Durr쳬 April 1914. Esat Pascha Toptani, Turhan Pascha P쳭eti and General de Weer, emerging from the residence of Esat Pascha. Esat is wearing the uniform of an Albanian General, as he held the post of Minister of the Interior at the time. Profoundly aware of the Albanian mentality, he knew that by making frequent public appearences in uniform, this made it easier to impose his will on others. There are stories that right up to the arrival of Prince Vidi in Albania, Esat wore the uniform of a Turkish General, in which he received the Prince when he arrived in an Austrian ship in Durr쳠on 7 March. Esat went on board, took off the Turkish uniform and changed into an Albanian uniform, which he had ordered and had had brought over together with the luggage of the Prince. He disembarked together with the Prince dressed in his new uniform.
Turhan Pascha,(centre), Prime Minister of the Government of the Prince, came from a forty year long diplomatic career in the service of the Ottoman Empire. Prior to being appointed Prime Minister he had been the Ambassador of the Sultan in St. Petersburg, and while holding this posting, he had become a personal friend of Czar Nikolla II of Russia. Irrespective of all of this, it must be stressed that he was a distinguished white bearded gentleman of the old school, a good patriot, but who knew very little about Albania (he spoke to the Albanians in Turkish, to foreigners in French and to the Dutch in German). Capable of finding his bearings in international diplomacy, but incapable of lowering himself to the level of Albanian Machiavellian scenarios, he resembled the astronaut who can see the stars but not the abyss yawning in front of his feet. He soon fell into the trap of endless intrigues of the country he was running and especially of his Minister of the Interior.
Dutch General de Weer, had arrived in Albania with the rank of a Colonel. He received promotion to General here in 1913 and was appointed to re-organize the Gendarmerie of Albania. He remained here in command of a team of officers, also Dutch, amongst whom was Colonel Thomson, on the basis of the selection made by the Big Powers, proceeding from the fact that Holland did not have any particular interests in Albania. Well schooled and from a country that had embarked on the road of civilization Centuries ago, they found they were incapable of making any great progress on educating the hot headed and stubborn Albanians, although they did make a good impression on them.
Out of these three individuals, two of them have been swallowed up in the depths of oblivion, while Esat Pascha is the only person known to this day. How about that!. According to Albanian traditions, the good ones are forgotten, the memory of the bad ones lingers on…
