Mehdi Frashëri, prime minister of Albania in the years 1935-1936, senior functionary in the administration of the Ottoman Empire and in the Albanian state, political activist, was born in Frashër of Dangëlli (Përmet). He finished high school in Manastir. He studied at the Faculty of Political and Economic Sciences in Istanbul (1894–1898). He held important positions in the Ottoman Empire, including governor of Jerusalem. After the creation of the Albanian state, he returned to his homeland. He was Minister of Internal Affairs in the Government of Durrës (1918), deputy in the first parliament (1921–1923), Minister of Agriculture (1930), representative of Albania in the League of Nations (1934, 1937), member of international commissions for determining the borders of Albania. As prime minister in the period October 1935 – November 1936, he presented a liberal program of reforms aimed at getting the country out of the crisis. The government led by him managed to overcome the crisis in Italian-Albanian relations, accepting the demands of Benito Mussolini, which strengthened the influence of Italy in the life of the country. Universally condemned the Italian invasion of April 7, 1939, with a speech delivered on Radio Tirana. The Italian fascists exiled him to Rome. After the capitulation of Italy, the Germans returned him to Albania and in October 1943, appointed him the head of the Regency (a body acting as the head of state). At the end of the war, he left Albania. He has written a series of historical and political studies published in various press bodies. (In the photo: Mehdi Frashëri)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 725.
Photo: © https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_bej_Frash%C3%ABri
Graphic processing: AHCF
