For those who are not familiar with this name, he is the person who was appointed by the British Empire to declare the independence of a country yet to be formed, which would be known first as the Principality of Albania, and eventually the Republic of Albania.
When Ismail Qemali declared the independence of the imaginary republic of Albania in November 28, 1912, he didn’t refer to a specific map or territory because the borders were to be decided by the Conference of Ambassadors of London a few weeks later, where the British Monarch would draw the map. That’s what exactly happened. The Monarch drew the map, commissioned a committee to come to the Balkans in order to mark the borders of the Principality of Albania.
All we know today is that Mr. Qemali chose the small town of Vlora to declare the imaginary independence because that was the safest place. However, there are many facts that don’t add up.
If the independence was imaginary anyway, because the demarcation was to be done by the British Empire, why didn’t he choose a major city? Why didn’t he choose Shkodra, Yannena, Thessaloniki, Skopje, or even Prizren?
In addition, we don’t have the original copy of the document of the independence. Our historians tell us that it was lost during a fire which burned the building where it was archived. In my view, there are two possibilities with this myth of fire: either there was no original document as the independence was fictitious or imaginary, or, if there was one, it could have included some interesting facts, such as the delegates might have requested to declare Albania an Islamic country in order to agree with the concept of independence or something related to Islam and the dominance of Albanians in the Balkans.
Moreover, the very concept of independence is misleading. Albanians were the dominant people of the Balkans as well as they had a strong political position within the Ottoman Empire. The real discussion Albanians might have had during that time was either to take over the Ottoman Empire or form a new one in the Balkans. Albanians were a major factor within the empire, especially given the fact that there was an Albanian dynasty ruling Egypt and Sudan.
Yet, history tells us that the independence of Albania was envisioned in a small town of southwest of the Balkans by a man known as Ismail Qemali.
Mr. Qemali was either an important figure, but who was betrayed or whose name was used by the British Barbarians, or he might have been an ordinary British spy chosen to push ahead the agenda of subjugating Albanians. We should not forget the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century, the British Empire hated Albanians the most, even more than Turks and Arabs for what they did under the general Muhammad Ali in Egypt a century before.
We need more facts about Mr. Qemali, but unfortunately he seems to be more a spy and agent of the British enemy. He betrayed Albanians for a few pennies.
Sabri Lushi
