Pristina/Belgrade_(dpa) _ Kosovo assembly speaker Nexhat Daci on Wednesday completely rejected any possibility of creating a Serb entity in Serbia's breakaway province.
"Everything that has a tendency to physically segregate Kosovo, on the basis of ethnicity or entities, will not succeed," Daci said after a meeting with Soren Jessen-Petersen, head of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
Belgrade's platform for talks on the future status of Kosovo proposes the creation of a Serb entity in the province, which would include all areas where Serbs live in significant numbers, as well as Serbian Orthodox religious centres.
U.N.-mediated talks on the status of Kosovo began last November, while late January will see the start of direct negotiations between delegations from Belgrade and Pristina, to be held in Vienna.
Formally still a province of Serbia, Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since mid-1999, when NATO expelled Serbian forces from the province.
The majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo demand quick independence for the province, while Serbia refuses to give up sovereignty and offers wide autonomy instead.
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18 comments:
They can govern themselves locally but segregation is not the answer.
Very qaccurate parallels can be made with the Albanians in Medvegja, Bujanovc and Presheva. Whatever Serbia asks for the Serbs in Kosova should be applied for the Albanians in Serbia, including those Albanians in Belgrade you mention once in a while. I bet you don't like this idea.
americans didn't start killing preagnant women children and old people and cleans the entire popullation at the end of the 20th century...you always try to make comparison with other countries to justify your criminal actions (even this word it is soft to explain what you did in kosovo)against albanians...even you know what serbs have done there but you to affraid to admit that...well the good thing is that we don't forget what has happend and we will never stop until we get the full independence...
Very different, up to 1999 Kosova was a Serbian colony. The time of colonies has been over for quite sometimes. We're talking about the creation of a free country versus you talking about the reinstatement of a colony.
To my knowledge Nebraska is not a colony.
Never will the day come were Kosovo is independent,so start getting used to the idea chaps because all im hearing on this site is a bunch of day dreamers.
Chap,
When you start repeating it to yourself, it must mean that your confidence in what you're saying is pretty low. Not that it matters what you think.
sock my cock Ivan
Sorry, "Soak my big COCK Ivan"
SERBIAN OCCUPYING WARS AND OTHER MEASURES FOR EXPULSION OF ALBANIANS (1912-1941)
1. Ethnic Structure in the Occupied Regions of Albanians in 1912
The First Balkan War brought about great changes on the geographic map of the Balkans. The Albanian state was established in less than half of its ethnic territory. The Balkan allies: Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria came out of war with great benefits in territory and population. Bulgaria gained 29% in territory and 3% in population; Greece 68% in territory and 67% in population. It took {amëria and Aegean Macedonia from the Albanian territory; Montenegro gained 62% in territory and 100% in population; and Serbia 82% in territory and 55% in population.1
From that time the governments of Serbia, Montenegro and Greece made use of all the means and measures available for ethnic cleansing in the occupied regions. According to Turkish statistics, 912,902 inhabitants lived in the Vilayet of Kosova, out of whom 743,040 were Albanians, 53,396 Bulgarians, 106,209 Serbs, 20,009 Jews and 5,043 Romanies.2
The Serbian military regime organised a census of population for its political and strategic purposes in the occupied territories of the Albanians in 1913. Despite the determined intention for the most possible reduction of the Albanian population, it could not escape the demographic reality. We offer below the evidence of the number of communes, villages and houses, according to ethnic structure, as they figure in the evidence of Serbian military organs:
1. The District of Jeni-Pazar, including the regions of Jeni-Pazar, Sjenica and Mitrovica, had 45 communes, 571 villages, with 5,398 Serbian houses and 12,287 Albanian and Turkish houses.
2. The District of Prishtina, including the regions of Prishtina, Vushtria, Gjilan, Llap and Ferizaj, had 71 communes with 628 villages, with 6,787 Serbian houses and 26,288 Albanian houses.
3. The District of Prizren, including the regions of Prizren, Gjakova, Vranishta, Drin, Istog, Podrimja, Luma and Suhareka, had 118 communes with 463 villages, with a total number of 30,000 houses, the absolute majority of which belonged to the Albanians.3
Out of the evidence of the census of population organised in March 1913, it can be clearly seen that the population of these regions that were occupied in 1912 was mainly Albanian.
2. Consequences Resulting from the Conference of London (1913) for Expulsion of Albanians
On the eve of outburst of the First Balkan War, the Balkan allies knew quite well the position and force of Turkey, that had almost capitulated before the Albanian forces, who took the centre of the Vilayet of Kosova - Shkup (Skopje) at the uprising in the summer of 1912.
The Balkan allies, being aware that the Albanians and the small forces of Turkish military were not able to confront them, made an agreement by which they planned to partition the Albanian land.
Despite the military interventions of the Balkan allies, the Albanian patriots who had carried the heaviest burden of the movement for liberation of their homeland, came together in Vlora on 28 November, 1912, and proclaimed Albania an independent state. The National Assembly nominated a temporary government, that engaged a committee to protect the Albanian question before the great powers. The National Assembly of Vlora addressed a telegram to the great powers, in which, among others, was said, “the Albanians that had entered the family of the peoples of Eastern Europe, of whom they feel proud of being the oldest nation, maintain solely one intention: to live in peace with all the Balkan states and become an element of equlibrium.”4
The request of the government of Vlora made a positive echo in the public opinion. The Conference of Ambassadors was convoked in London on 17 December, 1912, under the chairmanship of Edward Grey. In its first session it was decided that Albanian should remain autonomous...5 The Balkan states had to accept the idea of creation of an Albanian state, but they gained the right, as winners, to present their territorial requests to the Conference of Ambassadors.
The governments of Balkan allies made their demands for Albanian territories on chauvinist basis.
The Greek government, apart from the occupation of {amëria, made requests for other Albanian territories. In the list of its requests, the Greek government included the regions of Dukagjin Plain, Kosova and Macedonia; whereas Montenegro, apart from the occupied territories, such as Plava, Gucia and the Dukagjin Plain, wanted Shkodra with its environs and the territory to the river Mat. The Albanian delegation requested that the legitimate right and full independence within its ethnic borders should be recognised to Albania, but the Conference of Ambassadors in London did not accomplish the requests of the Albanians. It took the side of the governments of the Balkan Alliance, whose protector was Russia. As a consequence of these decisions, the Albanian state was formed in less than half of the territory of ethnic Albanians. The Albanian land was partitioned for the second time.
That the Albanian land was occupied is witnessed by a memorandum in 1920 of a Serbian general, where he said, “The Albanians live in a compact mass from the Adriatic Sea to the old Turkish-Serbian border, and very rarely inhabited by Serbian population... By the proclamation of principle on nationalities (The Declaration of February 1918 of the American President, Woodrow Wilson, on the right to self-determination), the Albanians believed that we and Europe would respect that principle, and they aided to some degree in sending away the Austrian regime. But neither we nor Europe showed any willing to respect the principle. The Albanian leadership in Prizren and Gjakova handed a memorandum on the will of the Albanians to the French officers on passing, but we, on the contrary, invaded new regions that did not belong to us by the Treaty of London (Malësia, Has and Dibra).”6
The consequences of the London Conference were hard and more than half of its territory was cut off from Albania and awarded to the neighbouring countries. The unjust decisions of the Conference of London were sanctioned by the Conference of Paris in 1919 and 1920.
