Ferit Vokopola, politician, theologian, translator, organizer of the Lushnja Congress and one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence in Vlora on November 28th, 1912, died in Durrës. Vokopola was the youngest signatory of the Act of Independence, among the founders of Madrasah of Tirana and among Albania’s most representative authors of Islamic mysticism. He was born in Vokopole, Berat, in 1887. He attended the high school in Berat and studied law and economics at Istanbul University, where after 1908 he collaborated with the newspapers “Zgjimi” and “Bashkimi i Kombit”. In 1912, he participated in the Assembly of Vlora, where he signed the Declaration of Independence with the initials “M. Ferit Vokopola”. He was appointed chief secretary of the Ministry of Finance in the government of Ismail Qemali. After 1914, he was the chief secretary of the Ministry of World Affairs in the government of Turhan Pashe Përmet. In the Congress of Durrës, he was a representative of Lushnja, gave the opening speech and was elected secretary. In 1923–1925, 1927–1928 he was Minister of Agriculture and vice-minister of World Affairs. In 1928-1939, he was again elected deputy representing the prefecture of Berat, where in 1928 he was vice president of the Constitutional Assembly. In the field of legislation. Vokopola stood out as one of the main lawmakers of the parliament of the 20s-30s of the 20th century. He and other deputies prepared and approved the Civil Code of the 1930s in the parliament. He was among the main organizers for establishing the Muslim Community and significantly contributed to the establishment of the General Madrasah of Tirana. With the invasion of Albania by Italy, in 1939, Vokopola withdrew from political life and state administration, devoting himself entirely to religious activity. He worked at the Institute of History as an associate, spending his old age as a translator of historical documents from Ottoman. (In the photo: Ferit Vokopola)
Text: Diaspora Publications Center
Photo: © http://qbd.gov.al/ferit-vokopola/
Graphic processing: AHCF
