Hasan Dosti

Hasan Dosti
Minister of Justice
In office
December 12, 1941 – January 19, 1943[1]
Personal details
Born 1895
Kardhiq, Ottoman Empire
(now Kardhiq, Albania)
Died 29 January 1991(1991-01-29) (aged 96)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality Albanian
Political party Balli Kombëtar
Alma mater University of Paris
Profession Lawyer, politician
Religion Islam

Hasan Dosti (1895 – January 29, 1991) was an Albanian jurist and politician. Being a staunch Albanian nationalist, Dosti was considered by the Albanian communists to be one of their greatest enemies.[2]

Biography

Early life

Hasan Dosti was born in Kardhiq near Gjirokastra (then Ottoman Empire). He attended Greek schools in Filippiada and the Zosimaia School in Ioannina.[3] His family moved to Vlora after World War I, where Dosti came into contact with Avni Rustemi. Dosti then moved to Paris to complete his tertiary education at the faculty of law of the University of Paris.[3] After graduating, he returned to Albania to work as a lawyer.[3] In the 1920s he served a member of court of cassation of Albania under Thoma Orollogaj, who was the minister of justice at the time.

Opposition to monarchy

An opponent of Ahmet Zogu he was imprisoned several times. From 1932 to 1935 he was sentenced to prison because of his participation in the Movement of Vlorë, an anti-monarchist organization founded by Dosti himself and Skënder Muço among others. In the late 1930s he organized an assassination plot against leading Italian and Albanian fascists.[4]

Balli Kombëtar

In 1941 he initially became Minister of Justice in Mustafa Merlika-Kruja's cabinet;[5] however, in 1943 Dosti defected and joined the Balli Kombëtar.[6] He was a leading figure of the Balli Kombëtar during World War II[3] and was one of Balli Kombëtar's representatives in the Assembly of Mukje. He was Minister of Justice of the short-lived government formed at the assembly. With the communists on the brink of victory, Hasan Dosti managed to escape to Italy in a boat provided by the Abwehr.[5]

Exile

Hasan Dosti emigrated to the United States from Italy in 1949 and became head of the National Committee for a Free Albania after Mit'hat Frashëri's death.[7] The "National Committee for a Free Albania" was an organisation that was part of the National Committee for a Free Europe seeking to undermine Communist rule in Eastern Europe. He dismissed as Communist propaganda assertions that Albanian emigres included collaborators with the Axis powers during the war.[8]

He sought to bring about unity with the Prizren Committee, expressing the view that the liberation of Albania could be utilised effectively to bring about the overthrow of the government led by Enver Hoxha. Hasan Dosti felt that Yugoslav promises not to establish by force a Titoist government in Albania were not completely reliable, but that if such a government was established it would at least remove Albania from the Soviet orbit. However, official circles in Washington and London did not share Dosti's views, and the United States government presented an aide-memoire to Yugoslavia stating that it would “look with concern on efforts by any interested nation to take unilateral action vis-a-vis Albania”.[8]

Death

Hasan Dosti died at the age of 96. He is survived by a son, Luan, of Los Angeles, an aerospace engineer; seven other children who, the family said, are being held in labor camps in Albania, and three grandchildren in Los Angeles.[9] After the fall of communism in Albania, his son Tomor was elected as a deputy of the Albanian parliament in the 1990s.

Sources

  1. ↑ Neuwirth, Hubert (2008). Widerstand und Kollaboration in Albanien 1939–1944. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 259. ISBN 978-3-447-05783-7. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  2. ↑ Miranda Vickers, James Pettifer. Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Robert Elsie. Historical dictionary of Albania. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Aldrich, Richard James (2002). The hidden hand: Britain, America, and Cold War secret intelligence. Overlook Press. p. 162. ISBN 978-1-58567-274-5. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  5. 1 2 Bernd Jürgen Fischer. Albania at war, 1939-1945. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  6. ↑ Fischer, Bernd Jürgen (1999). Albania at war, 1939–1945. Hurst. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-85065-531-2. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  7. ↑ Corke, Sarah-Jane (2008). US covert operations and Cold War strategy: Truman, secret warfare and the CIA, 1945–53. Routledge. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-415-42077-8. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  8. 1 2 Owen Pearson. Albania as dictatorship and democracy: from isolation to the Kosovo War. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  9. ↑ New York Times: Hasan Dosti, 96, Dies; Ex-Official in Albania
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