nal and
national emancipation of their people, but their influence among the
illiterate commoners of Muslim faith, bound to the tradition of the sheriat
and tribal privileges, was entirely negligible. The "Italo - Albanian
Committee" acted under the patronage of the Italian government, which saw it
as a means of economic and political penetration to the Balkans. In
Constantinople, an influential literary-political circle of Albanian
intellectuals grew to become, in 1877, the "Central Committee for Defending
Albanian Rights", propagating territorial-administrative autonomy within the
framework of the Ottoman Empire. The plan of the Committee, published in the
Tercuman - i Sark paper, anticipated the founding of a single Albanian
vilayet that would encompass the Kosovo, Bitolj, Scutari and Janjevo
vilayets. Plans were then already voiced for including even of the Salonika
vilayet.4
For the first time since their foundation, the activities of Albanian
committees met with some response from wider Albanian circles, due to a
perilous psychosis on account of aspirations arising from the neighboring
Serbian countries. Around 300 delegates assembled in Prizren from different
regions, but mostly big landholders (pashas and beys), tribal chiefs and
religious heads. At a congregation in the Prizren mosque, a "League for
defending the rights of the Albanian people", more widely known as the
Albanian League, was founded. The main board, composed of 60 members,
presided over by Abdul Bey Frasheri, sent a memorandum to the Great Powers
in Berlin on June 15, requesting for the territorial integrity of the
Ottoman Empire to be preserved with its borders as they were prior to the
war.5
The statute of the League, called Kararname (Book of Decisions)
underscored fidelity to the sheriat law, Islam and the Porte, and the
determination to defend in arms the totality of Ottoman territories. The
first article of the Kararname underlines the League's "aim not to accept
and to remain distanced from any government except that of the Porte and to
struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories". Article 2
states: "Our aim is to preserve the imperial rights for his revered majesty
the sultan, our lord." Article 6 states a definite attitude toward the
neighboring Balkan countries: "Having Balkan soil before us, we should not
allow foreign armies to tread our land. We should not recognize Bulgaria's
name. If Serbia does not leave peacefully the illegally occupied countries,
we should send bashibazouks (akindjias) and strive until the end to liberate
these regions, including Montenegro."6
The main demand of the Albanian League was to form from the territories
of four vilayets: Scutari, Janjevo, Kosovo and Bitolj, a single "Albanian
vilayet" in the Ottoman Empire. With its first step, the Albanian national
movement defined the range of its territorial pretensions. The spaces of
these four vilayets contained 44% ethnic Albanians, 19,2% Macedonian Slavs,
11,4% Serbs, 9,2% Greeks, 6,5 Walachs, 9,3% Ottoman Turks, 0,4% Jews,
Armenians and Gypsies.7 The territorial demands of the national
movement expanded to Old Serbia and Macedonia, regions where ethnic
Albanians did not comprise the majority of the populace, thus bearing the
germ of new clashes with the two Serbian states. It was based on extremely
anti-Slavic and anti-Serbian determination.
The activities of the League pointed to a breach in religious beliefs,
varying degrees of national awareness and opposing conceptions of national
future, all within the Albanian national movement.
The political activities of the League were controlled by notable
landholders, religious heads and tribal chiefs who were by their positions,
faith and conceptions profoundly bound to the Ottoman state and its
ideology. Relying upon the lower layers of the Albanian and Muslim people,
whose hostility for the Serbs paralleled the victories of Serbian armies,
they gave the whole movement a pro-Islamic and legitimist character in the
first year of its work. Abdul Bey Frasheri and delegates from south Albania,
advocates of the so-called "radical movement", remained a minority in their
propositions to sever all ties with the Porte. Yet, they coincided in
designating the territorial extension of "Albanian countries":
the new independent state was to be composed of four principalities: 1)
south Albania with Epirus and Janina; 2) north and mid Albania with the
regions around Scutari, Tirana and Elbasan; 3) Macedonia with the towns
Debar, Skoplje Gostivar, Prilep, Veles, Bitolj and Ohrid; 4) Old Serbia with
the towns: Prizren, Pec, Djakovica, Mitrovica, Pristina, Gnjilane, Presevo,
Kumanovo, Novi Pazar and Sjenica.8
In the conceived "Great Albania", their privileged position was taken
for granted. Until the Eastern crisis, it was based upon their place in the
system of the Ottoman state organization which allowed for the heedless
exploitation of the subjugated populace. In the national programs of the
League, preserving religious, tribal and political privileges, there was no
room for non-Albanian peoples: their political inequality was not
anticipated nor legal and economic protection warranted. Religious and
ethnic intolerance acquired, on the other hand, a new content. The Serbs in
Prizren were even compelled to sign and seal the petition of the League sent
to the Berlin Congress.
