The failure of the assassination attempt against the prime minister of the Ottoman Empire, as a sign of revenge for Ismail Qemalin

By: Hasan Bello

In 1911, the contradictions between the Albanians and the Young Turks reached their peak. Uprisings broke out on all sides. To suppress them, the Ottoman government sent several expeditions, which did not achieve any results.

In Parliament, the political battle was just as fierce. During a session, the Young Turk deputy of Serez (a city in today's Greece), Dervish Bey slapped Ismail Qemali. This act made a very bad impression. Only the cold-bloodedness of some MPs stopped the Albanian MPs (Esat Toptanin) from using their weapons. Even the Minister of the Interior, Talat Pasha, and some other deputies of the Young Turk Committee, made efforts to avoid an even bigger scandal in the Parliament.

Also from Hasan Bello:

- The first congress of the Albanian language, held in Istanbul in 1879

- Brief history of the Dino family

- Abdyl Frashër's critical speech in the Ottoman Parliament: Without education, no nation has progressed

- The diary that overturns everything about the Shkodra War: Esat Pasha was the real defender of Shkodra!?

- Neruda and Hikmet, the poets who refused to visit Albania

At the end of the session, the Albanian deputies went to the office of the president, who was not there due to fear or some other reason. They declared to the vice president that it is better to kill the Albanian than to shoot him.

This work did not stop there. In addition to the deep indignation that this incident caused in the Albanian press and colonies, it was accompanied by meetings and the organization of a general uprising. Meanwhile, the Young Turks made efforts to normalize the situation.

But a witness to this scene, who had shown no visible emotion and reaction, had made an important decision. He was the Kosovar deputy Nexhip bey Draga, who, according to Albanian custom, considered this a national offense that could only be redeemed with blood.

Nexhip bey Draga thought that something like this would be washed away with the assassination of the prime minister, Ibrahim Haki Pasha. To carry out the assassination, Dervish Hima suggested to him a student from Elbasan, Salih Hoxha, who was in the last year of the Military Academy. The latter enthusiastically accepted this delicate mission. Meanwhile, Nexhip Bey took over all the expenses.

In order to carry out the assassination, Salih Hoxha abandoned his studies and stayed in the rooms of a well-known hotel in Istanbul for several days. "Hotel des princes", in the Pera neighborhood which was located near the British Embassy. After the assassination, it was planned that he would leave by steamer out of the Ottoman Empire.

But what happened was a very strange thing, which in my opinion is one of the biggest scoops in the history of European journalism. Dervish Hima as a publicist and with a revolutionary spirit, in order to show Vienna his importance and to gain the priority of the news, sent an article to a well-known Austrian newspaper where, together with the photo of Salih Hoxha, he said that from moment to moment it is expected that to carry out an assassination attempt against the Ottoman Prime Minister, Ibrahim Haki Pasha. This caused the newspaper to publish the article the next day together with the photo of Salih Hoxha, which as a rule had to be published after the assassination.

Thus, the plan failed and Salihu was forced to leave for emigration, wanted by the Ottoman police.