3. Territorial Division and Administrative Organisation of Kosova (1912-1941)
After the occupation of Kosova, in October of 1912, state administrative bodies were established. The Serbian regime established state bodies by military decrees, specially for Kosova, by the ‘Law-decree on ruling over and settling the liberated regions', on 27 December, 1912, on which basis executions by fire-arms were anticipated as well.7
After having been occupied by Serbia, the territory of Kosova was organised in these administrative centres: the districts of Prishtina, Prizren, Novi-Pazar, Kumanova and Shkup. In November 1913, the district of Zveçan was also established with its centre in Mitrovica.8 Out of the territory of Kosova under the Montenegrin occupation up to 1915 were Deçan, Peja and Istog with a part of Drenica. By the Montenegrin military breaking into Dukagjin, state-military-police organs were established. Montenegro, as well as Serbia, organised it territorially and administratively in regions, but similar to the model in Montenegro. Peja was made the centre of it. Every region was administratively divided into 10 captainships, and a captainship was divided into five administrative communes.9
Montenegro, apart from the genocidal crimes it committed during the First Balkan War, converted more than 1,703 Albanians into the Orthodox religion of the East in the region of Gjakova by March 1913.10 In the region of Peja, another 20 Albanian villages were converted by 22 June, 1913, and 200 persons only in the city of Peja. This genocide continued till 1915, when Montenegro was destroyed in the First World War.
On 1 December, 1918, the Serbian-Croatian-Slo-venian Kingdom was pro-claimed. Kosova, as far as the territorial aspect is concerned, remained as it had been before the First World War. In 1920, a new territorial organisation of it took place, into these regions: Zveçan, Kosova, Dukagjin, Prizren and Shkup. These regions included 18 districts, 180 communes and 1,439 villages with 549,871 inhabitants.11
In 1929, the Yugoslav Kingdom made a new territorial organisation in banovinas. The territory of Kosova, according to this new organisation, was divided into three banovinas: the banovinas of Vardar with its centre in Shkup, of Zeta with its centre in Cetinje and of Morava with its centre in Niš. This partition was done on purpose of exerting more pressure for Albanian expulsion, ethnic cleansing of their land.
4. Legalisation - Expulsion Through Legal Acts
In the First Balkan War, Serbian and Montenegrin military, apart from the genocide exerted upon the Albanian population, carried out also their forceful expulsion. Thus in the territories of the Albanians villages were burned down and the frightened population ran away pursued by Serbian military, and those who remained there were shot or sent to concentration camps, such as Niš and other places. Only in Prishtina, more than 5,000 Albanians were killed by Serbian military on 22 October, 1912.12 On 27 October, 650 Albanians were sent to the camp in Niš, and on 30 October, 1912, another 700 of them.13 This genocide continued all the time till 1915, when Serbian military and government moved to Corfu as they were defeated in the First World War.
During the period between 1912-1915, parallel to expatriation of the Albanians, their land was populated by Serbian colonists: officials, policemen and others. On 20 February, 1914, Serbian government passed the Law-decree on Agrarian Reforms and Colonisation in the occupied regions.14 The minister of Economy and Forestry formed respective bodies for colonisation. That decree was in effect until 1919.
In the period between 1912-1915, Serbian government colonised the Albanian regions; they took the houses of the Albanians that had been resettled by force; then new colonies were erected, such as the village-colony Tankosic, in the territory of the villages Sllatina, Mirosala, etc. They changed the names of settlements: the town of Ferizaj was named Urosevac (1914). Montenegro acted in a similar way in Dukagjin. The government of Montenegro formed a committee (November, 1912), that was authorised to recognise the ownership of the property to the Albanians only in cases they had papers of more than fifty years ago, verified by the Register (Defterhane) in Istanbul; otherwise their real estate was ordered to get registered as state ownership. The committee was obliged to fix 55,000 acres of land to 5,000 Montenegrins for their colonisation in Dukagjin, by December 1913. On 27 February, 1914, the government passed a law on colonisation of the land ‘annexed' to Montenegro, which was in effect until 1915, when Montenegro was destroyed.
After the end of the First World War and the creation of the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom (SCSK), forceful colonisation in the Albanian land continued. On 25 February, 1919, the government of SCSK passed the Decree ‘Preliminary Regulations on Settlement of Agrarian Relations'15 which was in effect until 1931, when ‘the Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonisation' was passed. This law intended the colonisation of Kosova, expropriation of the Albanians' ownership, ethnic cleansing, forceful emigration and serbianisation of the Albanian regions.
Various genocidal measures were used for the expulsion of the Albanians. In the period between 1913-1939, ‘flying detachments' of military and policemen acted to punish and massacre the population. From 1918 to 1938, the military burned and destroyed 320 villages with Albanian population. Only between 1918-1921, it killed 12,346 persons, put 22,160 people into prison, plundered 50,515 houses and burned down 6,125 houses.16 These facts and others prove of expropriation, plundering the Albanians and expatriating them from their land, on the basis of discriminating laws and a continuous campaign for their extermination.
5. Expulsion of Albanians (1912-1941)
The forceful expulsion of the Albanians from Kosova, the Sanjac and Macedonia began during the First Balkan War (October, 1912). According to the documents of Serbian diplomacy, 239,807 people were expatriated until March 1914, without accounting the children up to six years old. Albanian families from Kosova, Sanjak and Macedonia were deported through Cavalo of Greece and by the land road to Turkey. This forceful emigration continued. According to the evidence on this matter, the number of the expatriated people amounted to 281,747, without accounting the children up to six years old, till August 1914.17
In the property of the expatriated families, the government of the Serbian Kingdom settled more than 20,000 Serbian families, and Montenegro planned to colonise 5,000 families.18
The emigration caused by violence continued also after the end of the First World War and to the Second World War. According to the evidence of Serbian diplomacy, it was a mass forceful expatriation of the Albanians without the right to return, as the following table can show:
Year
Persons
Year
Persons
1919
23500
1930
13215
1920
8532
1931
29807
1921
24532
1932
6219
1922
12307
1933
3420
1923
6389
1934
4500
1924
9630
1935
9567
1925
4315
1936
4252
1926
4012
1937
4234
1927
5197
1938
7251
1928
4326
1939
7255
1929
6219
1940
6729
19
Albanians: 215,412
Turks: 27,884
Bosnians from Sanjak: 2,582
Total: 255,878
A number of Albanians from Kosova emigrated forcefully to the territory of reduced Albania of 1912. According to military documents of the Yugoslav Kingdom, from the Albanian territories that Serbia occupied, 4,046 Albanian families from Kosova, Macedonia, Sanjac and Montenegro, emigrated to Albania between 1919-1938. The Albanian government settled those families in the environs of Shkodra, Durrës, Kruja, Kavaja, Berat, Saranda, Koplik, Lushnja, Fier, Tirana, Leskovik and Kukës.20 Besides Turkey and Albania, the Albanians had to emigrate forcefully to other countries of Europe and the world too. In this way the Albanian Diaspora was formed in Europe and America.
6. Colonosation of Kosova (1912-1941)
The occupying regime, parallel to the expulsion of the Albanians from their land, carried out the colonisation with Serbs and Montenegrins there. During the First Balkan War, after Serbian military massacred and displaced the population, the hordes came and took forcefully the land and houses of the Albanians. After the end of the First World War and the establishment of SCSK, the expulsion of ethnic Albanians from their land and colonisation of it by Slavs continued.
