57 Facts About Ismail Kemal

Ismail Kemal was an Albanian politician, statesman and founder of Albania.

Ismail Kemal served as the first prime minister of Albania from December 1912 until his resignation in January 1914.

Ismail Kemal travelled across Europe, particularly Belgium, France, England and Italy, and returned to Albania after the Young Turk Revolution.

Ismail Kemal took part in the Congress of Ottoman Opposition.

Ismail Kemal played a major role in the Albanian revolt of 1912.

The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Ismail Kemal was elected leader of the Provisional Government of Albania by the All-Albanian Congress in November 1912.

Ismail Kemal became prime minister and foreign minister of Albania.

Ismail Kemal temporarily allied with the Ottoman Empire and jointly plotted to attack Serbia in return for gaining Kosovo from the Ottomans.

Ismail Kemal was born on 16 January 1844 in the city of Vlore, then part of the Ottoman Empire.

Ismail Kemal married a Greek woman Kleoniqi Surmeli and sent his children to receive an education in Greece.

Ismail Kemal embarked on a career as an Ottoman civil servant reaching high government positions in European and Asian parts of the empire after he moved to Istanbul in May 1860.

Ismail Kemal identified with the liberal reform wing of Midhat Pasha, the author of the Constitution of the Ottoman Empire with whom Kemal was a close collaborator, and he became governor of several towns in the Balkans.

Ismail Kemal was aware that the empire came close to intervention from the Great Powers due to the Armenian crisis of 1895.

In May 1900 Ismail Kemal boarded the British ambassador's yacht, claimed asylum and was conveyed out of the empire where for the next eight years he lived in exile.

Ismail Kemal left for Athens and issued proclamations explaining his abandonment of service to the empire while Ottoman authorities were upset with his flight.

Ismail Kemal worked to promote constitutional rule in the Ottoman Empire.

In Paris he met Faik Konitza and the two leaders worked together for a short time on Albanian issues through newspaper publications where Ismail Kemal called for Albanian unity, economic development, progress and to warn of future dangers of subjugation by Balkan states.

Ismail Kemal went on to found the newspaper Selamet published in Ottoman Turkish, Albanian and Greek which called for cooperation between Albanians and Greeks, due to both peoples having the same geopolitical interests.

At first Ismail Kemal made overtures to Austria-Hungary as the great power to assist Albanians in developing a more unified national opinion about their future, founding of more laic Albanian schools and cultivating their language and attaining autonomy.

In Paris, Ismail Kemal participated in the Congress of Ottoman Opposition organised by Prince Sabahaddin and backed his faction calling for reforms, minority rights, revolution and European intervention in the empire.

The 1902 Congress resulted in no organisations being established in the Balkans and an unknown individual impersonating Ismail Kemal travelled to various cities in Bulgaria and succeeded in duping many Muslims.

Later at a gathering of the permanent members of the new committee at the princes' house Ismail Kemal was installed as chairman.

Ismail Kemal supported the leadership of the Albanian movement such as preparing appeals for Jup Kastrati or creating in Paris an Albanian Council.

Journals supported by Ismail Kemal promoted Albanian autonomy, however the new committee failed to win support among Albanians to their side.

Ismail Kemal corresponded over Albania's future with the Prince of Albanian origins, Albert Ghica who had designs on becoming an Albanian monarch and with Preng Doci about the involvement of Kemal in an administrative role within a future autonomous Albania.

Ismail Kemal's task was the most difficult aspect of the plot, he kept a unit in Paris, commenced political activities as a high ranking politician in exile and made many visits to London which annoyed the Ottoman government as they were unable to work out his real aims.

In Paris Ismail Kemal established close contacts and good relations with journalists such as Stephane Lauzanne and William Morton Fullerton.

Ismail Kemal received responses from the Foreign Office, however Kemal exaggerated the level of British support, being only moral support and ambiguous for the venture.

Ismail Kemal corresponded with London-based Ottoman diplomats on the plan like Resid Sadi who secretly worked for the Young Turks.

Attempts by Ismail Kemal were made to convince Lord Cromer that the "Turkish question" was a pressing matter and he agreed with those sentiments and promised to reply to the Foreign office.

Ismail Kemal sent an Albanian confidant Xhafer Berxhani from Greece to see Rexhep Pasha in Tripoli, Ottoman Libya.

