Kostandin Çekrezi

Kostë Çekrezi (31 March 1892 – 10 January 1959), also known as Constantin Anastas Chekrezi was an Albanian patriot, historian, and publicist.

Biography Çekrezi was born on 31 March 1892 in Ziçisht village, in the Upper Devoll region located near Korçë, Ottoman Empire. He himself and his fathers family are of Circassian heritage which can be seen by his surname Çekrezi, which over time they became assimilated into Albanians. After finishing a five-year school in his native village, he finished at the Greek high school in the town of Korça on June 12, 1910. The school documents show he was an "excellent student in all subjects", and he earned a scholarship from the Ottoman government to attend (where he stayed for a year only till 1912) the law school in Thessaloniki, now Greece. The studies were interrupted by the start of the First World War. After the Albanian Declaration of Independence until 1914 Çekrezi lived in Vlorë where he worked as a secretary in the Civil Court of the town, later as an interpreter for the International Control Commission assigned near Ismail Qemali's government and later Prince Wied.

When the First World War started, Çekrezi emigrated to the United States via Italy. At age 23 Çekrezi became editor of the newspaper "The Sun" , in Boston, being chief editor of the newspaper from 1915 to 1919. He also published a monthly magazine called Illyria, and contributed to Vatra's monthly publication The Adriatic Review, where he emphasized the atrocities against Albanians during the First World War. Meanwhile, besides being fluent in multiple languages, he studied economics, public administration, and English language at Harvard University. He graduated on 17 June 1918, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. which was translated and published in Albania only in 2012 during the 100th anniversary of Declaration of Independence.

For two years he was a professor of history at Columbia University. also a member of the National Press Club in the U.S. In 1923, his English-Albanian dictionary came out.

After returning in Albania in 1925, he came into sharp conflict with King Zog, specifically to some concessions made in favor of the Italian-Albanian banks newly positioned as part of Zog's affiliation with Italy. After the first meeting with Ahmet Zagolli, he criticized Albanian political relations with Belgrade as well. In 1929, he served as member of the first Council of State , established on April 11 of that year. In following years he was an impressive publicist, and editor of the newspapers Telegraf ("Telegraph") and Ora ("Watch"), where he was pushed to publish some pro-monarchy articles, but immediately after the announcement of the monarchy, Kostë Çekrezi was arrested by direct orders of Koço Kota and sentenced to one year imprisonment. His newspapers, "Telegraf" and "Ora" were shut down permanently. and similarly to what Vatra somehow had functioned during World War I. He gave up this organization in 1945. Costa Chekrezi has made efforts to maintain bridges between the Allies and Albania. In 1946, he was the one to receive a delegation headed by Tuk Jakova in the New Yorker Hotel, and the second meeting with Mihal Prifti, where Costa suggested that the Albanian government should find the way to connect with the Western powers, especially the USA, and abolish the "friendly" relations with Yugoslavia of Tito, drawing parallels with King Zog-Nikola Pašić agreements. In the autumn of 1950, he hosted a meeting with Albanian representatives Behar Shtylla and Vilson Progri at the Governor Clinton Hotel.

In 1951, he published the political analysis "The third plan for partitioning Albania" in Washington D.C.

Kostë Çekrezi, was overshadowed for half a century by the communist regime; he died near Boston, on 10 January 1959, at the age of 66. At his funeral, Fan Noli described him as a "statesman, who had struggled all his life for his nation, and a great Albanian guy who had to die poor". Albania and the Balkans (1917), Albania past and present (1919), New York : The Macmillan company Histori e Shqipërisë ("History of Albania") (1921), Boston Histori e vjetër që në kohërat e Pellazgëve gjer në rrënien e Perandorisë Romane ("Ancient history from the Pelasgian times till the fall of Roman Empire") (1921), Boston Histori e re e Evropës ("New European history") (1921), Boston Historia mesjetare e Evropës që në rënien e Romës gjer në rënien e Kostantinopojës ("Medieval history of Europe from the fall of Rome till the fall of Constantinople") (478-1453) (1921), Boston 1921 Chekrezi's English-Albanian dictionary (1923), Boston The third plan for partitioning Albania (1951), Washington D.C.