Who killed Ismail Qemali?

From: Zaho Golemi

Respect for the father of the nation, the architect of Independence, Ismail Qemalin is more than natural for every Albanian. He is an immortal Albanian hero and legend, a model diplomat, an ideal patriot, a patriotic man, an enlightened torchbearer, who dedicated his life to patriotism, a politician counted with the flag, creator of the first structures of the state, in diplomacy, politics, economy, army, police, gendarmerie, education, etc., a personality valued yesterday "sparingly" and today with "sparingness"! Ismail Qemali (16.10.1844 -24.1.1844) is the first man who, after centuries of captivity, after Gjergj Kastriot Skënderbeu, of the Albanian League of Prizren, who revived the Albanian spirits tired of wars, and proclaimed independence on 28.11.1912 and established the Albanian government on 4.12.1912.

Ismail Qemal Bey Vlora: "Eat me with the unfaithful"!

Ismail Qemal Bey Vlora closed his eyes with the expression: "Eat me with the unfaithful." A death shrouded in mystery for the father of the Albanian nation! He lived only a few minutes after drinking the "cup of coffee" that was only a cup of poison before foaming at the mouth. A pure murder by poison, which did not make a sound like a cobra's crack! But the effect was sure. After announcing Albania's independence from the Ottoman government, he served as prime minister for 13 months and 18 days and with diplomatic finesse handed over the task to the KNK, for European governance.

Reconfirmation of the independence of the Albanian state in the entire area where Albanian was spoken, Ismail Bey saw it as the second step in the sequence going to the Peace Conference in Versailles. It was January 1919 and the creator of the Albanian state was looking for "paths" to be at least close to the world diplomatic factor, in this conference. The Italian leaders had promised him up to the Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando, and the diplomat who was in these jobs was hunting the favorable opportunity to extinguish the issue of Albania in Versailles, in the French capital where the big card was played and where the fate of small nations was decided. Ismail Qemal Bey Vlora wrote a few days before he was poisoned: "...today is the decisive day of Albania, we will rise or we will die. I love Albania under the democratic and federal regime for the Albanian people".

He was stationed at the "Brufani" hotel in Perugia, Italy and was waiting for news of a meeting with Italian politicians and diplomats, but his death came from a mysterious hand that did not want the father of the nation, one of the wisest people and a seasoned diplomat. through the legs". Therefore, his death also came, which was shocking for the two sons who were not separated from him until the last moment of their lives, but also for all Albanians wherever they were.

The announcement of his death was announced by the Italian newspaper "L'Unione Liberale", organ of the center-right Liberal Party of Italy, in a special communique, with 18 words: "Yesterday evening, at 23.30:XNUMX p.m., the distinguished guest of the city, Ismail Qemal Bej Vlora, stopped living in the hotel "Brufani". His three sons: Ethemi, Qazimi and Qamili, representatives of the Italian Foreign Ministry, on 8.2.1919, accompanied the body of Ismail Qemali by train from Perugia to Brindisi, from where, on board the torpedo boat "Alpino", it was accompanied to Vlora . On 12.2.1919, on Wednesday, placed on the ball bed and wrapped with the National Flag, he was accompanied to Kanina, where he was buried in the yard of Teqë, in the Vlora family cemetery. "...If we measure the greatness of a political personality with the love of the common people", wrote in "Family Memories", Safa Vlora, "we must affirm that no one comes close to Ismail Qemal Vlora". The procession had twelve crowns worn by the Boys of Vlora, of the society with the same name, newspaper Kuvendi, the boys' society. Then walked the military band playing the funeral march, the carriage with the coffin covered with the red flag, honored and guarded by two lines of soldiers, the hoxhallars, the three sons of Ismail Qemali, general Settimo Piacentini (commander of the Italian troops in Albania), rear admiral Lrubetti , military authorities who gave him the "honors" that a diplomat of that rank deserved, the civil authorities of the province, the pariah of the city and the district, the citizens, the students of the schools and finally the cavalry soldiers. The fact is that the owner of the "Brufani" hotel paid all the expenses of bringing Ismail Qemali's body from Peruxha to Vlora, participating himself in the burial ceremony in Kanina.

