Senate of Central Albania
Senate of Central Albania Senati i Shqipërisë së Mesme | |||||||||||
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| 1914–1916 | |||||||||||
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Ottoman flag (used by the Senate of Central Albania) and flag of the Toptani Government | |||||||||||
| Status |
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| Capital | Durrës | ||||||||||
| Religion | Islam | ||||||||||
| Government | Islamist provisional government (1914) Personalist dictatorship (1914–1916) | ||||||||||
| Head of state | |||||||||||
• 1914 | Mustafa Ndroqi | ||||||||||
• 1914–1916 | Essad Toptani (as president) | ||||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||||
• 1914-1916 | Essad Toptani | ||||||||||
| Historical era | |||||||||||
• Rebel capture of Durrës | 7 September 1914 | ||||||||||
• Formation of the Toptani Government | 5 October 1914 | ||||||||||
• Start of pro-Ottoman revolt | November 1914 | ||||||||||
• Serbian intervention | June 1915 | ||||||||||
• Fall of Durrës | February 1916 | ||||||||||
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| Today part of | Albania | ||||||||||
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The Senate of Central Albania was a polity that exercised control over central Albania from 1914 to 1916, during a period where the Principality of Albania had collapsed. It was set up by victorious pro-Ottoman Albanian Muslim insurgents of the 1914 Peasant Revolt after they had forced Wilhelm of Wied, the prince of Albania, to evacuate the country. Essad Toptani led the Senate during most of its two years of existence.
The downfall of the entity began after the entry of the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of the Central Powers, which roused the pro-Ottoman elements into a renewed revolt against the pro-Entente Toptani. An intervention by Serbia temporarily relieved Toptani's position, but a Central Powers invasion into Albania and the Serbian Great Retreat brought about his exile in early 1916, leaving Albania to multiple successive foreign occupations.