Ali bey Këlcyra | |
---|---|
Founder of the Balli Kombëtar | |
Personal details | |
Born |
Këlcyrë, (today Albania), Ottoman Empire |
May 28, 1891
Died | September 24, 1963 Bari, Italy |
(aged 72)
Nationality | Albanian |
Political party | Balli Kombëtar |
Alma mater | La Sapienza University |
Occupation | Revolutionary, Politician |
Profession | Jurist |
Religion | Bektashi |
Ali Këlcyra (May 28, 1891 – September 24, 1963) born Ali Klissura, was an Albanian lord (bey), a member of the Albanian parliament in the 1920s. He was co-founder with Mit’hat Frashëri of the Balli Kombëtar organization in 1942, and the cosigner of the Dalmazzo-Këlcyra agreement with Lorenzo Dalmazzo.
Këlcyra was born in Këlcyrë on 28 May 1891, to Xhemal bey Klissura and Hana Luarasi. He went to grammar school in Këlcyrë and then graduated from the Galatasaray High School in Istanbul, Turkey (then Ottoman Empire). He then studied political and administrative sciences at the Mülkiye school in Istanbul.
After the beginning of World War I he returned to Këlcyrë. During the Greek Invasion of Albania in 1914 he went to Vlorë along with other emigrants. He met there with Prince Von Wied and the princess Sophie who had come to visit the emigrants. He left the country to go to San Demetrio Corone, an Arbëreshë settlement in Calabria, Italy.
In 1915 he enrolled at the Faculty of Jurisprudence at La Sapienza University in Rome. While in Rome, he was exposed to social democratic ideas and began to embrace them. During his tertiary education, he befriended Avni Rustemi and Stavro Vinjau. He graduated in 1919 and returned to Albania one year later along with Themistokli Gërmenji and others to join the Albanian guerrilla movement to fight for Albanian freedom in World War I.