Jani Minga and Qazim Kokoshi gave two impressive speeches. Before the burial, the sons of Ismail Qemali took the flag, which flag they used again in his reburial in Flag Square on 28.11.1932, where after the second reburial, Ethem Bey Vlora donated the flag to the National Museum. Safet bey Vlora, in the file "Ismail Qemali" in AQSH, the burial of the father of the nation is also documented: "If we measure the greatness of a political figure with the love of the common people, we must affirm that no one comes close to Ismail Qemal Vlora. During his burial ceremony, not a single villager and not a single citizen remained at home. All the sides of the mountains and the coasts along the route of the funeral procession were full of people. It was a magnificent apotheosis of the entire people, without exception, to a tribune who served his country until his last breath!".

Professor Bardhosh Gaçe, historian and biographer of Ismail Qemali, who has done detailed research in Italy, Rome and Perugia, is completely convinced that Ismail Qemali was poisoned. But let's talk with the language of facts and through arguments.

17 arguments on the murder (poisoning) of Ismail Qemali

Argument I: The testimony of Ethem Vlora, the son of Ismail Qemali, who was never separated from his father, when he told the mayor of Vlora, Ali Asllani (20.12.1918-5.11.1920 and 1934-1939), is quite decisive: "One day they prepared a press conference for my father. After the meal he entered the salon where press correspondents were waiting for him. From the first sentences of the conversation, the pale and wobbly man began to stammer and could not connect the words. He asked to be taken to the bathroom. There he drowned in foam and vomit." (This apparent characteristic of poisoning)

Argument II: The testimony of the hotel owner brought by Professor Gaçe is unique: "The owner of the hotel, a few moments before he died, addressed his daughter: 'I am dying with a hostage, the prime minister of Albania was poisoned here in my hotel'".

Argument III: The testimony of the writer, historian and philosopher Koli Xoxe (1923-2013), that in the book "Ismail Qemali, life and works", which refers to Ismail Qemali's maid, Mrs. Fatushe Shedula, the poisoning of Ismail Qemali is confirmed: "We poisoned the old patriot in the cafe. After drinking coffee, he had severe stomach pains. The old man shouted with his mouth, they poisoned me, and then he died."

Argument IV: Referring to the historian Koli Xoxe, based on Shedula's database: "In the two cups of coffee that Ismail Bey and his son Ethemi had drunk in the bar of the 'Brufani' hotel, a few minutes before the conference, Ismail Qemali died while his son, Ethemi, passed the poisoning with many vicissitudes in the hospital with lavages of the stomach, with the young age and the powerful organism of the well-trained soldier".

Argument V: The data speak of Fatushe Shedula, as a faithful woman who had written in her diary the fact that "Ismail Qemali was poisoned", which was the statement of one of the greatest enigmas of the century.

Argument VI: The facts are added when Fatushe Shedula herself was poisoned in the 30s, when she came to live in Tirana, her physical disappearance together with her diary. This proves that a careful murderous hand followed even the witnesses of this event, even though science today can reveal the mystery of this disappearance that has already passed the century.

Argument VII: The Italian "medical team" arrived late and did not offer him the proper help. The doctors did only one "job", which was not required of them by the doctor's mission, but by the procedure of examining the corpse and wrote a statement with many mistakes. It says: "... Ismail Qemali died on January 26, 1919", when in fact Ismail Qemali's heart stopped on January 24, 1919.

Argument VIII: The formalities of examining the corpse were done three days after the death (a hand had prepared all the circumstances), that is, on January 27, an irrefutable manipulative fact. And, finally it is written that "the burial must take place after January 27, 1919"! Why, while the doctor who examined the corpse did not even put his name, to lose track. Meanwhile, the original form, which comes from the Municipality of Perugia: "I, the undersigned, declare that I have visited the body of Ismail Qemal Vlora, son of Mahmud and Hedija, 75 years old, born in Vlora, resident of the hotel 'Brufani', who died on January 26, 1919(?), at 23.50, from cerebral hemorrhage. I declare that this corpse can be transported within a few hours and buried after January 27, 1919. Sanitari, firma". (This statement is based on the document of the forensic doctor of the Perugia hospital, Archive of the State Hospital of Perugia, 27.01.1919).

