Džemijet

Džemijet (Turkish: Cemiyet, "Society", Albanian: Xhemijet; full Turkish name Turkish: İslam Muhafaza-i Hukuk Cemiyeti, "Islamic Association for the Defense of Justice"^[1]/"Society for the Preservation of Muslim Rights"^[2]) was a political party of the Muslim population in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. It represented Albanians, Slavic Muslims (Bosniaks, Gorani and Torbeshi) and Turks in what was then "Southern Serbia" (i.e. Vardar Macedonia, Kosovo and Metohija, Sandžak). It was formed in August 1918 and officially constituted in Skopje in late 1919. The party participated in the 1920 and 1923 elections, in which it elected 8 and 14 representatives respectively. In January 1925 the party's leader Ferhat Draga, an Albanian nationalist who had previously served as mayor of Mitrovica, was arrested and soon after the party was disbanded.^[3]

Džemijet Xhemijet
Chairman	Nexhip Draga Ferhat Draga
Founded	1918
Banned	1925
Ideology	Islamism Social conservatism Albanian nationalism Muslim interests Balkan Turks interests National conservatism
Political position	Right-wing to far-right
Politics of Yugoslavia Political parties Elections

Name

The official name of the party was Islam Muhafazai Hukuk Cemiyeti usually translated in English as "Islamic Association for the Defense of Justice" and "Society for the Preservation of Muslim Rights".^[4][5] It was also referred to as the National Turkish Organization Cemiyet (Serbo-Croatian: Narodna turska organizacija Džemijet).^[6] It was popularly known by its abbreviated form: Xhemijet or Bashkimi in Albanian, Džemijet in Bosnian and Cemiyet in Turkish.

History

 

Džemijet's election results in the 1923 parliamentary election by electoral district

Džemijet was founded in Skopje on 18 December 1919 with Nexhip Draga, who had been imprisoned in Belgrade during the Balkan Wars, as leader by Albanians, Slavic Muslims and Turks of Kosovo, Macedonia and Sandžak and Kenan Ziya from Bitola.^[7] Its program, included demands the protection of Muslim rights and the agrarian status of the Muslim landlords. Initially, the party followed a policy of moderation towards Serbian hegemonism within the kingdom and entered a coalition the People's Radical Party in the 1920 elections, in which it elected six deputies through a mixed-ticket and one-candidate system.^[5] Prior to the 1923 elections, Nikola Pašić, Prime Minister and leader of the Radical Party, met with the leaders of in Skopje and bargained for their support in exchange for their participation in his government, which became necessary for his party as it after the elections without Džemijet and ethnic German party, no government could be formed.^[8] Pašić agreed to legalize Albanian-language schooling, while 1924 Džemijet requested the cancellation of the colonization programmes of Kosovo. As no requirements were met by Pašić, Džemijet voted against the proposed budget by the Radical Party in 1924.^[9] The opposition of the budget marked the breakdown of relations between the parties and Džemijet's eventual suppression and illegalization. Ferhat Draga, the new leader of the party, decided that the community's interests would be best represented through the formation of a wider anti-Belgrade opposition front with the Croatian Peasant Party, whose congress he attended in October 1924 for that purpose.^[8]

However, his views weren't supported by a minority group that sought continuation of a policy of unconditional compromise with the radical party. In the meantime, another faction that covertly advocated Albanian irredentism in Kosovo and Macedonia emerged. Later in 1924, Pašić sent his strongman Puniša Račić in Kosovo to organize with local Serb officials Džemijet's suppression. In January 1925, Ferhat Draga along and other prominent leaders and journalists of the party's journal were arrested. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison, later released and then arrested and sentenced again to twenty years in prison in 1927. That same year, a leading intellectual of the party Nazim Gafurri, who was outspoken about the electoral abuses in the region, was assassinated.^[8]

Activities

In the Albanian-language schools as well as teaching in Albanian were banned and Albanians were allowed only to attend religious Muslim schools or secular Serbian-language ones. While trying to get legal recognition for the opening of Albanian-language schools in the parliament, the party also operated underground secular Albanian schools. After the party's ban, the school system continued with students smuggling Albanian books in Serbian schools and mullahs introducing Albanian secretly during religious courses.^[10]

Elections

Year	Popular vote	% of popular vote	Coalition	Overall seats won	Seat change
1920	30,029	1.87%	—	8 / 419	8
1923	71,453	3.28%	—	14 / 315	6
1925	12,468	0.51%	—	0 / 315	14

See also

• Gajret

References

Notes

1. Elsie 2012, p. 291.
2. Banac 1988, p. 377.
3. Elsie 2012, p. 123.
4. Elsie 2010, p. 291.
5. Banac 1988, pp. 377–8.
6. Zovko 2007, p. 69.
7. Özdalga 2005, p. 317.
8. Malcolm 1998, pp. 271–2.
9. Clark 2000, p. 34.
10. Kostovicova 2002, pp. 161–2.

Books

• Malcolm, Noel (1998). Kosovo: a short history. Macmillan. ISBN 9780333666128. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
• Banac, Ivo (1988). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801494932. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
• Clark, Howard (2000-08-20). Civil Resistance in Kosovo. Pluto Press. ISBN 9780745315690. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
• Kostovicova, Denisa (2002). Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers, Bernd Jürgen Fischer (ed.). 'Shkolla Shqipe' and Nationahood: Albanians in Pursuit of Education in the Native Language in Interwar (1918-41) and Post-Autonomy (1989-98) Kosovo. Albanian Identities: Myth and History. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253341891. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
• Elsie, Robert (2010-12-01). Historical Dictionary of Kosovo. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810872318. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
• Zovko, Ljubomir (2007). Studije iz pravne povijesti Bosne i Hercegovine: 1878. - 1941 (in Croatian). Faculty of Law, University of Mostar. ISBN 9789958927126.
• Elsie, Robert (December 24, 2012). A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History. I. B. Tauris. p. 123. ISBN 9781780764313. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
• Özdalga, Elisabeth (2005). Late Ottoman Society: The Intellectual Legacy. SOAS/RoutledgeCurzon studies on the Middle East. Vol. 3. RoutledgeCurzon. p. 317. ISBN 0-415-34164-7.