Ibrahim Biçakçiu
{{short description|Albanian politician (1905-1977)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Ibrahim Biçakçiu
| image = Ibrahim Biçaku (portret).jpg
| imagesize =
| order1 = Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee
| term_start1 = 14 September 1943
| term_end1 = 24 October 1943
| predecessor1 = Office created
| successor1 = Mehdi Frashëri
| order2 = 21st Prime Minister of Albania
| term_start2 = 6 September 1944
| term_end2 = 26 October 1944
| predecessor2 = Fiqri Dine
| successor2 = Enver Hoxha
| birth_date = 10 September 1905
| birth_place = Elbasan, Albania (then Manastir Vilayet, Ottoman Empire)
| death_date = 4 January 1977 (aged 71)
| death_place = Elbasan, People's Socialist Republic of Albania
| spouse =
| party = Balli Kombëtar
| relations = Mahmud Pertef Pasha Biçakçiu (Grandfather), Shefikat Hanëm Alizoti (Grandmother), Qemal Karaosmani (Cousin), Vasfije Alizoti (Great Aunt), Essad Pasha Toptani, Gani Toptani, Nejre Toptani, Sabushe Toptani, Merushe Toptani (Cousins)
| children =
| residence =
| occupation =
| profession = Prime Minister, Agronomist
| signature = Ibrahim Biçakçiu (nënshkrim).svg
| nationality = Albanian
| parents = Aqif Pasha Biçakçiu (Father), Ifete Hanëm Vrioni (Mother)
}}
Ibrahim Aqif Biçakçiu (also known as Ibrahim Biçaku) (10 September 1905 – 4 January 1977) was an Albanian landowner and Axis collaborator, Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee from 14 September to 24 October 1943, and Prime Minister of Albania from 6 September to 26 October 1944 during the Nazi occupation.{{cite book|title=Albania at war, 1939–1945|author= Bernd Jürgen Fischer|year= 1999|publisher= Purdue University Press|isbn= 9781557531414|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZnAAAAMAAJ&q=Dine&pg=PA211|access-date=28 August 2011}}
Biography
=Early life=
Born in 1905, Elbasan which was located in the Manastir vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, today modern day central Albania. Ibrahim Biçakçiu was the son of Aqif Pasha Biçakçiu of Elbasan and the grandson of Mustafa Pasha Biçakçiu, patriarch of one of the three landowning influential and respected Albanian families of the town. His grandmother Shefikat Hanëm Alizoti was from the Alizoti family, which made him the he cousin of Esad Pasha Toptani and his family. His mother was Ifete Hanëm Vrioni of the Vrioni family. His surname, derived from Turkish bıçakçı, means "knifesmith" suggesting that was his ancestors craft/ profession (cognate with the Bosniak surname Bičakčić). His family helped in the Independence of Albania and it was through his family's influence that he grew up with the same ideology and beliefs.
