Albania during the Balkan Wars

Albania during the Balkan Wars
	Part of Balkan Wars
Date	8 October 1912 - 21 February 1914
Location	Kosovo vilayet, Scutari vilayet, Janina vilayet, Manastir vilayet
Result	Albanian Declaration of Independence Formation of the Provisional Government of Albania and the Independent State of Albania ; Massacres of the Albanians from the Balkan League forces; London Conference which would define the borders of the new Albanian State, greatly reducing what the Provisional Government had claimed ; Proclamation of Wilhelm of Wied as Prince of Albania ; Recognition of Albania as an Independent country;
Belligerents
Commanders and leaders
Strength
Casualties and losses
	up to 100,000 killed or died inside of Albania and over 120,000 killed in total; 60,000–300,000 expelled (by 1914)

Last updated April 07, 2024

Independent Albania was proclaimed on 28 November 1912. This chapter of Albanian history was shrouded in controversy and conflict as the larger part of the self-proclaimed region had found itself controlled by the Balkan League states: Serbia, Montenegro and Greece from the time of the declaration until the period of recognition when Albania relinquished many of the lands originally included in the declared state. Since the proclamation of the state in November 1912, the Provisional Government of Albania asserted its control over a small part of central Albania including the important cities of Vlorë and Berat.

Background

Provisional Government of Albania

1912 was to be an eventful year in Rumelia. From August, the Ottoman Government recognised the autonomy of Albania.^[7]^[8] In October 1912, the Balkan states, following their own national aspirations^[9]^[10] jointly attacked the Ottoman Empire and during the next few months partitioned nearly all of Rumelia, the Ottoman territories in Europe, including those inhabited by the Albanians.^[11] In November, with the outbreak of the First Balkan War, the Albanians rose up and declared independence of Albania.^[12]

Conflicts of the Balkan Wars in Albania

Serbian campaign

The Serb army first entered Ottoman territory inhabited by ethnic Albanians in October 1912 as part of its campaign in the then-ongoing First Balkan War.^[13] The Kingdom of Serbia occupied most of the Albanian-inhabited lands including Albania's Adriatic coast. Serbian Gen. Božidar Janković was the Commander of the Serbian Third Army during the military campaign in Albania. The Serbian army met with strong Albanian guerrilla resistance, led by Isa Boletini, Azem Galica and other military leaders. During the Serbian occupation, Gen. Jankovic forced notables and local tribal leaders to sign a declaration of gratitude to King Petar I Karađorđević for their "liberation by the Serbian army".^[14]

The army of the Kingdom of Serbia captured Durrës on 29 November 1912 without any resistance. Right after their arrival in Durrës, on 29 November 1912, the Kingdom of Serbia established Drač County, its district offices and appointed the governor of the county, mayor of the city and commander of the military garrison.^[15]

During the occupation, the Serbian army committed numerous crimes against the Albanian population "with a view to the entire transformation of the ethnic character of these regions."^[11] The Serbian government denied reports of war crimes.^[14]

Following the signing of the Treaty of London in May 1913 which awarded new lands to Serbia, including most of the former Vilayet of Kosovo, the Serbian government agreed to withdraw its troops from outside of its newly expanded territory. This allowed an Albanian state to exist peacefully. The final withdrawal of Serb personnel from Albania was in October 1913.

Montenegrin campaign

Montenegrin flag on Shkoder fortress. Skadar-crnogorska-zastava.jpg — Montenegrin flag on Shkoder fortress.

Shkodër and its surrounding had long been desired by Montenegro, although its inhabitants were overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians. The Siege of Scutari took place on 23 April 1913 between the allied forces of Montenegro and Serbia against the forces of the Ottoman Empire and the Provisional Government of Albania.

Montenegro took Shkodër on 23 April 1913, but when the war was over, the Great Powers didn't give the city to the Kingdom of Montenegro, which was compelled to evacuate it in May 1913, in accordance with the London Conference of Ambassadors. The army's withdrawal was hastened by a small naval flotilla of British and Italian gunboats that moved up the Bojana river and across the Adriatic coastline.^[16]

Greek campaign

The Greek army entered Albania on November 1912 and its advance was met with local resistance from irregulars. The Greek army in southern Albania engaged in harsh reprisals against civilians.^[17]

The Greek Army controlled territory that would be later incorporated into the Albanian state before the declaration of Albanian Independence in Vlorë. On 18 November 1912, after a successful uprising and 10 days prior to the Albanian Declaration of Independence, local Maj. Spyros Spyromilios expelled the Ottomans from the Himara region.^[18] The Greek Navy also shelled the city of Vlorë on 3 December 1912.^[19]^[20] The Greek Army didn't capture Vlorë, which was of great interest to Italy.^[21]

Greek forces were stationed in what would become southern Albania until March 1914. After the Great Powers agreed on the terms of the Protocol of Florence in December 1913, Greece was forced to retreat from the towns of Korçë, Gjirokastër and Sarandë and the surrounding territories.^[22]

Aftermath

Under strong international pressure, Albania's Balkan neighbours were forced to withdraw from the territory of the internationally recognised state of Albania in 1913. The new Principality of Albania included only about half of the ethnic Albanian population, while a large number of Albanians remained in neighbouring countries.^[23]

Sources

Hall, Richard C. (2002). The Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War. Routledge. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-1-134-58363-8.

