The National History Museum today commemorated the tragic assassination of Hasan Prishtina, an ideologue and prominent activist of the Albanian National Renaissance, a representative of the movement for a democratic state in Albania, and one of the key inspirers of the idea for the liberation of Kosovo and its unification with the Albanian state.

Hasan Prishtina was born in 1873. He completed his French high school education in Thessaloniki and the “Mylkije” administrative school in Istanbul. He was elected three times as a deputy in the Ottoman Parliament and vigorously defended the national rights of Albanians. Hasan Prishtina, Ismail Qemali, and other Albanian patriots were initiators of the 1912 anti-Ottoman uprising by Albanians. He served as a minister in the Provisional Government of Vlorë, organized the Albanian uprising against the Serbian state in September 1913, was appointed minister in Turhan Pasha Përmeti’s government during the short reign of Prince Wied, and during 1916-1918 collaborated with Austro-Hungarian authorities to exploit any favorable circumstances for the unification of Kosovo with Albania.

He was one of the leading figures of the Committee for the National Defense of Kosovo. In 1921, he was elected a deputy to the National Council. He led the Albanian government for a few days in December 1921. During 1922-1933, he was one of the main representatives of the opposition, opposing the governance of Ahmet Zogu. Throughout the 1920s, he was one of the principal ideologists of the thesis: “Without Kosovo, there is no Albania.” He was assassinated in Thessaloniki on August 14, 1933. In 1977, Hasan Prishtina’s remains were brought to Albania and reburied in Kukës.

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