By: Calliope Naska

Ismail Qemali is a historical personality with a very prosperous and very complex political activity. This multifaceted activity occupies a period of almost 60 years, filled with armed movements, parliamentary war, liberation uprisings, with rapid ebbs and flows in which he has been a very active participant in the war, as an ideologue, as a leader, as an organizer and diplomat. His activity and views are multifaceted. An important place in the system of his views is also occupied by the concepts he had on state building.

To understand the basis of Ismail Qemali's concepts on the form and administrative structure of the Albanian state, let us take a brief look at his formation and activity as a functionary in the Turkish administration, in which he served for about 35 years.

Civil servant in the Ottoman Empire

He began his life as a civil servant in the Ottoman Empire's administration in Istanbul, where he quickly distinguished himself as a person endowed with broad culture, with deep and constructive erudition. His deepening studies in legal sciences and his intelligence, all of which allowed him to quickly enter the Ottoman administration and perform various important functions as a governor, as secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as a state advisor.

During these years, with diverse state activities, he recognized the numerous, acute and difficult problems that required solutions - or at least that required a stance to be taken in front of the state and the public. These concerns, cultural and ideological formation led him to think that the Ottoman Empire had to get out of the difficult situation in which it had sunk. To get out of this situation, he thought that the only doctrine that would give way to a solution for it was the implementation of the doctrine of Mithat Pasha, which was the most progressive for Turkey at that time.

The content of this doctrine led Ismail Qemali to associate with Mithat Pasha, who was the leader of the Ottoman liberal movement. In particular, he agreed with the essence of his ideas, which was the conviction that the Ottoman Empire could enter the path of progress and modernization through reforms and not through revolution.

Thus he thought that the absolute system of the Sultan would be liquidated, which would be replaced by a constitutional regime without eliminating the royal crown, but limiting the absolute power of the sovereign. He also agreed with the principle of decentralizing state administrative power in favor of the bourgeoisie and in particular the numerous nationalities of the Empire, which would thus gain the right to provincial self-government, within the framework of the Ottoman Empire.

So, as can be seen, Ismail Qemali aimed to achieve provincial self-government of nationalities, through the radical regulation of the Empire and not by being interested only in the autonomy of one or another nationality, but for all nationalities at the same time, through the radical regulation of the Empire. Ismail Qemali not only adopted these ideas, but tried to implement them during his career as a functionary of the Ottoman Empire and some of them accompanied him even in his duty as the head of the first national state.

Ismail Qemali's liberal views

Ismail Qemali became an enemy of sultanic absolutism precisely from the angle of these liberal views. This led him to participate in the drafting of the Constitution of 1876, or in the drafting of several memoranda sent to the Sublime Porte, where the absolute policy of the Sultan was opposed and the decay of the conservative administrative system was exposed. All this activity gave Ismail Qemali a very good understanding of the mechanism of state administration.

The activity he developed in the Ottoman Empire as its functionary clearly showed that he was an enlightened and reformist activist, representative of the interests of the liberal bourgeoisie of all nationalities. The great prestige he enjoyed in Turkey and in the high diplomatic, patriotic and intellectual circles of Europe, his liberal, democratic and progressive sentiments, made him a well-known and authoritative figure, but also a dangerous enemy and a sign of blow to the anachronistic Ottoman autocracy with which Ismail Qemali could not agree.

For decades, until the end of the 19th century, Ismail Qemali stood out as a militant of the Ottoman liberal democratic movement, within the framework of which he thought that the Albanian national issue would also find a solution. But, at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Ottoman liberal movement entered the path of Turkish nationalism, which complicated the resolution of national issues in the Empire, Ismail Qemali, without giving up his liberal point of view, separated the Albanian national liberation movement from the Ottoman bourgeois liberal movement and turned it into a separate issue.

With such political preparation and cultural horizon, he quickly became embedded in the ranks of the Albanian national movement, actively participating in it, where he distinguished himself as a great politician, diplomat, and statesman who was imbued with the traditions of the most progressive culture of his time and country, who assimilated everything good that the Albanian liberation movement had, with arms and with pen, and who followed this movement until his fortunate coronation.

The Albanian nation rightly considers him the main protagonist of the Vlora Assembly which declared national independence on November 28, 1912. Despite the origins of his long-standing formation, he was molded as a democratic statesman, being elected as the head of the first Albanian government, thus becoming the main leader of the country's political life in extremely complicated and difficult moments that the reborn Albania went through in the critical period of interventions by the Great Powers and neighboring monarchies which rushed to annihilate it.