From 1912 to 1914, Serbia and Montenegro (according to Serbian documentation) plundered 381,245 hectares of land in Kosova and Macedonia. Only in Kosova 228,000 hectares of land were taken for colonists, and it was settled by 15,943 families of colonists.21 Since 1914 Serbian colonies were erected in Kosova. Colonists were settled at many Albanian villages and settlements that had been forced to become vacant. In addition, the colonies and settlements of colonists in Kosova in the period between 1919-1927 are presented in a table.
These facts indicate clear enough the intention of Serbia for the accomplishment of a Serbian Kosova. On the basis of the evidence provided by Dr Vasa Cubrilovic, 11,273 family houses were built in the territory of Kosova for colonists till 31 December, 1935. However, quite a large number of colonists were settled in the houses of the Albanians that were sent away by force, and a number of Serbian colonists moved into a part of Albanian houses, sharing so the houses with them. That is why it is estimated that 13,938 families of colonists were settled in Kosova.
1919-1927
Districts
Colonies
New settlements
Prishtina
24
22
Llap
20
35
Vushtrri
15
67
Gjilan
10
22
Ferizaj
7
23
Pejë
11
34
Drenicë
9
25
Gjakovë
10
17
Total
106
245
22
Colonisation intended to destroy the Albanian compactness, who comprised more than 75% of the population. In addition to this, Serbia and Montenegro tried to secure calm for themselves by forcing colonisation along the Albanian border and along the main roads. The ‘serbianisation' of Kosova continued until 1941. In this way the territory for the Serbian national element was created.23
7. Anti-Albanian Projects - Genocidal Acts
The monarchy dictatorship of 6 January, 1929 anticipated, apart from others, extermination of national minorities, particularly the Albanians. The Yugoslav Kingdom intensified the endeavours for ethnic cleansing. This role was taken over by ‘The Serbian Cultural Club', that was purported by the whole state administration.24 In the activity of the Club against the Albanians were distinguished Slobodan Jovanovic, Gojko Perina, Orestije Krstic, Dragisa Vasic and Nikola Stojanovic. They were joined by Vasa Cubrilovic with his project ‘The Expulsion of Albanians'.
Cubrilovic (one of the assassins in Sarajevo) engaged himself in the project that state authorities should force all the Albanians to emigrate. He criticised harshly the Serbian regime why it had not exterminated the Albanians entirely as in the time of the Eastern Crisis. He requested that the Albanians should be expatriated forcefully to Turkey or Albania. He gave Anatolia advantage, from where their return was impossible. Cubrilovic proposed details on the manner of expatriation. He emphasised that Muslim masses may come very easily under the influence of religious propaganda. Another device for the implementation of the project was state terror. He insisted that the life of the Albanians should become as difficult as possible by means of laws, creating a situation of anarchy.
To accelerate the process of expatriation he proposed an order to be issued for delivering as many arms as possible to colonists.26 Cubrilovic requested to stimulate the old action of chetniks and to instigate the Montenegrins in order to cause conflicts in mass with the Albanians in the Plain of Dukagjin. The conflict should be interpreted as an intention for uprising of the Albanians and be explained as a conflict among Albanian brothers and neighbours. He requested that Serbia should use its military force against the Albanians, accomplishing the most efficient method of 1878, burning secretly Albanian villages and their quarters in towns.
All the Albanian regions, according to Cubrilovic, should be colonised without any hesitation. On this purpose, Serbia received international loans in 1880, in order to accomplish the policy of ethnic cleansing without any hindrance. This is a testimony for manipulation with international factors in genocidal actions against the Albanian population. Cubrilovic suggested this form of action as well. In order to accomplish ethnic cleansing of the Albanian element and carry out colonisation, he suggested that all the competencies should be concentrated in the had of the military headquarters. All the plans of actions should be prepared by experts also with the intervention of the Parliament. This indicates that this antihuman action involved all the instances of the Serbian regime and military.
At the end of his project, Cubrilovic confirmed that the Albanians were impossible to exterminate by forceful emigration and expatriation and gradual colonisation, therefore, “the sole way and device for the expatriation of the Albanians is the brutal force of the state organised machinery... ruining villages by guns, by punishments, imprisonment, application of police brutal measures, cutting their forests, denying their ownership papers, extraloading them with taxes, forbidding them to sell live cattle, and by brutal behaviour with their children and women.27
Ivo Andric (the later winner of the Noble prize for literature) is the author of the Project on the partition of Albania between Yugoslavia and Italy. The project was presented on 30 January, 1939. The partition of Albania is requested in it, but as the last resort, as Yugoslavia wanted to occupy it entirely, as its former dream to get access to the Port of Durrës.28 In his project, AndriC describes the Serbian-Greek plan for partition of the Albanian land.
In the project of Andric it comes out clearly that Serbia was the instigator of discords and intrigues in Albania.29 Accordingly, he requested from the state to avoid an open or secret conflict with Italy, in order to be able to divide Albania between themselves. He insisted also to prevent Italy from invading itself Albania and so from endangering Yugoslavia on the side of Boka Kotorska and Kosova.
The project of Ivan Vukotic on occupation of Albania, that was submitted to the government of Milan Stojadinovic on 3 February, 1939, is another anti-Albanian project. According to him, Yugoslavia should make a coalition with Italy for partition of Albania.29 Italian fascist circles estimated this project as a Serbian intention to occupy North and Middle Albania. As a justification for partition of Albania, to Vukotic was ‘the solution to the economic question of Yugoslavia', as well as the abridgement of more than 300 km the way of Serbia to get to the Adriatic Sea.
The project of Vukotic had also a strategic component for hegemonist interests of Serbia. He expected that by ‘partition of Albania' the possibility for any irredentistic action in Kosova would be cut short. According to Vukotic, ‘the ideal partition' of Albania would be the line: Struga-Librazhd-Elbasan-Durrës.30
The projectors of the Serbian policy for partition of Albania made their efforts to copy similar examples in Europe. Vukotic would conclude, ‘it is better an Italian window in the Balkans than an Albanian house, where irredentism, Islamism and the influence of Vatican will always keep Serbia mobilised, spending billions for military in vain.”31
8. The Yugoslav-Turkish Convention of 1938 - an Intention for Ethnic Cleansing
The first state contacts between Yugoslavia and Turkey about the expatriation of the Albanians to Turkey were made in 1926. These contacts produced a new platform in 1933 on the preparation of grounds for general ethnic cleansing.32
At the Ministry of Agriculture of Yugoslavia was conceptuated the principle: “expatriation of the Albanians can be achieved through a long-term process, since neither Yugoslavia had sufficient funds nor the international circumstances allowed it to be implemented within a short time”.33
The political conceptual activity on preparing the Yugoslav-Turkish Convention took place in Istanbul from 9 June to 11 July, 1938. Eight session were held there. The parties came to an agreement of expatriation of 40,000 Albanian families. The Yugoslav-Turkish Convention was signed on 11 July, 1938, under the condition that it should be in effect after its ratification by the parliaments of both sides.