The leadership of the Albanian national movement, originating mainly
from feudal circles, saw, in the activities of the League, a means to
preserve the existing privileges, an opportunity to liberate the lower
strata from paying taxes, a continuity for free tribal self-government and
space for demographic expansion. Common interests soon made the League an
instrument of the new Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876-1909), inspirator of the
pan-Islamic ideology. Its anti-Slav disposition was to benefit the sultan in
revising the San Stefano Peace Treaty, to prevent international confirmation
of territorial losses or new concessions at the Berlin Congress. The League
was to act as a deterrent through which to preserve the totality of the
Ottoman state. Thus, at the inaugural assembly of the Albanian League, there
were delegates from Bosnia and Muslims from the sanjak of Novi Pazar, and
subsequently, though with little success, Albanian volunteers were mustered
to resist Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.9
The pro-Islamic and pro-Turk character of the League met with
disapproval among Catholic Albanians in north Albania. Italian consul to
Scutari, Bernardo Berio, believed that only the Catholics were true carriers
of the idea of Albanian autonomy and breakup with the Turks. Prenk Bib Doda,
hereditary prince of the Mirdits, did not wish to participate in the
activities of the League for the preponderance of Albanian Muslims in its
orders, beside holding different claims. A council in Scutari, independent
of the League in Prizren, addressed the British Premier Benjamin Disraeli
with the request for the formation of an independent Albania to bar Slavic
invasion toward the Adriatic sea.
Diplomats of Great Powers with consulates in Prizren and Scutari
(Russia, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Italy) reported that the formation
of the Albanian League was urged directly through aid from the Porte and
haste from vilayet officials and military commanders. The Italian consul to
Scutari observed "strange connections between the official bodies of Turkish
authorities and a lawfully illegal movement", since the Turkish authorities
paid for the arrival of Albanian delegates to Prizren and supplied the
followers of the League with arms and ammunition.10 The same
conclusions were drawn by a diplomat of the Dual Monarchy who warned that
the activities of the League's local committee in Prizren evolved through
conference with the highest officials in the vilayet, who "[...] armed the
local Muslim Albanians with excellent guns, provided them with ammunition
and granted authority upon their leaders exceeding the authorities of
government bodies [...]". He had anticipated that the Porte "would no longer
be able to induce the people to lay down their arms, and the consequences
soon to arise will be situations on which the Porte will have to
count".11
The decisions of the Berlin Congress sanctioned the expansion of Serbia
and Montenegro, and, among other things, obligated the Porte to cede Plav
and Gusinje. The failure of the Turkish state to defend its interests before
the European powers caused the leadership of the League to gradually turn to
ideas of total autonomy. Councils and branches had around 16,000 men in arms
directed toward the Turkish authorities and army, being discontented by the
outcome of events. The first attempt of the Porte to restore order caused a
massive Albanian rebellion. The Empire's emissary, Marshall Mehmed Ali
Pasha, who arrived to interpret the decisions of the Berlin Congress, was
killed at the end of August 1878 in Djakovica.12
Resistance to the Porte increased with its attempts to collect taxes
from the ethnic Albanians and carry out recruitment. In May 1879, the
leadership of the League, overcome by the so-called "autonomous movement",
demanded judicial and complete administrative autonomy from the Porte, and
already in July, the decision was set to depose Turkish rule. Bodies of the
League took over rule in Djakovica, Prizren, Pec, Mitrovica and Vucitrn.
This kind of parallel rule lasted until 1880, when the demand for the total
independence of Albania was underscored. All attempts made by Constantinople
to pacify the ethnic Albanians were futile. The Porte then resorted to
military measures. As it no longer needed favors from the League, a military
campaign under the command of Dervish Pasha was dispatched to the rebelling
regions. Beside sporadic conflicts with the ethnic Albanians, it took the
towns controlled by the League and established Turkish rule. Instead of Plav
and Gusinje, Ulcinj and its shores were ceded to Montenegro. Destroyed by
military force, the League soon ceased to exist, while its most prominent
leaders were arrested and deported to Asia Minor.13
Cautiously encroaching upon the political vacuum created after the idea
for Albanian independence was expressed, was Austria-Hungary. To bar the
expansion of the Slavic states, it defended the rights of ethnic Albanians,
mainly the Mirdits. Count Andrassi believed that it was in the best interest
of the Monarchy to direct Albanian resistance against the Serbs and
Montenegrins, thereby sustaining traditional hostility between the ethnic
Albanians and Slavs. Plans were discussed in Vienna for the creation of
autonomous Albania to dam up Italian consolidation on the shores of the
Adriatic.
