Editing Flag of Albania (section)

===Flag raised on [[Albanian Declaration of Independence|Independence Day]] (1912)===
According to researcher and art conservator Frederik Stamati and his colleague Ariola Prifti, an ethnographic fund specialist at the [[Academy of Albanological Studies|Center for Albanological Studies]], there is no trace evidence of the original flag that was raised in [[Vlorë]] on 28 November 1912, the day Albania declared its independence.<ref>{{cite web |title=Debati pas 108 vjetësh: Ku fshihet Flamuri i Pavarësisë? |url=https://arteka.al/debati-pas-108-vjetesh-ku-fshihet-flamuri-i-pavaresise-fondi-etnografik-18-flamuj-ne-diskutim |publisher=Arteka.al | language=sq | date=7 December 2020 | first=Violeta | last=Murati|access-date=13 April 2021}}</ref> This viewpoint is reaffirmed in an editorial by news media [[Top Channel]] dated 1 November 2012 and titled ''"The mystery of the first Albanian flag"''. It concludes that "there is no definitive proof" on how the raised flag looked on the day Albania declared its independence, while providing ten hypotheses.<ref>{{cite web |title=Misteri i flamurit të parë shqiptar |url=https://top-channel.tv/2012/11/01/misteri-i-flamurit-te-pare-shqiptar |website=Top Channel |access-date=1 November 2012}}</ref> 
[[File:Postcard of the Albanian Flag by Aladro Kastriota (1913).jpg|thumb|150px|Postcard showing an illustration of the Albanian flag alongside a photograph of [[Juan Pedro Aladro Kastriota|Aladro Kastriota]] ({{circa|1913}})]]
A model of the flag often perceived as the original is seen in a 1913 postcard that shows alongside it a photograph of [[Juan Pedro Aladro Kastriota|Don Aladro Kastriota]] in uniform.<ref>{{cite web |title=Juan Aladro Castriota, a candidat for the Albanian throne. Postcard 1913 |url=http://www.albanianhistory.net/1913_Nopcsa_Congress-of-Trieste/index.html |publisher=Robert Elsie}}</ref> [[Eqrem Vlora|Eqrem bey Vlora]] writes in his memoirs,<ref>{{cite book |last1=bej Vlora |first1=Eqrem |title=Kujtime 1885–1925 |date=2003 |publisher=Shtëpia e Librit e Komunikimit |location=Tiranë |page=215}}</ref> published posthumously as "Lebenserinnerungen", Munich (1968–1973), that sometime in 1909 while visiting [[Paris]], he had the good fortune to meet Don Aladro, a wealthy spanish-basque diplomat and a strong supporter of the Albanian cause who at one point had announced his candidacy for the Albanian throne by claiming descent from the [[House of Kastrioti]] through his paternal grandmother, a noblewoman that lived during the era of [[Charles III of Spain|Charles III]]. With his financial means and some propaganda, he made known the Albanian cause for independence in European political circles. During their meeting, Vlora asserts the following episode occurred:<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gjika |first1=Ilirjan |title=Historia e flamurit që u ngrit në Vlorë |url=http://www.gazetadita.al/historia-e-flamurit-qe-u-ngrit-ne-vlore |publisher=Gazeta Dita |access-date=28 November 2018 |archive-date=29 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129133936/http://www.gazetadita.al/historia-e-flamurit-qe-u-ngrit-ne-vlore/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>
{{blockquote|text=''"After dinner, a servant brought a red velvet box on a silver tray and placed it in front of Don Aladro. He got up and gave a beautiful speech… and then opened the velvet box and took out an Albanian flag, a black double-headed eagle on the red field and gave it to me…"''}}

{{blockquote|text=For five years I kept this flag in the bedroom hanging with a nail on the side of the bed, until the day really came that Don Aladro had prophesied. Suddenly and quite by chance, this flag was raised as a symbol of Albania's Independence. Well, on November 28, the main object of the day, the flag as a symbol of independence, with that typical Albanian carelessness was forgotten… then, my friend Hydai efendi gets up and says that in the bedroom of Eqrem bey hangs an Albanian flag on the wall, enclosed in a beautiful frame and asked if it could be picked up without being neat there? [[Ismail Qemali|Ismail bey]] gave him permission and so the flag that Don Aladro had once solemnly given me in Paris, traveled to the neighboring guest house and fell into the hands of Ismail bey, who handed it over to [[Murad Toptani|Murad bey Toptani]], with the order to hang it outside, while he himself stood in the window."
{{lang|de|Lebenserinnerungen", Munich (1968–1973)}}
|multiline=yes
|author=[[Eqrem Vlora]]
}}

