Editing History of Albania (section)

=== Zogu Government ===

Interwar Albanian governments appeared and disappeared in rapid succession. Between July and December 1921 alone, the premiership changed hands five times.
The Popular Party's head, [[Xhafer Ypi]], formed a government in December 1921 with [[Fan S. Noli]] as foreign minister and [[Ahmed Bey Zogu]] as internal affairs minister, but Noli resigned soon after Zogu resorted to repression in an attempt to disarm the lowland Albanians despite the fact that bearing arms was a traditional custom.

When the government's enemies attacked Tirana in early 1922, Zogu stayed in the capital and, with the support of the British ambassador, repulsed the assault. He took over the premiership later in the year and turned his back on the Popular Party by announcing his engagement to the daughter of [[Shefqet Verlaci]], the Progressive Party leader.

Zogu's protégés organized themselves into the Government Party. Noli and other Western-oriented leaders formed the Opposition Party of Democrats, which attracted all of Zogu's many personal enemies, ideological opponents, and people left unrewarded by his [[political machine]]. Ideologically, the Democrats included a broad sweep of people who advocated everything from conservative Islam to Noli's dreams of rapid modernization.

Opposition to Zogu was formidable. [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] peasants in Albania's southern lowlands loathed him because he supported Muslim landowners' efforts to block land reform; [[Shkodër]]'s citizens felt shortchanged because their city did not become Albania's capital, while nationalists were dissatisfied because Zogu's government did not press Albania's claims to [[Kosovo]] or speak more energetically for the rights of ethnic Albanian minorities in the Balkans.

Despite that, Zogu's party won the elections for a National Assembly in early 1924. He soon stepped aside, however, handing over the premiership to [[Verlaci]] in the wake of a financial scandal and an assassination attempt by a young radical which left him wounded. The opposition withdrew from the assembly after the leader of a nationalist youth organization, [[Avni Rustemi]], was murdered in the street outside the parliament building.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Zickel|first1=Raymond E.|url=https://lccn.loc.gov/93042885|title=Albania: a country study|last2=Iwaskiw|first2=Walter R.|last3=Keefe|first3=Eugene K.|series=Area handbook series|publisher=[[US Library of Congress]]|year=1994|pages=27–29|isbn=9780844407920|lccn=93042885}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Albania - Government and Politics |url=https://countrystudies.us/albania/27.htm |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=countrystudies.us}}</ref>