History
> Ahmet Zogu
AHMET
ZOGU
ZOG I - KING OF THE ALBANIANS
1895-1961
Ahmet Bey ZOGU (b. Oct. 8, 1895,
Castle Burgajet, Albania--d. April 9, 1961, Suresnes,
France), president of Albania from 1925 to 1928
and king from 1928 to 1939. Though able to manipulate
Albania's internal affairs to his own advantage,
he came to depend heavily on Benito Mussolini's
Italy and was eventually ousted by the Italian
dictator on the eve of World War II. Siding with
Austria during World War I, Zog thereafter became
a leader of the reformist Popular Party. He held
ministerial posts from 1920 until he was forced
into exile in June 1924, but he returned with
Yugoslav assistance in December, was elected president
on Feb. 1, 1925, and was proclaimed king on Sept.
1, 1928. Zog ended a period of postwar political
turbulence, and Albania enjoyed relative tranquility
under his regime. He began a fateful association
with Italy in 1925; a loan in that year was followed
in 1926 by a treaty of friendship and security
and in 1927 by a 20-year defensive military alliance
between the two countries. Mussolini made Albania
his bridgehead to the Balkans, and by 1939 Italy
controlled the country's finances and army. Zog
tried but failed to break that hold from 1932
onward. On April 7, 1939, Mussolini finally made
Albania into a protectorate; Victor Emmanuel III
became king, and Zog went into exile. His hopes
of returning after the war were disappointed by
the establishment of a communist republic under
Enver Hoxha in 1945. He formally abdicated on
Jan. 2, 1946.
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