Мидхат Фрашери: Албан дипломаты, ақын және ұлтшыл саясаткер

Albanian diplomat and poet (1880–1949)

Mid'hat Bey Frashëri (also known by his pen name as Lumo Skëndo; Fraşerli Mithat Bey; 25 March 1880 – 3 October 1949) was an Albanian diplomat, writer and politician. The son of Abdyl Frashëri, one of the most important activists of the Albanian National Awakening in 1908 he participated in the Congress of Monastir. In 1942 he became the president of Balli Kombëtar (National Front), an Albanian nationalist collaborationist and anti communist movement during the Second World War. Frashëri is referred to as one of the fathers of modern Albanian nationalism.

Mid'hat bey Frashëri was the son of prominent Albanian politician and statesman from 19th century Abdyl Frashëri (who initiated the movement of a wide autonomy from Ottoman Empire) and nephew of the poets and nationalists Naim Frashëri and Sami Frashëri. where his family worked in the Ottoman administration and organised the Albanian nationalist movement. In 1897 Mid'hat Frashëri was arrested by Ottoman authorities for having a copy of the newspaper Albania, and was released after intervention by his uncle Sami Frashëri. During 1901, Mid'hat Frashëri published a biography on his uncle Naim Frashëri. Giving up his studies of pharmacology, he worked for the Ottoman administration in the vilayet of Salonika from 1905 to 1910. Using the pen name Lumo Skendo, he began publishing the weekly newspaper "Lirija" in Salonika, which lasted until 1910. He participated in the Congress of Monastir in 1908, and in January of the next year, he began editing a monthly magazine entitled "Diturija", a magazine based on the cultural, literary and scholarly interest of Albania. Ottoman authorities forbid writing in Albanian that resulted in publications being published abroad and like other writers of the time Frashëri used a pseudonym Mali Kokojka to bypass those restrictions for his works. By late 1911, Frashëri had joined the Freedom and Accord Party which was founded by him and ten others who were opponents of the Young Turks and advocated for Ottomanism, government decentralisation and the rights of ethnic minorities.

According to Mid'hat Frashëri, the foundation of knowledge and citizenship was the Albanian language. The struggle for language is another form of struggle for survival. For this existential reason, he presided over the Congress of Monastir. Mid'hat Frashëri was one of the fifty delegates that who helped form the modern Albanian alphabet. along with Parashqevi Qiriazi who was chairwoman of the commission of the alphabet. During the alphabet congress Frashëri supported the adoption of the Latin character Istanbul alphabet for writing the Albanian language.

Mid'hat bey's political views took on a nationalist character during the Balkan Wars and in the final collapse of the Ottoman Empire when Albania was on the verge of being carved up by its Balkan neighbours. Unlike some of his cousins who remained in what later became Turkey, Frashëri moved to Albania after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Mid'hat Frashëri was one of the eighty three leaders meeting in Vlorë in November 1912. He was one of the signers of the declaration of independence and became the Minister of Public Works in the Provisional Government of Albania. Mid'hat did not stay in this role for long as Ismail Qemali invited all Albanian officers and militias who were on different fronts in the Balkan War to return to their homes. Mid'hat was against the order from the Prime Minister and went twice from Vlora to Ioannina to encourage the Albanian reservists to continue the war until the end, thinking that this could bring Çameria to be a part of Albania. Mid'hat could not do this as a Minister of the Albanian government, but as an individual and caused a further rift between himself and Ismail Qemali. On March 30, 1913, Mid'hat resigned from office due to indignation against the attitude of the prime minister (Ismail Qemali) towards the siege of Ioannina. After resigning from Public office, Mid'hat began writing for newspaper "Përlindj' e Shqipënia". Under the Përmeti I Government and the arrival of Prince Wilhem zu Wied, a Peasant Revolt emerged. Mid'hat published articles condemning Essad Pasha Toptani, writing "Essadism took shape and form under an apocalyptic trinity: Essad Toptani, mufti Musa Qazimi and Haxhi Qamili, three heads of grace who represented ambition, betrayal and greed". Mid'hat, as the chairman of the Albanian delegation in the League of Nations, successfully countered Slobodan Jovanović, the Yugoslav delegate, on the legitimacy of an Albanian state. Jovanovic made accusations that the 'Tirana government' was a tool of 'muslim landowners' and did not represent all Albanians, using the de facto Mirdita Republic as an example. Mit'hat argued that the Tirana government was not a Mohammedan government and its cabinet consists of representatives from all Albanian religions. A renewed appeal, made by Mid'hat Frasheri, President of the Albanian Delegation, on April 29, 1921, after dilating upon the trouble with Yugoslavia, called attention to the difficulties with Greece. This latter state, it was asserted, continued ‘to occupy a district containing twenty Albanian villages east of Korçë, pending a decision of the Great Powers with regard to its evacuation.’ Frasheri and Bishop Fan Noli countered the Greek opposition, Frangoulis, arguing that the frontiers of Albania were those established at London and Florence in 1913, since the ‘treaties’ then made had not been abrogated. It was pointed out that the government was in possession of the territory defined in 1913, with the exception of an area encircling the district of Korçë, which was occupied by Greek troops after the withdrawal of the French troops in May, 1920. In December 1925, he resigned from this position due to Ahmet Zog (then President of Albania) signing of the agreement by which Saint Naum and Vermosh were given to Yugoslavia.

Under the Zog regime in 1925, Mid'hat left public life and opened up the Lumo Skëndo Bookstore in Tirana, and also worked as a pharmacist. He himself possessed an exceptionally large private library of some 20,000 volumes, the largest collection in the country at the time. In February 1938, he offered his collection to the Institute of Albanian Studies. Ahmet Zogu, now King Zog, offered Mid'hat a role in his government cabinet but refused, believing it would dishonour his family name to be a part of Zogu's government. His cousin, Mehdi Frashëri, served as Albanian Prime Minister under a German backed Albanian Government.

In 1945, the communists won the war in Albania. Mid'hat escaped the communists by fleeing to southern Italy. The early years of the Cold War found Mid'hat Frashëri in the West trying to patch together a coalition of anti communist opposition forces in Britain and the United States. His library, one of the finest in the Balkans, became the basis for the Albanian National Library. Frashëri's entire library of some 20,000 volumes, the largest in Albania at that time, was confiscated by the new regime. The library included significant albanological works inherited from Franz Nopcsa von Felsö Szilvás.