality in the early 1860s. He was the member for Yanina in the first Ottoman Parliament. He was founding member of the Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings (1879) that promoted Albanian language publications. However, when the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 resulted in Ottoman defeat, the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and that of the Balkan Albanian lands seemed in real jeopardy. Frashëri worked to create a unified homeland front for its defence. a project that eventually won over the majority of the representatives from across Albania at the Albanian Congress in Prizren in 1878.

His hopes however for an autonomous Albanian state were threatened by Albania's neighbours, including Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, which were supported by the Russian Empire who strongly opposed an Albanian presence in the Balkans. Frashëri met with Ottoman authorities and the Sultan, and with representatives from the Khedivate of Egypt who were of Albanian ancestry, and gained their support. He also met with the representatives of Greece between July and December 1877, primarily on diplomatic grounds, with the aim of forming a military coalition to counter Greater Bulgaria and a threatening Slavic Expansion. Frashëri intensified his political alliance with the Ottoman authorities and by 1877, along with many other prominent Albanian compatriots, founded the Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights based in Istanbul. According to Frashëri given the conditions created by the expansionist trends of Russia and the interests of Western powers to keep the Ottoman Empire alive, and the intentions of Albania's Balkan neighbours to annex Albanian lands, the most appropriate solution would be the creation of an autonomous Albanian state under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, or at least, creating a unique vilayet within the Ottoman Empire. If this unique Albanian vilayet would be realised, it would recognise Albania's borders and would give Albanians an upper hand in preparations for the self-defence of their homeland.

Provisional Government of Albania

The Treaty of San Stefano and later the Berlin Congress triggered profound anxiety among the Albanian population and it spurred their leaders to organise a national defence of the lands they inhabited.

From the beginning the Ottoman authorities supported the League of Prizren, and had special relations with its head members of the League, especially with Frashëri who held the post of foreign minister of the League, and spokesman to the Sublime Porte. As one of the main authors of the political platform of the Central Committee of Istanbul, which Frashëri publicly stated through articles published in several organs of the Ottoman and European press during the spring of year 1878, he participated actively in establishing the League of Prizren. After the founding of the League, which adopted this platform, Abdyl Frashëri distinguished himself as a leader of the League. Its main activities developed especially in areas of the Janina and Kosovo vilayets. He participated in almost all the major assemblies organized by the General Council of the League of Albanian or its interregional committees. In the League of Prizren's founding assembly he was elected chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Frashëri, like other League delegates, returned home to create local committees and prepare military forces for resistance

He travelled throughout the Vilayet of Yanina going from Yanina to Preveza and Berat to unite and mobilise Albanians. However some places rejected his attempts. To strengthen his position, Frashëri lobbied the Ottoman government to appoint Mustafa Pasha Vlora as mutasarrif (governor) of Berat. By 10 November 1878 at the Bektashi tekke in Frashër, an important regional meeting of Tosk Albanians consisting of Orthodox Christians and Muslims gathered by Frashëri agreed to his five demands for Albanian sociopolitical rights advocated for in Prizren. He was the principal organiser of the Assembly of Preveza in January 1879, which managed to prevent Çameria being ceded to Greece.

Representing the League of Prizren during May 1879 Frashëri and Mehmet Ali Bey Vrioni sent telegrams to the European capitals of Vienna, Paris and Berlin petitioning the Great Powers against Greek and Serb claims to Albanian inhabited land and calling for socio-political and education reforms in the empire. A petition was also sent by Frashëri and Vrioni to the Italian prime minister.

In the spring of 1879 Frashëri headed the Prizren League delegation which intended to visit the capitals of the major European Powers to protect the integrity of the Albanian lands and the rights of the Albanians. When Frashëri and Vrioni arrived in Rome in April, Ottoman media presented the Rome visit as an attempt by Frashëri and Vrioni to push for Albanian autonomy. Frashëri was also the main promoter in favour of forming an interim Albanian government. He also led the National Assembly of Gjirokastër that took the decision to create an autonomous Albanian state. Frashëri defended the program of Gjirokastër in the Second Assembly of Debar, where as always led the radical wing of the movement. Although the autonomy program was not accepted by all representatives, Frashëri moved to Kosovo and there he started to put into action the decisions taken at Gjirokastër.

In early 1881 the autonomous interim government was formed in Prizren, headed by Prime Minister Ymer Prizreni with Frashëri elected as Minister for Foreign Affairs. He made important contributions to the political and military preparations that were made for the protection of the provisional government's autonomy against the Ottoman military expedition against the League. A Congress of Debre was held with 130 delegates who agreed to create an autonomous province and Debar Albanians sent a list of demands to Istanbul for unification of four vilayets into one while stressing Ottoman unity and sovereignty. On 22 February 1881, Frashëri sent a personal telegram to Istanbul. Under surveillance from Ottoman authorities in December 1881 Frashëri left Istanbul for Prizren to exercise influence over the League government however while on a stopover in Debar he survived an assassination attempt by local Ottoman supporters.

Suppression of the League of Prizren, arrest and imprisonment After the Provisional Government of the League was eventually suppressed by the Ottoman Empire, and numerous battles were fought between the League Army and Ottoman Forces during the summer of 1881, Frashëri along with many other members and notables of the Prizren League, were captured and arrested by the commander in chief Marshall Dervish Pasha. for 3 years (1882–1885). After his release from the Prizren castle prison he was moved to Istanbul. He was finally released for health reasons in 1886, on the condition that he give up any political or patriotic activity.

At this time Frashëri corresponded with European leaders such as Italian prime minister Francesco Crispi on the Albanian geopolitical question. Although ill and isolated, he never gave up his patriotic ideas until his death on 23 October 1892 in Istanbul. The Turkish government arranged for his remains to be transferred to Albania and in 1978 the remains were brought to Tirana on the 100th anniversary of the League of Prizren.