Hasan Prishtina

Hasan Prishtina
8th Prime Minister of Albania
In office
7 December 1921 – 12 December 1921
Preceded by Qazim Koculi
Succeeded by Idhomene Kosturi
Personal details
Born 27 September 1873
Poljance, Ottoman Empire (today Kosovo)
Died 14 August 1933 (aged 60)
Thessaloniki, Greece
Resting place Kukës, Albanian Kingdom
Occupation Politician
Profession Lawyer
Religion Islam

Hasan Prishtina (Turkish: Priştineli Hasan) originally known as Hasan Berisha (1873–1933), was an Albanian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Albania in December 1921.

Biography

Family and early life

According to Ivo Banac and Miranda Vickers, Hasan was a member of the Šišković clan of Vučitrn,[1] whom Serbs held as traitors.[2] Hasan was born in 1873 in Poljance in the Drenica region,[3] his father Ahmed Berisha having moved there from the Vučitrn kaza in 1871.[4] After finishing the French gymnasium in Thessaloniki, he studied politics and law in Istanbul. He was originally known as "Hasan Berisha".[5][4]

He initially supported the Young Turks and was elected to the Ottoman parliament in 1908. He changed his last name into Prishtina in 1908, when he was elected as the Pristina delegate[4] in the Ottoman parliament in Istanbul during the Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire.[6] However, Prishtina lost his position in 1912 as did all the Albanian deputies.

Albanian National Movement

After the Ottoman Government did not keep their promises for more rights and independence to the Albania nation, Hasan Prishtina and several other prominent Albanian intellectuals started organizing the Albanian National Movement. He together with Isa Boletini and Bajram Curri took the responsibility to start the Albanian National Movement in Kosovo.

Prishtina took an active part in the 1912 uprising in Kosovo and formulated the autonomy demands that were submitted to the Turkish government in August 1912, the so-called fourteen points of Hasan Prishtina.

“ The fourteen points of Hasan Prishtina state:
  1. that trained officials be employed in Albania who know the language and the customs of the country;
  2. that military service be carried out only in Albania and Macedonia, except in wartime;
  3. that laws be passed and implemented based on the ‘law of the mountains’ (djibal) for those regions where it has been shown by fact that judicial organs will never be productive;
  4. that the Albanians be given enough modern arms. The modality of distribution will be left to the government. Arms depots will be constructed in sensitive regions from which the Albanians can get weapons, if needed;
  5. that elementary schools be founded and opened in all towns of the prefectures of Kosovo, Monastir, Shkodra and Janina where there is a population of over 300,000 people; that agricultural schools be opened such as the one in Salonika since the country is essentially agricultural; and that the curriculum be taught in the language of the country;
  6. that modern theological schools be opened where they are needed;
  7. that private schools be allowed to be founded and opened in Albania;
  8. that the language of the country be taught in elementary and secondary schools;
  9. that particular attention be paid to commerce, agriculture and public works, and that railroads be constructed.
  10. that regional organisations be set up; (5)
  11. that more attention be paid than earlier in preserving national traditions and customs;
  12. that an amnesty be declared without distinction of class or race, for all Ottomans who took part in the uprising, for commanders, officers, public servants and soldiers who fled from the army and their homes, and for those freed or having escaped from prison during the uprising;
  13. that the Turkish government give compensation, based on real value, for all the houses that were destroyed earlier and for which the owners did not receive compensation, and for those that were damaged and destroy this time;
  14. that the members of the cabinet of Haki and Said Pasha be taken to the high court and tried.
 ”
Üsküp, capital of the Kosovo vilayet, after being captured by Albanian revolutionaries

Until August 1912, Prishtina led the Albanian rebels to gain control over the whole Kosovo vilayet (including Novi Pazar, Sjenica, Priština and even Skopje), part of Scutari Vilayet (including Elbasan, Përmet, Leskovik and Konitsa in Janina Vilayet and Debar in Monastir Vilayet.[7]

Albanian Independence and World War I

In December 1913, after Albanian independence, he served as Minister of Agriculture, and in March 1914 was made minister of postal services in the government of Independent Albania led by Ismail Qemali.

During the First World War he organized divisions of volunteers to fight for Austria-Hungary.[8] In 1918, after the Serb recapture of his native Kosovo from Austria-Hungary, Prishtina, together with Bajram Curri, fled to Vienna and later to Rome, where he was in contact with Croatian, Macedonian and Montenegrin opponents of the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[8] Hasan Prishtina became a head of the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo in Rome in 1918.[8]

Political career

Hasan Prishtina was in charge of the delegation of the Committee in December 1919 which represented Albanians for the protection of their rights in the Paris Peace Conference, where he requested the unification of Kosovo and Albania. The Kosovar delegation was, however, not given leave to participate in the debates.