The first foundations of the Albanian state

The declaration of independence marked the beginning of a new historical stage that posed new and complex tasks before the Albanian people and the leaders of the National Movement, who had taken on the heavy burden of creating an independent state. The president and the government faced major tasks in organizing the state and establishing the state administration, ensuring international recognition of Albania and its borders that included the territories inhabited by Albanians.

As early as December 1912, measures were taken to lay the first foundations of state organization and the first legislative acts were adopted, which were determined by the decisions of the National Assembly, which included delegates from all regions of Albania and objectively represented the will of the entire nation, becoming the highest body of the Albanian state, the protector and exponent of state sovereignty.

Therefore, its decisions had the value of constitutional laws that sanctioned the will of the Albanian people to secede from the Ottoman Empire and to create an independent state. Another body that the Assembly elected was the Presbytery, whose powers were not expressly defined by the National Assembly, but it accepted the view that the Presbytery was not a parliament or senate and that it did not have the right to dismiss ministers, but should be considered as an advisory and control body to the government.

A king who does not rule

The National Assembly was limited to the Declaration of Independence and the election of the government and the Senate. It did not consider the issue of the form of government of the Albanian state. However, it is known that the vast majority of the Renaissance activists, including the representatives who participated in the Vlora Assembly, thought that Albania should be born as a monarchical state, because they saw the monarchy, rightly or wrongly, as all the founders of the Balkan and even European states had seen it, as the consolidation of the national state.

In fact, all Balkan states were monarchies. However, political personalities of the time differed in the way they conceived the monarchy - absolute or parliamentary. It is in this context that Ismail Qemali appears with the most progressive views, not only for Albania, but also for the Balkans, since he was for a constitutional monarchy where, according to the principle, when power would be in the hands of the representatives of the people, the King would have the function of the head of state who would "reign, but not rule".

For the arrival of Prince Vid

His opinion was also supported by government representatives and found agreement at the government meeting, where the program of the commission that would present the Albanian demands to the Great Powers was approved. One of these demands also stipulated the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Albania with a king from a European country. Despite the submission made by the Albanian commission to the Conference of Ambassadors in London, it did not make any official determination of the form of government. It only determined that Albania was declared a sovereign, autonomous principality inherited with a prince appointed by the Great Powers. Ismail Qemali and the patriots saw the appointment of a European king as the personification of a rapid economic, political and social development of the country. Therefore, Ismail Qemali, in his capacity as president, insisted on the powers to hasten the appointment of the prince who, according to them, would ensure the stability of the national government and eliminate all internal difficulties, ensuring a new development of the country.

These were the reasons that Ismail Qemali and other patriots would evaluate the arrival of Prince Vidi in Albania as a positive factor that would influence the realization of national aspirations and would lead the country towards national unification. However, the development of events showed that Prince Vidi could not be expected to act in the interests of Albania, when these were contrary to the will of the Great Powers.

Administration, courts, gendarmerie...

Since the Conference of Ambassadors did not determine the form of the state, the independent Albanian state was created as a state with a parliamentary system, the role of which was fulfilled by the National Assembly, which, even after it had ended its work, retained its prerogatives as the highest body of the state. However, under the existing conditions, the National Assembly did not have the effective opportunity to convene and in fact the Government of Ismail Qemali, based on the power delegated to it by the Assembly, concentrated all state power in its hands, developing both administrative and legislative activity.

Despite the fact that this activity was more limited due to the circumstances of the Balkan War, it is precisely these exceptional circumstances that explain why Ismail Qemali was unable to fully implement the principles of constitutional action, by not recognizing the Eldership's right to a deliberative vote, as required by the constitutional principle, and by limiting this right to a consultative vote only.

Thus, Albania, since the end of 1912, had the elements of an independent state organization, such as the existence of a certain population in a certain territory and a public power that governs it. Ismail Qemali, in order to put the new Albanian state on an organized basis, together with the government took measures to establish organizational structures, such as the establishment of the state administration, the organization of the courts, the gendarmerie, the police, etc.

Albania to be divided into three cantons

He had expressed his ideas about the way the country should be organized before the declaration of independence. At that time, foreseeing the difficulties that would be encountered in organizing a centralized power, he had expressed the opinion of dividing Albania into cantons, following the example of Switzerland. However, in this matter he expressed an incorrect view, which stemmed from the fact that he, having lived for dozens of years away from Albania, did not know the country well and gave great importance to the weight that regional and religious differences exerted in the internal life of the Albanian people.

