Hasan Dosti

Hasan Dosti
Minister of Justice
In office
December 12, 1941 – January 19, 1943
Personal details
Born1895
Kardhiq, Ottoman Empire
(now Kardhiq, Albania)
Died29 January 1991(1991-01-29) (aged 96)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
PartyBalli Kombëtar
ChildrenVictor Dosti
EducationUniversity of Paris
ProfessionLawyer, politician
Signature

Hasan Dosti (1895 – January 29, 1991) was an Albanian jurist and politician. He was the leader of the Balli Kombëtar after the war and was considered by the communists to be one of Albania's greatest enemies.

Biography

Early life

Hasan Dosti was born in Albania (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the village of Kardhiq near Gjirokastra, to Elmaz Aga of the Dosti branch of Muslim Albanian Tosk household Dosti-Hajdaragaj. Back then the village was part of the Ottoman Empire and belonged to the Vilayet of Janina with majority Albanian population. He attended the schools in Filippiada and the Philosophy Zosimaia School in Ioannina. His family moved to Vlora after World War I, where Dosti met Avni Rustemi. Dosti then moved to Paris to complete his tertiary education at the faculty of law of the University of Paris. After graduating, he returned to Albania to work as a lawyer. In the 1920s he served a member of court of cassation of Albania under Thoma Orollogaj, who was the minister of justice at the time.

Opposition to monarchy

An opponent of Ahmet Zogu, he was imprisoned several times. From 1932 to 1935 he was sentenced to prison because of his participation in the Movement of Vlorë, an anti-monarchist organization founded by Dosti himself and Skënder Muço among others. In the late 1930s he organized an assassination plot against leading Italian and Albanian fascists.

Balli Kombëtar

In 1941 he initially became Minister of Justice in Mustafa Merlika-Kruja's cabinet under Italian occupation; however, in 1943 Dosti defected and joined the Balli Kombëtar.

Opposition in Exile

In 1944, after the takeover of power by the communists, he fled Albania, settling first in Italy and then towards the United States. By the late 1940s he had become one of the most important Albanian political leaders in exile. After the death of Mid'hat Frashëri in 1949, he emerges as one of the principal leaders of the National Committee for a Free Albania. Based on CIA Reports, in 1951 he was the President of the Agrarian Party, an anti-communist movement in exile advocating for parliamentary government and agrarian reform in Albania, in opposition to Enver Hoxha's regime. There was a strong animosity between Ali Këlcyra and Dosti. Këlcyra heavily criticized Dosti, accusing him of having cooperated with Fascists to deflect criticism away from his own wartime dealings with the Germans. Later on there was a failed agreement between the two to meet in Athens to report to American intelligence regarding available Albanian manpower. Dosti was a key figure in Project OBLIVIOUS (1949–1955). This project was the CIA's primary overt operation under the broader OBOPUS/BGFIEND operational theater to manage political, psychological and paramilitary actions aimed against the communist regime in Albania.

Death

Hasan Dosti died at the age of 96. He had eight children, Luan, of Los Angeles, an aerospace engineer; and seven others who remained in Albania, including Shano Sokoli, Viktor Dosti, Tomorr Dosti, Ernest Dosti and Veronika Dine who spent their lives under Albania's Stalinist regime in labor camps and prisons.

Sources

  1. ↑ Neuwirth, Hubert (2008). Widerstand und Kollaboration in Albanien 1939–1944. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 259. ISBN 978-3-447-05783-7. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  2. ↑ Miranda Vickers, James Pettifer (1997). Albania: from anarchy to a Balkan identity. Hurst. Retrieved 31 March 2012. ... whose father Hasan Dosti had been the leader of the BK after the war and was considered by the communists to be one of Albania's greatest enemies.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Robert Elsie (2010). Historical dictionary of Albania. I.B.Tauris. p. 116. ISBN 9780810873803. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  4. ↑ Rozi Dosti (30 January 2013). "Hasan Dosti akuzoi agjentin Kim Filbi per vdekjen e njerëzve të tij në Shqipëri" (5894). Interviewed by Fatos Veliu. Gazeta Shqiptare: 20–21. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ↑ Vlora, Eqrem bej (2003). Lebenserinnerungen [Kujtime 1885-1925]. Translated by Afrim Koçi. Tiranë: IDK. p. 583. ISBN 99927-780-6-7.
  6. ↑ Aldrich, Richard James (2002). The hidden hand: Britain, America, and Cold War secret intelligence. Overlook Press. p. 162. ISBN 978-1-58567-274-5. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  7. 1 2 Fischer, Bernd Jürgen (1999). Albania at war, 1939–1945. Hurst. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-85065-531-2. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  8. ↑ Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ "DEVA, XHAVER_0005" (PDF). Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved September 25, 2026.
  10. ↑ Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Disclosure Acts Interagency Working Group (June 2007). Research Aid: Cryptonyms and Terms in Declassified CIA Files (PDF) (Report). National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved October 2, 2026.
  11. ↑ New York Times: Hasan Dosti, 96, Dies; Ex-Official in Albania