Themistokli Gërmenji, activist of the national and democratic movement before and after the Independence of Albania, was shot in Thessaloniki. He was born in Korça, in 1871. He received his first lessons in his hometown. In 1892, he emigrated to Romania, where he first worked as an apprentice and then started trading. He connected with the patriotic societies there “Drita” (“The light”) and “Dituria” (“Knowledge”)and was involved in their patriotic activity. After the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908, the “Liria” hotel in Bitola, owned by the brothers Themistokli and Telemak Gërmenji, became an important center of the Albanian National Movement. There he also collaborated with the Macedonian liberation movement. In 1911, Themistokli Gërmenji went to Italy, where he connected with Arbëresh districts, then moved to Corfu, where he became active in an Albanian patriotic center and in 1912, he was put in charge of a gang of armed fighters, operating in the province of Korça. With the occupation of this province by the Greek armed forces (December 1912), Themistokli Gërmenji collaborated with Ismail Qemali’s government in Vlora and in 1913-1914 performed important tasks in the administration of the independent Albanian state. In September 1914 Themistokli Germenji went to Romania and in January 1915 to Bulgaria. In the years 1916-1917 he returned from Bulgaria to Albania. He organized armed forces for the liberation from the Greek invaders of the province of Korça and all of Southern Albania. Themistokli Gërmenji played a leading role in the signing of the Albanian-French Protocol of December 1916, which declared the “autonomous” province of Korça. He also played a key role in the expulsion of the Greek invaders and their administration. These victories of the Albanian National Movement made Themistokli Gërmenji the object of attacks by foreign politicians, who were hostile towards Albania. They fabricated false accusations about his activity as an “agent” of the Austro-Hungarians, on the basis of which he was sentenced to death by a French military court in Thessaloniki and shot. (In the photo: Themistokl Gërmenji)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 763-764.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themistokli_G%C3%ABrmenji
Graphic processing: AHCF