In art. 2 of the Convention it was anticipated a complete expatriation to Turkey of the Albanians from the regions of Prizren, Dragash, Podguri, Ferizaj, Tetova, Gostovar, Rostusha, Struga, Prishtina, Kaçanik, Gjilan, Presheva, Prespa, Ohri, Kërçova, Krusheva, Poreç, Manastir, Negotin on Vardar, Shkup, Kumanova, Veles, Ovçepole, Shtip, Koçana, Radovishta, Strumica, Dojran, Gevgelia, Kriva Palanka, Kratova, Carevoselo, Berova, Peja, Istog, Mitrovica, Gjakova, Llap, Vushtria and the region of Drenica.35
According to this convention, it was foreseen that during the period between 1939-1944 around 400,000 Albanians should be expatriated to Turkey, and they would be settled in the deserts of Anatolia. The expatriation was projected to develop by this dynamism: 4,000 families in 1939; 6,000 families in 1940; 7,000 families in 1941 and 1942, and 8,000 families in 1943 and 1944. It was done so that a family could include up to 250 members. The first ones that should be expatriated were the Albanians of these regions: Peja, Gjakova, Prizren, Kaçanik, Shkup, Tetova, Kumanova, Presheva, Gjilan, Kërçova, Dibra, Ohri, Manastir, Prishtina and Ferizaj. The expatriation should be carried out forcefully.
The Yugoslav-Turkish Convention on the expatriation of the Albanians to Anatolia is one of the original documents that presents permanent genocide exerted on the Albanian population in general., Although this document was not ratified and implemented in the way it was planned, it had hard consequences for the future of the Albanian population.
9. Consequences of Expulsion and Colonisation between the Two Word Wars
The expatriation and assimilation of the Albanians and colonisation of the land of ethnic Albanians by the Serbian hegemonist regime was considered as a Serbian national sacred mission. To accomplish this mission, the Serbian invading regime made use of all possible means, starting from arbitrary laws, killing, burning villages and whole regions, up to forceful conversion of Islamic and Catholic population into the Serbian Orthodox religion.
As a consequence of the implementation of these measures the relations between ethnic groups became tense, particularly between Albanian villagers and Slavonic colonists that had been settled in their land. Besides many other state measures that were taken, the government organised chetnik bands, such as those of Kosta Pecanac, Milic Krstic, Jovan Babunski, Vasilije Trbic, etc., who organised punishing expeditions exerting violence, terror and organising plunder.
Mass expropriation of Albanian villagers resulted to great poverty. As a consequence of ethnic cleansing and colonisation of the Albanian land, a significant change of the ethnic structure of population resulted. While the Albanians comprised 90% of population in these regions in 1912, they came down to 70% in 1941.
This was also the consequence of liquidation of the Albanian leadership and Islamic and Catholic clergymen.
Settling the Serbs and Montenegrins in the villages and houses of the Albanians and the erection of Serbian colonies in their property had negative influence on their psychological viewpoint and security perspective. The settlement of the Serbs in the whole quarters in cities among Albanians and the life in the proximity of Serbs resulted to emigration of the Albanians and closing elementary religious schools, and that influenced reduction of the educational level of the Albanians.
Notes
1. Limon Rushiti, Rrethanat politiko-shoqërore në Kosovë 1912-1918 (Political-Social Circumstances in Kosova, 1912-1918) , Prishtina, 1986, p.9.
2. ASHRSH, fund MKK. D-7, doc. 707936. Turkish statistics of 1911.
3. The Supreme Command of Serbian III Army on 3/IV.1913.
4. Historia e Popullit Shqiptar, II (History of Albanians, II), Prishtina, 1968, p. 352.
5. Ibid., p. 365.
6. Ibid.
7. AS. Bgd. Uredba o javnoj bezbednosti u slobodjenim oblastima 1913 (Decree on Public Security in Liberated Regions, 1913).
8. AS. Bgd. MPB. P.O.F. 15, r. 143/1913.
9. A.C.G. Cetinje, fund of MPB, F-131, doc. 2907.
10. ASHCG, Cetinje, fund MPB, Administrative Section, Reports from Gjakova on 26, and 27 January, 1913, file 40, The letter of Peceli sent to Secretary J.VukotiC on 13/04/1913.
11. It ought to be underlined that two regions: Luma and Has in the district of Prizren, were a territory of Albania according to the London Conference, nevertheless, the SCSK held it occupied until 1920. (AJ - Belgrade, fund 65, file 28, doc. 189, of 02/02/1919, Prizren)
12. Leo Freunderlich, Albanens Golgota... Vien 1913.
13. AVII - Bgd. Pop. II, K-10, doc. no. 242, 25/X/1912.
14. Dr Milivoje Eric, Agrana reforma u Jugoslaviji 1918-1941 (Agrarian Reform in Yugoslavia, 1918-1941), Sarajevo, 1958, p. 140.
15. Dr M. Obradovic, Agrarna Reforma i kolonizacije na Kosovu 1918-1941(Agrarian reform and Colonisation in Kosova, 1918-1941), Prishtina, 1981, p. 51.
16. AJ. Bgd. fund of MIA. doc. of 1918-1921, A VII Bgd. Pop. II, III, IV, Serbian III Army, A.Q.Sh. Tirana, fund of KMKK -D-32 no. 70881, 21/XII/1921.
17. Dokumenti o spolnoj politici Kraljevine Serbije 1903-1914 (Documents on Foreign Policy of the Serbian Kingdom, 1903-1914), Bk. VII, file.1. Belgrade, 1980, pp. 617-618.
18. Dr Branko Babic, Politika Crne Gore u novooslobodjenim krajevima 1912-1914 (The Politics of Montenegro in Newly Liberated Regions, 1912-1914), Titograd, 1984, pp. 267-277.
19. DASIP, fund of Yugoslav Kingdom Legation in Ankara, 1941.
20. AVII - Bgd. Pop. XVII, K-95, doc. no. 429.
21. The Archives of Yugoslavia, fund Agrarna Reforma i Kolonizacija (Agrarian Reform and Colonization), Belgrade, as well as the Archives of Kosova, Prishtina, in which till 1990, 14,765 family cards, i.e., one for each family had been.
22. Djordje Kristic, Kolonizacija Juzne Srbije (Colonisation of South Serbia), Sarajevo 1928, p. 6.
23. Dr Milovan Obradovic, Agrarna Reforma i kolonizacija na Kosovu 1918-1941 (Agrarian Reform and Colonisation in Kosova, 1918-1941), Prishtina, 1981.
24. Svetozar Privicevic, Diktatuara Kralja Aleksandra (Dictatorship of King Aleksandar), Belgrade, 1983, p.15, “Srpski glas”, no. 8/40.
25. Vasa Cubrilovic, Iseljavanje Arnauta (predavanje odrazano u “Srpskom kulturnom klubu” 7.III.1937 (Exulsion of Albanians (Lecture held in ‘Serbian Cultural Club on 7/III/1937).
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Dr B.Krizman, Elaborat Ivo Andrica o Albaniji (1939) (The Project of Ivo Andric on Albania), Casopis za suvremenu povjest, no. 2, Zagreb 1977, pp. 77-89.