Even though feudal layers abhorred the aspirations of the Dual Monarchy
regarding the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the military
occupation of the Novi Pazar sanjak, the ethnic Albanians received these
decisions comparatively peacefully. The Austria-Hungarian diplomacy aided
Albanian requests in its border dispute with Montenegro, while its agents,
infiltrated from Bosnia, commended the order, security and improved living
conditions introduced by the new government in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The
Forte's emissaries were convincing the ethnic Albanians that the
Austria-Hungarian troops in the Novi Pazar sanjak arrived at the invitation
of padishah. As it already had secure political strongholds in the Catholic
missions in north Albania, the Dual Monarchy strove to win over the ethnic
Albanians of Muslim faith. Its further penetration into the depths of the
Ottoman Empire by way of the Novi Pazar sanjak depended mostly upon the
ethnic Albanians and their political orientation. The destruction of the
League was the first encouraging step in that direction.15
1 R. Pavlovic, Seobe Srba i Arbanasa u ratovima 1876 i 1877-1878.
godine, Glasnik etnografskog instituta, 4-6 (1955-1957), pp. 53-104; D.
Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu, 137-138.
2 Srbija 1878, p. 324.
3 B. Hrabak, Prvi izvestaji diplomata velikih sila o Prizrenskoj ligi,
Balcanica, IX (1978), p. 237.
4 B. Hrabak, Ideje o arbanaskoj autonomiji i nezavisnosti 1876-1880.
godine, Istorijski casopis, XXV-XXVI (1978-1979), pp. 160-165.
5 S. Skendi, Albanian National Awakening 1878-1912, Princeton 1967, pp.
31-53.
6 B. Hrabak, Prvi izvestaji diplomata velikih sila o Prizrenskoj ligi,
pp. 238-239. Article Kararname in: A. Hadri, Prilog rasvetljavanju
Prizrenske lige (1878-1881), Perparimi, 1 (1967), 36-37; useful survey on
the Albanian League by D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu, pp. 142-148; cf.
Lidhja Shqiptare ne dokumentet osmane 1878-1881, Tirane 1978; P. Bartl. Die
Albanische muslime zur Zeit der Nationalen Unabh ngigkeitsbrewegung
(1878-1912), pp. 115-192.
7 By confessions, 52.8% were Muslim, 27.8% Orthodox, 15% Catholic.
Among the Albanians 77% were of Muslim faith (H. D. Schanderl, Die
Albanienpolitik Osterreich Ungarns und Italiens 1877-1908, Wiesbaden 1971,
pp. 9-10). A statistics of the population in Old Serbia complied prior to
the wars, by Austro-Hungarian consul to Prizren, Lipic, indicated that
Albanians were not the ethnic majority in the Nis sanjak liberated by
Serbia. In Leskovac 48.58% of Albanians lived, in Vranje 27.55%, whereas in
Nis they were not even listed in the statistics. The Albanians were the
majority in Toplice only in Prokuplje (57.86%) and Kursumlija (92.68%); B.
Hrabak, op. cit., pp. 256-257.
8 B. Stulli, Albansko pitanje 1878-1882, Rad JAZU, 318, (1959), pp.
321-323; D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu, pp. 144.
10 B. Stulli, op. cit., pp. 337-341; B. Hrabak, Arbanasi i njihova liga
prema okupaciji Bosne i Hercegovine, Prilozi instituta za istoriju u
Sarajevu, 16 (1979), pp. 37-48; Cf. H. Kalesi, Napredne ideje nekih ideologa
albanskog nacionalnog pokreta u drugoj polovini XIX veka o saradnji
balkanskih naroda, in: Oslobodilacki pokreti jugoslovenskih naroda od XVI
veka do pocetka Prvog svetskog rata, Beograd 1976, 225-242; D. T. Batakovic,
Osnove arbanaske prevlasti na Kosovu i Metohiji 1878-1903, Ideje, 5-6
(1987), pp. 36-38.
11 B. Hrabak, Italijanski konzul u Skadru B. Berio o arbanaskom pitanju
1876-1878. godine, Casopis za suvremenu povijest 3 (1978), pp. 32-33.
