Abstract
Albanians with a predominantly Muslim population, had the privilige of being one of the ruling-nations of the Ottoman Empire alongside the Turks for five centuries. While Türkiye, under the leadership of Atatürk, followed a completely independent policy after the establishment of the republic in 1923, Albania, in the absence of a leader like Atatürk, made concessions to Italy and under the influence of that country transformed from Republic to a Kingdom. The Italians prevented Albania from joining the Balkan Pact, and later on invaded the country. Zog, the King of Albania abandoned his crown and his throne with his two-days-old son and his post-partum wife and sought refuge first in Greece and then in Türkiye. The original contribution of this article to the literature lies in the fact that it is the first work to examine the two-months long (May 03-July 01, 1939) forced stay of the deposed King in Turkey. Since no documents can be found either in the Turkish Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Republican Archives of the State Archives on King’s forced stay in Turkey, this study is based on the articles published in the Turkish newspapers of the era. This study is
limited to King Zog’s asylum in Turkey, and do not discuss issues such as the reflections of the occupation of Albania on the Turkish press or Turkish foreign policy, as they are the subject of other scientific studies.
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