29. AJ. S. 37/39, Ivan Vukotic, O Albaniji i interesne sfere (On Albania and the Spheres of Interest).
30. AJ. S. 39, secr. doc. on division of Albania, 1939.
31. AJ.37 - Tajni planovi vlade i crkve Svetog Save /39 (Secret Plans of the Government and St. Sava Church /39.
32. AJ. S. 67. F.1/17.
33. Ibid.
34. DASIP. secr. no. 7977, 1939.
35. Ibid., Art. 2 of the Convention.
From the Archives of
Historic-Military Institute in Belgrade
MEMORANDUM
On the Present Situation of the Albanian Question and Its Development
“The Albanians live in a compact mass, that is scarcely inhabited by Serbian population in the space from the Adriatic Sea to the old Serbian-Turkish border. Even though the tribes living in this territory are strongly bound among themselves, yet not only blood revenge but also hatred between Catholics and Muslims exist. Nevertheless, immediately after the Congress of Berlin, and especially due to the fact that Plava and Gucia were decided to be handed over to Montenegro, the idea appeared of creation of greater Albania which would include all the area between Montenegro of that time, Serbia, Kaçanik and Greek kingdom (without the Vilayet of Salonika). This idea sustained by official Turkey, put together all the patriot Albanians soon, who initially had their club in Prizren. How powerful that idea was may be best witnessed the fact that the Albanians in Gjakova killed Marshal Pasha, who was sent by the Port to carry out the decision of the Congress of Berlin to hand over Plava and Gucia to Montenegro. In agreement with the Port, the Albanians in this way did not allow the will of the whole Europe of that time to be accomplished, and Plava and Gucia remained further in the structure of the Ottoman Empire, and to satisfy Montenegro, Europe ordered the Ottoman state to hand over Tivar and Ulqin to it. Nevertheless, to carry out this decision, the Float of all the participant countries at the Congress of Berlin was planned to demonstrate along the Adriatic coast...
The idea once born on greater Albania could not vanish. As Italy and Austria intended to expand their influence in the Balkans, they sought to adopt some authoritative personalities, and through them to carry out (by money) their policy, disseminating in this way unconsciously the idea of greater Albania, that found its powerful expression at continuous uprisings of the Albanians in the last years of Turkish administration, and played a great role in Turkish harassment.
By intervention of our military in 1912 and occupation of Kosova and Metohia, the idea of greater Albania was given a mortal attack, but the Albanian leadership, suported by Austria, managed to create their small independent state, which played the role of Piedmont in the eyes of all the Albanians. As Serbian population was in minority, and a large number of Albanians had remained outside the borders of Albania, the political borders fixed between Serbia and Albania did not have any importance for the Albanians that were subjugated by us, who made their efforts to be found within the structure of the Albanian state, and due to this Albanian riots were raised immediately after the peace was made with Bulgaria.
The war between Serbia and Austria in 1924 gave full hope to all the Albanians, who thought that time had come for their ideals to be accomplished. But although greater Albanian was not formed, immediately after its arrival at these regions Austria allowed the club of the Albanian nationalists, whose centre was in Mitrovica, to develop greater agitation and strengthen their influence. In the beginning, Lukë Lukaj, a Catholic, professor from Shkodra, was president of the club, and later when he was interned, Hasan Bey Vushtria played the most important role in it, whose desire to become an Albanian ruler was supported by Austrian authorities, and his ambitious wife, who was born in Salonika, encouraged him greately.
Owing to the proclaimed principle of nationality, the Albanians were happy when our military came, as they thought that Europe would respect that principle as well, and so they helped in turning out the Austrian regime. But neither we nor Europe showed even the least readiness to respect that principle of nationality, and although the Albanian leaders in Prizren and Gjakova delivered a memorandum on the intentions of the Albanians to French officials, we occupied those regions that had not belonged to us on the basis of London Convention (Malësia, Has and Dibra), and the Italians occupied whole Albania, so that the Albanians separated between us and the Italians fell into a hard position and their leaders did not know what to do for some time, that is proved by two Albanian delegations represented at the Peace Conference in Paris. However, as soon as Albanian nationalists formed their clubs in Shkodra and Durrës, their influence was felt in our territory as well, especially in the part belonging to Montenegro, as the Montenegrins and Albanians could not get along at all.
Since the influence of tribal chiefs is very great in Albania, it is obvious that the will of the members of the clubs of Shkodra and Durrës could easily be imposed and implemented by all the Albanians in our territory, who acquired a conviction that if they rebelled in large proportions, Europe would be forced to send them a commission to find out the real situation. The best proof for this was the rebellion of the Albanians of Plava and Gucia in February, the rebellion of Sadik Rama in May and of Azem Bejta in the same year. The more the solution to the question of the Albanians was prolonged, the more the idea for greater Albania grew up. Our enemies, the Italians and Bulgarians, Austrians and Turks, sought how to make use of the Albanian leaders, who sought support and aid from all sides, but not from us, to get saved from the Serbs.
However, our internal hard position, due to unsolved political circumstances, frequent replacements of officials and officers, weak means of communication, the unjust and apathetic attitude towards administration, and other reasons, influenced powerfully the creation of a terrain for agitation against our administration, and the Montenegrins assisted very much in this direction through their efforts to settle their own special accounts with the Albanians. In addition, our foreign policy towards Albania was not followed by some steady directive and there was no programme elaborated, but every official felt himself obliged to accomplish a policy of his own. They sent people from Belgrade, who did not have all the elements of the Albanian question available, nor did they know sufficiently enough the existing circumstances. There were even such persons who were delegated to apply the Albanian policy only last year, and now were in Albania as ‘kaçaks' (major Bedri bey Mahmudbegoviq).
The proclamation of constitutional liberties and the discussion of article 51 of the Peace Convention dealing with protection of minorities, that was brought up in our newspapers, definitely formed the viewpoint of the Albanians that they were a people who have all the rights to free and equal life, but not also the right to their own state.
What was said above can be best seen in the present situation in Kosova, Metohia and the region of Dibra, and I think one should not look for other reasons, but I consider that it ought to be emphasised that there is no political border between our Albanians and those in Albania. However, since our interests can be seriously endangered by such attitudes of the Albanians, I think that the idea of greater Albania could be paralysed to some degree by taking these measures. I find it reasonable to emphasise the following:
1) Opening a central office in Skopje (Shkup) for the accomplishment of Albanian policy.
2) Taking a certain position to independent Albania. Our clear declarations on the existence of an Albanian independent state, as well as offering material aid to the present government, would be gladly accepted by our Albanians and they could accept the lost of Malësia and Has. The most natural politics is that Albania should request our support.
3) The Albanian leaders should be won over for our political intentions.
4) The rebellions should get interned.
5) Colonisation of Montenegrins in Metohia should take place and our population get strengthened in those regions...”
16 June, 1920 Commander, honoured adjutant
His Lordship, King Milosavljevic.
Colonisation and Serbianisation of Kosova
(by Kosta Novakovic)
“By the end of April I happened to be in Durrës, when the Serbian soldiers got on ships and left for Serbia. Albanian small boys saw off the columns of Serbian soldiers, singing the popular national song:
“We aren't Serbs, nor Bulgarians,
We're courageous Albanians...”.
Instead of the word ‘Greeks” the boys put the word ‘Serbs'.
Serbian villagers who constituted the Serbian soldiery, got on ships singing gladly, that finally ended the expedition against Albania, an expedition that they did not understand why it took place. The scolding words of the Albanian boys were not taken badly by Serbian soldiers at all, as they knew quite well they deserved them, and they were quite a weak revenge for their barbarism they had displayed to the Albanian population during six months of Serbian occupation. But behind these Serbian peasants, tired of the war and illnesses, it was the official Serbia that was leaving Albania gnashing its teeth of anger and only because they were forced to by the Ultimatum of the Great Powers and the guns opposite the port of Durrës on the Austria-Hungarian and Italian ships. War operations were finished some time ago. Crushing Albania by the Serbian military was an attempt of Serbian imperialism to take the ports of Shkodra, Durrës and Shën-Gjin. Even though Serbian imperialists were forced to draw back from Albania, the conquest of Shkodra and North Albania is still one of the principal goals of their imperialistic programme. In the Serbian book of military instructions “What must I know as a soldier?”, appreciated and praised by the Ministry of War by decree I.P., No. 1161, on 23 August, 1912, it reads, “All our provinces have not yet been united in our kingdom,... Shkodra, and part of North Albania...” The rural Serbia did not exist any more. It lost itself in several tens of years, and in 1912 it disappeared completely. Instead of it, an imperialist Serbia, pan-Serbian, showed up, with its pan-Serbian dynasty and pan-Serbian militarism. This new imperialism, crude, brutal, merciless, dreams of the return of King Duzan's kingdom, and tries to reach within next ten years the imperialist powers that have existed for hundreds of years. The Serbian farmer has been a blind tool of pan-Serbian imperialism, flesh for a gun, an animal without its tail - as the Serbian officers called him - that was forced under the cudgel of the officers to attack with bayonets... and burn and harass the occupied regions.
