Essad Pasha's government in Salonika

The British chronology of the war records under 20 September 1916 that the Albanian government of Essad Pasha Toptani established its seat in Salonika, where the Entente troops were stationed. Essad was not a new guest in the city at the time. Documents later published by General Maurice Sarrail, commander-in-chief of the Allied armies on the Salonika front, show that the French had brought him there by warship as early as the end of August. No formal act of 20 September could be found in the sources. What is certain is that by September his court, which called itself the government of Albania, was already operating in Salonika.

Half a year of wandering

Since February 1916, when he had sailed from Durrës on an Italian destroyer ahead of the advancing Austrians, Essad had been a prime minister without a country. He stayed in Rome, in Nice, where his wife lived, and in Paris. The Italian government wanted to keep him at hand and under control. In April the foreign minister, Sidney Sonnino, offered him a monthly allowance and advised him to settle in Naples, on condition that other states would not keep their representatives with him. Essad did not accept this role. He felt closer to Serbia, with which he had been bound by a secret alliance since 1914, and to France, which as early as February had offered to evacuate him on its ships.

By cruiser from Toulon

In the summer the French found a task for him. The orders that Sarrail issued on 20 August at a conference of Allied generals before the planned offensive provided for Essad to land in Salonika with about a thousand Albanians. This unit was to take its place on the left wing of the front, between the Italian corps at Vlorë and the Serbian army. On 24 August the French Ministry of Marine reported by telegram that the cruiser D’Estrées had sailed from Toulon for Salonika with Essad on board. The Pasha was to be received with the honours due to a commander-in-chief, but without a gun salute. Sarrail later wrote in his memoirs that Essad had been in Salonika since August 1916 and that he himself, in accordance with his orders, had received him with the honours of an army commander and always treated him as a general.

The Albanian unit turned out to be much smaller than announced. Sarrail estimated it at 500–600 men. A French minister plenipotentiary, Monsieur de Fontenay, was attached to Essad, and the Pasha himself formed something like a cabinet. The Italian liaison officer Luigi Villari, who was hostile to Essad, later mocked him for setting up an operetta court in Salonika, with ministries of war, foreign affairs and agriculture, although he had neither a state nor an army. He admitted, however, that the French, Serbs and Greeks appointed diplomatic representatives to him and treated him with respect.

France’s Albanian card

For Italy, Essad’s presence in Salonika was a challenge. Rome regarded Albania as its sphere of influence and since the end of 1914 had occupied Vlorë, where a whole Italian corps now stood. The Italians suspected that France was backing the Pasha in order to weaken their position in the Balkans. Sarrail explained that in central Albania Essad had many supporters who could thwart the plans of Italy or Austria. According to Villari, French intelligence, though sceptical, did not want to reject the Pasha, who assured them that he could raise a rising in the territories occupied by Austria-Hungary.

No such rising ever took place. Essad’s unit, known as the tabor, later fought alongside the French in the valley of the Shkumbin river, and Sarrail praised its part in skirmishes. Villari claimed, on the other hand, that the Pasha rendered the Allies no useful service. Essad remained in Salonika for a long time as one of several rival claimants to power over Albania, maintained by the Allies.