Related Research Articles

The Balkan Wars were a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the process stripping the Ottomans of their European provinces, leaving only Eastern Thrace under the Ottoman Empire's control. In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria fought against the other four original combatants of the first war. It also faced an attack from Romania from the north. The Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. Although not involved as a combatant, Austria-Hungary became relatively weaker as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples. The war set the stage for the July crisis of 1914 and thus served as a prelude to the First World War.

Essad Toptani was an Albanian politician who served as prime minister of Albania from 1914 to 1916. He previously established the Republic of Central Albania based in Durrës. An Ottoman army officer, he served as the Albanian deputy in the Ottoman Parliament and later cooperated with the Balkan League after the Balkan Wars.

The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success.

The Treaty of London (1913) was signed on 30 May following the London Conference of 1912–1913. It dealt with the territorial adjustments arising out of the conclusion of the First Balkan War. The London Conference had ended on 23 January 1913, when the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état took place and Ottoman Grand Vizier Kâmil Pasha was forced to resign. Coup leader Enver Pasha withdrew the Ottoman Empire from the Conference, and the Treaty of London was signed without the presence of the Ottoman delegation.

The Kingdom of Serbia was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Principality was ruled by the Obrenović dynasty. The Principality, under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, de facto achieved full independence when the very last Ottoman troops left Belgrade in 1867. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 recognized the formal independence of the Principality of Serbia, and in its composition Nišava, Pirot, Toplica and Vranje districts entered the South part of Serbia.

Yiannis Pharmakis or Ioannis Farmakis (1772–1821), born in Vlasti, Macedonia (Greece), was a Greek revolutionary leader of the Greek War of Independence, active in Wallachia and Moldavia.

The Vilayet of Scutari, Shkodër or Shkodra was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire that existed from 1867 to 1913, located in parts of what today is Montenegro and Albania. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of 13,800 square kilometres.

The Principality of Albania was a short-lived monarchy in Albania, headed by Wilhelm, Prince of Albania, that lasted from the Treaty of London of 1913 which ended the First Balkan War, through the invasions of Albania during World War I and the subsequent disputes over Albanian independence during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, until 1925, when the monarchy was abolished and the Albanian Republic declared.

The siege of Scutari, also referred to as the siege of Shkodër, known in Turkish as İşkodra Müdafaası(in Turkish) or İşkodra Savunması, took place from 28 October 1912 to 23 April 1913 when the army of the Kingdom of Montenegro defeated the forces of the Ottoman Empire and invaded Shkodër.

The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was a short-lived, self-governing entity founded in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars on 28 February 1914, by the local Greek population in southern Albania.

The Kingdom of Serbia was one of the major parties in the Balkan Wars, gaining land in both conflicts. It experienced significant territorial gains in the Central Balkans, nearly doubling its territory.

The Republic of Central Albania was a short-lived unrecognised state established on 16 October 1913, with its administrative centre in Durrës, today in Albania.

In World War I, Albania had been an independent state, having gained independence from the Ottoman Empire on 28 November 1912, during the First Balkan War. It was recognised by the Great Powers as the Principality of Albania, after Turkey officially renounced all its rights in May 1913. Being a fledgling new country, it quickly unravelled and just a few months after taking power, its German ruler, Prince Wilhelm, was forced to flee. After World War I broke out, anarchy took hold of the country as tribes and regions rebelled against central rule. To protect the Greek minority, Greek control was established in the southern districts replacing the Northern Epirote units beginning in October 1914. In response to this, Italy, although officially neutral at the time, also sent troops into the port of Vlorë, while Serbia and Montenegro took control of northern regions. In 1915 Serbia was overrun by combined German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces; the Serbian army retreated across the mountain passes of northern Albania, towards the Adriatic. Italian troops drove the Greeks from southern Albania and brought almost all Albanian territory under their control. Austrian forces invaded in June 1916; Austro-Hungarian forces remained in Albania until the end of the war when a multinational Allied force broke through and pushed them out in 1918.

The All-Albanian Congress, Albanian National Congress, or Albanian Independence Congress was a held in Vlorë on November 28, 1912. Congress participants constituted the Assembly of Vlorë which established Albanian Provisional Government and elected Ismail Qemali as its president.

