Bajram Curri

Bajram Curri (1862 or 1866 – March 29, 1925) was an Albanian chieftain, politician and activist who struggled for the independence of Albania, later struggling for Kosovo's incorporation into it following the 1913 Treaty of London. He was posthumously given the title Hero of Albania.

Bajram Curri was born in 1862 or 1866. Most of the sources place year of birth as 1862, while more recent sources based on his recently discovered passport state 1866. His family originated in Krasniqe (present Tropojë), then region of Gjakova, Kosovo. At his birth, the Curri family was led to the Ottoman prison in Krushë e Madhe, Orahovac; his father Shaqir Aga had led a rebellion in Krasniqe against the Turks due to heavy taxes and military recruitment, and had been interned by them. Shaqir Aga Curri was a trusted man of Abdullah Pasha Dreni of Yakova, and apparently had become instrumental in tax-collection procedures and punishing expeditions of Pasha Dreni in the area. He aided Pasha Dreni during the Attack against Mehmed Ali Pasha, and was killed in the skirmish by the forces of the League of Prizren.

Whilst the present-day regions of Albania and Serbia were under Ottoman control, Curri represented the interests of the Albanians. He successfully fought in 1912 against the Young Turks. During World War I, he organized a guerrilla unit as part of the Kachak movement through the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo which he was a member. In 1893 he participated in a revolt in Kosovo led by Haxhi Zeka, which was quickly suppressed by the Ottoman army. In 1899 he became a founding member of Zeka's League of Peja. In 1906 he became one of the founders of the Yakova branch of the Secret Committee for the Liberation of Albania.

...
Wikipedia