Albania’s self-proclaimed heir to the throne, Leka Zogu, dies aged 72

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, November 30, 1:21 PM

TIRANA, Albania — Leka Zogu, whose father served as Albania’s king until it was occupied by fascist Italy, and who twice returned home from exile to try to claim the throne himself, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 72.

Zogu died of a heart attack at the Mother Teresa Hospital in Tirana, said the family spokeswoman, Julinda Kamberi.

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( Hektor Pustina/file / Associated Press ) - FILE -- A June 25, 2002 file photo shows Leka Zog I, son of Albania’s exiled late King Ahmet Zog waving to wellwishers at Tirana International Airport in Albania. A spokeswoman for Albania’s royal family says that King Leka I Zogu, died Wednesday Nov. 30, 2011.

Zogu’s father, King Ahmet Zog, was this small Balkan country’s first and only post-independence monarch, reigning from 1928 to 1939, when he fled after Albania was occupied by Italian forces.

The king died in France in 1961 and is buried at the Thiais Cemetery near Paris, but the exiled royal family always insisted that Zogu was the country’s legitimate ruler.

Born just two days before Albania was occupied in 1939, Zogu spent most of his life in exile in Europe and Africa while his country was ruled by Communists who abolished the monarchy in 1946 and banned contact with the outside world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/albanias-self-proclaimed-heir-to-throne-king-leka-i-zogu-dies-aged-72/2011/11/30/gIQAKOwaBO_story.html