Abdyl Frashëri, ideator and one of the main leaders of the Albanian League of Prizren, politician, diplomat, passed away in Istanbul. He was born in the village of Frashër, capital of the province of Dangëlli in Përmet, in 1839. He was the son of Halid Frashër, the older brother of Naim and Sami Frashër. He spent his childhood and early youth in his native village, until the age of 18, when he settled in Ioannina. He spoke Turkish, Greek, French, but also knew Arabic and Persian. He stood out as a political personality as early as 1877, at the time of the Eastern Crisis. As the chairman of the Albanian Committee of Ioannina, which was formed that same year, he drew up the project of the Declaration of Independence of Albania, by means of an anti-Ottoman liberation uprising. Abdyl Frashëri held talks about a possible alliance with representatives of Greece in July and December 1877. The talks failed, as Athens did not accept the idea of an independent Albania on its ethnic borders. At the end of 1877, as a deputy of Ioannina in the second Ottoman parliament, he was elected chairman of the Central Committee for the Protection of the Rights of the Albanian Nationality, which was formed in Istanbul (Istanbul Committee). As its chairman, he made an important contribution to the elaboration of the political platform adopted by the national movement after the Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire and the signing of the Treaty of Saint Stephen (1878). According to the ideas of Abdyl Frashër, in the conditions created by Russia’s expansionist tendencies, the most suitable solution was the creation of an autonomous Albanian state under the sovereignty of the sultan. He thought that a possible option would be the creation of a united Albanian vilayet, within the framework of the Ottoman Empire, as a transitional phase until full independence. He was an active participant in the establishment of the Albanian League of Prizren (1878) and stood out as its leader, organizer, diplomat and activist. He developed his main activity in the provinces of Ioannina and Kosovo, where he participated in almost all the main assemblies that were organized by the General Council of the Albanian League, or by its interprovincial committees. He led the autonomist wing of the movement. In the founding Assembly of the League of Prizren, he was elected chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He represented the Tosks in the First Assembly of Dibra (November 1, 1878), where the resolution was officially requested from the Sublime Porte to create the united autonomous vilayet of Albania. Abdyl Frashëri was the main organizer of the Assembly of Preveza (January 1879), which managed to prevent the annexation of Chameria by Greece. In the spring of 1879, together with Mehmet Vrioni, they organized a diplomatic campaign in the capitals of the Great Powers. He also led the National Assembly of Gjirokastra (1880), which expressed itself in favor of the creation of an autonomous Albanian state through the armed movement. He became a member of the provisional government that was formed in Prizren, at the beginning of 1881. After the suppression of the League, he was arrested and sentenced to death by a special Ottoman court, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He passed away in Istanbul in 1892. His remains were brought to Tirana in 1978. (Photo: Abdyl Frashëri)
Text: The encyclopedic dictionary of Kosovo – Vol. I , Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Prishtina, 2018, page 461-462.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdyl_Frash%C3%ABri
Graphic processing: AHCF
