Josif Bageri

Josif Bageri was born in Nistrovo in the Upper Reka region, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire, to an Albanian Orthodox family.[1] As a young man he emigrated to Sofia, Bulgaria where he found work as a cobbler and became interested in the Albanian nationalist movement.

In January 1893, Bageri was a founding member of the Dëshira (The Desire) cultural society there, and was profoundly moved by a meeting with the dying Rilindja poet, Naim Frashëri in Istanbul in late 1899. Bageri recognised education as the key to the Albanian nationalist awakening and was active, particularly in the year 1905-1907, in promoting Albanian-language schools and learning. His son, Kristo Bageri, was killed in 1906 in Macedonia as a participant in an IMORO detachment.[2][3]

From May 1909 to 1911, Bageri published a fortnightly Albanian-language newspaper in Sofia called Shqypeja e Shqypenis / Albanski orel (The Albanian Eagle), an organ for politics and knowledge.[1]

Bust of Josif Bageri in Debar

After Albanian independence in 1912, Bageri moved to Durrës where he edited the national weekly Ushtimi i Krujës / L'Echo de Croya (The Kruja Echo), a four-page newspaper that appeared in Albanian and French from 1 November 1913 to 1914. He died in Pristina in 1916, apparently on a journey back to Sofia. Bageri was the author of poetry, prose, political articles, comments and polemics. He is remembered in particular for the anthology Kopësht Malsori (Highlander's Garden) in Sofia, 1910.[1]

Bageri is an important figure within the Orthodox Albanian community of Upper Reka, which has instituted an association in Bageri's name.[4]

The "Shoqata Josif Bageri" organization, created by Branko Manoilovski and Branislav Sinadinovski, is named in his honor and centered in his town. The organization aims to follow Bageri's work in Albanian National Awakening for the regional Albanian Orthodox in Macedonia.