Adil Çarçani

Adil Çarçani
Adil Çarçani
24th Prime Minister of Albania
	In office; December 18, 1981 – February 22, 1991
Preceded by	Mehmet Shehu
Succeeded by	Fatos Nano
Personal details
Born	5 May 1922; Fushëbardhë, Gjirokastër
Died	13 October 1997 (aged 75); Tirana, Albania
Nationality	Albanian
Political party	Party of Labour of Albania
Signature

Adil Çarçani (5 May 1922 – 13 October 1997) was an Albanian politician who served as the 24th Prime Minister of Albania during the Communist era led by Enver Hoxha. He served as the titular head of the Albanian government in the years immediately preceding the fall of Communism.

Biography

Çarçani was born on May 5, 1922, in the village of Fushëbardhë, near Gjirokastër.^[1] During World War II, he fought for Partisan forces against the Italian fascists, and joined the Communist Party and the government that it set up after the war. He became mining minister in the 1950s, joined the Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania in the 1960s, and by 1981 had become First Deputy Prime Minister.^[2]^[3]

On December 18, 1981, immediately after the violent death of Mehmet Shehu, Çarçani became the 24th Prime Minister of Albania. He remained in that position until February 1991, two months after Communism started falling in Albania, when he resigned after mobs tore down the statue of Enver Hoxha, the founder and leader of Communist Albania from 1946 to 1985. Çarçani was, however, elected to parliament that year, and gave the opening speech.

Post-1991

On 21 May 1994, Çarçani was tried for and abuse of power, alongside Ramiz Alia.^[4]^[5] He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to prison.^[5] His sentence was commuted to five years of house arrest, however, as he was beginning to suffer from health problems.^[5] He died under house arrest in Tirana.^[6]

References

^ Roszkowski, Wojciech; Kofman, Jan (2016-07-08). Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-317-47594-1.
^ Wolfgang Saxon, "Adil Carcani, 75, a Leader In Albania's Stalinist Twilight", The New York Times, 20 October 1997.
^ Adil Çarçani – Mémoires de Guerre
^ Jeffries, Ian (1996). A Guide to the Economies in Transition. London: Routledge. p. 380. ISBN 0-415-13684-9.
^ ^a ^b ^c Partos, Gabriel (17 October 1997). "Obituary: Adil Carcani". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2012-11-11. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
^ "Adil Carcani". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 15 July 2016.