More support is given to this thesis in the testimony of [[Syrja Vlora|Syrja bey Vlora]] who in his book of memoirs titled "From the End of Ottoman Rule to the War of Vlora", writes in page 70 the following: "On 28 November, with the desire and consent of all, it was decided to raise the flag of Albania and declare National Independence. As it was not possible to prepare the flag that day, a flag was taken from our house, which my son Eqrem had been guarding with full respect since 1908(?). It rose amid the cheerful manifestations and cheers of the people."<ref>{{cite book |last1=bej Vlora |first1=Syrja |title=Kujtime |date=2013 |publisher=Iceberg |location=Tiranë |page=70}}</ref>

[[File:Kartolinë e mirënjohjes nga Sp. T. Ilo (1920).jpg|thumb|150px|This postcard by [[Spiridon Ilo]], was printed as a sign of gratitude for the US assistance in reaffirming the legitimacy of the new Albanian State. The postcard came into circulation in 1920, the year when President [[Woodrow Wilson]] famously arbitrated his support for the independence of Albania at the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vata |first1=Ilir |title=Kartolina e mirënjohjes ndaj SHBA punuar nga Spiridon Ilo |url=http://arkiva.ata.gov.al/amarcord-rama-kartolina-e-mirenjohjes-ndaj-shba-punuar-nga-spiridon-ilo |access-date=28 December 2016}}</ref>]]
Historian Valentina Duka provides further insights into this argument in her book "History of Albania, 1912–2000", where she publishes authentic documents from the archives of the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Albania)|Ministry of Foreign Affairs]]. From these documents, we learn of the efforts made by the government of Prime Minister [[Kostaq Kotta]], to collect historical objects of this era and to house them at the [[National Museum of History (Albania)|National History Museum]].
In 1930, the minister of foreign affairs [[Rauf Fico]], began a correspondence with Eqrem bey Vlora, who at the time was serving as the [[List of ambassadors of Albania to Greece|ambassador of Albania]] in [[Athens]]. In these communications, Eqrem bey strongly emphasizes that the flag raised on the day of the declaration of independence is indeed the one that was given to him by Aladro Kastriota. He goes on to explain that the flag along with other personal possessions, were confiscated and burned during 1915, by the government of the so called [[Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus]] in the home of a family friend in [[Delvinë]]. They had been transferred there for safekeeping from the rebel forces of [[Republic of Central Albania|Central Albania]] that had invaded [[Vlorë]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Duka |first1=Valentina |title=Histori e Shqipërisë, 1912–2000 |date=2007 |publisher=Shtëpia Botuese e Librit Universitar |location=Tiranë |page=22}}</ref>

[[File:Latin (usually Albanian) Merchant Flag 1453-1793.svg|thumb|200px|Latin merchant flag of the Ottoman Empire.]]
[[Kristo Floqi]] writes in the weekly newspaper [[:sq:Arbënia (gazetë)|Arbënia]] in 1936,<ref>{{cite web |title=Historiku dhe ndryshimet që pësoi flamuri Kombëtar |date=28 November 2015 |url=https://www.arbresh.info/lajmet/historiku-dhe-ndryshimet-qe-pesoi-flamuri-kombetar-foto-dokument |access-date=28 November 2015}}</ref> that "the national flag that was raised for the first time had been "crafted" with her own hands by [[Marigo Posio]] from a cloth purchased by a local drapery merchant named Diamanti and based on the model drawn by Dom Mark Vasa and Petro Fotografi". In a later correspondence that Floqi writes to the editor of Drita Newspaper, dated 17 January 1937 and titled "The designer of the flag that was flown in Vlorë for the declaration of our independence", in response to Kol Rodhe, the flag is described as ''"a thin red woven cloth, 3 meters long and 2 meters wide and on which a black double-headed vulture was branded"''. Floqi may have had such knowledge of the flag as his brother [[Thanas Floqi|Thanas]] was one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence and Floqi himself was married to Urani Poçi, the sister of Marigo Posio.<ref>{{cite web |title=25 vjetori pavarësisë a gjendej flamuri origjinal? |date=December 2013 |url=http://gazetadielli.com/flamuri-origjinal-i-ngritur-nga-ismail-qemali-eshte-i-spiridon-ilos-ai-flamur-u-dogj-nga-armiqt-e-kombit |publisher=Gazeta Dielli |access-date=1 December 2013}}</ref> 
This second hypothesis is also supported by Posio's assistant, Thina Ferra who claims the following:

{{blockquote|text=Marigo painted the eagle with black holes herself and that I warmed this flag near the [[brazier]] to dry it quickly. The flag that we did was a bit like whitened, in red pepper paint. We painted a lot of other flags to distribute to the people, including a small Albanian eagle that we sealed on the white shell caps of all the [[Labëria|labs]] who participated in the manifestations.}}
 
[[Vinçenc Prennushi]] ([[Order of Friars Minor|O.F.M.]]) wrote in "Gjeth e Lule" his immortal romance "Grueja Shqyptare" which is thought to have been inspired by Marigo Posio.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Prennushi |first1=Vinçenc |title=Gjeth e Lule |date=1931 |publisher=Shtypshkroja Françeskane |pages=178 |oclc=45622113 |edition=2nd |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/45622113}}</ref>