The Peasant Revolt, also known as the Muslim uprising, was an uprising of peasants from central Albania, mostly Muslims against the regime of Wilhelm, Prince of Albania during 1914. It was one of the reasons for the prince's withdrawal from the country which marked the fall of the Principality of Albania. The uprising was led by Muslim leaders Haxhi Qamili, Arif Hiqmeti, Musa Qazimi and Mustafa Ndroqi. Along with a demand of total amnesty, the rebels required the return of Albania to the suzerainty of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

The Partition of Albania is a term used for the partition of the Albanian state, which proclaimed its independence on 28 November 1912. The delineation of the newly established Principality of Albania under the terms of the London Conference of 1912-1913 and the Ambassadors of the six Great Powers of that time left Albanian and non-Albanian populations on both sides of the border. Representatives of the Albanian national movement viewed this as a partition of claimed Albanian-inhabited territories, also territories contained in a proposed Albanian Vilayet.

Independent Albania was a parliamentary state declared in Vlorë on 28 November 1912 during the First Balkan War. Its assembly was constituted on the same day while its government and senate were established on 5 December 1912.

The Great Retreat, also known in Serbian historiography as the Albanian Golgotha, refers to the retreat of the Royal Serbian Army through the mountains of Albania during the 1915–16 winter of World War I.

The Battle of Lumë, also referred by the Albanians as the Uprising of Lumë, was a series of clashes between the Albanian locals of the region of Lumë in Ottoman Albania against the invading Serbian army in 1912 during the First Balkan War period. As the Kingdom of Serbia sought to gain access to the Adriatic Sea, the Serbian army met significant resistance from Albanian militia in the Luma region, resulting in the defeat of the Serbian forces. In securing the central Adriatic coast in Albania, Albanian political figureheads were able to disembark in Durrës and proceed with their plans for the eventual Albanian Declaration of Independence.

Bekir Fikri, was an Albanian Ottoman revolutionary that participated in the Young Turk Revolution (1908) and fought with distinction during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913).

References

↑ Hall 2002, pp. 46–47.
↑ Geshov, Ivan Evstratiev (1919). La genèse de la guerre mondiale: la débâcle de l'alliance balkanique (in French) (as for example that of the Serbian deputy Triša Kaclerovićh, who, in an article published in 1917 by the International Bulletin, affirms that in 1912-1913 120,000 Albanians were massacred by the Serbian army ed.). P. Haupt. p. 64. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
↑ Rifati, Fitim. Kryengritjet shqiptare në Kosovë si alternativë çlirimi nga sundimi serbo-malazez (1913-1914) (PDF). Journal of Balkan Studies. p. 84. According to Serbian Social Democrat politician Kosta Novakovic, from October 1912 to the end of 1913, the Serbo-Montenegrin regime exterminated more than 120,000 Albanians of all ages, and forcibly expelled more than 50,000 Albanians to the Ottoman Empire and Albania.
↑ Trix, Frances (2017). Urban Muslim Migrants in Istanbul: Identity and Trauma Among Balkan Immigrants. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-78453-609-1. not including an estimated 100,000 dead in Albania
↑ Ke, Jing. "Change the Hostile Other into Ingroup Partner: On the Albanian-Serb Relations" (PDF). Kosovo Public Policy Center: 83.
↑ Štěpánek, Václav (2010). Problem of colonization of Kosovo and Metohija in 1918–1945 (PDF) (in Czech). p. 88.
↑ Balkan studies, Volume 25 Author Hidryma Meletōn Chersonēsou tou Haimou (Thessalonikē, Greece) Publisher The Institute, 1984 p.385
↑ The case for Kosova: passage to independence Author Anna Di Lellio Publisher Anthem Press, 2006 ISBN 1-84331-229-8, ISBN 978-1-84331-229-1 p.55
↑ Balkan studies, Volume 25 Author Hidryma Meletōn Chersonēsou tou Haimou (Thessalonikē, Greece) Publisher The Institute, 1984 p.387
↑ The Ottoman Empire and Its Successors, 1801–1927 Author William Miller Edition revised Publisher Routledge, 1966 ISBN 0-7146-1974-4, ISBN 978-0-7146-1974-3 p.498
1 2 Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan War (1914)
↑ Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia at peace and at war: selected writings, 1983 – 2007, by Sabrina P. Ramet
↑ Borislav Ratković, Mitar Đurišić, Savo Skoko, Srbija i Crna Gora u Balkanskim ratovima 1912–1913, Belgrade: BIGZ, 1972, pages 50–62.
1 2 Leo Freundlich: Albania's Golgotha Archived 31 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
↑ Popović, Bogdan; Jovan Skerlić (1924). Srpski književni glasnik, Volume 11. p. 275. Retrieved 6 August 2011. 16. novembra odred je stigao u Drač gde je oduševljeno dočekan od hrišćanskog stanovništva. Odmah su postavljene naše policijske vlasti (načelstvo okruga dračkog, upravnik varoši, predsednik opštine i načelnik vojne stanice) i potom je bilo preduzeto utvrđivanje Drača... [transl.: 'On 16 November (i.e. Gregorian 29 November) the army units arrived in Durres, where they were welcomed warmly by the Christian population. They immediately began to organize our police authorities (the county of Durres, a city major, a president of the town and commander of the military station) and then set up further fortification of Durres.']
↑ Edith Durham, The Struggle for Scutari (Turk, Slav, and Albanian), (Edward Arnold, 1914)
↑ Tsoutsoumpis, Spyros (2018). "Morale, Ideology and the Barbarization of warfare among Greek soldiers". In Boeckh, Katrin; Rutar, Sabine (eds.). The Wars of Yesterday: The Balkan Wars and the Emergence of Modern Military Conflict, 1912-13. Berghahn Books. p. 217. ISBN 978-1785337758. The military authorities also endorsed progressively harsher measures against civilians. Irregulars were shot on the spot without a trial. The killing of prisoners, which was initially rare, became customary. By the time the Greek army had reached Albania, where it again met resistance, such practices had become the norm.
↑ Kondis Basil. Greece and Albania, 1908–1914. Institute for Balkan Studies, 1976, p. 93.
↑ Richard C. Hall (2000). The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War. Routledge. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-415-22946-3.
↑ Miranda Vickers (1999). The Albanians: A Modern History. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-86064-541-9.
↑ Koliopoulos, John S.; Veremis, Thanos M. (2009). Modern Greece: A History Since 1821. Malden, Massachusetts: John Wiley and Sons. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-4051-8681-0.
↑ The Albanians: a modern history, by Miranda Vickers (Page 80)
↑ The Conference of London 1913 Archived 17 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine . Robert Elsie.

