20 Facts About Pashko Vasa

Pashko Vasa, known as Vaso Pasha or Wassa Pasha, was an Albanian writer, poet and publicist of the Albanian National Awakening, and Ottoman mutasarrif of Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate from 1882 until his death.

Pashko Vasa was a Catholic Albanian who held high positions within the Ottoman Empire.

Pashko Vasa there had the opportunity to perfect his knowledge of a number of foreign languages: Italian, French, Turkish and Greek.

Pashko Vasa knew some English and Serbian, and in later years learned Arabic.

Pashko Vasa later went to Venice where he took part in fighting in Marghera in October 1848, part of a Venetian uprising against the Austrians.

Pashko Vasa 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.

Pashko Vasa later served the Sublime Porte in various positions of authority as a bureaucrat.

In 1879, Pashko Vasa worked in Varna on the Black Sea coast in the administration of the vilayet of Edirne with Ismail Qemali.

Pashko Vasa 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.

Pashko Vasa expressed support for an alphabet of purely Latin characters.

Pashko Vasa was a member of the Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings, founded in Constantinople on 12 October 1879, to promote the printing and distribution of the Albanian-language books.

Pashko Vasa glorified medieval era Albanian resistance for independence and freedom to the Ottomans under Skanderbeg while celebrating Albanian military prowess as a natural fighters and ability to defend the empire.

Pashko Vasa mentioned that after those events Albanians were an integral and loyal part of the empire having contributed many statesmen, bureaucrats, commanders and soldiers.

Pashko Vasa's book criticised Ottoman governance in Albania of sending non-Albanian Ottoman officials to administer Albanians who were ineffective as they were unfamiliar with the local language, customs and other societal factors.

Pashko Vasa suggested indirectly that either local Albanians could be appointed or Ottoman officials trained in the local ways of the Albanians as a solution to those issues.

Pashko Vasa attempted to impress on readers the unity of Albanians as a people with a common language, customs, history and aspirations while sidelining religious divisions and differences between the areas of Gegalik and Toskalik.

Pashko Vasa advocated for the unification of various vilayets with Albanian populations into one administrative unit claiming that it would assist Ottoman interests as Muslim Albanians had no desire to revolt against the empire.

Pashko Vasa was the author of a number of literary works of note.

Bardha de Temal, scenes de la vie albanaise, Paris 1890, is a French-language novel which Pashko Vasa published in Paris under the pseudonym of Albanus Albano the same year as Naim Frasheri's noted verse collection Lulet e veres appeared in Bucharest.

Pashko Vasa overall continued to inform European readers on Albanians and Albania through his French publications, as he had done from the time of the Unionist Societies.