Bajram Curri: Kosovo fighter and opponent of Zog
The League of Peja, the besa of Junik, the June Revolution and the end in the cave of Dragobia in 1925
Translated from the Albanian original by the editors. Shqip
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Appearance
Most sources give 1862 as the year of Bajram Curri's birth, but a recently found passport suggests 1866. His birthplace is also debated: Gjakova is usually given, but according to one version he was born in Krushë e Madhe while his family was being taken to prison. Such uncertainties are common for figures of this period, when documents were scarce.
The League of Peja and the Secret Committee
In 1899 Curri was one of the founding members of the League of Peja, led by Haxhi Zeka, a successor to the League of Prizren. In 1906 he helped create the Gjakova branch of the Secret Committee for the Liberation of Albania. He fought against Ottoman forces and, in 1912, at the battle of Lumë against Serbian forces.
The besa of Junik
In the Albanian uprising of 1912 he fought alongside Hasan Prishtina and Isa Boletini. He was present at the Junik meeting on 20 May 1912, where Albanian leaders gave their besa to fight against the Young Turk government. In 1915 he was one of the founders of the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo.
For Bajram Curri, besa was not only a word of honour. It was the foundation of any political union among Albanians.
In Albanian politics
In 1920 he was a minister without portfolio, and in December 1921 minister of war in Hasan Prishtina's government. After Ahmet Zogu overthrew that government, Curri led an unsuccessful revolt in March 1922. In 1924 he issued the call to arms that began the June Revolution against Zogu, which brought Fan Noli's government to power.
The end at Dragobia
After Zogu's return to power in December 1924, Curri hid in the mountains of Tropojë. On 29 March 1925 he was surrounded by government forces in a cave near Dragobia. According to the sources, he was killed by his own companions so that they could save their lives. The exact circumstances of those hours remain unclear.
Remembrance
The main town of Tropojë was named Bajram Curri in his honour, and in Tirana a major boulevard bears his name. His life sums up two turbulent decades: from the struggle against the Ottoman Empire, to the struggle for Kosovo, to the harsh clashes within the new Albanian state.
Why he is worth knowing
Bajram Curri's story reminds us that the independence of 1912 did not end the struggle for the future of the Albanians. It continued in Kosovo, in the northern mountains and in Albanian politics itself, where Albanians were not always united on how the state should be built.
