Esat Toptani, as part of the undistorted history: He was not a traitor

By: Gazmend A. Bakiu

It is important to know the truth about the events and personalities of our history, because especially in these troubled times, it serves us. The French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace claimed: "If we know the past and the present correctly, we can predict the future." However, if we have a wrong or false image of the past, we will be unclear about the present and cloudy about what will happen in the future". In this sense, the illumination of the events and the main characters related to the history of the Albanian state takes on a first-hand importance.

In addition to the natural difficulties of studying and interpreting history, the problem is complicated because the communist regime badly deformed our past, putting it at the service of its own power. For this purpose, he prepared his propagandists, who have no intention of giving up their craft. For the period 1912-1939, there were four big lies of the old regime:

1. Haxhi Qamili was a hero.
2. Ahmet Zogu had sold or donated Saint Naum.
3. In 1924, there was a democratic-bourgeois revolution.
4. Esat Toptani was a traitor.

Let us briefly address the issues in turn. The "heroism" of Haxhi Qamili and the dumbabists, articulated by order of the dictator himself, fell quickly after 1990. The case of Saint Naum, presented by the historiographers of the old regime, sometimes as a sale and sometimes as a donation, is already argued quadriplegic, which has not been like that. In June 1924, the parliamentary minority took power by force and governed for six months without Parliament, under the conditions of a coup d'état. Only the steadfast and the indoctrinated continue their avaza, while these three issues have long been clear.

The most complex and intriguing problem remained, that of Esat Toptan. The difficulty in uncovering the truth about him was great, because:

1. For nearly 100 years, no adequate efforts were made to illuminate the image of the Pasha. Tahir Kolgjin's book, "Esat pasha patriot or traitor", and any other, were insufficient and not fulfilling.
2. The slander or stigmatization of Esat had started earlier than his murder, as a result of the political struggle of the time when he developed the activity.
3. Many periodicals, archives and important documents that could shed light on the issue are located abroad and in several foreign languages.
4. It required a vigorous effort by an open-minded and unprejudiced researcher.

It finally happened that two and a half years ago we had a new, welcome development. Journalist Ilir Ikonomi, after four years of work, with the publication of the book "Esat Toptani, man, war, power" managed to shed light on General Toptani completely and impartially. For this book, I published a critical article in the "Albanian Newspaper" (10.12.2016), where I hailed the great achievements and presented the possibilities for the future.

But what do we get?!

It turns out that Esat Toptani exercised his political activity in extremely difficult conditions, hardly imaginable today, after 100 or so years, and he did not commit any betrayal. In the meantime, I have not read any criticism or reply to Ikonomi's book, from past historiographers, who say the opposite. Actually there was one, but it's not worth mentioning.

Naturally, the question arises: Why all this fuss about Esati?! As I pointed out above, the problem has been complicated and goes beyond the lies that were told after 1945. Let's take the events in turn in a brief analysis.

Battle of Shkodra: Esati did not participate in the raising of the flag in Vlora. Thus, he did not receive the halo of the signer of independence, but chose to fight and defend Shkodra from Montenegrins and Serbs. The war in the northern city has been the biggest war that has been fought in our lands since 1912 and Shkodra remained Albania, precisely thanks to it and the Austro-Hungarian pressure. I remember that even in Ioannina there was a fierce war with the Greek forces; the city surrendered on March 6, 1913 and remained with Greece, but the commander of Ioannina was never called a traitor. Whereas, Esati who fought for almost seven months, in an extreme resistance, as Gino Berri and Hortense von Zambaur have testified, in their diaries ("L'Assedio di Scutari" and "Die belagerung von Scutari"), for the population dying from famine, when the army no longer had ammunition or food, the indoctrinated called us a traitor who sold Shkodra. Shkodra that remained to Albania.

In fact, Toptani was received with honors in Vlora in July 1913 and received the post of Minister of the Interior in the government of Ismail Qemali. Was it possible that Ismail Bey had accepted a traitor in the government?! This is a logical absurdity. The truth is what Mihal Grameno wrote, in 1925, in his last book, "Albanian Uprising": "Europe was amazed... by the courage and bravery of Esat Pasha" (p.148).

Esat Pasha – Ismail Bey rivalry: In the government of Vlora, the rivalry between Toptan and Ismail Qemali was openly displayed, with the Albanian custom of who would be the first of the country. We should not fall prey to emotions for one and against the other, with a prejudiced, superficial and black-and-white point of view, especially since according to Brancaçio, the opponents made peace in 1918 and Toptani tied a monthly pension to Ismail Bey who was in economic difficulties. Anyway, the rivalry for the time we are talking about was won by Esati, who went at the head of the delegation to Newvied for the crowning, on February 22, 1914, of the German prince assigned to us by the Great Powers. In the government of Turhan saw Përmet, which was formed in March 1914, Esati was the minister of interior and war.