Argument IX: The civil status office in Perugia, which refers to the Forensic Medicine report, says: "Municipality of Perugia/ Office of civil status/ Necroscopic report: 'The paramedic's statement about cerebral hemorrhage as the cause of Ismail Qemali's death is unclear. Civil Status Officer/Gabellini Era'". (Municipality of Perugia, Office of Civil Status 27.1.1919, no. 52, pj, first).

Argument X: The fact is that after the formalities of death in Italy, the body was embalmed, which lasted two weeks (a mystery in itself) until the body was brought to Vlora and buried in Kania, where it remained in the Vlora cemetery until 28.11.1932, when he was reburied for the second time in Vlora, where he is still today. Even 13 years after the burial, the corpse was examined during the exhumation, where the time report reads: "There was no sign of embalming on the body of the corpse of Ismail Qemal Vlora and the corpse is half decomposed", which prove that the embalming decomposition of a 13-year-old corpse was a second murder, a murder that they couldn't do with a bullet, but they did it by poisoning a personality that has no era that can erase it from the page of Albanian history .

Argument XI: Nermin Vlora Falaski was the daughter of the daughter of Ismail Vlora and Kleoniq. Professor Gaçe, referring to Nermin Vlora (Falaski), writes: "Ismail Qemali was killed, that is, poisoned by people who did not want him to participate in the Peace Conference in Paris, because they wanted Esad Pasha Toptani to own this conference. The authors are relatives of Esad Paşe Toptan. It is his grandchildren who are the authors of this murder. I and Nermin Vlora, the granddaughter of Ismail Qemali, investigated this death. We also contacted the police of Perugia and all traces led us to a hotel in front of the "Brufani" hotel where Ismail Qemali was staying, which was 35 meters away from him. (The eldest daughter of Ismail Qemali, Myvedet Vlora, had two daughters: Belkis and the second Sara Blloshmi. Belkiz is the mother of Nermin Vlora-Falaski, who died in Bogota, Colombia, where Nermin's husband, Renzo Falaschi was ambassador of Italy. Nermini and Renzo are currently extinct and rest in Cania).

Argument XII: The family records that have been documented at the "Illyria" Academy in Rome prove another significant fact: "Four Albanians traveled by train to Periuxia on 24.1.1919 and stayed in the hotel in front of the 'Burfan' hotel, they paid the barman of the 'Brufan' hotel, who put poison in the coffee". It is a fact that four Albanians stayed for five hours in a hotel in front of the "Brufan" hotel in Perugia on the day of Ismail Qemali's death. Historian Bardhosh Gaçe, but also Ismail Qemali's family members who have supported Professor Gaçe in his research are convinced that Ismail Qemali was poisoned. But another fact that Ismail Qemali was a living figure of Albanian diplomacy is confirmed, because in 1917, the National Political Party of the Albanians of the USA appointed him as its delegate to the Peace Conference in Paris. The documentation says that shortly before his death, convinced that history would give justice to the legitimate demands of the Albanians, he wrote: "Peace in the Balkans will not be restored by sacrificing the rights of other nations in the interest of expansionist goals. Without the addition of Kosovo from the north to Albania and Chameria from the south, there can be no peace in the Sinisia of the Balkans!"

Argument XIII: From the analysis of Albanian developments, even though it is anachronistic, Ismail Qemali's dangerous enemies were his cousin Syrja bey Vlora, the second cousin of Eqrem Vlora's father, rivals in power and wealth. Syrja Vlora was also invested in the independence of Albania, but in fact he testified in the "Medal of Merit of Independence" and it was carried out by Ismail Vlora and this was a big reason for being opponents to the point of enmity, in a strange relationship, which seems also in the memories of Eqrem bey Vlora, that everyone understands the "heroic" format in the "defense" of Himara and the absence in the historical moment of the declaration of Independence, but that the argument cannot go all the way to elimination. The same can be said about the other opponent of Ismail Qemali, who was Faik Konica, who wished for his "death" in writings, but again his hand is not proven by the analysis.

