Massacres of Albanians in World War I

The massacres of Albanians in World War I were a series of war crimes committed by Serbian, Montenegrin, Greek and Bulgarian troops against the Albanian civil population of Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo during and immediately before the Great War. These atrocities followed the previous massacres committed during the Balkan Wars. In 1915, Serbian troops enacted a scorched-earth policy in Kosovo, massacring tens of thousands of Albanians.^[1] Between 1912 and 1915, 132 Albanian villages were razed to the ground.^[2][3]

Massacres of Albanians in World War I
Part of World War I and war crimes in World War I
Young Albanian refugees on a boat in 1914
Location	Principality of Albania, Kosovo, Vardar Macedonia
Date	1914–1918
Target	Albanians
Attack type	Massacres, arson, famine, forced migration, ethnic cleansing
Deaths	Committee of Kosovo claim: c. 250,000 (excluding those killed by Greeks) Albanian Deputy claim: 85,676 killed in Kosovo (1913–1921)
Victims	330,000 homeless by November 1915 20,000 refugees from Korça
Perpetrators	Kingdom of Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, Kingdom of Bulgaria, Kingdom of Greece
Motive	Anti-Albanian sentiment, Islamophobia, Greater Serbia, Greater Bulgaria, Megali Idea

Many Albanians in the region of Kičevo were killed by Bulgarian forces between 1915-1918.^[4] In 1916, many Albanians in Štrpce and Načallnik starved to death or became sick as a result of the Bulgarian soldiers collecting the villagers wheat which led to a man-made famine.^[5][6] The number of Albanians (including combatants) that were killed or died during WWI in Albania is estimated to be around 70,000, approximately 8.75% to 10% of the country's population.^[7][8] In a letter to King George V, the Committee of Kosovo claimed in 1919 that the Serbian and Montenegrin armies had killed 200,000 Albanians since the Balkan Wars, including some 100,000 Albanians killed in Kosovo from 1913 to 1915, and that Bulgarian troops had killed 50,000 Albanians throughout the War.^[9] In 1921, Albanian deputies claimed that 85,676 Kosovo Albanians were killed since the Balkan Wars.^[10]

After the Great War, Albanians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were subject to persecution.

Background

Main article: Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars

During the Balkan Wars, numerous atrocities were committed against the Albanian population in the territories occupied by the Balkan League, typically by Serbian and Montenegrin forces. According to contemporary accounts, around 25,000 Albanians were killed during the first half of the First Balkan War, before violence climaxed.^[9][11][12] It is estimated that up to 120,000 or more were killed in either Old Serbia or in all areas occupied by the Serbian Army.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18]} Additionally, according to Serbian documents, 281,747 Albanians above the age of six were expelled from Old Serbia by late 1914. This figure, however, is disputed and scholars estimate that between 60,000 and 300,000 Albanians were expelled from 1912–1913.^[19][20][21] The Carnegie Commission characterized the expulsions and massacres as an attempt to transform the ethnic structure of the regions inhabited mostly by Albanians.^[22]

Kosovo

Bytyci

In 1913, Serbian forces entered the region of Bytyci and killed 51 men and burned down 2,000 houses. Later, in 1915, the village was attacked again and the entire Ushki family was nearly eradicated, with only one survivor.^[23]

Astrazubi

In 1914, Serbian troops entered the village of Astrazubi in Malisheva and burned down 1,029 houses and killed 227 civilians, mostly women and children, although the number is believed to be higher according to Albanian sources. In the village of Banjë, the wounded were buried alive.^[24]

Gjilan

In 1914 Serbian troops committed many atrocities in Gjilan.^[25]

Kamënica

During the Serbian armys retreat, the soldiers set fire to Kamenica, Selac, Gradec and Vranisht, after having slaughtered a number of peasants and carried off the women. On November 1, 1915, the soldiers placed two pieces of light artillery two hundred paces from the village of Vecali, on the Tetovo-Prizren road, and set fire to the village with these pieces of artillery, killing nearly 65 men, women and children. The rest of the peasants managed to flee. Before the bombardment of the village, the peasants had given bread to the Serbian soldiers.^[26]

Pejë

In the region of Pejë in 1914, Serbian troops would execute roughly 25 Albanian civilians daily.^[27]

Vitia

In the village of Lubishtë, Serbian troops massacred 104 men, as well as 24 men in Julekar. In Lubishtë, the head of the Bakiya family, the old grandmother in the Metushi family and two children of the Emin family were burned alive.^[28]

