On April 14, 1945, Terenc Toçi, journalist and politician, was executed in Tirana. He was born in the Arbëresh village of Strigari (San Cosmo Albanese) in Calabria. He studied at the Arbëresh College of Saint Adrian in San Demetrio (Italy) and completed his higher studies at the University of Urbino. In 1904, he started his legal activity in Rome, simultaneously working as editor and editor-in-chief of “Gazzetta Albanese” (Italian), “La Nazione Albanese” by Anselmio Lorekio and “La Terza Italia”. In 1911, he founded and directed in Rome “La Revista dei Balcani” which was published in Rome in Italian and partially in Albanian. He came to Albania for the first time in March 1911, when he participated in the anti-Ottoman uprisings in the provinces of Mirdita and Malësi e Madhe. He founded and directed the newspapers “Taraboshi” (1913-1914, 1921) and “Shtypi” (1923). He served as the director of the Press Office (1922–1923) and was elected deputy of Dibra Prefecture in the Constitutional Assembly (1924). During the years of power of Ahmet Zogu (1925–1939), Terenc Toçi was appointed prefect in Gjirokastër and Vlora, consul of Albania in Cairo (Egypt), president of the Court of Dictation, minister of state for municipal economy and elected deputy of Prefecture of Shkodra in the Parliament of Albania (1937–1939). With the fascist occupation of Albania, Terenc Toçi was appointed to the composition of the Constitutional Assembly, which legislated the annexation of Albania to the Kingdom of Italy (1939–1940), while in the years 1940–1943 he served as the Chairman of the Supreme Corporate Fascist Council. In 1945 he was sentenced to death by the Special Court of Tirana and was shot. (In the photo: Terenc Toçi)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2718.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terenzio_Tocci
Graphic processing: AHCF