Serbian imperialist government did not leave anything undone to the Albanians during the occupation. It ordered the rope to rise in dozen of regions of Albania. It massacred, killed and plundered the poor population. It bothered only the poor. The rich, beys, landowners and their property were protected by soldiers, so that farmers could not rise up, and it shared the land with beys and agas...
The first victims of Serbian imperialism were Macedonia and Kosova. However, pan-Serbian imperialists, although forced by the more powerful imperialists to draw back from the Albanian coast, have kept the best and more fertile place of Albania: Kosova. We call Kosova the whole region inhabited by Albanians: Kosova, Metohia and the south part of the old Sanjak to Novi Pazar. More than 500,000 Albanians became slaves of a new ruler. Besides them, there are aditional 150-200 thousand Albanians in Macedonia. That is, there are altogether 650-700 thousand Albanians in Yugoslavia.
Serbianisation of Kosova is the wildest example of a nation in the time of the Balkan War and the Second World War. The wildest terroristic and inquisition methods that were used in Kosova have not been seen either in Eastern Ukraine, or in Bjelorussia that are under Poland, or in Besarabia and Dobrudza that are under Rumania... Only Macedonia can be close to Kosova from this aspect.
When Serbian imperialists invaded Kosova, they informed the world that they would return again their historical rights they had in 1389 (before the battle of Kosova). Basing themselves on these ‘historical rights', either Italy, or France, or Greece, or Turkey could rise and request to get half of Europe, as they had once these regions in their hands. Furthermore, France could request a part of Russia, as Napoleon went once to Moscow in 1812.
But the ‘historical rights' of Serbia on Kosova are still stranger. When the Turkish military in the middle ages arrived to the borders of Austria, the Serbian patriarch Cernojevic and Serbian landowners went on their expense to fight to the benefit of Austria and to defend the rivers of the Danube and Sava. The landowner patriarch had taken with him 170,000 Serbian families from Kosova, mostly farmers and settled them on the land given Austria in Banat and Backa. The place in Kosova that had remained vacant, was gradually occupied by the Albanians that had lived there around, and together with a small number of the Serbs that had remained they worked out the land and made it fertile again! Now after so many hundred years, pan-Serbian imperialists claim that they have their ‘historical rights', both in Backa and Banat where the Serbs of Kosova live, and also in Kosova, which they left that time. This is called historical right! On the basis of such ‘historical rights, Serbian imperialists want to take ‘pan-Serbian Kosova' without Serbs. Kosova is a merely Albanian region, and has only 10 to 15% Serbs settled there in older times.
The first means that Serbian imperialists put in effect were medieval military means, or
means of colonial invaders: extermination of population, military operations, disarmament of population, crushing the armed resistance, etc.
In 1912 and 1913, 120,000 Albanians were exterminated - men, women, boys, old men and women, children - hundreds of villages were shot by heavy guns, a large number of them were burned down, more in Kosova and less in Macedonia.
It is to observe that the representative of Russian imperialist tsarist politics, minister of Russia in Belgrade, Hartvig, blessed this policy of extermination that was carried out by Belgrade. The Russian Orthodox Tsar extended his assistance to the Orthodox Serbian brother, king Petar and his son Aleksandar, to exterminate a whole people and expand the Orthodox religion in the Balkans. At least 50,000 Albanians were forced to emigrate to Turkey and Albania and become immigrants, in order to save their lives.
The extermination of the Albanians rarefied Albanian masses in Kosova to a certain degree, but it could not change the Albanian character that Kosova has had. The intention to exterminate the Albanians in Kosova was to settle Serbs instead of them, to colonise Kosova by Serbs, serbisianation of Kosova. Nevertheless, until the end of 1912, owing to great resistance on the part of the Albanians, colonisation made a relatively slow progress. Only a small number of Serbs were settled in the region of Kosova in the first stages.
Here we shall provide some official statistics of Serbian government, that indicate the Albanian character of Kosova. Out of 25,407 rural houses, only 6,311, i.e., only 17% were Serbs in the province of Kosova in 1919. In Kaçanik, there were totally 2.5% Serbs in 1924, the rest were Albanians. In the district of Prizren, there were 17% Serbs in 1921. This proportion was similar in the districts of Prishtina, Mitrovica, Gjilan, Peja, and Gjakova, and in some other districts the proportion of the Serbs was even smaller. In 1921, there were mostly 17% Serbs in whole Kosova. The Albanian national resistance was put up in two ways: in the legal way, by the Muslim organisation Cemiyet, and in the revolutionary way, by fighting with arms by Albanian national detachments that are called ‘kaçakë' (outlaws). We shall speak of Cemiyet later. The Serbian government attempted to present Albanian ‘kaçaks' as robbers and put them out of the law. Every governmental service and every Serbian fascist has the right to kill them. ‘Kaçaks' in fact are not robbers at all, but they are good Albanian guerrillas. There are people that can sacrifice everything, their houses, property and goods, and go to mountains, form guerrilla detachments and fight against the misdeeds and barbarisms of Serbian military and police. ‘Kaçaks' believe they can dislodge the Serbian regime from Kosova in that way.
These national warriors have fought a great fight, a fight that ought to be admired, against very big forces of Serbian gendarmerie and military. The names of Bajram Curri, Azem Bejta and hundreds of other brave men that have fallen at that war, have been carved in the hearts of the Albanians of Kosova.
In 1920 more than 10,000 ‘kaçaks' were on the mountains of Kosova. There were 2,000 of them in Llab only. In 1920, in the time of the uprising of Llab, the Serbian military, under the command of colonel Radovan Rodovic, bombarded the big Albanian village of Prapashtica, and all the houses were ruined.
Similar to Llab, Albanian national movements were organised in many other regions of Kosova, and were crushed by great Serbian forces in 1919 and 1924. We can mention here the movements of Plava, Gucia, Rugova in 1919, of Prishtina in 1921, Drenica in 1923, Mitrovica in 1924 and again of Drenica in 1924. By quelling these uprisings, the Serbian military killed 2,600 Albanians.
National resistance in this way was limited to the fights of detachments of ‘kaçaks'. According to an official report of Serbian government, there were 1,200 organised ‘kaçaks' in detachments in 1924. In 1927, the Serbian police published a report: 310 Albanian ‘kaçaks' were killed, 175 caught as prisoners and 626 surrendered.
In 1927, the movement of ‘kaçaks' ceased to act, but the spirit of ‘kaçaks' lives in every village and will never cease to exist until Kosova is free. The pan-Serbian regime knows this quite well. That is why it has decided to denationalise Kosova totally, not only by crushing wildly the Albanian movement, but also by grabbing their land and colonising Kosova by Serbs. I am going to discuss this matter in the next issue of Liria Kombëtare.”