Argument XIV: Following the analysis and argumentative theses for the poisoning of Ismail Qemali, the Italian diplomat Renzo Fallaschi, the husband of Nermin Vlora Falaski, excludes any "possibility of poisoning by the Italian security authorities". In the biography he wrote about Ismail Qemali, as an appendix to the volume of memoirs dictated by the Elder of Vlora himself, he admits that "the cause of Ismail Qemali's death was a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a furious rush of anger, created in him by the sudden knowledge of a news that he had been the victim of a serious fraud" ... "...the cause of the emotion that sparked his anger remains a mystery, which is certainly related to the contemptuous call for 'faithless people'". The circumstances exclude that Ismail Qemali turned to Orlando for disloyalty. According to him, the lack of response from Orlando could not be the reason for the anger of the Elder of Vlora, because it was known that the Italian Prime Minister was going to Paris, so he did not have time to meet with him. He adds that even the Italian Foreign Minister, Sonnino, did not have the opportunity to answer him, as he also left for Paris for the preparation of the Peace Conference. Therefore, the cause of deep anger had to be sought elsewhere, perhaps in "a new betrayal by old opponents". Renzo Fallaschi writes: "Ismail Qemali may have discovered a new treachery from his old opponents, which his noble heart could not bear."

Argument XV: Ismail Qemali also had a "dose" of poison from the Italian politics of the time: "Stop by government order in Perugia", "rejection of his meeting with the Italian Foreign Minister Sonino", "the disregard shown by the Prime Minister of Italy Orlando, who did not respond to Ismail Qemali's request", "their trip to Paris without notifying the Albanian diplomat" and the Sedra of Ismail Qemali "for the beggars" as well as sudden death, without complaining of health concerns. "The dose of poison from a secret hand before the press conference, where more than a hundred journalists and photojournalists were waiting for him, pushed Ismail Qemali back from his mission to Albania". as Skender Luarasi wrote. In a strange way, in the diplomatic offices, there was a special awareness, for the great echo that the death of Ismail Qemali had, and the Italian side, with the justification that he had died in their country, "honored" him, "embalmed" him and kept him full two weeks the lifeless body of Ismail Qemali in Perugia, where he died tragically.

Argument XVI: The coffee poisoning or any other mystery of the loss of the life of the Father of the Nation can also be related to Ismail Qemali's crushed emotional state, since according to Professor Gaçe, it was strongly influenced by the death of Ismail Qemali's wife and the illness experienced by his son. great Mahmud Bey Vlora, who had stayed in Istanbul and was experiencing, in addition to the serious illness, the tortures inflicted on him by the sultanate that was experiencing the last days of Ottomanism.

Argument XVII: Ismail Qemali's enemies "did it" and in his life there were several attempts to eliminate him. But, in his mission for Albania, for independence and further for its reconfirmation, he fought until his last breath as a man. Just like the former American president Abraham Lincoln, who before he was killed said: “If I am killed, I die once; but to live under its constant terror is to die without rest." The first case when an attempt was made to kill Ismail Qemali on 7.9.1901 when the sultan had asked for his head as a friend of Mithat Pasha, but he was helped by the English ambassador in Istanbul, NOKonor, who took Ismail Qemali out of Istanbul as a family. The second time, Gani Toptani (bodyguard and agent of the Sultan), who was the brother of Esad Toptani, was accused of murder by direct order, but the friends of Ismail bey Vlora informed him in time about "Gani Toptani's mission to kill him" and in fact, instead of killing him, they killed the murderer. Ismail Qemali is one of the 30 named Albanian politicians who have been killed. And, among them, we mention: Ismail Qemalin, Isa Boletini, Hasan Pristina, Luigj Gurakuqin, Bajram Currin, Avdyl Ypin, Esad Toptanin, Avni Rustemin, Jusuf Dibra (former Minister of War), Qazim Koculin, Idhomene Kosturin, Kostaq Kotten, Xelal Koprenckën, Preng Bibë Dodën, Mark Gjon Markajn, Lefter Kosoven, Nako Spiron, Mehmet Shehu, up to Azem Hajdari and Fatmir Xhindi, etc. The prophetic statement of Father Zef Pllumi is not coincidental: "If you are a politician in Albania, you have one foot in the grave and one foot in prison."

