Calendar – January 23

-On January 23, 1822, the Ottoman troops occupied the Janina (Ioannina) castle, where Ali Pasha Tepelena with about 50 troops loyal to him and his wife, Vasiliqia, remained surrounded.
-On January 23, 1899, a large Assembly was gathered in Peja, with about 500 people coming mainly from vilajet (Ottoman administrative unit) of Kosova, but also from the vilayets of Manastir (Bitola) and Janina (Ioannina). During the 6 days of its proceedings, the new Albanian union was formed in the Assembly, which was called the League of Peja or Besa-Besë /Oath/. Chairman of the League of Peja was elected Haxhi Zeka. The main task of the League was to fight against any attempt by Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro to break up the Albanian lands.
-January 23, 1916, amid the WWI, the Imperial Austria-Hungarian army entered in Shkodër.
-On January 23, 1932, the prominent Kosovan academic and politician Fehmi Agani was born in Gjakova. He finished his philosophy studies at the University of Belgrade. In 1967, he was elected director of the Albanology Institute of Prishtina. During the years 1966-74, he became known for his efforts to advance the status of Kosova within the former Yugoslavia, and was among the prominent defenders of the idea of the Republic of Kosova. At the Rambouillet Conference of 1999, he was an important member of the Kosova Delegation. Professor Agani was killed near Lipjan by Serbian military and police forces on May 6, 1999.
-On January 23, 1949, the painter Zef Kolombi passed away. He was born on March 3, 1907 in Sarajeva in a family from Shkodër, with a Slovenian mother. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. After graduation, he was appointed a drawing teacher at the Elbasan Pedagogical High School, where he stayed for 10 years. In the last two years of his life, he fell ill with asthma and tuberculosis and passed away at the age of 42.
-On January 23, 2007, Perikli Teta, the former Albanian minister of Public Order passed away in an Athens hospital, after an incurable disease. He got involved in politics in the early 1990s after the change of the Albanian political system.
-On January 23, 2007, Albanian actress Margarita Xhepa was declared “Honorary Citizen” of Struga, in North Macedonia.
/a.p./




