[6] Qemali embarked on a career as an Ottoman civil servant reaching high government positions in European and Asian parts of the empire[2] after he moved to Istanbul in May 1860.

He identified with the reform wing of Midhat Pasha, the author of the Constitution of the Ottoman Empire with whom Qemali was a close collaborator,[2] and he became governor of several towns in the Balkans.

[13] The Ottoman government initiated a crackdown of members and sympathisers of the Young Turk movement (CUP) with Qemali's son Mahmud, a Council of State official being dismissed.

[14] Qemali in Paris participated in the Congress of Ottoman Opposition (1902) organised by Prince Mehmed Sabahaddin and backed his faction calling for reforms, minority rights, revolution and European intervention in the empire.

[22] Good relations were maintained with Ghica, while Dervish Hima an Albanian politically involved with the Romanian prince was viewed by Ottoman authorities as a pawn of Qemali.

[23] Qemali's task was the most difficult aspect of the plot, he kept a unit in Paris, commenced political activities as a high ranking politician in exile and made many visits to London which annoyed the Ottoman government as they were unable to work out his real aims.

[24] Ottoman authorities paid close attention and in some cases court martialed people they thought were associated with Qemali in attempts that were unsuccessful to find out his intentions.

[30] Attempts by Qemali were made to convince Lord Cromer that the "Turkish question" was a pressing matter and he agreed with those sentiments and promised to reply to the Foreign office.

[33] At the end of January 1903, Qemali came back to Paris and found the princes grieving the death of their father Damad Mahmud Pasha, yet they all proceeded to London to make financial arrangements for the plot.

[35] Later Sabaheddin traveled to see the khedive and failed to procure funds and ships where later he returned to Athens and for the last time met with Qemali, Reşid Sadi and Vasileos Musurus Ghikis.

[37] After the 1908 Young Turk revolution some people who opposed the CUP made allegations against Qemali of being uninterested in the plot, worked for his interests and a "crook" that took money from the prince.

[37] Qemali broke ties with the Young Turks and on 16 August 1903 he gave an interview to an Italian newspaper in his role as an "Albanian patriot" and pursued his new preoccupation with Albania's future.

[41] In Rome July 1907, Qemali gave a lengthy interview to Italian media where he called for cooperation between Balkan peoples, a "Greco-Albanian entente" and affirmed Albania as having its own language, literature, history and traditions and a right to liberty and independence.

[20] As an Albanian leader the CUP was hostile toward Qemali and the organisation shunned him due to his secret understanding with the Greeks to partition the western regions of the Balkan provinces of the empire.

[6] He promoted a diplomatic solution for creating an independent Albania, an approach rejected by some Albanian groups of the era that instead favoured guerilla warfare against the empire.

[6] During the events of the Young Turk Revolution (1908), rumors of the time had it that Abdulhamid II as a last resort asked Qemali for assistance and his response was that only the restoration of the Ottoman constitution would pacify the Albanians.

[48] Qemali became leader of the Albanian deputies in the Ottoman parliament and did not oppose Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia adding that recognition of the move should entail security guarantees for the empire in case of war with Balkan states over territory.

[49] During the 31 March incident, the leadership of the Liberty Party (Ahrar) attempted unsuccessfully to get control over events and stop the rebellion from turning toward a reactionary pro-sultan and anti-constitutional course.

[50] Qemali, an Ahrar deputy managed to get some parliamentarians to attend parliament, they accepted the requests of the mutineering troops and made an official announcement that the constitution and sharia would be kept.

[51] Uninvolved in the events of the initial countercoup Qemali was briefly made President of the Ottoman National Assembly and led it to recognise a new government by Abdulhamid II.

[52][53] Qemali wired his constituency in Vlorë telling them to acknowledge the new government and Albanians from his hometown backed him with some raiding the arms depot to support the sultan with weapons if the situation called for it.

[55] Qemali returned from Athens to Istanbul after the parliament cleared him from involvement in the counter-revolutionary movement and he became leader of a group of "modern liberals" who were former members of the Ahrar party.

[70][71][72] Fikri acting as Izzet Pasha's emissary contacted Qemali and presented him with a plan that envisaged joint Ottoman, Albanian and Bulgarian military action against Greece and Serbia.

[73] Qemali assured Fikri of his loyalty to Izzet as monarch of Albania and supported a plan from the CUP government in Istanbul to secretly infiltrate troops and weapons into the country to conduct a guerilla war against Serbian and Greek forces.

[74][76] The ICC, an organisation temporarily administering Albania on behalf of the Great Powers allowed their Dutch officers serving as the Albanian Gendarmerie to declare a state of emergency and stop the plot.

[74][71][77] During Fikri's trial the plot emerged and an ICC military court under Colonel Willem de Veer condemned him to death[77] and later commuted to life imprisonment,[74] while Qemali and his cabinet resigned.

[78][79][80] During the First World War (1914–1918), 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 British newspaper 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.