Prime Minister Ismail Qemali Succeeded by Myfit Libohova Nationality Ottoman, Albanian Name Prenk Doda | Preceded by Turhan Permeti Died 1920 Religion Roman Catholic | |
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Prenk Bib Doda (Albanian: Prenk Bibë Doda; 1860–1920) was an Albanian leader of the resistance against the Ottoman Empire, prince of Mirdita, and politician in the Principality of Albania.
Background
Doda was born in 1860 in Orosh, Mirditë District, the son of Bibë Dodë Pasha of the Gjonmarkaj clan. His father was given the title Pasha from the Ottomans due to his support in suppressing the Albanian Revolt of 1843–44 against the Tanzimat reforms. He spent his youth in Istanbul and returned to Mirdita in 1876. Immediately after, he went in agreement with the Montenegrins for and aided uprising against the Ottomans. He was a main contributor to the Albanian League of Prizren in 1878.
Doda was exiled by the Ottoman government, and was released in 1908, after the Young Turk Revolution. Doda led rebellions against the empire, on October 26, 1911 he founded in Mirdita a Provision Government of Albania together with Terenzio Tocci, overruled by the Ottomans at that time. In order to gain support of the Mirdita Catholic volunteers from the northern mountains during the Muslim Uprising in Albania in 1914 Prince of Wied appointed Doda to be the foreign minister of the Principality of Albania. The government was paying a force of 5,000 to 7,000 under Doda's command. Doda's volunteers and the International Dutch Gendarmerie were also joined by Isa Boletini and his men, mostly from Kosovo, as well as 2,000 tribesmen of Mat under the command of Ahmet Zogu.
Dutch gendarmes together with Dode's northern Mirdita Catholics attempted to capture Shijak, but when they engaged the rebels on May 23, they were surrounded and captured, as well as another expedition from Durrës which attempted to release the captured gendarmes. Another expedition failed on June 23, around 15 miles north of Durrës near Slinzë, where Prenk himself was captured by the rebels and then released on parole. There were rumors that he was a traitor to Prince Wilhelm, and he laid down arms and went voluntarily to the rebels. After World War I, he served as Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Turhan Pasha Permeti.
In 1918, at the Congress of Durrës, Doda was elected vice president. He was in a very tense relationship with the Italian authorities established in Albania, and in a very good relations with the British diplomats. On 22 March 1919 he was killed in an ambush prepared by the Preng Gjeta Caku band, paid by the Italians, while traveling from Durrës to Shëngjin in company of British diplomat Eden, who got wounded.