Wiedi, the rebels, the Serbs and the Entente: The good Prince Wied did not know the Albanian reality; the Austrian and Italian legates were involved in a rivalry for dominance of the newly recognized principality, while Princess Sophie was very active in her husband's affairs. And, precisely in this troubled situation, the uprising of the rebels appears, instigated - as Gabriel Louis Jeray has told us in his book "Au jeune Royaume d'Albanie", by Turkish agents, but why not also by Serbian and Greek agents. In the situation when the Dutch colonel Sluys did not carry out an order of his, Esati resigned to the prince, who did not accept it. But two days later, on May 19, 1914, foreign intrigues had taken their toll, and Esati, labeled a philo-Italian, was arrested and driven out of the country. No evidence was found of his involvement with the rebels, no treason had been committed (read Armstrong, Wied's secretary), while the prince thus lost the only able man who could have crushed the Dumbabist insurrection at its inception. .

Under the pressure of the rebels and left without the support of the Great Powers that enthroned him, Prince Wiedi left Albania on September 3, 1914. Precisely in the circumstances that the prince could not stand, amid the chaos, Esati returned to the besieged Durrës, being resisted the rebels for months. Unlike all other Albanian politicians who were in favor of Austria-Hungary, he had the foresight to line up in favor of the Entente since it, according to him, would win the world war that had already begun; the country should not become a party to the losers, because this would bring at least other losses from the territory that was left to Albania at the Conference of Ambassadors in London. For political pragmatism and as a result of the alliance with the Entente, Esati made an alliance with the Serbs, the historical enemies, which he used to suppress the rebels, and that's what happened. Serbian forces crushed the rebels in Qukës, in June 1915, and then Esati captured one of their leaders and they were hanged after a proper trial. Afterwards, he respected the alliance with the Entente by helping to evacuate the defeated Serbian forces from Durrës, in January 1916, but he would be labeled by his opponents as pro-Serb, pro-Italian, etc. On the other hand, his conflict with almost all the important politicians of the time would take its toll, suspicions and negative opinion (even demonization) towards him would be on the rise.

Memorandum and memorandum: During the First World War, like no other Albanian, Esat Toptani was received with honors in Rome, Paris and London, receiving decorations that no one received even later. When the war ended, Esati presented the memorial to American President Wilson and the memorandum of April 16, 1919 addressed to the Peace Conference in Paris, which have not been mentioned by Albanian historiography, but which you can read in the book of Economy. Nothing less than London Albania is required there, and there is no cession of Albanian territories. These last night's documents refute every accusation against him.

Assassination of the Pasha: But the Western chancelleries were annoyed by Toptan's demands, as a man who had been pro-Entente. On the other hand, the Congress of Lushnja had left Esat out of the cake of power, which he could not agree with, which is why the Esadist uprising had begun that could overthrow the government. The Tirana authorities sent a delegation to Paris for talks with Esat, but in the meantime they prepared an assassination attempt. The money that was found on the killer and the investigation of Kastriot Dervishi in the book "Pulma politikates" about the order, are clear indications (K. Dervishi, Plumba politikates, Tirana, 2009, p.46).

The assassination was carried out on June 13, 1920. This was a grave mistake of the new political class of the country, which thought to solve political problems through cowardice. The big surprise was that the trial against Rustem ended without convicting him and releasing the latter from prison. This leads to the deduction that foreign services were involved in this affair and the Great Powers were interested in eliminating the Pasha. But, the great stupidity is that even today they "demand an account" from Esati about where he is buried, while this "event" has its own history.

After 1920, it happened that the assassin entered politics and organized another assassination, but ended up being killed himself. Until the Italian occupation, Rustemi was completely forgotten, but for dictatorial regimes, murderers are heroes, and thus, even today we have a square for him that was baptized by the fascists, with a bust that was made by the communists. I wish that the "hero" is not yet an inspiration for Albanian hot heads.

Conclusion: According to the documents and a logical analysis, all the false columns of alleged treason have fallen. Didn't Father Zef Plumi tell us in his book "Rrno per me tregue", while studying Esat's correspondence with Father Pal Dojajn, in the Franciscan archive, that the pasha "appeared in a different light there"?! (Rrno per me show, Tirana, 2006, p.42)

Esati acted in a turbulent, very difficult time and terrain, when countless intrigues were woven by the Italians, Austrians, French, Serbs, rebels, etc., in a period when the Albanians had not yet formed a clear national consciousness as a people.

Toptani was a skilled soldier and a pragmatic politician; he predicted and demanded that Tirana be the capital since 1914. Being very powerful, he made enemies everywhere, but this was also a consequence of his character. As Mustafa Kruja used to say: Abdi Bey (Toptani) was the Dashtun, while Esati was the Drashtun, that is. they were afraid of him. I think that the fact that he came from a large, rich, tyrannical family played a role in the biased and pejorative judgment against him.

I saw that Toptani was undoubtedly neither a traitor nor a hero, and we must leave behind the communist-folkloric labels for anyone. Toptani was an important politician, who has his contribution in the history of the Albanian state. Now he is part of an undistorted history, but freeing minds from the unknowns that have been said about him (and not only about him), will be a long process.