Thimi Mitko

Thimi (Euthimio) Mitko (1820 – March 22, 1890) was an activist of the Albanian National Awakening and folklorist. where he attended the local Greek school. His uncle, Peti Mitko, had been one of the leaders of the Albanian Revolt of 1847 in Korçë and Tepelenë against the Turkish Tanzimat legislation. Both left Albania in 1850, moving first to Athens, Greece, then to Plovdiv, Bulgaria and finally to Vienna, Austria, where Thimi Mitko worked as a tailor. In 1866, he emigrated to Egypt, devoting himself to the Albanian nationalist movement and setting up a successful trading business in Beni Suef where he died on 1890. (The Albanian Bee) Alexandria, Egypt on 1878. De Rada noted of the time that copies of Mitko's Albanian Bee had been burned in Greece.

Albanian question

Mitko was also the author of numerous articles in European periodicals in support of the Albanian cause. He also wrote articles in the Greek magazine Pandora. In Cairo for a short time during 1901, Mitko contributed with works that were pro-Greek to the Albanian newspaper Bashkimi i Shqiptarëvet (Union of the Albanians) and later wrote in Faik Konica's periodical Albania.

Mitko supported an Albanian-Greek union within a confederation as a dual kingdom like Austria-Hungary provided it had a guarantee of Albania's "natural frontiers", as an independent Albania for him seemed too weak to oppose the Ottoman Empire. Later Mitko expressed views in the Italo-Albanian periodical Fiamuri Arbërit (Flag of Albania) that he supported the policy of the Ottoman Empire being against common enemies shared by Albanians.