Archives of Military-Historic Institute
Vasa Cubrilovic Serb Minister, “The Expulsion of the Albanians”
Lecture held at the Serbian Cultural Club, on 7 March, 1937
Conclusion
Bearing in mind everything that has been said above, it is no accident that in studying the issue of the colonization of the south, we start from the view that the only effective way of solving this problem is the mass emigration of the Albanians. Like other countries, we have had no success with gradual colonization. When the state authorities wish to intervene in the interests of our own nationality's struggle for land, they can only do so successfully if they act brutally. Otherwise, the local inhabitants, rooted in their birthplace and acclimatized to it, are always stronger than the colonists. In our case, we must remember at an early stage that we are dealing with a poor, deep-rooted, and fertile race, whom the late Cvijic called the race in the Balkans most likely to expand. Between 1870 and 1914, Germany spent whole billions of marks in gradually buying land from the Poles, in order to colonise its eastern territories, but the fertility of Polish mothers defeated German organisation and money.
Thus, in 1918, Poland claimed Poznan as its own again. Our statistics from the years 1912-1931, which we have already mentioned, show that the fertility of Albanian women defeated our colonisation policy too. From this, we must draw conclusions and act swiftly as long as we have time to make corrections.
All Europe is in a state of chaos. We never know what the next day will bring. Albanian nationalism is increasing in our territories too. To leave the situation as it is means, in the case of a world conflict or a social revolution, both of which are possible in the near future, to put a question mark over all our territories in the south. The purpose of this memorandum is to avoid such a thing.
Dr Bogdan Krisman
(Zagreb)
Report of Dr. Ivo Andric on Albania, in 1939
...Italian foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, returned to Yugoslavia in January 1939 and held frequent, long and confidential talks with Stojadinovic in Belje and Belgrade... In these talks they devoted their greatest attention to Albania, in regard to which Stojadinovic informed Ciano that there were two possible solutions: 1) that they should replace King Zog on the Albanian throne with a worthier person, although he himself did not know who this might be; 2) that Italy and Yugoslavia should partition Albania between them. As for this, he added that he could not discuss it then, since he had not studied the problem in details. Nevertheless, while Stojadinovic spoke about the partition of Albania, Ciano always spoke about rectification of the border with Yugoslavia!
After Ciano's departure, Stojadivonic asked the ministry to find the respective studies on Albania and the problem of the division of the Albanian territory. Two internal studies on this have been kept: one by Ivan Vukotic, a senior officer of the ministry, on 3 February, 1939, and the other by Stojadinovic's assistant at that time, Ivo Andric, on January 30, 1939...
In our political and diplomatic combinations and our Balkan policy, Vukotic wrote, “we have always aimed to defeat all the demands of the Albanians for the creation of an independent state, simply for the reason that this state could be created against us and against our national aspirations.” In this case Vukotic also mentions the following: “While the Ambassadorial Conference in Paris defined the borders of Albania, Pašiƒ held talks with the Italians in July 1921, and gave his approval for the division of Albania between us and Italy, provided that we reached a more suitable solution than the one envisaged by the Treaty of London of 1915. Our Government at that time did not agree to this proposal and nothing was done about its implementation ...
In 1926 more serious efforts were made for the last time for entering our relations with Italy on the Albanian problem. Then, too, the efforts failed due to many reasons.“ Vukotic continues, “The question arises why our official circles were afraid of dividing Albania with Italy. Arguments were brought up that Italy, as a great power and a non-Balkan state, should not be permitted to take steps towards the Balkans. Such a rapid increase in the international strength and importance of Italy had not been foreseen. It was believed that Albania could not consolidate its positions for many years and we would strengthen our position in Albania, if we could displace Italy. None of these predictions, on which our policy of the independence of Albania had been based, came true. On the contrary, everything turned out quite the opposite ...
In such a state of affairs, it is simple and clear that it is in our interests to ensure that Italy should hold only a part of Albania and not the whole of it. When there were no other arguments for the division of Albania, this alone would be sufficient.” 2) According to Vukotic, “owing to its geographical position, Albania is a hindrance to the economic development of the Yugoslav state, while with the division of Albania our land border would be shorter for about 300 km.“ 3) The Albanian state and the monarchy are centres of attraction for a considerable number of the Albanians who live in our country along the border. By the occupation and annexation of Northern Albania, the Albanian irredentists who are dangerous to our southern provinces would be killed. The Albanian militant element in our territory would be encircled from east and west and would more readily submit to assimilation. 4) Whenever the division of Albania has been discussed, the most that we demanded was to reach the valley of the Shkumbin River. Certainly, the line Struga-Librazhd and Elbasan-Durres would fully satisfy our demands. This territory has about 400,000 inhabitants, 130,000 of them Catholics, 50,000 Orthodox, and the remaining 200,000 or so Muslims. “The partition of Albania and the annexation of its northern and central regions to our Kingdom would be a great national success for us and the accomplishment of our natural aspirations. Our geographical position would be improved on this part of the border. Incalculable economic profits would be made and two important provinces, of Zeta and Vardar, would be united with natural links. Albanian irredentism (!) and the Albanian state, which had been thought of and created by our enemies, would be liquidated. Vukotic concludes that we must take advantage of the favourable situation and complete a great popular project with the partition of Albania.
Andric's study amounts to 12 printed pages of Cyrillic text ...
“Conducting a friendly policy towards one another, Italy and Yugoslavia could come to an agreement on Albania on the following basis: Italy has its vital interests in Vlora, this part of the Albanian coast should not be endangered by us. We must understand and respect this interest. The vital interest of Yugoslavia is that the border of Southern Serbia, or Kosova (inhabited by Albanians), or Shkodra and Montenegro, should not be endangered...
In this way, the Treaty of friendship of 25 March, 1937, is a tolerable “modus vivendi” between us and Italy as regards the Albanian territory, over which so many clashes and suspicions have been in the past years.
An other issue is whether this cease-fire in Albania could withstand the test of some graver and more complicated situation in the Mediterranean Sea and the Balkans...
In assessing this whole question, we must bear in mind the necessity to avoid every possible conflict, either open or disguised, with Italy. Likewise, we must avert the contingency that Italy occupies the whole of Albania, where it would endanger us at many sensitive spots in the direction of Boka-Kotor and Kosova.
Bearing in mind all that we said above, the division of Albania may seem to us only as an obligatory and inevitable evil that cannot be helped and a great harm which we have to make the best of, i. e., choose the lesser of the two evils.
Our compensations are found in the material compiled twenty years ago when the question of the partition of Albania was raised.
The maximum we demanded at that time was that the border would pass along the rivers of Mat and Drin i Zi and which would provide us with strategic security of Montenegro and Kosova. We ought to secure, also, the tectonic valleys of Ohri Lake and Prespa Lake, annexing Pogradec and the Slav villages of Golloborda, as well as those between Prespa and Korça.
The taking of Shkodra would, in this case, be of great economic and moral importance. This would give us the possibilities to carry out major hydro-techincal projects and gain fertile land to provide food for Montenegro. Northern Albania within the borders of Yugoslavia would enable the creation of new lines of communication of Northern and Southern Serbia with the Adriatic.
With the partition of Albania, the centre of attraction for the Albanian minority in Kosova would be eliminated and, that minority would be assimilated more easily in this new situation. In the long run, we would gain another 200,000 - 300,000 Albanians, but most of them are Catholics whose relations have never been good with Muslim Albanians. Likewise, the emigration of the Muslim Albanians to Turkey would be done under new circumstances, because there would be no powerful action to prevent it.”
