Editing Zog I (section)

==Background and early political career==

Zog was born as Ahmed Muhtar Zogolli in [[Burgajet Castle]], near [[Burrel]] in northern Albania, third son to [[Xhemal Pasha Zogolli]], and first son by his second wife [[Sadije Toptani]] in 1895. His family was a [[bey]]lik family of [[landowner]]s, with feudal authority over the region of [[Mat District|Mati]]. His grandfather was [[Xhelal Pasha Zogolli]]. His mother's [[Toptani family]] claimed to be descended from the sister of Albania's greatest national hero, the 15th-century general [[Skanderbeg]]. He was educated at [[Galatasaray High School]] ([[French language|French]]: ''Lycée Impérial de Galatasaray'') in [[Beyoğlu]], a district of the capital of the [[Ottoman Empire]], Upon his father's death in 1911, Zogolli became governor of Mat, being appointed ahead of his elder half-brother, [[Xhelal Bey Zogolli]].

In 1912, he participated in the [[Albanian Declaration of Independence]] as the representative of the Mat District. As a young man during the First World War, Zogolli volunteered on the side of [[Austria-Hungary]]. He was detained at [[Vienna]] in 1917 and 1918 and in Rome in 1918 and 1919 before returning to Albania in 1919. During his time in Vienna, he grew to enjoy a Western European lifestyle. Upon his return, Zogolli became involved in the political life of the fledgling Albanian government that had been created in the wake of the First World War. His political supporters included many southern feudal landowners called [[bey]]s, Turkish for "province chieftain" with title variations including Beyg, Begum, Bygjymi.<ref name="Iranica">{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/beg-pers |title=BEG |website=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |date=15 December 1989 |access-date=16 September 2019}}</ref> The Bey title refers to the social group to which he belonged, which was also used by noble families in the north, along with merchants, industrialists, and intellectuals. During the early 1920s, Zogolli served as Governor of [[Shkodër]] (1920–1921), Minister of the Interior (March–November 1920, 1921–1924), and chief of the Albanian military (1921–1922). His primary rivals were [[Luigj Gurakuqi]] and [[Fan S. Noli]]. In 1922, Zogolli formally changed his surname from Zogolli to Zogu, which sounds more Albanian.<ref name="TrencsényiKopeček2006">{{cite book|author1=Balázs Trencsényi|author2=Michal Kopeček|title=Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945): texts and commentaries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-L4qAQAAMAAJ|year=2006|publisher=Central European University Press|isbn=978-9637326615|page=177|quote=Ahmet Zogu (who had changed his name from the Turkish sounding 'Zogolli' to the more Albanian sounding 'Zogu')}}</ref>

In 1923, he was shot and wounded in [[Parliament of Albania|Parliament]]. A crisis arose in 1924 after the assassination of one of Zogu's industrialist opponents, [[Avni Rustemi]]; in the aftermath, a [[June Revolution|leftist revolt]] forced Zogu, along with 600 of his allies, into exile in June 1924. He returned to Albania with the backing of [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] forces and Yugoslavia-based General [[Pyotr Wrangel]]'s White Russian troops led by Russian Gen [[Sergei Ulagay]]<ref name="politikaborder">″Врангелове команде у [[Vranje|Врању]] и [[Skopje|Скопљу]]″. // ''[[Politika]]'', 4 December 2017, p. 19.</ref> and became [[List of Prime Ministers of Albania|prime minister]].