On April 22, 1865 , in Luaras of Kolonjë, Petro Nini Luarasi was born, activist of the National Renaissance and the Albanian school, publicist, Teacher of the People. He received his first lessons in the Albanian language when he was a student at the school of Qestorati (Gjirokastër), from the patriotic teacher Koto Hoxhi. He worked as a teacher in the villages of Kolonjë, where he secretly taught the Albanian language. There he prepared a group of friends to become teachers. In 1887, he opened the first Albanian school in Erseka and in 1892-1893 he opened Albanian schools in the province of Kolonja. He worked as a director and teacher of the first Albanian school in Korça (1893) and later, of the school in Negovan (1909-1911). During the migration in America (1904-1908), he was the initiator of the patriotic societies “Malli i mëmëdheut” and “Pellazgu”, as well as the initiator of the creation of the secret committees “Për lirinë e Shqipërisë”. He participated as a delegate in the Second Congress of Manastir (1910). He collaborated with the organs “Bashkimi i kombit” (Manastir, 1909-1910), where he was also an editor; “Drita” (Sofje, 1907-1908), “Kombi” (Boston, 1908), “Illyria” (Thessaloniki, 1909-1910). In the work “Mallkimi i shkronjave shqipe dhe çpërfolja e Shqiptarit” (“The curse of Albanian letters and the speech of the Albanian”) (Manastir, 1911), he defended the rights of the Albanian people for national culture, calling knowledge and culture “the soul of the motherland”. He called to enrich our language and nation with culture and civilization. He propagated and tried to unite the people in the fight for the freedom of Albania, “for justice and prosperity”, as he said. For his patriotic, educational, social and propaganda activities, he was persecuted by the Young Turks and the Patriarchate of Istanbul. (In the photo: Petro Nini Luarasi)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1539-1540.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Nini_Luarasi
Graphic processing: AHCF
