Albania Banknotes 500 Leke banknote 2001 Ismail Qemali
Bank of Albania - Banka e Shqiperise
Obverse: Portrait of Ismail Qemal Bej Vlora (1844-1919), a prominent leader of the Albanian national movement and first Prime Minister of independent Albania; double-headed eagle of the independence flag; a stylised image of the pen with which the Independence Act was signed.
Reverse: View of the building where the Provisional Government of Vlora worked, today the National Museum of Independence; a stylised image of the room where the decision to declare Albania’s independence was made and of the telegraph with the news.
Watermark: Portrait of Ismail Qemal Bej Vlora.
Size: 145 mm x 68 mm
Dominant colour: blue
First in circulation on: 11.07.1997
The 500 Lekë note issue of 1997 was first put in circulation on 11 July 1997. It was printed by "De La Rue" banknote printing company.
It was later reprinted by "Oberthure" banknote printing company with improved security features and was put in circulation on 01 August 2002.
The note is manufactured from high quality cotton fibre security paper.
On 16 February 2009, the Bank of Albania put in circulation a 500 Lekë note of legal tender, issue of 2007. It retains the same design and dimensions as the 500 Lekë note, issue of 2001. Security and damage-resistant elements are added or improved to this banknote. Furthermore, signatures of the Governor and the Director of Issue Department, as well as the year of issue are updated.
Older issues of 500 Lekë notes shall continue to be legal tender and shall continue to be in circulation along with the new note, issue of 2007.
Albania banknotes - Albania paper money
1996-2012 Issue
Ismail Qemali
Ismail Qemal Bej Vlora (Turkish İsmail Kemal Bey or İsmail Kemal Vlora; 16 January 1844 – 24 January 1919) commonly known as Ismail Qemali , was a distinguished leader of the Albanian national movement, and founder of the Independent Albania. He was its head of state and president of its provisional government until January 1914 when he was forced to step aside by the International Commission of Control established by the six Great Powers.
Qemali was born to a noble family in Vlorë. Having finished the primary education in his hometown, and the gymnasium Zosimea in Janina, in 1859 he moved to Constantinople where he embarked on a career as an Ottoman civil servant, being identified with the liberal reform wing of the service under Midhat Pasha, and was governor of several towns in the Balkans. During these years he took part in efforts for the standardization of the Albanian alphabet and the establishment of an Albanian cultural association.
By 1877, Ismail seemed to be on the brink of important functions in the Ottoman administration, but when Sultan Abdulhamid II dismissed Midhat as prime minister, Ismail Qemali was sent into exile in western Anatolia, though the Sultan later recalled him and made him governor of Beirut. However, his liberal policy recommendations caused him to fall out of favour with the Sultan again, and in May 1900 Ismail Qemali boarded the British ambassador's yacht and claimed asylum. He was conveyed out of Turkey and for the next eight years lived in exile, working both to promote constitutional rule in the Ottoman Empire and to advance the Albanian national cause within it.
After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, he became a deputy in the restored Ottoman Parliament, working with liberal politicians and the British. In 1909, during a rising against the Young Turks, he was briefly made President of the Ottoman National Assembly but was forced to leave Constantinople forever a day or two later. Thereafter his political career concentrated solely on Albanian nationalism. The Athens embassy of the Ottoman Empire reported that Qemali negotiated with organization financed by wealthy Tosks and Greece about forging a union.
During the Albanian Revolt of 1911 he joined the leaders of the revolt at meeting in a village in Montenegro (Gerče) on 23 June and together they draw up "Gerče Memorandum" (sometimes referred to as "Red Book" because of the color of its covers) which addressed their requests both to Ottoman Empire and Europe (in particular to the Great Britain).
He was a principal figure in the Albanian Declaration of Independence and the formation of the independent Albania in 28 November 1912. This signaled the end of almost 500 years of Ottoman rule in Albania. Together with Luigj Gurakuqi, he raised the flag on the balcony of the two-story building in Vlorë where the Declaration of Independence had just been signed. The establishment of the government was postponed for the fourth session of the Assembly of Vlorë, held on 4 December 1912, until representatives of all regions of Albania arrived to Vlore. Qemali was prime minister of Albania from 1912 to 1914.
In November 1913, Albanian pro-Ottoman forces had offered the Albanian throne to the Ottoman war minister of Albanian origin, Izzet Pasha. The Ottoman Empire sent agents to encourage a revolt, hoping to restore Ottoman suzerainty over Albania. Izzet Pasha sent major Beqir Grebenali, another ethnic Albanian, to be one of his chief representatives in Albania. The Provisional Government of Albania under control of Ismail Qemali captured and executed major Beqir Grebenali. Such provocative and damaging display of independence of Qemali's government angered Great Powers and International Commission of Control forced Qemali to step aside and leave Albania.
During World War I, Ismail Qemali lived in exile in Paris, where, though short of funds, he maintained a wide range of contacts and collaborated with the correspondent of the continental edition of the Daily Mail, Somerville Story, to write his memoirs. His autobiography, published after his death, is the only memoir of a late Ottoman statesman to be written in English and is a unique record of a liberal, multicultural approach to the problems of the dying Empire. In 1918, Ismail Qemali travelled to Italy to promote support for his movement in Albania, but was prevented by the Italian government from leaving Italy and remained as its involuntary guest at a hotel in Perugia, much to his irritation. He died of an apparent heart attack at dinner there one evening. After his death, his body was brought to Vlorë and buried in the local Tekke (Dervish convent) of the Bektashi Order.
Ismail Qemali is depicted on the obverses of the Albanian 200 lekë banknote of 1992–1996, and of the 500 lekë banknote issued since 1996. On 27 June 2012, Albanian President, Bamir Topi decorated Qemali with the Order of the National Flag (Post-mortem).