(The fragments present aspects of the Yugoslav state platform in the thirties of this century towards Albania and Albanians on the whole, including the Albanians of Kosova and other territories annexed by Yugoslav Kingdom.)
Archives of Historic Military Institute in Belgrade
Written by the Third Military Zone
Top secret, No. 1859/38
“On the occasion of the events in Checkoslovakia, the Albanian population in the territory of III military Zone, and particularly in the territory of the Kosova Zone division, organised an uprising and the Albanian irredentism forced its propaganda, spreading its voice further on, that Dukagjin and other regions inhabited by Albanians should be returned to Albania. The convention of Munich made it more possible for the Albanians to think that their question should also be solved soon...
I am only confirming that the situation, due to the Albanians in this area, is different from the situation in the fist military zone, because of the Hungarians and Germans... There are 70% Albanians in the territory of the Kosova Zone division. The Albanians in the territory of this military zone are mostly found in border regions, and less in centres...
This danger from the Albanians is not great for the time being and it is possible to decline and be avoided by wisely applied measures, but in a period of 20 years it will become unbearable, since if it remains under the present Albanian population...it may multiply so much that it will comprise a much larger percentage than the present one. If one bears in mind that the number of highly educated Albanians will be larger, the danger will also be greater...
The number of Yugoslav inhabitants is like this:
a) In the territory of the military zone in Kosova, there are:
- Albanians 401,599
- Indigenous Serbs 207,780
- Colonists 73,040
Total 612,419
The following are distinguished as uncertain zones, due to the number of Albanians: the district of Kaçanik with 97 per cent Albanians (the Division of Vardar), but in geographical and economical viewpoint it is linked to the Division of Kosova.
The district of Podrimja with about 90% Albanians.
The area of Podguri 85% “ “
“ “ of Llap 80% “ “
“ “ of Vushtria 70% “ “
“ “ of Gjilan 67% “ “.
One could see out of these figures that from the national aspect a colonisation should be carried out as soon as possible in the territory of the Zone of Kosova Division, parallel to the displacement of the Albaian population. Accordingly, minister of military and marine, by his orders no. 8691 of 7/10/1938 no. 3530 of 17/10/1938, proposed new garrisons to be establish at Rahovec, Suhareka, in Podujeva, Vushtria, Gjilan and Kaçanik, so that the settlement of our inhabitants become more efficient by means of these new garrisons in the zones of our border regions on Albania, in which compact Albanian masses live...
In the region of Kaçanik, where 12,560 Albanians, and only 60 Serbs and 540 colonists live at present..., to avoid the problems that have risen by dense settlements of non-Slavonic elements, the following measures should be taken:
a) To expel first of all the Albanian element from the border zones and compact places, and the Turkish element only so many as to make the emigration of the Albanians possible.
b) To carry out colonisation of our population in the border zone.
c) To expel all the political immigrants from these zones.
d) Large settlements to be erected, in cultural and political aspect, especially in the border zone.
e) In the clean regions of the Albanians, children should be released from attending school, i.e., to ban them being educated, and it is important not to hold courses of physical education for the youth in order to prevent them getting prepared for war before time.
This headquarters does not possess sufficient evidence on the situation of emigration and the things dealing with it. But one thing is sure, that the Albanians and Turks do not emigrate on their own will, that is why there are cases that those who emigrated once have come back secretly.”
Commander, honoured adjutant
of the King, general of Army
Milan Jecmenic.
Dardania I've already taken care of that.
Ska problem shqipe edhe faqen ta jap por kemi plote Serbe te faqja ku i kemi postuar nuk na duhen keta trapat e tjere qe jane ketu.
Hey there Serb, as once a Serbian father said, Dobica Cosic Yugoslav President, " lying is the patriotic duty of every Serb"
Go a little further down in the first article and you can see sources like this.
2. ASHRSH, fund MKK. D-7, doc. 707936. Turkish statistics of 1911.
3. The Supreme Command of Serbian III Army on 3/IV.1913.
7. AS. Bgd. Uredba o javnoj bezbednosti u slobodjenim oblastima 1913 (Decree on Public Security in Liberated Regions, 1913).
8. AS. Bgd. MPB. P.O.F. 15, r. 143/1913.
9. A.C.G. Cetinje, fund of MPB, F-131, doc. 2907.
12. Leo Freunderlich, Albanens Golgota... Vien 1913.
13. AVII - Bgd. Pop. II, K-10, doc. no. 242, 25/X/1912.
14. Dr Milivoje Eric, Agrana reforma u Jugoslaviji 1918-1941 (Agrarian Reform in Yugoslavia, 1918-1941), Sarajevo, 1958, p. 140.
15. Dr M. Obradovic, Agrarna Reforma i kolonizacije na Kosovu 1918-1941(Agrarian reform and Colonisation in Kosova, 1918-1941), Prishtina, 1981, p. 51.
17. Dokumenti o spolnoj politici Kraljevine Serbije 1903-1914 (Documents on Foreign Policy of the Serbian Kingdom, 1903-1914), Bk. VII, file.1. Belgrade, 1980, pp. 617-618.
18. Dr Branko Babic, Politika Crne Gore u novooslobodjenim krajevima 1912-1914 (The Politics of Montenegro in Newly Liberated Regions, 1912-1914), Titograd, 1984, pp. 267-277.
19. DASIP, fund of Yugoslav Kingdom Legation in Ankara, 1941.
20. AVII - Bgd. Pop. XVII, K-95, doc. no. 429.
21. The Archives of Yugoslavia, fund Agrarna Reforma i Kolonizacija (Agrarian Reform and Colonization), Belgrade, as well as the Archives of Kosova, Prishtina, in which till 1990, 14,765 family cards, i.e., one for each family had been.
22. Djordje Kristic, Kolonizacija Juzne Srbije (Colonisation of South Serbia), Sarajevo 1928, p. 6.
23. Dr Milovan Obradovic, Agrarna Reforma i kolonizacija na Kosovu 1918-1941 (Agrarian Reform and Colonisation in Kosova, 1918-1941), Prishtina, 1981.
24. Svetozar Privicevic, Diktatuara Kralja Aleksandra (Dictatorship of King Aleksandar), Belgrade, 1983, p.15, “Srpski glas”, no. 8/40.
25. Vasa Cubrilovic, Iseljavanje Arnauta (predavanje odrazano u “Srpskom kulturnom klubu” 7.III.1937 (Exulsion of Albanians (Lecture held in ‘Serbian Cultural Club on 7/III/1937).
28. Dr B.Krizman, Elaborat Ivo Andrica o Albaniji (1939) (The Project of Ivo Andric on Albania), Casopis za suvremenu povjest, no. 2, Zagreb 1977, pp. 77-89.
29. AJ. S. 37/39, Ivan Vukotic, O Albaniji i interesne sfere (On Albania and the Spheres of Interest).
30. AJ. S. 39, secr. doc. on division of Albania, 1939.
31. AJ.37 - Tajni planovi vlade i crkve Svetog Save /39 (Secret Plans of the Government and St. Sava Church /39.
You on the other side provide a crappy wikipedia link.
I guess you don't like wikkipedia only when it is used to reveal the Iranian origins of the Serbs.
You have direct Serb sources there, written by Serb generals. You're quick to dismiss anything that threatens Serb propaganda.
These sources are written by the Serb government and military people. That is enough. This is what these officials state.
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