Vardar Macedonia

Tetovo

In 1915, a young Albanian boy shot a Serbian soldier in the village of Dërbëcë in Tetovo. The Serbian army demanded that the village hand him over. The villagers refused which resulted in the entire village being massacred.^{[29][better source needed]}

Bitola

According to Justin McCarthy, in 1915 Serbian and Bulgarian forces entered the region of Bitola, in Kičevo and Kruševo in Bitola, and burned between 19-36 villages. 503 men, 27 women and 25 children were killed, and 600 houses burned down.^[30][31]

Principality of Albania

According to an article in the Boston Daily Globe, published on November 8, 1915, the Serbo-Montenegrin troops shot or bayonetted 20,000 Albanian women and children and destroyed 300 villages and 35,000 houses, leaving 330,000 people without asylum.^[32] Additionally, during the conflict between Albanians and Greeks in southern Albania during 1914–1915, where Greek forces took advantage of the political instability of Albania and attempted to annex as much Albanian territory into Greece as possible or succeed in creating the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus, at least 145 Albanian villages in southern Albania were looted and destroyed. Accompanying this was the destruction of 48 Bektashi teqes at the hands of the Greek forces. In total, 80 per cent of the teqes in Albania were either extremely damaged or destroyed entirely during 1914–1915.^[33]

Shkodër

In November 1915, Montenegrin troops murdered Albanian intellectuals and patriots. Others were captured and sent to Cetinje and executed. Among the martyrs were publicist Moustafa Hilmi Leskoviki, head of the Albanian paper "Kombi".^[34]

Gjirokastër

The Greek army withdrew from the area after the recognition of the Albanian independence and the delineation of the border. A provisional government of Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was established in February 1914 and organized armed units who clashed with the Albanian militia. They were composed both Orthodox Albanian and Greek-speaking males aged from 15 to 55 and consisted mainly by deserters of the Greek army, many of them natives and bandits.^[35] As such the area was subject to a vicious cycle of arson and looting and towns like Tepelenë, Leskovik and Frashër and many villages were burnt down completely.^[36] This devastation was accompanied by the massacre of a large part the population, especially the Muslim part.^[37]

Hormova

 

The memorial for the men massacred in Hormova by Greek forces in 1914

On April 29, 1914, Greek troops massacred 217 men and boys from Hormovë inside the premises of the monastery of Saint Mary in the neighboring village of Kodra.^{[38][39][40][41]}

Korça region

Before the First World War, in 1914 based on reports by journalist and Albanian national activist Kristo Dako in May of 1914 Greek forces committed atrocities in the district of Korçë. According to him hundreds of Muslim homes were destroyed and removed the Albanian Christian population from multiple villages. In the process, many civilians were massacred, including Christians. Roughly 20,000 refugees were created in and around Korçë.^[42]

After Greek military groups entered Korçë in 1914 under the guise of desertion, they began to loot the shops and homes of Muslim Albanians, as well as committing murders and rapes; Albanian armed groups, including that of Kajo Babjeni, immediately responded by resuming their military activities and eventually forced the Greeks to retreat from the city. After the French army occupied Korçë on 18 October 1916, local Albanian leaders including Sali Butka, Themistokli Gërmenji and Kajo Babjeni coordinated their efforts and took measures to protect against the further fragmentation of Albanian lands; they created the Committee of Defense (Komiteti i Mbrojtjes), surrounded the city with their forces and began negotiations with the French that ultimately culminated in the creation of the Autonomous Province of Korçë.^[43]

After a massacre took place in the village of Panarit, part of the villagers who escaped the massacre moved as refugees in Mallakastër.^[44] A commemoration ceremony is held annually in Panarit for those who were massacred or died as refugees in Mallakastër, Berat and Fier during WWI.^[45]

Aftermath

See also: Persecution of the Albanians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

In 1920, Hasan Prishtina collected information about the atrocities committed on the Albanian civil population by the Serbian troops in 1918-1920. He reported this to the British government that 20,000 men and 1,500 women were massacred, as well as 168 villages razed to the ground, with 4,769 houses burned down.^[46]

In 1918, Serbian forces entered Albanian villages with the intent of disarming them resulting in a number of villages being burned.^[47][48] As a result, more atrocities were committed between 1918-1941 by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia against the Albanian population.