12 B. Hrabak, Prvi izvestaji diplomata velikih sila o Prizrenskoj ligi,
pp. 252, 262-263; B. Stulli, op. cit., p. 323.
13 B. Hrabak, Prvi izvestaji diplomata velikih sila o Prizrenskoj ligi,
pp. 268-270.
14 J. Hadzi-Vasiljevic, Arbanaska liga, pp. 100-102,109-127; B. Stulli,
op. cit., pp. 343-348; S. Skendi, op. cit., pp. 93-107.
15 D. Mikic, Prizrenska liga i austrougarska okupacija Bosne i
Hercegovine, 297- 328; H. D. Schnaderl, op. cit., pp. 43-47.
Court-Martial in Pristina
The entire activity of the Albanian League was of clear and explicit
Anti-Serbian character. The motives for its formation and the decisions of
the Berlin congress caused severe oppression upon the Serbian populace.
Albanian attacks on the Serbian border ended, as a rule, by depredating
Serbian villages on the Turkish side. From the beginning to mid June 1878
alone, according to the information of French diplomats, 112 Christian Serbs
were killed, mostly distinguished village hosts. Serbian houses were burnt,
and those who attempted to escape were ambushed. In Gnjilane nine women were
abducted and brutally tortured. Shortly before convoking the Congress of
Berlin, at least 60 Serbs escaped terror from Pristina alone, even though,
at the time, the bashibazouk leaders officially spoke favorably of Christian
Serbs in petitions sent to the Porte.1
Fanaticized followers of the League believed the Serbs of Kosovo and
Metohia to be the major cause for all Albanian misfortunes. An Albanian
leader openly stated to Russian Consul Yastrebov: "We will attack the
Montenegrins on Christmas and kill them. And if we fail - we will return to
Pec and the vicinity and burn and saber all the Christians."2
Yastrebov's following report indicated that these were not mere
threats:
"Three Albanians raped a thirteen-year-old girl from Dobrotin. The
Serbs dare not complain to the authorities. Those who complained paid with
their heads, and none of them trust the protection of a foreign government
any longer. People are saying that atrocities as these [1879] were not
committed even after the Crimean war, the general impression is that all
have conspired to crush the Serbian element."3 In a complaint
lodged to the Russian tzar in July 1879, the Serbs of Pec stated that since
the beginning of the Eastern crisis, over 100 people were killed in the Pec
district alone and that many atrocities were committed. The citizens of Pec
pleaded with Alexander II to take them under his wing and help the Visoki
Decani monastery in the Pec Patriarchate against plunder and blackmail
committed by outlaws at the orders of Pec agas.4
Terror over the Serbs did not wane during the entire period of the
Albanian League rule. Since 1880, when its leadership severed all tied with
the Porte, the position of the Serbian populace was aggravated, since
tribute had to be paid to both the Turks and ethnic Albanians: "The Serbs
had two lords; they paid tribute to two rulers, maintained two armies,
without having any protection or security."5 Yastrebov's reports
dating 1880 and 1881 are filled with information on the plight of the Serbs
- murders, robberies, arsons of houses and estates, and attempts to forceful
conversion to Islam. One characteristic report reads: "The situation of the
Christians in these regions is gloomy everywhere. Refugees from Serbia and
Bosnia (muhadjirs) pillage Christian houses, especially in the Pristina,
Gnjilane and Pec district. The same atrocities are committed by local ethnic
Albanians, even though they gave their bessa not to disturb them, but the
bessa is valid only for Muslims, it holds no obligation toward the
Christians."6
Incursions into Serbian state territory were at full swing during the
Albanian League, when the new Serbian frontiers were not yet secured.
Military advance guards were attacked, cattle was raided and Serbian
villages along the demarcation line were burnt. Following the Berlin
Congress, Albanian incursions into Serbia increased: their raiding
companies, sacking and burning everything in their wake, reached even
Kursumlija. On their return, all Serbian villages on the Turkish side were
attacked. Expecting an outcome and avoiding new conflicts, the Serbian
government did not persecute the assailants out of territory. The petitions
it sent to the Porte to stop the incursions remained without
response.7
The ethnic Albanians assaulted the teachers of the Serbian Seminary at
Prizren. They looked all over town seeking to kill one of them, someone
named Petar Kostic, for writing a letter on the political situation in
Prizren. Kostic was saved from certain death be fleeing to the Russian
consulate; following a hearing in front of the Turkish authorities in the
presence of Yastrebov, he was sent to Bitolj, since the Prizren authorities
could nor warrant him safety.8
The reign of the Albanian League left hard consequences on the position
of the Serbs in Old Serbia: "Created upon a reaction to the realization of
the national liberational programs of Balkan Christians, especially the
Serbs" - underscored Dimitrije Bogdanovic - "it was laid on the foundations
of the Great Albania ideas, ignoring the rights of Serbs and other Slavic
peoples of the Balkans, and of the Greeks, to live on their lands protected
under the law. A clash was inevitable, and the aggressive anti-Serbian
concept of the League permanently placed a burden upon the relations of
these two peoples. Simultaneously, the Great Albanian concept of the League
was offering itself to certain European powers as an instrument for their
own penetration to the Balkans."9 Violence upon the Serbs had
become, owing to the political programs of the League, one of the strategic
determinations in the Albanian national movement. Until the Eastern crisis,
violence upon the Serbs had been elemental rather than the result of a
conceptualized policy. Routing Serbs from their hearths by perpetual
oppression had become, owing to the political will of the League, a kind of
religious and national duty obligatory to all ethnic Albanians in the Kosovo
vilayet. The target of Albanian crimes in the decades to come were the Serbs
of the Pec, Pristina and Prizren sanjaks.10
After the Serbo-Ottoman wars the Serbs were looked upon with distrust
by both the Turks and ethnic Albanians. Even though they were unarmed,
decimated and pressured by the surge of newly settled muhadjirs, the Serbs
were considered an unreliable and potentially revolutionary element.
Following the 1878 war, Turkey promised a pardon by a general decree for all
subjects who had in any way violated authority. The Empire's amnesty was
officially proclaimed, but the movements and behavior of the Serbs were
regarded very suspiciously.
A false tip that the Serbs were preparing to rise in Kosovo on the very
day Serbia was proclaimed a kingdom, resulted in the formation of a drumhead
trial in Pristina, 1882. During five years of active work, based on
suspicion but without substantial evidence, around 7,000 Serbs were
butchered "for seditious conduct", and another 300 were sentenced to hard
labor from 6 to 101 years. The most respected people were convicted,
teachers and merchants, priests and serfs. Upon the pronouncement of a
sentence, they were sent to prisons in Salonika or exiled to Asia Minor.
Only in 1888, some of convicts that survived in prison were pardoned owing
to the intermediation of the Russian and British diplomacy.11
Sima Andrejevic Igumanov published a book in 1882 Sadanje nesretno
stanje u Staroj Srbiji (The currently unfortunate times in Old Serbia)
filled with information on atrocities committed by the Turks and ethnic
Albanians at the beginning of the drumhead trial's activities. Disturbed
because Serbia would pay more attention to the sufferings of its compatriots
in Turkey, he attempted to draw the public eye to the new swing of violence:
"Our homeland has been turned into hell by dark crazed blood-suckers and
masses of melting Asian tyrants, since banditry, violence, deletion,
espionage, denunciation, daily arrests, accusations, trials, sentences,
exiles, arrogation of property and life in many ways, the wails, mourns and
burial of the executed, all these have become ordinary events everywhere in
Old Serbia and Macedonia."12 Since Dervish Pasha's campaign
against the League, the position of the Serbs in Pec and Djakovica has
continually deteriorated; thus the people were preparing to emigrate to
Serbia. From the Pec region alone, according to data collected by Yastrebov,
around 1,500 families emigrated to Serbia since the wars to 1883. Upon
collection of the tribute and tithe, the Serbs in Metohia were compelled to
pay, beside for themselves, for those who moved, and often a part instead of
Albanian Muslims. Their complaints to the authorities remained unanswered.
13
1 B. Hrabak, Prvi izvestaji diplomata velikih sila o Prizrenskoj ligi,
p. 253.
2 V. Bovan, Jastrebov u Prizrenu, Kulturno-prosvetne prilike u Prizrenu
i rad ruskog konzula I. S. Jastrebova u drugoj polovini devetnaestog veka,
Pristina 1983, p.147.
3 Ibid., p. 146.
4 V. Stojancevic, Zalbe Srba Pecanaca na turske zulume 1876-1878.
godine Arhivski pregled, 1-2 9 (1978) pp. 151-160.
5 J. Hadzi-Vasiljevic, Arbanaska liga, pp. 109.
6 V. Bovan, op. cit., pp. 160.
7 J. Hadzi-Vasiljevic, Arbanaska liga, pp. 6-10.
8 R. M. Grujic, Dva izvestaja konzula Jastrebova o akciji Albanske lige
u Prizrenu 1880. god., Zbornik za istoriju Juzne Srbije, I (1936), pp.
403-406.
9 D. Bogdanovic; Knjiga o Kosovu, pp. 147-148.
10 P. Orlovic [Svetislav St. Simic], Pitanje o Staroj Srbi]i, Beograd
1901, pp. 3-11; D. T. Batakovic, Osnove arbanaske prevlasti, p. 37.
11 J. Popovic, op. cit., pp. 247-248; V. Bovan, op. cit., 168-171;
Istorija srpskog naroda, VI/1, pp. 323-326
12 Savremenici o Kosovu i Metohiji 1852-1912, pp. 101.
13 Around 60 Serbian families from the Pec nahi that had returned to
Turkey refused to resettle in the Pec nahi but instead, inhabited the
villages on the slopes of Kopaonik where there were not many Albanians (V.
Bovan, op. cit; pp. 174,178).
Albanians Under the Sultan's Protection
Abdulhamid II discontinued the reform tradition of his predecessors,
encouraged refeudalization and underscored pan-Islamism as the basic
principle of his reign. As supreme head of Islam, he strove to consolidate
the country internally through pan-Islamic ideology, and by restoring
religious fanaticism had hoped to create a counterbalance to all national
movements in the ethnically heterogeneous Empire. He believed the Muslim
Albanians were natural enemies of the Orthodox Slavic population -Serbs
above all - not wholely by religion, but also by race, historical traditions
and national aspirations. Thus Muslim Albanians had imposed themselves as
the best allies in crushing all Christian movements; the Christian revolts
and national movements were, according to the sultan's most profound
conviction, the basic cause of all unrest in the Ottoman Empire.
The padishah sought support for the new policy with the conservative
feudal circles. He invited the most prominent Albanian chiefs of Old Serbia
to Constantinople with the aim of binding them to him by bestowing gifts,
decorations and promotions. Among his followers from Kosovo, the most
outstanding were Ah Pasha of Gusinje and Hadzi Mula Zeka of Pec. Religious
heads, the mullahs and softas, stirred up religious fanaticism among the
illiterate and ignorant believers. Together with the feudal notables and
upper classes of Albanian society, they blamed the Serbs as the source
hazardous to Albanian interests and the stability of the Ottoman Empire. The
formation of the drumhead court martial in Pristina marked the opening of a
joint activity of Turkish authorities and Albanian notables in routing the
Serbian populace of the Kosovo vilayet.1
The sultan's policy to use ethnic Albanians as the striking force in
weakening the Serbian ethnicon in spaces neighboring Serbia and Montenegro,
began to take on the form of a long-term political program toward the end of
the eighties of the 19th century. With the chain of new muhadjir settlements
the dense network of Serbian habitats was severed. The sultan and the Porte
were creating a sort of Albanian military frontier toward
Serbia.2
The settlement of the muhadjirs was encouraged by the Porte, while the
Albanian feudal lords of Kosovo saw to their being properly settled in new
habitats. Supporting them, however, was another burden upon the Serbs. Lab
soon became an ethnically pure Albanian region. Along the northern borders
of the Kosovo vilayet, in the Novo Brdo rivers, Kriva Reka and Gornja Morava
with Izmornik, new muhadjir settlements were springing. In Kriva Reka alone
the number of Albanian homes increased from 52% to 65%. The demographic
situation was rapidly improving to the advantage of the ethnic Albanians;
the muhadjirs had inundated mountainous rims hovering over the valley of
Kosovo. Serving as an impenetrable rampart, Albanian villages provided a
safeguard for the northern borders of Turkey.3
The policies of the Porte and the sultan's protection contributed to
the consolidation of a belief held among the ethnic Albanians that a
division of Turkish provinces in Europe would cause a division of the four
vilayets they considered their own territory. Such policy promoted a
stronger bondage of Muslim Albanians to the Ottoman state ideology. The
destruction of the League did not raise the question of joint
Albanian-Turkish resistance against the enemies of the Empire. Vali of
Kosovo, Abdi Pasha, estimated, in 1883, that in case of war, the faithful
ethnic Albanians would be sufficient in defending Old Serbia. Albanian and
Turkish relations toward the Serbs as the seditious element encouraged new
acts of violence. When a Serbian monk Martirije was murdered on his way to
Pec, Albanian outlaws announced their scheme - all Serbian priests and noted
people in Pec should be murdered. Then, they believed, there would be no
fear in case they were to fall under Serbian of Austro-Hungarian rule. The
vali came to Pec, but they told him there that the complaints of Christian
Serbs were unfounded.4
Aside to practical political tasks assigned to them, the ethnic
Albanians had partly to thank the immense influence of the padishah's body
guards for the sultan's mercy and protection during his entire reign.
Abdulhamid II rarely left his court in Yildiz, and in time became kind of a
prisoner of his own personal guards, a fact observed at the Porte by all
diplomats of Great Powers. Under its influence and owing to the
intermediation of high officials of Albanian origin, the sultan tolerated
all the unlawful acts committed by ethnic Albanians in Old Serbia - refusal
to pay tribute, to provide recruits for the regular army, to respect the
local vilayet authorities and answer to court for offences committed.
In Kosovo, Metohia and in the neighboring areas a division of
government was tacitly established. Corrupt Turkish officials gladly agreed
to cooperate with Albanian feudal and tribal circles. Due to high protection
from Constantinople enjoyed by the ethnic Albanians, the few conscientious
government officials in the Kosovo vilayet did not even try to pursue
Albanian perpetrators and rebels since they were liable to be punished and
replaced after their complaints were lodged directly to the sultan. Albanian
feudal circles secured full economic and political dominance in the Kosovo
vilayet without much effort.5
The policy of d tente toward the ethnic Albanians and the toleration of
violence committed upon the Serbian populace created a peculiar sense of
might in the lower classes of Albanian society. The knowledge that they
would not be punished whatever their offence, emboldened ethnic Albanians to
an appreciable disregard for Turkish authorities. Social division increased
the layer of outlaws (kacaks) who lived solely of banditry and raiding.
Since their attacks were directed mostly to the Serbs, the Turkish
authorities did not pursue them, except when required to do so by
representatives of Great Powers, and subsequently, by Serbian diplomatic
officials. However, even in then the perpetrators were not severely
punished. The policy of impunity exercised upon the ethnic Albanians during
the eighties, particularly the nineties, turned into anarchy, causing thus
anxiety to both the vali of Kosovo and the Sublime Porte.6
Albanian risings, usually local ones breaking out from time to time
characterized the whole period until the Young Turk Revolution. At the end
of September, 1884, in the Prizren region, particularly in Ljuma, an
Albanian rebellion broke out against an attempt of the Turkish authorities
to list the population and its properties to determine the amount of new
taxes. The rebelling ethnic Albanians of Ljuma drove out the administrative
officials from Prizren and devastated the town. They dispersed only when the
sultan promised them there wold be no listings nor tax-paying. The Turkish
authorities attempted neither to pursue nor disarm them.7
The 1885 war of Serbia and Bulgaria, which soon ended with the defeat
of the Serbian troops at Slivnica, upset the ethnic Albanians. Fearing
danger, they gave their bessa (word of honor) which obligated all the tribes
to discontinue mutual conflicts over estates and blood feuds. Fermentation
was at its peak in Djakovica and Mitrovica, since ammunition was smuggled
out of their arsenals in case of new international clashes. Large
conferences of tribal chiefs were held in Vucitrn. Any implication of
foreign peril or international crises in the vicinity of the Empire's
autonomous regions (the unification of Bulgaria and East Rumelia in 1885,
the Serbian-Bulgarian war), brought together Albanian tribes and Turkish
administrative and military officials. 8
1 D. Mikic, Albansko pitanje i albansko-srpske veze u XIX veku (do
1912), pp. 144-146.
2 D. T. Batakovic, Osnove arbanaske prevlasti, p. 38.
3 D. Bogdanovic, Knjiga o Kosovu, p 148.
4 V. Bovan, op. cit., pp. 180,183-184.
5 Ibid , p 39; Dj. Mikic, Drustvene i ekonomske prilike kosovskih Srba,
pp. 24-25.
6 B Perunicic, Pisma srpskih konzula iz Pristine 1890-1900, Beograd
1985, pp. 306-359.
7 V. Bovan, op. cit., pp. 185-187
8 Istorija srpskog naroda, VI/1, pp. 274-277.
Activities of the Serbian Government
All attempts made by the Serbian government to establish contact with
ethnic Albanians in Old Serbia were futile. The administration of Milutin
Garasanin, incited by the rising in the Prizren sanjak, tried to approach
the Albanian chiefs. The initiative came from the Serbian county chief in
Nis who came into contact with certain Albanian chiefs of Prizren, Pec,
Djakovica and Novi Pazar. Todor Stankovic, the county chief of Vranje,
proposed to win over Albanian leaders first in areas along the Serbian
borders, and then others, by promises that Serbia would liberate them from
the Turks. The plan was to establish contact with all notable tribal chiefs
from the Serbian border to Scutari. The cooperation particularly counted on
was that of Montenegrin duke and writer Marko Miljanov was, renowned in
north Albania as a hero and a friend of ethnic Albanians. Competent circles
in Serbia strove, with Albanian cooperation, to end Austro-Hungarian
influence among them. It soon proved that Albanian chiefs would not respond
to offers for cooperation. Negotiations ended when the Bulgarian-Serbian war
began.1
Serbia knew little of the happenings in Kosovo and Metohia in the
eighties of the 19th century. News arrived from merchants and refugees,
border guards and through the Prizren Seminary. Until the mid-80's, Serbia's
activities on the national affairs in Turkey were discontinued due to
internal unrest and war with Bulgaria.
By a secret convention with Austria-Hungary in 1881, Serbia was
obligated to carry out its external affairs only in agreement with Vienna.
The Dual Monarchy allowed for the possibility of expansion to the south,
excepting the Novi Pazar sanjak. The friendly orientation of Prince Milan
toward Austria, which had blessed his proclamation of king in 1882,
displayed Serbia's helplessness to act on its own accord toward other
countries. Its defeat with Bulgaria considerably weakened its positions on
the Balkans.2
The national activities of Serbia toward Old Serbia could only develop
within the narrow framework of ecclesiastical and educational actions. The
first steps were taken in 1885 by widening the networks of educational and
ecclesiastical institutions. Garasanin's government had been preparing books
to be sent to Old Serbia since spring 1885. For the free distribution of
books about Turkey, regarded by the authorities as a perilous means of
anti-state propaganda, the Serbian books carried the seal of Sima
Andrejevic's Fund in Belgrade. Rector of the Prizren Seminary Petar Kostic,
was sent to Constantinople to obtain a license from the Turkish censors for
the free distribution of books.3 A patriotic association St.
Sava's Society" was founded in Belgrade, 1887, to revive national activities
in Serbian countries under Turkish rule and promote a systematic search of
the past and of contemporary political and ethnographic conditions. In 1887
the Ministry of Education opened a department for Serbian schools outside of
Serbia to serve as contacts for the St Sava's Society. Since 1889, this
department was taken over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Serbian
government has taken over the operation of national actions in
Turkey.4
Following the Serbian-Bulgarian war a new era began with more active
work on the national affairs. The defeat at Slivnica sealed the autocratic
reign of King Milan (abdicated in 1888), issuing forth a breath of
enthusiasm for the task of collecting national forces for activity in
occupied Serbian countries.
The arrival of Stojan Novakovic, a notable diplomat and one of the most
renown scientists of his time, at the head of the Serbian legation in
Constantinople in 1886, marked the beginning of a widely set
educational-political activity in Serbian countries under Turkish rule. The
whole national activity was switched over to diplomatic service. That very
year Novakovic concluded a temporary consular convention with Turkey. By
1887, the first Serbian consulates were opened in Skoplje and Salonika. To
crown the national activity, the network of new Serbian diplomatic missions
was encircled by the opening of consulates in Pristina and Bitolj in
1889.5
The Serbian government sent the most able men into diplomatic service,
educated at the best foreign universities (Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg).
In the consulate of Pristina alone diplomats with doctorates served
(Miroslav Spalajkovic, Milan D. Milojevic, Milan Pecanac) and writers
(Vojislav Ilic, Branislav Nusic and Milan Rakic) whose works, of which many
were written during their stay in Kosovo, comprise the present-day classics
of Serbian literature. These young highly patriotic men, delegates of a new
generation of the Serbian intelligentsia, accepted distasteful tasks to help
the mission of national liberation at the hardest place for a diplomatic
position, in Pristina.6
Ties with Serbia and its attendance to the national affairs had immense
importance in preserving national awareness with the people. An intensive
action for education followed. Money for these educational activities in
Kosovo arrived regularly, and new teachers were engaged. Within a short time
a large number of new schools were opened and work was resumed in many of
the old ones. The administration of Greek metropolitans over the
Raska-Prizren Eparchy, which encompassed almost all of Old Serbia, hindered
Serbia's aims to encircle its work on the national affairs. In 1885, Serbia
began ne