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FAIK KONITZA: THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN ALBANIA Title: Kriza politike në Shqipëri (The political crisis in Albania) Originally published: in the weekly Dielli, 7 April 1923. Language: Albanian The text used is from the collected works of Faik Konica: Vepra, V. III., ed. by N. Jorgaqi and Botimet Dudaj (Tirana: Shtëpia Botuese Naim Frashëri, 2001), pp. 276–279. About the author Faik Konitza (Faik Salko also known as Faik Bey Konica) [1875 (or 1876), Konitza (Alb. Konica, present-day northern Greece) – 1942, Washington D.C.]: politician , thinker, writer and editor. He was the descendant of a prominent Ottoman Albanian family that also included the mother of Ali Pasha of Tepelen. He first learned Arabic from private tutors. Afterwards, he joined the Jesuit School in Shkodra (It. Scutari, Srb. Skadar) where he spent one year. He attended the Greek school in his native town for another year. Finally Konitza was enrolled in the wellknown Galatasaray Lyceum in Istanbul, a state institution where education was conducted by French instructors. In 1890 he went to France for advanced studies. There, he attended the Collège de Lisieux for two years, and after that the Lycée de Carcassonne . In 1895 he graduated from the University of Dijon and later that year moved to Paris, where he attended courses in medieval French literature. He completed his formal education at Harvard University. From 1897, mostly with the financial support of the Austro-Hungarian foreign ministry, Konitza published the monthly review Albania in Brussels, written both in Albanian and French. This review became one of the most important propaganda instruments during the period of the Albanian ‘awakening movement.’ After five years in Brussels, Konitza moved to London where he continued publishing Albania from 1902 until late 1909. During his stay there, Konitza became a close friend of the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Later, he moved to the USA, where he directed the Albanian weekly Dielli (Sun), and after that, in 1911, he started publishing the newspaper entitled The Trumpet of Croya. In 1912, together with the Orthodox Bishop Theofan Stilian Noli (better known as Fan Noli) and other Albanian activists, he founded the Vatra Pan-Albanian Federation of America, which, in the following years, was to play a major role in defending the independence and the territorial integrity of the new Albanian state. By the end of 1912, after the proclamation of Albanian independence, Konitza returned 176 SELF-DETERMINATION, DEMOCRATIZATION, AND THE HOMOGENIZING STATE to Europe and, in 1913, visited Albania. He was disappointed with what he saw, but nevertheless remained there during the six-month reign of Prince Wilhelm zu Wied, from March to September 1914. He spent the years of the First World War in Vienna , together with Ahmet Zogolli, the future monarch of Albania bearing the title King Zogu. After the war, Konitza moved first to Rome, and later, in 1921, to Boston , to assume the leadership of the Vatra Federation. From 1926 until 1939, he was the General Consul of Albania (after 1928, the Kingdom of Albania) in Washington. After the invasion of Albania by fascist Italy on 7 April 1939, he decided to remain in Washington and died there in 1942. Konitza is considered to be one of the most important figures in Albanian culture, journalism and politics. The review Albania was one of the most significant achievements in the history of Albanian publishing. Main works: Nën hien e hurmave, Prralla t’Arabisë [In the shadows of the date palms, tales from Arabia] (1924); Doktor Gjëlpëra zbulon rrënjët e dramës së Mamurrasit [Dr. Needle discovers the sources of drama in Mamurras] (1924); Shqipëria si m’u duk [Albania, as I saw it] (1929); Albania: The rock garden of South-Eastern Europe and other essays (1957, Albanian edition in 1993); Vepra [Selected works], 6 vols. (2001). Context Albania’s position in the international arena became stronger following the withdrawal of Italian forces from the Vlora (It. Valona) region during the summer of 1920, and the failed intervention of Yugoslav forces in the September of the same year. Territorial partition (based mainly on the London Treaty of 1915) was no longer the threat it had been in the aftermath of the First World War. The Versailles Treaty recognized an Albanian state with territories as they had been established in 1913. On 5 December 1920, the Albanian government issued a new electoral law and by the spring of the next year, following the first...

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