Sultan Abdulhamid II appointed Vasa as Mutessarıf of Mount Lebanon on June 18, 1882, a post reserved by international treaty for a Catholic of Ottoman nationality after the civil unrest and French occupation of 1860. He was also a member of the Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings, founded in Constantinople on October 12, 1879, to promote the printing and distribution of the Albanian-language books. Vasa expressed support of an alphabet of purely Latin characters. As such Vasa published a 16-page brochure entitled L'alphabet Latin appliqué à la langue albanaise, Constantinople 1878 (The Latin alphabet applied to the Albanian language). Vasa as a member of the Committee for Defending Albanian Rights was appointed along with Sami Frashëri, Jani Vreto and Hasan Tahsini to create an Albanian alphabet which by 19 March 1879 the group approved Frashëri's 36 letter alphabet consisting mostly of Latin characters. Vasa favoured the unification of Albanian inhabited vilayets or provinces into a single vilayet of Albania within the Ottoman empire and having a "compact and strong organisation" with Albanian participation in its public administration. He was probably the author of the Memorandum on Albanian Autonomy which had his signature alongside those of other Albanian notables and the document was submitted to the British Embassy in Constantinople. Through his contacts at the Committee, he also participated in the organization of the League of Prizren in 1878. As a member of the Committee he met during mid March with British ambassador Austen Henry Layard in Istanbul and urged that Albanian inhabited territories not be given to newly independent Slavic states. In the autumn of 1877 he became a founding member of the Central Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Albanian People in Istanbul which was a group of Albanian intelligentsia advocating for the territorial integrity and unity of Albanian inhabited areas in the Ottoman Empire. The events of this mission were recorded in his La Bosnie et l'Herzégovine pendant la mission de Djevdet Efendi, Constantinople 1865 (Bosnia and Herzegovina during the mission of Jevdet Efendi).Ī few years later he published another now rare work of historical interest, Esquisse historique sur le Monténégro d'après les traditions de l'Albanie, Constantinople 1872 (Historical sketch of Montenegro according to Albanian traditions).ĭespite his functions on behalf of the Porte, Pashko Vasa never forgot his Albanian homeland. In 1863, thanks to his knowledge of Serbian, he was appointed to serve as a secretary and interpreter to Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, Ottoman statesman and historian, on a fact-finding mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina which lasted for twenty months, from the spring of 1863 to October 1864. He later served the Sublime Porte in various positions of authority as a bureaucrat. In Istanbul, after an initial period of poverty and hardship, he obtained a position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whence he was seconded to London for a time, to the Imperial Ottoman Embassy to the Court of St. He published an account of his experience in Italy the following year in Italian-language La mia prigionia, episodio storico dell'assedio di Venezia, Istanbul 1850 (My imprisonment, historical episode from the siege of Venice). After the arrival of Austrian troops, Pashko Vasa was obliged to flee to Ancona where, as an Ottoman citizen, he was expelled to Istanbul. He later went to Venice where he took part in fighting in Marghera in October 1848, part of a Venetian uprising against the Austrians. There are two letters written by him in Bologna in the summer of 1848 in which he expresses openly republican and anti-clerical views. In 1847, he set off for Italy on the eve of turbulent events that were to take place there and elsewhere in Europe in 1848. He also knew some English and Serbian, and in later years learned Arabic. He there had the opportunity to perfect his knowledge of a number of foreign languages: Italian, French, Turkish and Greek. Secretary in the British Consulate įrom 1842 to 1847 he worked as a secretary for the British consulate in Shkodër. He was a Catholic Albanian who held high positions within the Ottoman Empire. Vaso Pasha was born in Shkodër on September 17, 1825. Pashko Vasa (17 September 1825 – 29 June 1892), known as Vaso Pasha or Wassa Pasha ( Arabic: واصه باشا, Albanian: Vaso pashë Shkodrani), was an Albanian writer, poet and publicist of the Albanian National Awakening, and Ottoman mutasarrif of Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate from 1882 until his death. Beirut, Vilayet of Beirut, Ottoman EmpireĬentral Committee for Defending Albanian Rights, Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |