d proclamations in Pristina
and other towns for ethnic Albanians to quiet down and surrender arms;
however, anti-Serbian agitation from tribal leaders drove many to flee
and shelter in the mountains. Realizing they would not be persecuted after
surrendering their arms, ethnic Albanians in Drenica and the Pec region
finally laid down their guns. Serbian officers kept repeating that the Serbs
were warring Turkey and not the ethnic Albanians. In the newly liberated
areas Serbia established civil rule and administration. Kosovo and Metohia
became part of the Lab, Pristina and Prizren district. Montenegro divided
liberated Metohia into the Pec and Djakovica district.6
The liberation of Old Serbia was not, however, the final goal of the
Serbian armies. The political and economical hoop encircled around Serbia,
held tight by Austria-Hungary since the .Kg War (1906-1911), and the
annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina induced Serbian diplomacy to resolve
the issue of its political and economic independence by gaining free exit to
the Adriatic Sea, a plan similar to one made by Ilija Garasanin. The
determination of the Serbian government to advance toward the Adriatic
coast, to an ethnically Albanian area, was based on the evaluation that
ethnic Albanians were "not a people, but tribes split up and mutually
estranged, without a common language, alphabet and religion". The government
was supported by the court, by civil parties, the army and the widest
public.7
While Montenegrin troops besieged Scutari, Serbian regiments from Old
Serbia entered Albania and occupied its northern ports. In the land of the
Mirdits, Serbian troops were greeted cordially, whereas they were forced to
penetrate Dukadjin toward the Adriatic Sea with arms.8
Reports of Serbia's glorious victories were received with anxiety in
Vienna. Austro-Hungarian diplomacy warned Serbia not to advance its army
further from Prizren. To prevent Serbia's exit to the sea, the Viennese
government sent special emissaries to Albania to spread the idea of
autonomy, and even called one of the most important Albanian leaders from
Constantinople, Ismail Kemal. Through the Viennese press, he demanded an
independent "Great Albania", encompassing the towns Bitolj, Janina, Skoplje,
Pristina and Prizren. Embarking an Austrian ship, Kemal set off to Valona to
proclaim independence of Albania. Gathering feudal and tribal leaders from
the southern regions to his side, on November 28, 1912, Kemal proclaimed the
formation of an independent Albanian state. The provisional government in
Valona was a toy in Vienna's hands devoid of any influence with the people.
All documents, including the proclamation of independence, were written in
the Turkish language; not one member of his cabinet knew how to write in the
Albanian tongue. Ismail Kemal consigned the military formation to refugee
leaders from Old Serbia, Riza Bey Krieziu and Isa Boljetinac.9
Kemal's government sent messages to Serbian troops to withdraw from the
territory of the new state. The Serbian army established civil rule north of
the Durazzo-Elbasan-Struga line. The situation in Albania was on the verge
of anarchy. The temporary government proclaimed an energetic severing of all
ties with Turkey. Subsequent to the Young Turk coup d'etat, the mid-Albanian
Muslim populace was disposed to Albania remaining within the framework of
the Ottoman Empire. Rumors spread among the people that the Young Turks were
advancing with large armies to reoccupy Albania. To the north, the Catholic
Mirdits negotiated with Montenegro and Serbia on the creation of an
autonomous state. The Mirdit mbret Bib Doda requested permission from the
Serbian army for his fellow tribesmen to loot the Muslims. Within the Mata
region, malcontents took down the Albanian flag and threatened to call the
Serbian army;
in some places there was agitation to resist the Serbs. Ismail Kemal's
government soon disintegrated. Disorder and mutual conflicts began within
the first months following the proclamation of the independent Albanian
state.10
Austria-Hungary considered the emergence of the Serbian army on the
Adriatic Sea a serious injury to its interests. Belligerent military circles
in Vienna proposed to attack Serbia whose northern borders remained
unguarded. During December all tokens pointed to an upcoming
Austro-Hungarian - Serbian war. After conferring with the Russian and
Italian diplomacy, the Serbian government pronounced the following
statement:
"We do not desire to raise the issue of our emergence at sea ourselves,
but rather to let the matter remain within the hands of the Great Powers
when war ends and peace is concluded. We should not disapprove of the
creation of autonomous Albania if Europe should agree to it. We only believe
that Albania will not abide by peace necessary to both the Balkan allies and
the whole of Europe. Our desire is to have a port on our territory - yet we
leave this issue for the Great Powers to resolve, when they solve other
matters that will unfold from peace."11
The Austro-Hungarian incursion on Serbia was prevented by a conference
of ambassadors of the Great Powers convoked in London toward the close of
1912, at the initiative of the French and British diplomacy.
Representatives of the Balkan states began peace negotiations with the
Ottoman Empire. The conference of ambassadors argued the issue of Serbia's
emergence at sea and the status of Albania, which would then enter into
regulations of peace with Turkey. While Russia supported Serbian demands for
Adriatic ports, Austria-Hungary's intention at the conference was to
struggle for a larger Albania. France and Great Britain accepted the
formation of Albania but feared Austro-Hungarian and Italian superiority in
it. Thus the very first day the conference opened, the ambassadors reached
the following agreement: "Autonomous Albania guaranteed and controlled
exclusively by six powers under the sovereignty or suzerainty of the sultan.
The exclusion of every Turkish element from the administration is
understood." Ensuring the frontiers of Albania and Montenegro were
"neighbored all the way", Serbia was denied emergence to the Adriatic Sea.
As compensation, it was given a free and neutral trade port on the Albanian
coast, to which Serbian goods would arrive by railway secured by
international gendarmes under European control. Peace in Europe was saved,
but, as Poincares pointed out: "Serbia paid the highest bill".12
The border issue presented a more serious problem. Since December
1912. several plans were in diplomatic emulation. Serbia demanded the
borders to be drawn west of the Ohrid Lake and the Crni Drim river, so that
Decani, Djakovica, Prizren, Debar and Ohrid would remain in its composition.
Montenegro demanded north Albania until the Maca river, with Scutari, Medua
and Alessio. Greece demanded north Epirus where the Albanian populace lived
admixed with the Greek one. Autonomous Albania was to have been constituted
from the remaining areas. The Austro-Hungarian proposition, contrary to the
Serbian one, suggested the creation of Great Albania. The Monarchy demanded
that Djakovica, Debar, Korcca, Janina and Struga belong to Albania, and "in
the first round" both Pec and Prizren, as "compensational objects". It left
Struga, Ohrid and Debar to Bulgaria if it were to make any claims. Italy
supported Montenegrin claims but acutely opposed Greek ones. Russia and
France maintained a medial solution by which Albania's frontier toward
Serbia should stretch along the watershed of the Beli and the Crni Drim
rivers to Ohrid. The Albanian delegation demanded the formation of
"ethnical" Albania, inclusive of the towns Pec, Mitrovica, Pristina, Skoplje
and Bitolj.13
The standpoint of the Serbian delegation was most wholly revealed by
the aide-memoir submitted to the ambassador conference on January 8,
1913. It explicitly stated that Serbia was not opposed to the formation
of autonomous Albania, but that its whole centuries-long struggle for
national survival under Turkish rule, and subsequently for state
independence from 1804 until 1912, would prove to have been senseless if
those regions with admixed Serbian-Albanian populaces, where forceful
Islamization, Albanization and the routing of Serbian inhabitants had been
urged on for centuries, were to belong to Albania. Supporting its attitudes
with historical, ethnographic, cultural and ethical rights, the Serbian
delegation underscored that Kosovo and Metohia, where the towns Pec, Decani
and Djakovica lay, were since time immemorial the sacred land of the Serbs,
and that under no condition would any Montenegrin nor Serbian government
consent to their belonging to someone else.14
The Serbian government was adamant in its defense of Kosovo, Metohia
and west Macedonia. The entrance of either of these regions into autonomous
Albania would create a new seedbed of conflicts through which
Austria-Hungary would exert pressure upon Serbia. Stojan Novakovic, the
first delegate at the conference of ambassadors, believed that by "demanding
Prizren, Djakovica, Pec for Albania, Austria-Hungary desired to renew the
barrier between Serbia and Montenegro, between Serbia and the
sea".15 Pasic kept underscoring that he would never abandon Debar
and Djakovica whatever the decision of the Great Powers, and that "only a
stronger military force could rout the Serbian army from these regions". In
a subsequent letter addressed to the Great Powers/Pasic underlined bitterly:
"The lands and sanctity of Old Serbia are being taken away and given to one
who has been devastating them until today."16
Serbia was forced to withdraw its troops from the Adriatic coast.
Austria-Hungary gave in to Russia's demands, so Debar and Djakovica remained
part of Serbia, while its demand to include Scutari in the new Albanian
state was accepted, though the town was still besieged by Montenegrin and
Serbian troops. The final agreement was reached on April 10, 1913, while the
structure of Albania continued to be discussed in the months to follow. At
the end of July, the Austro-Hungarian - Italian proposition was accepted by
which Albania was to become a sovereign state with a hereditary prince. An
International Control Committee was formed whose duty was to organize life
in the country with the aid of Dutch officers. As the hereditary Albanian
prince, among numerous candidates, an Austro-Hungarian was chosen, German
Prince Wilhelm von Wied, cousin of the Romanian queen, interpreted in
Belgrade as another attempt of Austria-Hungary to close the hoop around
Serbia by way of Albania, Bulgaria and Romania.17
1 Prvi balkanski rat, Beograd 1959,147-176; cf. D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o
Kosovu, Ep. 165-176.
2 C. Popovic, Rod organizacije "Ujedinjenje ili smrt" - Pripreme za
Balkanski rat, Nova Evropa, 1 (1927), pp. 313-315; M. Z. Jovanovic, Pukovnik
Apis, Beograd 1957, pp. 649-651; Savremenici o Kosovu i Metohiji 1852-1912,
pp. 351-353, 381-383.
3 Dj. Mikic, Albanci i Srbija u balkanskim ratovima 1912-1913,
Istorijski glasnik, 1-2 (1986), p. 60; more elaborate in: D. D. Stankovic,
Nikola Pasic i stvaranje balkanske drzave, M. misao, 3 (1985), pp. 157-169.
4 D. Mikic, Albanci i Srbija u balkanskim ratovima, p. 61.
5 J. Tomic, Rat no. Kosovu i Staroj Srbiji 1912. godine, Novi Sad 1913.
6 Prvi balkanski rat, pp. 46-417, 464-469-496; D. Mikic, Albanci i
Srbija u balkanskim ratovima, p. 63.
7 The only opposition came from the leadership of the Socialdemocratic
party headed by Dimitrije Tucovic. Concerned only for their narrow party and
political interests, they used the entrance of the Serbian army into Albania
to settle their accounts with the government policy and civil parties (cf.
D. Tucovic, Srbija i Albanija, Beograd 1914).
8 I. Balugdzic, Kad se stvarala Albanija, Srpski knjizevni glasnik, 52
(1937), pp. 518-523; D. Djordjevic, Izlazak Srbije na Jadransko more i
Konferencija ambasadora u Londonu 1912, Beograd 1956, pp. 11-12, 83-85.
9 V. Corovic, Odnosi izmedju Srbije i Austro-Ugarske u XX veku, pp.
396-401; D. Djordjevic, op. cit., p. 86.
10 Dj. Mikic, Albanci i Srbija u balkanskim ratovima, pp. 68-70.
11 V. Corovic, Odnosi izmedju Srbije i Austro-Ugarske u XX veku, pp.
410.
12 D. Djordjevic, op. cit., pp. 133-134.
13 Ibid., see M. Vojvodic, Skadarska kriza 1913, Beograd 1970.
14 Dokumenti o spoljnoj politici Kraljevine Srbije, VT/1, 136-142; D.
Bogdanovic, op. cit., pp. 172-173.
15 Ibid., V/3, doc. 500.
16 Ibid., VI/1, 260, 379, 380; D. Bogdanovic, op. cit., p. 173.
17 D. Djordjevic, op. cit., pp. 141-143.
Albanian Incursions into Serbia
The situation in Albania and the border area toward Serbia was marked
by anarchy, disorders and conflicts during 1913 and the first half of 1914.
The commander of Scutari, Essad Pasha Toptani, surrendered the town to the
Montenegrins on April 23,1913; in return, he was enabled to advance south
with his army and military equipment and take part in the struggle for
power. Already three mutually conflicting governments existed in Albania. As
one of the most powerful landholders, Essad Pasha relied on the Muslim heads
of mid-Albania. By wielding his influence between Durazzo and Tirana, he saw
an opportunity to candidate himself for the still vacant Albanian throne,
taking into consideration requests of the Albanian majority that did not
want a Christian ruler. Already on May 5, 1913, he informed the Montenegrin
prince of his intention to pronounce himself prince of Albania, expressing
his wish to cooperate with the Balkan allies. He told the Serbian diplomat
in Durazzo, Zivojin Balugdzic, that he wanted an agreement with Serbia.
Hesitant at first, the Serbian government consented to cooperate with Essad
Pasha, evaluating that "his overall behavior displayed an earnest wish for
an agreement with Serbia, which he regarded as the focus for mustering
Balkan forces".1
The second Balkan war was triggered off by Bulgaria in July, 1913.
Dissatisfied with its territorial gains, it prepared to war its former
allies. It sought support with Albania: ethnic Albanians gathered around
Ismail Kemal were promised considerable territorial expansion if they
advanced onto Serbia. Thus Sofia counted on the Albanian insurrection
leading to the proclamation of autonomous Macedonia and its annexation to
Bulgaria. Thus, somewhere in Macedonia, an Albanian-Bulgarian border would
have been established. Conditions for armed incursions were favorable:
around 20,000 ethnic Albanians who fled Old Serbia and Macedonia found
themselves on Albanian soil, while their leaders Hasan Pristina and Isa
Boljetinac sat in the government at Valona. Austro-Hungarian and Italian
emissaries and agents, mostly the clergy and teachers, suppressed Essad
Pasha's influence and appealed to the ethnic Albanians to rise against the
Serbs.2
Individual surprise attacks on the most forward Serbian units and
border stations began already during the second Balkan war. In the meantime,
detailed preparations for a large incursion into Serbia were underway.
Shipments of arms sent by the Viennese government kept arriving to Albania.
Bulgarian komitadjis trained ethnic Albanians for guerrilla warfare. Small
renegade groups were infiltrated into Serbian territory during May and June
1913 to check their guerrilla skills. Informed of the preparations for
attack, the Serbian government sent Bogdan Radenkovic to try to influence
his former friends among the Albanian leadership, but he returned without
accomplishing his task.3
When the Serbian army was forced to withdraw to the restriction line
behind the Crni Drim, a signal was given for a full force attack. At the end
of September 1913, around 10,000 ethnic Albanians invaded Serbian territory
from two directions - west Macedonia and toward Djakovica and Prizren. The
initiator of the attack was Austria-Hungary. Ismail Kemal ordered the
refugee Albanian leaders, Bairam Cur, Isa Boljetinac, Riza Bey and Elez
Jusuf to attack Serbia with their parties, promising that with the aid of
the Dual Monarchy and Italy, all conquered territories would belong to
Albania. Essad Pasha refused to join them and warned Serbia not to approve
of their action.4
The infiltrated companies were headed by Albanian leaders and Bulgarian
officers in coaction with the Bulgarian komitadjis. Weak Serbian border
troops and several gendarmes units were unable to withstand the attack. On
the southern stretch, commanded by Bulgarian komitadjis, the companies
managed to take Debar, Ohrid and Struga and advance toward Gostivar. To the
north, Isa Boljetinac, Bairam Cur and Kiasim Lika took Ljuma, besieged
Prizren and shortly occupied Djakovica. At the beginning of October, two
divisions, the Troops of new regions, advanced from Skoplje and, having
routed the ethnic Albanians from Serbian territory, crossed to Albania to
continue their pursuit.5
The Vienna press published elaborate articles on great victories gained
by the ethnic Albanians and demanded a revision of the borders. Ismail Kemal
demanded an exclusion of those regions encircled by the insurrection from
the Serbian state and proposed a plebiscite that would be implemented by the
infiltrated companies. When the incursion was checked, the Vienna press
spread rumors of alleged reprisals committed by Serbian troops upon the
innocent Albanian people. Austro-Hungarian diplomacy endeavored to prove
that an insurrection had broken out within Serbian territory, subsequently
joined by ethnic Albanians from the other side of the frontier.6
To emphasize his pro-Serbian orientation, Essad Pasha took advantage of
the commotion resulting from the incursion, and in Durazzo, on September 23,
proclaimed himself Governor of Albania. Before the European public, which
blamed the external activities of the Serbian army for the incursion, Serbia
intended to compromise the government in Valona by proving that two of its
ministers, Isa Boljetinac and Hasan Pristina, were the organizers and
leaders of the incursion. Again the issue was brought up that the borders
determined by the London conference of ambassadors were unfavorable for
Serbia, since the outlaw seedbeds around Debar and Ljuma demanded by the
Serbian delegation were seriously imperiling Serbian territory.7
Wilhelm von Wied arrived in Albania in March 1914. Pressured by the
International Control Committee, Essad Pasha was compelled to enter a united
government, but did receive two of its most important spheres of activity,
the Ministry of War and Internal Affairs. Discontent of the Muslim Albanian
populace with the government of the infidel prince culminated in a
pro-Turkish uprising lead by Hadji-Qamil Feiza, a Young Turk officer
originally from Elbasan. Incited by Muslim fanaticism and the unsettled
agrarian issue, the uprising caused general anarchy. Austro-Hungarian and
Young Turk agents inflamed discontent among the Muslim masses. Essad Pasha
first supported the uprising, but was forced to emigrate to Italy in May,
1914, having been checked by the prince's followers.8
Simultaneously, with the aid of Austro-Hungarian secret services,
Albanian leaders Bairam Cur and Isa Boljetinac were preparing for another
incursion into Serbia. At the end of March, 1914, several hundred ethnic
Albanians crossed the border, having received news that an uprising against
the Serbs broke out in some villages near Orahovac. The uprising spread to
four villages. Cur and Boljetinac planned to bring members of the
International Control Committee to the rebelling areas, where the local
ethnic Albanians would express their wish for Djakovica, Pec, Prizren and
regions until the railway Urosevac (Ferizovic) - Mitrovica, to be annexed to
Albania, as promised by Austria-Hungary. Tension at the borderline did not
cease.9
1 I. Balugdzic, op. cit., 521-522; D. Mikic, Albanci i Srbija u
balkanskim ratovima, pp. 75; more elaborate documentation: Dokumenti o
spoljnoj politici Kraljevine Srbije, VI/2, Doc. No 75, 77, 80, 86, 93, 100,
105, 124, 130, 135.
2 Dokumenti o spoljnoj politici Kraljevine Srbije, VI/3, Doc. No 194,
239, 253,
3 B. Hrabak, Arbanaski upadi i pobune na Kosovu i u Makedoniji od kraja
1912. do kraja 1915. godine (Nacionalno nerazvijeni i nejedinstveni Arbanasi
kao orudje u rukama zainteresovanih sila), Vranje 1988, pp. 33-38.
4 Dokumenti o spoljnoj politici Kraljevine Srbije, VT/3, Doc. No 406,
cf. Doc. No 347, 351, 359, 378, 379, 418.
5 B. Hrabak, Arbanaski upadi i pobune na Kosovu i u Makedoniji, pp.
52-64.
6 Dokumenti o spoljnoj politici Kraljevine Srbije, VI/3, Doc. No 407,
408, 409.
7 B. Hrabak, Arbanaski upadi i pobune na Kosovu i u Makedoniji, pp. 57.
60-61.
8 B. Hrabak, Muslimani severne Albanije uoci izbijanja rata 1914,
Zbornik za istoriju Matice srpske, 22 (1980), pp. 52-53.
9 B. Hrabak, Arbanaski upadi i pobune na Kosovu i u Makedoniji, p. 93.
In World War One
The direct cause leading to World War One was the assassination of
Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, by
Serbian students (on St. Vitus' Day, June 28th, 1914), thus symbolically
marking the commencement in the outcome of Austro-Hungarian and Serbian
confrontation. Serbia's victories in the Balkan wars proved its military,
political and economical strength; in the Yugoslav provinces of the Dual
Monarchy, national movement grew, turning to Belgrade as the pillar of
national and South-Slavic assemblage. War with Serbia turned over from a
considerable delay of punitive expedition to a war to destroy the Serbian
state. The Viennese diplomacy found reliable allies first with Albania and
then with Bulgaria.1
The opening of the war found the borderline between Serbia and Albania
unrestful and unconsolidated. Essad Pasha, follower of Balkan cooperation,
was in emigration, while civil war raged in Albania. The insurgents, called
"Ottomans", demanded a Muslim for a ruler, and for the flag, and the
character of state administration to be Ottoman. Refugee Albanian leaders
from Kosovo, organizers of the previous incursion into Serbia, did not take
part in the uprising; they awaited the opportunity to incite a rebellion and
seize Kosovo, Metohia and west Macedonia from Serbia.
Two days before war was declared to Serbia, consular officials in
Albania received orders from Vienna to assist the Albanian insurrection on
Serbian territory. Bairam Cur, Hasan Pristina and Isa Boljetinac obtained
money, arms and ammunition from Austro-Hungarian consuls to prepare for the
insurrection. In Constantinople, a contract was concluded for
Austria-Hungary to finance and urge the insurrection, while the Young Turks
would handle the propaganda, military organization and operations of the
insurrection. Incursions onto Serbian territory and the Albanian
insurrection in Kosovo, Metohia and Macedonia were to have been the basis
for opening another front against Serbia, which had, after the
Austro-Hungarian attack, distributed its troops along the border with the
Dual Monarchy. The at first small-scale attacks were recorded already at the
beginning of August, 1914. Turkish and Austro-Hungarian association was
growing closer, thus sealing the destiny of Prince Wilhelm von Wied. After
several unsuccessful attempts to crush the insurrection, abandoned by his
volunteers, the prince left Albania for good at the beginning of September,
1914.2
Shortly before the war, Serbia strove to win over some of the chiefs of
mid and north Albania for cooperation. The agents cruised Albania
endeavoring to make contact with dissatisfied chiefs. It was soon disclosed
that Albanian tribal and feudal chiefs were inconstant, bribable and
unreliable, that they easily changed sides for money and, being without a
clear political conception and strong national awareness, cared most of all
about their personal and tribal interests. Internal political polarization
between them was determined by religious affiliation which ascended over
national feelings.3
Incursions into Serbia, though mostly skirmishes with bordering
stations and gendarmes never ceased since the war began. Even though small
in number and always rapidly checked, they increasingly disturbed competent
circles in Serbia. Informed of preparations for new incursions of broader
dimensions, on the delivery of arms to Albania and the arrival of Young Turk
and Austro-Hungarian officers to join Albanian companies at the
Serbian-Albanian borderline, the government sought a way to neutralize the
preparations for the insurrection. Military circles proposed a preventive
military intervention.4
With the departure of Prince von Wied, no one held power in Albania. At
an assembly, a senate of rebelling towns in mid and north Albania chose
Essad Pasha for their leader, while the Serbian government immediately
appealed to him to take over rule. Nikola Pasic contracted with him an
agreement of friendship, aid and customs union, in Nis, mid-September, 1914.
Aided by Pasic's government, supplying him with money and arms, Essad Pasha
mustered around 5,000 Albanian volunteers, crossed over to Albania and
entered Durazzo at the beginning of October without strife. He immediately
formed a government and proclaimed himself Premier of Albania and Supreme
Army Commander.5
At the beginning of November, Turkey engaged at war on the side of the
Central Powers and declared Holy War (jihad) to the Entante and its allies.
Essad Pasha was considered an enemy to Islam, being a friend to Serbia, and
therefore, an ally of the Entante. The declaration of jihad caused a new
pro-Turkish insurrection of Muslim-fundamentalist forces, this time against
Essad Pasha. The rapidly spreading insurgent masses were lead by Young Turk
officers. The entire movement was of anti-Serbian orientation; the
insurgents demanded the restoration of Albania under the sovereignty of the
Ottoman Empire, with Kosovo, Metohia and west Macedonia included in its
composition. Greece and Italy benefited from the new opportunities. The
Greeks took north Epirus, while Italian troops first occupied the island
Sasseno and then Valona.6
Essad Pasha's position in Durazzo was becoming increasingly uncertain.
Thus the Premier appealed to the Serbian government more than once for
military intervention in Albania. In December, 1914, Serbia successfully
withstood an Austro-Hungarian offensive. The Serbian government feared that
following their defeat north, the Austro-Hungarian state and military
circles would urge the ethnic Albanians to war Serbia, which imposed
preventive military action as a solution.
Incursions of broader dimension announced Hasan Pristina's attempt to
organize an insurrection in Serbia in February, 1915, with a company
numbering around 200 men. Three bordering villages on Serbian territory
joined the insurgents, but in the first clash with a stronger Serbian unit,
Hasan Pristina's company was crushed and banished to Albania.7
Pro-Turkish insurgents besieged Essad Pasha in Durazzo and demanded of him
to recognize the sultan's power and declare war to Serbia. Pasic thus
believed it was best to intervene immediately rather than wait for
Austro-Hungarian and Young Turk officers to muster an Albanian army against
which a whole Serbian army would be forced to fight. When a Serbian diplomat
reported at the end of May that Essad Pasha's position was desperate, and
since Albanian companies had then attacked the Serbian border at two places,
the Serbian government decided to move its army and take strategic positions
in Albania. Around 20,000 Serbian soldiers invaded Albania from three
directions. In only ten days the Serbian troops crushed the rebellious
movement, took Elbasan and Tirana and liberated the besieged Essad Pasha in
Durazzo. A special Albanian regiment was formed from Serbian troops in
Albania to implement thorough pacification in Albania and consolidate Essad
Pasha's position.8 Essad Pasha did not succeed in establishing
power in all the northern and middle regions of Albania. In the Mirdit
region, Isa Boljetinac, Bairam Cur and Hasan Pristina were hiding, while in
the Mat region, pasha's relative Ahmed Bey Zogu strove to come to an
agreement with the Serbian military authorities; at his personal request he
went to Nis for negotiations with Pasic.9
Serbia's military intervention met with general complaints in allied
circles, especially with Italy, whose claims to the Albanian coast,
warranted by a secret London Treaty (1915), were thus jeopardized by the
entrance of Serbian troops. Pasic replied to protests sent by ally
diplomacies that it was only a matter of temporary action and the troops
would withdraw after consolidating Essad Pasha's regime. To secure Serbian
positions in Albania after the war was over, the Serbian government
contracted a secret agreement in June, 1914, in Tirana, anticipating an
actual union between the two countries. Essad Pasha consented to rectify the
border to Serbia's advantage, and in return received warranty of Serbia's
support for his choice of ruler to Albania.10
The beginning of the German - Austro-Hungarian offensive against Serbia
in autumn, 1915, Bulgaria's engagement in war on the side of the Central
Powers and its attack on Serbia, forced the Serbian army to war on two
fronts and withdraw to the interior of the country. Bulgaria's incursion
into Macedonia threatened to cut off the retreat of the Serbian army to
Greece. Its retreat and Bulgaria's penetration into the depths of Macedonia
emboldened ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Metohia and Macedonia. Masses of
ethnic Albanians recruited into the Serbian army became deserters, and many
joined the Bulgarians who gave them arms. With Austro-Hungarian
advance-guards, they attacked Serbian soldiers whom they awaited in the Ibar
valley.
When the Serbian army reached Kosovo, followed by many refugees,
various diversions and surprise attacks on field trains were effected. In
many villages ethnic Albanians refused to provide food for the refugees and
soldiers. In Istok, on November 29, 1915, a company of Serbian soldiers
lagging behind was massacred. Near the St. Marko monastery in the vicinity
of Prizren, ethnic Albanians of the Kabash clan deceitfully disarmed and
then killed 60 Serbian soldiers. After the Serbian army retreated from Pec,
ethnic Albanians pillaged many Serbian homes and sacked shops.
Austro-Hungarian guards prevented them from entering the hospital in Pec, in
front of which they gathered to massacre the wounded soldiers. They set
ambushes near Mitrovica, killed soldiers and looted refugees. Serious crimes
were committed in Suva Reka and other regions of Kosovo.11
At the end of November, after the Bulgarians cut off all connections
with Salonika, the Serbian Supreme Command decided to withdraw the army to
Albania and make the necessary reorganizations there. The withdrawal of the
Serbian army through Albania, in winter 1915-1916, has been retained as the
"Albanian Golgotha". With the entrance of the Serbian army into Albania,
Essad Pasha issued an announcement appealing to the Albanian people to help
the amicable army and sell their food. In regions under his immediate
control, Albanian gendarmes considerably helped to ease the withdrawal of
the starving army, inflicted by disease, through impassable mountains
covered with snow. Essad Pasha's gendarmes took care of overnight stays,
food supplies and guarded the roads.
The regions to which Essad Pasha's authority did not stretch,
particularly Ljuma, Mirdits, Drims and partly in Mati, the Serbian army was
forced to clear with guns, on its way toward the Adriatic Sea. In Mirdits,
Mat and other regions, Catholic friars called to the ethnic Albanians to
confront the Serbian army in arms. Rumors spread that Prince Wilhelm von
Wied was arriving from Prizren with Austro-Hungarian troops, ethnic
Albanians avoided confrontation with large military formations; they
preferred to wait in ambush in high gorges for lagging soldiers and
refugees, and then and murder them. The heaviest battles were waged in the
Mirdits by a Combined Regiment of the Serbian army that fell into ambush at
the gorge of the Fani river. Around 800 ethnic Albanians commanded by a
Catholic friar let the army pass through only after they were given large
quantities of supplies from the field train. In places where there were no
armed assaults, the ethnic Albanians refused to rent rooms for overnight
stay and sell food.12
General chaos encircled the withdrawal of the Serbian army, with Essad
Pasha endeavoring to restore order with his gendarmes; but chaos and fear
caught hold of his people and disobedience ensued. Still, most of his troops
protected the Serbian army during its retreat and, whenever necessary,
fought together with it against Albanian companies that joined
Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian troops. After much turmoil and long marches
toward the south, the Serbian army was transferred by allied ships from
Albania to Corfu. Squeezed in between Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian troops,
Essad Pasha was forced to submit to the Italians; escorted by a Serbian
emissary, with a thousand most devoted followers, he crossed over to Italy
by boat.13
Kosovo and Metohia were divided into two Austro-Hungarian occupational
zones: Metohia entered the General Government "Montenegro", while a smaller
part of Kosovo with Kosovska Mitrovica and Vucitrn became part of the
General Government "Serbia". The largest part of Kosovo (Pristina, Prizren,
Gnjilane, Urosevac, Orahovac) was included in the composition of the
Bulgarian Military-Inspectional region "Macedonia".14
In Metohia and Kosovo, Austro-Hungarian authorities aimed to win over
the Albanian and Muslim populace: schools and the local administration were
conducted in the Albanian language. Albanian inhabitants were obviously
privileged. The occupational authorities of the Dual Monarchy immediately
established contact with the leaders. Many refugee chiefs returned from
Albania, while beys from Kosovo and former Turkish officers from Sandzak
cooperated most closely with the new authorities. Hasan Pristina and Dervish
Bey handled the conscription of volunteers who were assigned either to the
Bosnia-Herzegovinian gendarmes or the Turkish corps fighting at the front in
Galicia. A bulk of Albanian volunteers entered the service of
Austro-Hungarian military command in Kosovska Mitrovica and served in small
posse regiments. At the beginning of 1917, Dervish Bey was nominated as
commander of a distinct volunteer battalion (a force of 400 men), comprised
mainly of ethnic Albanians.15
The Bulgarian occupation of Kosovo has been retained by its great
oppression, internment of civilians, forced Bulgarization, and the
persecution and murder of priests. The former Raska-Prizren Metropolitan
Nicifor, was interned in Bulgaria and killed. Serbian priests suffered the
most, being persecuted and murdered on both occupational zones by ethnic
Albanians and Bulgarians. Bulgarian authorities assigned ethnic Albanians
and Turks to all village communities as chiefs, officials and gendarmes, who
helped their compatriots to raid and plunder without disturbance, to win
trials against Serbs in courts, and murders were often hushed up. In certain
villages, Turks and ethnic Albanians oppressed the Serbs of Kosovo in
conjunction.16
In the area between Juzna Morava and Kopaonik, a komitadji movement had
been growing since 1916, under the leadership of Kosta Vojinovic-Kosovac of
Mitrovica, which at the beginning of 1917 turned into a large national
insurrection with its seat at Toplica. ethnic Albanians took part in
persecuting Serbian komitadjis in the Mitrovica district. The armed
resistance was aided by many Serbs from Kosovo. Attempts made by insurgent
leaders to win over ethnic Albanians through negotiations failed. Albanian
companies attacked the insurgents, and in October, 1917, special Albanian
and Turkish units were formed to fight them.17
After being transferred to Corfu, the Serbian army, reorganized and
supplemented by volunteers, was disposed along the Salonika front along with
allied troops. Crossing over from Italy to Paris, with the aid of the French
diplomacy, Essad Pasha arrived at Salonika and formed a new Albanian
government which acquired the status of an emigrant ally cabinet, owing to
Serbian and French intermediation. A special army unit was formed from
around 1,000 gendarmes (Essad Pasha's camp and Albanian archers), and
disposed in juxtaposition to the Serbian Ohrid regiment as part of the
French East Army. Premier Nikola Pasic's idea was to admix the forces with
Serbian ones and direct operations toward Kosovo and north
Albania.18
In autumn, 1918, subsequent to the penetration of the Salonika Front, a
widespread national insurrection developed in Serbia. When the
Austro-Hungarian troops abandoned the line Skoplje-Pristina, the
insurrection spread to Kosovo and Metohia. French and Serbian troops
commanded by General Tranier emerged in Kosovo at the beginning of October,
liberating Pristina, Prizren, Gnjilane and Mitrovica. Serbian komitadji
companies, lead by Kosta Milovanovic Pecanac, met with French troops in
Mitrovica and immediately set off to Pec. Serbian komitadjis surrounded the
town, compelling the considerably stronger Austro-Hungarian troops to
surrender; then the French cavalry trotted into town. Divisions of the
second Serbian army also arrived in Kosovo and established civil and
temporary martial law.19
After the arrival of Serbian and French units, the Albanian people bore
themselves coldly and with reserve. When the bodies of troops continued to
advance toward Montenegro, ethnic Albanians began to assail solitary
soldiers at the end of October. The reason was the injunction given by
Serbian military authorities to collect all state property left from the
Bulgarian administration. Obtaining supplies from communities with arms left
behind, the ethnic Albanians began to assail Serbian civil and military
authorities, while the injunction to surrender arms met with heavy
resistance. Community seats, villages and small military garrisons were
attacked, while during November entire villages in Dr