Resid Sadi arrived and found there was no large ships and that Ismail Kemal was residing at the house of an aide-de-camp to the Greek monarch.

Ismail Kemal informed Resid Sadi that he was duped and that in Greece it was difficult to find suitable ships.

Ismail Kemal wanted to travel to Naples and get ships from there, however the others decided to abandon the plot.

The failure of the plan was put down to different reasons with Ismail Kemal blaming prolonged negotiations about obtaining ships, while Rexhep Pasha viewed Ismail Kemal's lukewarm attitude for the venture as reason to change his mind.

From within Sabaheddin's inner circle the view was that Ismail Kemal took the money to profit for his own purposes.

Ismail Kemal broke ties with the Young Turks and on 16 August 1903 he gave an interview to an Italian newspaper in his role as an "Albanian patriot" and pursued his new preoccupation with Albania's future.

In Rome July 1907, Ismail Kemal gave a lengthy interview to Italian media where he called for cooperation between Balkan peoples, a "Greco-Albanian entente" and affirmed Albania as having its own language, literature, history and traditions and a right to liberty and independence.

Ismail Kemal was against Albanian cooperation with Bulgarian Macedonians and viewed their support of Albanian insurrectionists as self-serving and strengthening their movement due to depletion of Albanian forces.

Ismail Kemal promoted a diplomatic solution for creating an independent Albania, an approach rejected by some Albanian groups of the era that instead favoured guerilla warfare against the empire.

Ismail Kemal contributed to the Young Turk newspaper Tanin where Kemal called for government reforms.

Ismail Kemal became leader of the Albanian deputies in the Ottoman parliament and did not oppose Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia adding that recognition of the move should entail security guarantees for the empire in case of war with Balkan states over territory.

Uninvolved in the events of the initial countercoup Ismail Kemal was briefly made President of the Ottoman National Assembly and led it to recognise a new government by Abdulhamid II.

Ismail Kemal wired his constituency in Vlore telling them to acknowledge the new government and Albanians from his hometown backed him with some raiding the arms depot to support the sultan with weapons if the situation called for it.

Ismail Kemal left the city prior to the CUP Action Army arriving at Istanbul to suppress the rebellion and he fled to Greece.

The Athens embassy of the Ottoman Empire reported that Ismail Kemal negotiated with organization financed by wealthy Albanian Tosks and Greece about forging a union.

Ismail Kemal returned from Athens to Istanbul after the parliament cleared him from involvement in the counter-revolutionary movement and he became leader of a group of "modern liberals" who were former members of the Ahrar party.

Ismail Kemal was given the task of going to Europe to obtain support from sympathetic governments for the Albanian movement in addition to financial support and funds for buying 15,000 guns.

Ismail Kemal met with Austro-Hungarian officials in Paris and expressed that his previous misgivings regarding them had shifted, viewed Austria-Hungary as the only defender of Albania and could rely on Albanian support if they backed Albanian geopolitical interests within a strong Ottoman state.

Ismail Kemal was a principal figure in the secession of Albania from the Ottoman Empire, in the Albanian Declaration of Independence and the formation of the independent Albania on 28 November 1912.

The Ottoman Council of Ministers opposed his actions preferring Albanian autonomy and requested that Ismail Kemal give military assistance to the Ottoman Third Army trapped in southern Albania.

Aware of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, Ismail Kemal asked the Great Powers to recognise and support an independent Albania.

Fikri acting as Izzet Pasha's emissary contacted Ismail Kemal and presented him with a plan that envisaged joint Ottoman, Albanian and Bulgarian military action against Greece and Serbia.

Ismail Kemal assured Fikri of his loyalty to Izzet Pasha as monarch of Albania and supported a plan from the CUP government in Istanbul to secretly infiltrate troops and weapons into the country to conduct a guerilla war against Serbian and Greek forces.

Ismail Kemal's autobiography, published after his death, is the only memoir of a late Ottoman statesman to be written in English and is a unique record of a liberal, multicultural approach to the problems of the dying Empire.

In 1918, Ismail Kemal travelled to Italy to promote support for his movement in Albania, but was prevented by the Italian government from leaving Italy and remained as its involuntary guest at a hotel in Perugia, much to his irritation.

Ismail Kemal died of an apparent heart attack at dinner on 26 January 1919.