In the meantime, it seems that the existence of local autonomies of some provinces that had existed, and which the Ottoman Empire had not been able to annihilate, also influenced. He thought that these autonomies could be used for the benefit of the modern state. He maintained this idea even after the declaration of independence and tried to reflect it in the drafting of the Current Kanun of the civil administration of the Albanian state. According to Ismail Qemali, Albania would be divided into three cantons, with capitals Shkodra, Durrës, and Vlora, which would have Preng Bibë Doda, Esat Pasha Toptan, and Ismail Qemali as governors, respectively.

He reinforced his cantonal idea especially in the speech he gave at the popular rally in Vlora on October 21, 1913, where he emphasized that each province (canton) should be governed according to its own characteristics. “From this,” he emphasized, “it follows that Labi will be Lab, Gega Gega and Toska Toska and everyone will work only for Laberia, for Gegeria and Toskaria, but all those with Albanian ideals will work as Albanians and will be killed as Albanians for Albania, drawing strength from the progress of their country.”

No to the division of Albania into cantons

But the regional features that Ismail Qemali gave were not a reason for division into cantons. In some Western countries there was a certain amount of local administrative autonomy, but this had nothing to do with the cantons in Switzerland that were divided according to linguistic, religious, and local features. It is known that Albania in the borders of 1913, in its overwhelming majority, consisted of ordinary Albanian population. So, such a system implemented in a state with a heterogeneous national composition, such as Switzerland, could not be implemented in a state with such ethnic homogeneity, such as Albania.

Such a circumstance was not unknown to Ismail Qemali. The proposal made by him for the division of Albania into cantons, at that time, did not correspond to the task facing the Albanian state to strengthen its administration and centralize it. This was not the way to preserve the national “unity” of Albania and its independence. As time showed, since then the independence of Albania could only be ensured in the fight against the separatism that had been planted by feudal cliques supported by neighboring powers and states. The disappearance of separatist powers and the establishment of a centralized direction was the only way for the economic, social and political progress of Albania. National interests required that it remain one and indivisible, also from an administrative point of view.

This is the reason why his idea was not accepted by many members of the government, including prominent patriots, and even by his close associates, such as Luigj Gurakuqi, Petro Poga, Pandeli Cale, etc. They opposed the division of the country into cantons, describing it as a "measure harmful to the unification and survival of our nation."

They rightly emphasized that in order to strengthen the nation, the division between the provinces should not be deepened. On the contrary, these should be closely linked to each other and administered by a single center. Ismail Qemali took the criticisms made on this issue into account and, moreover, showed that he was not very convinced of the superiority of the cantonal organization, for the conditions of the country. Consequently, his cantonal idea was not included in the “Current Canon” and was not reflected in the laws that the Vlora government began to promulgate and implement.

The “Current Canon” and new laws

After numerous discussions on the directions that the organization of the administration would take, the proclamation by the Provisional Government in November 1913 of the “Current Canon” mentioned above - the law that determined the new administrative division of the country - was of particular importance. The Canon would regulate in detail the administrative division and the powers of local bodies. It determined a normative act based on the principle of the administrative centralization of the country according to the model of European states.

At its foundation was the principle of creating a central administration. According to the Kanun, Albania was divided into prefectures that represented the highest local unit and these in turn into sub-prefectures and provinces. From the norms contained in the Kanun, it emerged that in Albania power would be concentrated in the hands of the Government of Vlora. The laws that the government issued for the organization of the links of the local administration constituted an important step since they differed from the Turkish imperial administration, due to the fact that they gave the Albanian state to a certain extent, the physiognomy of a modern state in form and content with a progressive centralized administration.

Such laws that differed from previous legislation were, for example; the exclusion of state bodies from the intervention of justice, or the separation to a certain extent of state institutions from religious ones. Also, new acts were issued, such as on the method of dividing inheritance, etc. Despite the fact that the law on administrative-territorial division was not fully implemented, as the Government of Vlora remained in force only two months after its approval, it constituted a serious attempt to establish a local administration based on relatively democratic criteria, while it envisaged the functioning of elected bodies, albeit with limited powers.

This effort by the president and his government to provide the country with appropriate and modern structures should be complemented by other measures such as designating Albanian as the official language, opening schools, etc.

In conclusion, we can say that the contribution made by Ismail Qemali and the government in the adoption of important acts of the Kanun, for the organization of the central state apparatus and the organization of local administration bodies, helped in completing the complete physiognomy of the organized and independent Albanian state, both at the center and at the base. He and his government laid new foundations for local administration in the country. /Memorie/

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