Bajram Curri
This page is about the Albanian national hero - for the town named after him, see Bajram Curri (town).Bajram Curri (
1862 –
March 29,
1925) was an
Albanian national hero from
Kosovo.
Curri was born in
Gjakovë. At the time when Albania and Kosovo were part of the
Ottoman Empire, Curri represented the interests of the
Albanians. He successfully fought in
1912 against the
Young Turks. During the
First World War he started a
guerrilla unit, part of the
Kachak movement.
When Albania was reconstituted after the war, he held various governments posts as a Minister and as a commander in the army. As an opponent of the later King
Ahmed Zogu, to whom the Kosovo issue was less important, he was pursued by the King's troops and encircled in the northern Albanian mountains. He shot himself on 29 March 1925, in order to escape capture. The place where he died,
Dragobi in
Tropojë District, is today called Bajram Curri, as the Albanian communists revered him as a freedom fighter and nationalist.
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List of Albanians