=World War II=
In 1943, together with Bedri bey Pejani and Xhafer Deva, he helped found a national committee of twenty-two Albanian and Kosovo Albanian leaders, which declared Albania independent from fascist occupation and which elected an executive committee to form a provisional government.{{cite book|title=Historical dictionary of Kosovo|author= Robert Elsie|year= 2004|publisher= Scarecrow Press|isbn= 9780810853096|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Fnbw1wsacSAC&q=Historical+dictionary+of+Kosovo+By+Robert+Elsie|access-date=31 January 2011}}
=Prime minister=
Following a week of negotiations, Ibrahim Biçaku agreed to lead a new and small government after Fiqiri Dine.{{cite book|title=Albania at war, 1939–1945|author= Bernd Jürgen Fischer|year= 1999|publisher= Purdue University Press|isbn= 9781557531414|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZnAAAAMAAJ&q=Dine&pg=PA211|access-date=28 August 2011}} Although Biçaku was the perfect friend of Germany, his reign was nevertheless quite incompetent. This was mainly because Germany was on the brink of defeat and the Albanian partisans were moving out, ready to strike.{{cite book|title=Albania at war, 1939–1945|author= Bernd Jürgen Fischer|year= 1999|publisher= Purdue University Press|isbn= 9781557531414|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZnAAAAMAAJ&q=Dine&pg=PA211|access-date=28 August 2011}} Tirana paper noted that he had headed the provisional executive committee exactly one year earlier, prior to the construction of the Mitrovica government.{{cite book|title=Albania at war, 1939–1945|author= Bernd Jürgen Fischer|year= 1999|publisher= Purdue University Press|isbn= 9781557531414|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZnAAAAMAAJ&q=Dine&pg=PA211|access-date=28 August 2011}} Biçaku had become, once again, the front man for the Germans. It was noted that Biçaku would occasionally play Ping-Pong with Ambassador {{ill|Martin Schliep|de}}.{{cite book|title=Albania at war, 1939–1945|author= Bernd Jürgen Fischer|year= 1999|publisher= Purdue University Press|isbn= 9781557531414|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vTZnAAAAMAAJ&q=Dine&pg=PA211|access-date=28 August 2011}}
=After the war=
Despite many of the Ballists fleeing Albania after the Communists announced their victory, Biçakçiu, like Anton Harapi and Cafo Beg Ulqini, chose not to leave and decided that he would rather die in his country of birth than on foreign soil.{{cite web|title=Hermann Neubacher: A Nazi Diplomat on Mission in Albania|author=Robert Elsie|url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_3/AH1956_2.html|access-date=31 January 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127011126/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_3/AH1956_2.html|archive-date=27 January 2012}} He was arrested by communist forces in Shkodra on 6 December 1944 and was sentenced to life in prison at the Special Court in Tirana on 13 April 1945. He spent most of his years in prison in Burrel and was released on 5 May 1962 in Elbasan.{{cite book|title=A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History|author= Robert Elsie|year= 2013|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic|isbn= 9781780764313|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pgf6GWJxuZgC&q=%C4%B0brahim+Bi%C3%A7ak%C3%A7iu+1977&pg=PA40|access-date=19 September 2014}} In his last years he was given a job as a public lavatory cleaner in Elbasan.{{cite news|title=Sekretet e 33 kryeministrave|url=http://www.gazetatema.net/web/2015/11/05/sekretet-e-33-kryeministrave-jeta-e-shthurur-e-esat-pashes-vdekja-nga-kokaina-e-iliaz-vrionit-dhe-nje-kryeminister-pastues-banjosh/|access-date=6 November 2015|agency=Gazeta Tema|date=6 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209010115/http://www.gazetatema.net/web/2015/11/05/sekretet-e-33-kryeministrave-jeta-e-shthurur-e-esat-pashes-vdekja-nga-kokaina-e-iliaz-vrionit-dhe-nje-kryeminister-pastues-banjosh/|archive-date=9 December 2015|url-status=dead}} Biçakçiu died on 4 January 1977.{{cite web|title=Final Report of the German Wehrmacht in Albania|author=Robert Elsie|url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_3/AH1945_4EN.html|access-date=31 January 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127012802/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_3/AH1945_4EN.html|archive-date=27 January 2012}}
References
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{{succession box | before = Position Established| title = Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee|years=September 14, 1943–October 24, 1943| after = Mehdi Bej Frashëri}}
{{succession box | before = Fiqri Dine| title = Prime Minister of Albania (under Nazi Germany)|years=September 6, 1944–October 26, 1944| after = Enver Hoxha}}
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{{Heads of state of Albania}}
{{Prime ministers of Albania}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biçaku, Ibrahim Bej}}
Category:People from Manastir vilayet
Category:Government ministers of Albania
Category:Prime ministers of Albania
Category:Albanian anti-communists
Category:Albanian people of World War II
Category:Albanian collaborators with Nazi Germany
Category:Albanian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Category:Heads of government who were later imprisoned
Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Albania