Ibrahim Temo

Ibrahim Temo
Born Ibrahim Ethem Sojliu
1865
Struga, Ottoman Empire
Died 1939
Medgidia, Romania
Nationality Ottoman, Albanian
Other names Ibrahim Starova
Occupation Physician, writer
Known for Committee of Union and Progress
Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings
Relatives Nuri Sojliu (brother)

Ibrahim Starova[1], also Ibrahim Bërzeshta[2] (born Ibrahim Ethem Sojliu; March 1865 – 5 August 1939), better known as Ibrahim Temo,[1] was an Ottoman-Albanian politician, revolutionary, intellectual, and a medical doctor by profession.

Biography

Temo was born in Struga to a family with origins from Starovë (now Buçimas), Albania and ancestors that served as soldiers for the Ottoman Empire which later migrated to his birthplace.[3][4] He was married to a sister of the Frashëri brothers (Abdyl, Naim and Sami).[2] In 1879 during the League of Prizren period, Temo was a founder of the Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings (Albanian: Shoqëri e të shtypurit shkronjavet shqip).[1][4] Temo, along with Mehmed Reshid, İshak Sükuti and Abdullah Cevdet where students enrolled at the Military Medical School and in 1889 they founded a progressive secret society called Ittihad-ı Osmani Cemiyeti.[1][5] The goals of the group were devoted toward overthrowing the absolute rule of Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II.[1][5] In its early years the group was organised in small cells and individuals received a number with Temo being 1/1 indicating that he was the first cell and member of the movement.[1]

Early on Temo recruited Albanians into the group such as Nexhip Draga and other Kosovars along with fellow nationals from Toskëria (Southern Albania).[5][1] Temo became acquainted with Ahmet Rıza, the leader of the Paris cell and both established a working relationship.[6] Rıza, drawing on ideas of positivist philosophy encouraged Temo's group to adopt the name Nizam ve Terakki which was a translation of Auguste Comte's motto "Order and Progress".[6] The founders of the group including Temo were strongly insistent on using the term "Ittihad" (unity).[6] During 1894-1895, a compromise was reached between both factions and they united under a new name Osmanli Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress) or CUP.[6]

Ottoman authorities uncovered the CUP group in 1895 resulting in the arrest and exile of its members and to avoid imprisonment Temo fled during November to Romania.[5][6] While there, Temo founded a branch of the CUP and published a Young Turk newspaper spreading CUP ideas among the Muslim population of Dobruja.[7][6] He also founded CUP branches in the cities of Kazanlak, Vidin, Shumen, Ruse, Sofia and Plovdiv in neighbouring Bulgaria whose members included fellow Albanians and two branches in Shkodër and Tiranë in Albania.[6][8]

Temo was also active in the Albanian national movement present in Romania.[7][6] He became vice president of the local branch of the Bashkimi (Union) Society in Constanța and prominently partook in its congresses held in Bucharest.[7][6] While abroad Temo's thinking on the Albanian question was in national terms and expressed concerns about the Albanian community.[6] He advocated for close cooperation between Orthodox Albanians and Orthodox Aromanians viewing both as having a common interest, due to opposition from the Greek Patriarchate and Bulgarian Exarchate in establishing schools and conducting church liturgy in their native languages.[6] Temo viewed the Rum (Orthodox) district of Istanbul which represented Greek wealth and power in the Ottoman state as "the den of intrigue".[6]

In Paris, Temo participated in the Congress of Ottoman Opposition (1902) organised by Prince Sabahaddin calling for reforms, minority rights, revolution and European intervention in the empire.[7] Later from Romania he sided with Rıza who was against foreign intervention in the Ottoman state.[9] Temo feared that European involvement in Ottoman affairs could radicalise some ethnic groups to call for intervention in the empire.[9] The solution for him was a strong Ottoman state being able to preserve Albanian territorial integrity and he viewed skeptically any Great Powers committing themselves to developing the interests of Albanians.[9]

During this period of exile Temo remained busy with CUP circles while his personal views became more liberal, such as advocating for a modified Latin alphabet to write the Turkish language.[10][11] Other CUP members like Rıza received Temo's recommendations coldly and nicknamed him "Latinist".[10] Temo compiled an educational program that called for universal schooling of children and for foreign schools in Ottoman lands to have half their instruction in Turkish.[11] In his memorandum, with thoughts on the Albanian language, Temo also advocated for the ethnic rights of minorities to have native language education in non-Turkish populated areas of the empire exceeding forty percent.[11] He attempted in vain to convince Rıza, who rejected his proposals and other CUP members that for minorities to become loyal to the Ottoman nation certain concessions were needed to be made.[10][11]

The Young Turk Revolution occurred in 1908, the CUP (and its informal arm, the Young Turks) forced Abdul Hamid II to restore constitutional monarchy in the Ottoman Empire starting the Second Constitutional Era.[12] He returned from exile and was informed by Djemal Pasha that much had changed in the CUP, as it had become the product of internal Ottoman branches and not the one advocated for by Temo and others while abroad.[12] In 1909 Temo became leader of the Ottoman Democratic Party which advocated for democratic government, minority rights and upholding constitutional liberties that was in opposition to the CUP.[13]

He died in Medgidia in Romania in 1939.

An Albanian high school in Struga in the Republic of Macedonia is named after Temo.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gawrych 2006, p. 141.
  2. 1 2 Clayer 2007, p. 316.
  3. ↑ Wirtz, Philipp (2017). Depicting the Late Ottoman Empire in Turkish Autobiographies: Images of a Past World. Routledge. ISBN 9781317152705.
  4. 1 2 Clayer, Nathalie (2007). Aux origines du nationalisme albanais: La naissance d’une nation majoritairement musulmane en Europe [The origins of Albanian nationalism: The birth of a predominantly Muslim nation in Europe]. Paris: Karthala. p. 272. ISBN 9782845868168.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Skendi 1967, p. 335.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Gawrych 2006, p. 142.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Skendi 1967, p. 336.
  8. ↑ Lange-Akhund, Nadine (1998). The Macedonian Question, 1893-1908, from Western Sources. East European Monograph. p. 311. ISBN 9780880333832.
  9. 1 2 3 Gawrych 2006, p. 145.
  10. 1 2 3 Skendi 1967, p. 337-338.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Gawrych 2006, p. 144.
  12. 1 2 Gawrych, George (2006). The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913. London: IB Tauris. p. 155. ISBN 9781845112875.
  13. ↑ Skendi, Stavro (1967). The Albanian national awakening. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 401. ISBN 9781400847761.
  14. ↑ Zürcher, Erik J. (2015). Decentralisation and the Management of Ethnic Conflict: Lessons from the Republic of Macedonia. p. 112. ISBN 9781317372042.
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