Prishtina then returned to Albania where in January 1920 he helped organise the Congress of Lushnjë and in April 1921 became a member of parliament for Dibra.[8] He took part in a coup d'état that year and served as Primer minister for a brief five days from 7 to 12 December, but was forced out of office by Ahmet Zogu, who was a Minister of Interior at that time and regarded it as imperative to avoid conflict with Belgrade.[8]

Thereafter, Hasan helped organise uprisings in Kosovo and led several anti-government insurrections in Albania, the latter being easily suppressed by the administrations of Xhafer Bej Ypi and Ahmet Zogu.[8]

He returned to Tirana during the Democratic Revolution of 1924 under Fan Noli, whom he accompanied to the League of Nations in Geneva.

Exile and death

When Zogu took power in December 1924, Hasan bey Prishtina was forced to leave Albania. As he could not return to Kosovo, he settled in Thessalonika where he purchased a large estate.[8] Hasan Prishtina is known to have been very rich, and sold almost all his property to finance the education of Albanians from Kosovo in universities around Europe, and for the armed resistance, during all his life.

Hasan bey Prishtina was a enemy of Ahmet Zogu, the two having attempted to assassinate one another.[8] He was imprisoned by Yugoslav police for a period, was released in 1931. In 1933, he was killed by Ibrahim Celo[8] in a cafe in Thessalonika on the orders of the Serbian government.[9] His mansion in the city is currently used as Thessaloniki's school for children with visual impairment.

Legacy

Hasan Prishtina is commemorated in Kosovo and Albania. In 1993, when a meeting commemorating the 60th anniversary of his death was convened in Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbian police raided the place and showed machine guns to the participants. Out of 80 participants, 37 were arrested and the rest were beaten for 5 to 15 minutes by police.[10] In 2012 a statue of Prishtina was elevated in Skopje in Skanderbeg Square .

See also

References

  1. ↑ Vickers, Miranda (1998). Between Serb and Albanian : a history of Kosovo. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-231-11383-0. Hasan Pristina (1873-1933), 23 who came from the powerful Siskovic clan in Vucitrn,
  2. ↑ Banac, Ivo (1988). Nacionalno pitanje u Jugoslaviji : porijeklo, povijest, politika (in Croatian). Zagreb: Globus. p. 283. ISBN 978-86-343-0237-0. Retrieved 12 April 2012. Hasan-beg Prish- tina (ili Šišković, iz Vučitrna, kojega su Srbi držali srpskim narodnim izdajni- "
  3. ↑ Studia Albanica. 27. L'Institut. 1990. Prishtina was born in 1873 in the village of Polac in the District of Drenica
  4. 1 2 3 Bernath & Schroeder 1979, p. 485.
  5. ↑ Elsie 2010, p. 223.
  6. ↑ Malcolm 1998, p. 245.
  7. ↑ Bogdanović, Dimitrije (November 2000) [1984]. "Albanski pokreti 1908-1912.". In Antonije Isaković. Knjiga o Kosovu (in Serbian). 2. Belgrade: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Retrieved January 9, 2011. ... ustanici su uspeli da ... ovladaju celim kosovskim vilajetom do polovine avgusta 1912, što znači da su tada imali u svojim rukama Prištinu, Novi Pazar, Sjenicu pa čak i Skoplje... U srednjoj i južnoj Albaniji ustanici su držali Permet, Leskoviku, Konicu, Elbasan, a u Makedoniji Debar...
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Elsie 2010, p. 224.
  9. ↑ Gail Warrander, Verena Knaus (2010). Kosovo, 2nd: The Bradt Travel Guide (2 ed.). Connecticut: the globe pequot press. p. 87. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
  10. ↑ Human Rights Watch/Helsinki (Organization : U.S.) (1993). Open wounds: human rights abuses in Kosovo. Human Rights Watch. pp. 57–60. Retrieved 2010-05-31.

Sources

Further reading

Political offices
Preceded by
Unknown		 Member of the Ottoman Parliament
(as representative of Pristina)
1908–1912 		Succeeded by
Post abolished
Preceded by
Qazim Koculi		 Prime Minister of Albania
7 December 1921 – 12 December 1921 		Succeeded by
Idhomene Kosturi
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