The pens that documented the murder of Ismail Qemali: "Unless treason is killed, Albania cannot be united"

There are many writings and hypotheses that more or less reveal the mystery that was never discovered. Historians and journalists such as Koli Xoxe, Safet bey Vlorës, Renzo Falaski, Skënder Luarasi, Bardhosh Gaçe, Sherif Delvina, Roland Qafoku, Marin Mema, Alket Aliu, etc., have agreed that Ismail Qemal Bey Vlora almost predicted unnatural death, but as a martyr of his own nation. His close friend, fellow fighter and fellow traveler, Luigj Gurakuqi (also a martyr), spoke openly about the death of Ismail Qemali, and six years later he himself was killed by the bullets of an Albanian. Even Bajram Curri was killed a few days after Luigj Gurakuqi. Hasan Prishtina delivered the speech at the funeral of Luigj Gurakuqi and eight years after Luigj was killed in Thessaloniki. Preng Bibë Doda has left "inheritance" an expression beyond the enigma that he told Vidi in 1914: "...Albania would find peace when Ismail Qemali, Esat Toptani and himself died". Was death the prophecy of time? But, in the famous speech that Ismail Qemali gave after raising the flag under a drizzle of rain, that "even time was shedding tears", at the end of the speech when the new Albanian state was born, its founder did not forget to say: "..I send a prayer to the great God, to accept that from now on I will be the first martyr of the Motherland, just as I had the honor and fate to be the first to kiss it and let our flag fly free in the homeland our free!"

Could the founder of the state have predicted that power counts your days and shortens your life, for that action that could not be done by anyone, neither with a rifle, nor with a spear, nor with an army, nor with weapons and ammunition, and nothing more the Albanian diplomatic wisdom of the centuries acted, Ismail Qemali, who came down to the motherland without a belt in the time of occupation, but with the great ideal of the Motherland and with comrades-in-arms and compatriots determined that "the hour of Albanianism had come".

The fact is that in January 1919, Ismail Qemalin was invited by the Italians themselves to send him to the Peace Conference in Paris, they isolated him and the mystery remained in the "Brufani" hotel in Perugia. The invitation was from several Italian dignitaries, including Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando. But the tragic end is the last words when Ismail Qemali was dying: "You ate me with the unfaithful". Yes, the owner of the hotel, and the waiter who threw the poison in the coffee cup, who was the Italian waiter, and the daughter of the owner who learned from the father of the "Brufani" hotel when the latter said to his daughter: "I left this world with the hostage that poisoned the prime minister of Albania in my hotel", what about the Italian Carabinieri, which was only 35 meters from the hotel, what did they write in the incident report, what about the medical authorities? And what did the Italian archives hide that has not yet been discovered? The authorities should have clarified the mysterious truths of the poisoning of the first prime minister and the father of independence. The version about the murder for all the researchers, historians and journalists who dealt with this great figure of the nation are united in the opinion that: The Albanian killers bought the coffee shop of the hotel "Brufani", who prepared the coffee for Ismail Qemal Bej Vlora and his son Ethem bey, father and son who were placed in room 212 of the hotel. Even today in Hotel "Brufani" there are many testimonies, objects or photographs that show the attitude of various personalities from the Queen of England, Hollywood actors, but there is no sign of Ismail Qemali's attitude and death. Even a picture he had taken with the hotel owner was removed 10 years ago.

Attempts to learn more have not been lacking, and especially on the 100th anniversary of Ismail Qemali's death, Fate Velaj, in a meeting with Andrea Romizi, mayor of Perugia, asked to consider the possibility of placing a bust of his father of the Albanian nation, in the place where he passed away near the "Brufani" hotel. Stefano Chiesa, the current director of Hotel "Brufani", in the lobby of which Ismail Qemali was poisoned in a part of the hotel, will place a plaque in memory of Ismail Qemali. The owner's daughter has shown that her father died with a hostage in his heart, according to which "...it was the poisoning, not the natural death of Ismail Qemali". So the "cerebral hemorrhage" was a big hoax, which has been shrouded in 101-year-old mystery. The truth is in the flag square in Vlora and in the golden words: "Unless treason is killed, Albania cannot be united."

Read too Ismail Qemali was killed, did he not die a natural death?

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