Mehmet Pashë Deralla and the unfinished mission of the war for national liberation and unity

Abstract

The nineteenth century is characterized by the awareness of the nations of the Illyricum Peninsula to create their national states, and eventually they achieved this goal, mainly through armed rebellions and wars for national liberation against the Ottoman Empire. The Albanian nation; which was one of the first to rise against the five-century slavery, barely managed to ensure its autonomy and declare the Independence of Albania in 1912, even though it organized the uprising of Dervish Cara in the first half of the nineteenth century (which preceded the great period of the National Renaissance) through a great wave of consecutive uprisings (such as the League of Prizren and League of Peja, and especially the overall rebellions during 1910-1911).Mehmet Pashe Derralla was one of the leaders of the latter rebellions for national independence and unity, at the brink of the declaration of Independence of Albania. He was the smartest character who inherited the torch of the war for national freedom from Dervish Cana, who stunned the European diplomacy of the time with his uprising, which was one of the greatest in the history of the Albanian nation, after George Kastrioti Skanderbeg.The general from Tetovo, Mehmet Pashë Dërralla, was chosen the minister of war in Ismail Qemali’s government, and is known as the founder of the Albanian Army, a regular military formation defending not only the independence of the Albanian state, but the territories where Albanians lived as an autochthonic nation and as a majority in the Illyricum Peninsula, as well The subsequent circumstances; the Balkan Wars, the two World Wars, as well as the period of communist regime in Albania, Kosovo and other Albanian lands under the control of neighboring states, proved that the Albanian nation’s war for independence and national unity will continue until the final goal is reached; the total liberation of every Albanian territory, unjustly separated from the trunk of their national state.