Today is the 103d death anniversary of the father of the Independence of Albania, the great Albanian Ismail Qemali. Ismail Qemali was an Albanian diplomat, politician, statesman and the Founding Father of modern Albania. He was born in Vlora, in 1844, and completed primary school in his hometown, then continued his secondary education in Ioannina, where he learned ancient Greek, Latin and French.

When he was 16 years old, because of the languages ​​he spoke, he started working at the High Gate Translation Office in Istanbul. Until 1900 Ismail Qemali worked in various positions in the Ottoman administration, in the Vilayet of Ioannina.

Ismail Qemali led the movement and the meeting that was held in the palaces of the Vlora family, where on November 28, 1912, the Independence of Albania was declared and he was elected the head of the Provisional Government of Vlora.

On January 22, 1914, Ismail Qemali resigned from the Provisional Government of Vlora, handed over power to the International Commission and left with his family for France. He died on January 24, 1919, in Perugia and on February 12 he was buried in the courtyard of the Tekke in Kanina, above Vlora.

/Klara Ruci/