Mehmet Pashe Deralla – distinguished warfighter of the national renaissance period

Abstract

In moments when the historic moment required, Mehmet Deralla abandoned the privileges he enjoyed in military and imperial political circles. Therefore he interrupted his official career and devoted himself to the Albanian National Movement. The time when his military and political personality was created belongs to the period of the National Renaissance.Influenced by the ideology of Renaissance, Mehmet Deralla intensified its activity in function of a historically right cause. Homeland, above all! After ending his career in the Ottoman army and breaking down loyalty to the Sublime Porte, Mehmet Deralla used its influence to spark controversy in Kosovo. In the historical year of 1878, Mehmet Deralla was found participating in the League of Prizren League, alongside Iljaz Pashe Dibra, Abdyl Frashëri, Haxhi Zeka and many other patriots. By joining the military forces of the League of Prizren, Mehmet Deralla was appointed advisor to Sulejman Vokshi, who was the Minister of Defense at the Interim Government of the League. Ottoman authorities tried to arrest Mehmet Deralla, but did not succeed.As an important figure of the movements against Ottomans and the resistance to invasive Serbo-Montenegrin forces, in the autumn of 1912, Mehmet Deralla participates in the National Assembly of Vlora and is one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence of Albania. Like 63 other delegates of all Albania's lands, Mehmet Deralla will be close to the Elder of Vlora and the Father of the Nation- Ismail Qemali.