Essad Pasha Toptani

Essad Pasha Toptani or Esad Pasha Toptani (Esad Pashë Toptani, ca. 1863 – June 13, 1920), primarily known as Essad Pasha, was Ottoman army officer, Albanian deputy in Ottoman parliament and politician in the early twentieth century in Albania. He was cooperating with the Balkan League after the Balkan Wars and established a state in central Albania, based in Durrës, called the Republic of Central Albania.

Life
Essad Pasha was born in 1863 in Tirana, Ottoman Empire (today Republic of Albania). He belonged to prominent landowning family Toptani which founded contemporary Tirana. He became a supporter of the Young Turks following the assassination of his brother (Gani Bey Toptani) by forces loyal to Sultan Abdul Hamit II. He served as deputy for Albania in the Ottoman parliament and was proclaimed as Albanian king in Absentia for a few days in June 1920, before his assassination.

During the Albanian Revolt of 1912 Essad Pasha Toptani obliged himself to organize the uprising in Central Albania and Mirdita. He was one of the commanders of the Ottoman forces at Scutari, until the city surrendered to Montenegro in 1913 in the First Balkan War. Essad Pasha was allowed in return to leave the town with his army and all their weaponry to become involved in the struggle over power in central Albania. Official Serbia simultaneously helped a number of other small tribal chiefs who resisted Ismail Qemali's government, directing them towards cooperation with Essad Pasha. He was accused of fomenting a Peasant Revolt in Albania against William of Wied. Essad Pasha was exiled to Italy, without trial, but returned to Albania following the ouster of William in September by the movement of the Peasant Revolt in Albania. In autumn 1914 he decided to accept invitation of Senate of the Central Albania to return to Albania to take over the power. First, he had to provide financial backing for his government. Therefore he travelled to Niš, Kingdom of Serbia, where he and Serbian prime minister Pašić signed the secret Treaty of Serbian-Albanian Alliance on September 17, 1914. In October 1914 Essad Pasha returned to Albania. With Italian and Serbian financial backing he established armed forces in Dibër and captured interior of Albania and Dures. Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić ordered that his followers be aided with money and arms.

Though his rule was not stable because of the First World War. In the end of 1914, Essad secretly agreed with the Greek government to support the annexation of the southern provinces, known to Greeks as Northern Epirus, to the Kingdom of Greece. He also succeeded in controlling much of central Albania until 1916, when he left for Serbia and Greece to help them in their war against Austria-Hungary. After the war, he travelled to France, to represent Albania at the Paris Peace Conference.

For the next two years, Essad Pasha remained in Paris, attempting to organize recognition for Albania from the Great Powers and reject the secret pact of London, which planned the division of Albania. During this time Tirana and much of central Albania was controlled by his Field Commander, Osman Bali.

Death
On June 13, 1920, Avni Rustemi assassinated Essad Pasha in Paris when he left Hotel Continental. Although living in Paris and away from legislative governing of Albania, Essad Pasha claimed to still be the ruler of the state and attempted to represent Albania in the Paris Peace Conference. The governmental delegation didn't permit him to do so as they were going to represent Albania themselves. The assassination was largely seen as a heroic act as it has historically been seen as a signal of a new bourgeois revolution against the feudal traditions of Albania and a crossing bridge in the newly democratic-bourgeois values.