v t e Balkan Wars
Background	Nationalism in the Ottoman Empire Albanian Bulgarian Greek Serbian Congress of Berlin Annexation of Eastern Rumelia Serbo-Bulgarian War Greco-Turkish War of 1897 Cretan State IMRO & Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising Macedonian Struggle Young Turk Revolution Bosnian Crisis Bulgarian Independence 31 March Incident Goudi coup Italo-Turkish War Albanian revolt of 1912 Balkan League
First Balkan War
Battles	Sarantaporo Kardzhali Pente Pigadia Sorovich Kumanovo Kirk Kilisse Scutari Lule Burgas Yenidje Adrianople Prilep Himara Monastir First Çatalca Kaliakra Merhamli Driskos Elli Korytsa Lemnos Bulair Şarköy Bizani Second Çatalca
Diplomacy and politics	London Conference Albanian Independence 1913 Ottoman coup d'état Treaty of London
Second Balkan War
Battles	Kilkis–Lachanas Doiran Bregalnica Knjaževac Kalimanci Kresna Gorge Southern Dobruja Romanian landings in Bulgaria Vidin Pirot
Diplomacy and politics	Greek–Serbian Alliance Provisional Government of Western Thrace Treaty of Bucharest Treaty of Constantinople Treaty of Athens
Other	1913 Romanian Army cholera outbreak
General
Aftermath	Autonomy of Northern Epirus Greco-Turkish crisis of 1914 Sarajevo Assassination and World War I Ottoman–Bulgarian alliance Balkans campaign of WWI Serbian campaign Macedonian front
Atrocities	Carnegie Commission Massacres of Albanians Bulgarians deportation program Massacres of Civilians Initial phase of the Greek genocide Places burned down
Participants	Bulgaria Ferdinand I Ivan Geshov Stoyan Danev Mihail Savov Ivan Fichev Vasil Kutinchev Nikola Ivanov Radko Dimitriev Stiliyan Kovachev Georgi Todorov Greece George I Constantine I Eleftherios Venizelos Panagiotis Danglis Pavlos Kountouriotis Konstantinos Sapountzakis Viktor Dousmanis Montenegro Nicholas I Crown Prince Danilo Janko Vukotić Ottoman Empire Mehmed V Nazim Pasha Zeki Pasha Esad Pasha Kölemen Abdullah Pasha Ali Rıza Pasha Hasan Tahsin Pasha Enver Bey Ahmed Izzet Pasha Romania Carol I Crown Prince Ferdinand Alexandru Averescu Serbia Peter I Crown Prince Alexander Radomir Putnik Petar Bojović Stepa Stepanović Božidar Janković Other Balkan states: Albania (Ismail Kemal)
Category