Abdyl Frashëri was born in the village of Frashër, the capital of the Dangëllia province in Përmet; he was the originator and one of the main leaders of the Albanian League of Prizren, a politician, and diplomat. 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 18 when he settled in Ioannina. He spoke Turkish, Greek, and French but knew Arabic and Persian. He stood out as a political personality as early as 1877. As the chairman of the Albanian Committee of Ioannina, which was formed that same year, he drafted the Declaration of Independence of Albania project through an anti-Ottoman liberation uprising. In July and December 1877, Abdyl Frashëri held talks on a possible alliance with representatives of Greece. The talks failed, as Athens did not accept the idea of an independent Albania within its ethnic borders. At the end of 1877, as a member of the second Ottoman parliament of Ioannina, 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 elaborating 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. According to the ideas of Abdyl Frashëri, in the conditions created by Russia’s expansionist tendencies, the most suitable solution was creating an autonomous Albanian state under the sultan’s sovereignty. 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 complete independence. He was one of the main authors of the political platform of the Istanbul Committee, which he presented publicly through the articles he published in several European press bodies during the spring of 1878. Then, he was an active participant in establishing the Albanian League of Prizren 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 organized by the General Council of the Albanian League or its interprovincial committees. He was elected chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the founding Assembly of the League of Prizren. He became a member of the provisional government 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