See also

• Albania during the Balkan Wars
• Anti-Albanian sentiment
• Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars
• Persecution of the Albanians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
• World War I
• Balkan Wars
• World War I in Albania

References

1. Çami, Muin (1973). La Lutte anti-imperialiste de liberation nationale du peuple albanais, 1918-1920 (in French). Academie des Sciences de la Rp d'Albanie, Institut d'Histoire. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
2. Pllana, Nusret; Kabashi, Emin (2001). Der Terror der Besatzungsmacht Serbien gegen die Albaner (in Albanian). Arkivi Shtetëror i Kosovës. ISBN 978-9951-404-00-6. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
3. Ternon, Yves (1995). L'Etat criminel: les génocides au XXe siècle (in French). Seuil. ISBN 978-2-02-017284-4. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
4. Dr.sc.Ilmi Veliu:"Masakrat në Kërqovë që i bëri Bullgaria ndaj shqiptarve të Kosovës 1915-1918"
5. Krste Bitovski. "Glad, Stradanja i otpor stanovnishtva Kosova i Metohije za vreme bugarske okupacije". Istoriski Glasnik, Belgrad 1963. p. 84
6. Janaçie Popoviq. "Kosovo u ropstvo pod bugarima 1915-1918". Published in Leskovac, 1921.
7. Tucker, Spencer; Mary Roberts, Priscilla. World War I: Encyclopedia, Volume 1. p. 77.
8. Gingeras, Ryan (2016). Fall of the Sultanate: The Great War and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1908-1922. OUP Oxford. p. 87. ISBN 9780191663581.
9. Kosovo, A Documentary History: From the Balkan Wars to World War II 1788311760, 9781788311762. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
10. Albanians at the Ambassador Conference in Tirana, 1 August. New York: Near East College Association. 1921. p. 199. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
11. Levene, Mark (2013). Devastation: Volume I: The European Rimlands 1912-1938. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199683031.
12. Hudson, Kimberly A. (5 March 2009). Justice, Intervention, and Force in International Relations: Reassessing Just War Theory in the 21st Century. Taylor & Francis. p. 128. ISBN 9780203879351. Retrieved 6 September 2016 – via Google Books.
13. Novakovic, Kosta. . The Institute of History, Prishtina. Archived from the original on December 25, 2013.
14. 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.
15. Alpion, Gëzim (30 December 2021). Mother Teresa: The Saint and Her Nation. Bloomsbury. p. 11. ISBN 9789389812466. During the Balkan wars, in total '120,000 Albanians were exterminated', hundreds of villages' were shelled by artillery and 'a large number of them were burned down' across Kosova and Macedonia. The figures do not include people killed in present-day Albania and the devastated houses, villages and towns that Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers left behind when they were eventually forced to retreat.'
16. Ademi, Haxhi (2019). "THE CASE OF THE "DISPLACEMENT" OF SERBS FROM KOSOVO DURING WORLD WAR TWO" (PDF). Analele UniversităŃii din Craiova. Istorie: 32.
17. Zhitia, Skender (2021). "The Anti-Albanian Policy of the Serbian State, Programs and Methods (XIX-XX)". Journal of History & Future.
18. 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.
19. Štěpánek, Václav (2010). Problem of colonization of Kosovo and Metohija in 1918–1945 (PDF) (in Czech). p. 88.
20. Qirezi, Arben (2017). "Settling the self-determination dispute in Kosovo". In Mehmeti, Leandrit I.; Radeljić, Branislav (eds.). Kosovo and Serbia: Contested Options and Shared Consequences. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 9780822981572.
21. . The Institute of History, Prishtina. Archived from the original on March 24, 2012.
22. Kramer, Alan (2008). Dynamic of destruction: Culture and Mass killing in the First World War. Oxford University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-19-158011-6.
23. Elsie, Robert (24 April 2015). The Tribes of Albania: History, Society and Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85773-932-2. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
24. Rifati, Fitim (2015). "Mizoritë e Ushtrisë Serbe në Rajonin e Astrazubit më 1914". Gjurmime Albanologjike - Seria e shkencave historike (in Albanian). pp. 81–91.
25. Destani, Bejtullah D. (2003). Ethnic Minorities in the Balkan States, 1860-1971: 1888-1914. Archive Editions. ISBN 978-1-84097-035-7. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
26. raboti, Bulgaria Ministerstvo na vŭnshnite (1919). La vérité sur les accusations contre la Bulgarie (in French). l'État. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
27. de 1914-1918, France Commission de publication des documents relatifs aux origines de la guerre (1933). Documents Diplomatiques Français (1871-1914): 1913 (in French). Impr. nationale. Retrieved 10 August 2023.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
28. Destani, Bejtullah D. (2003). Ethnic Minorities in the Balkan States, 1860-1971: 1888-1914. Archive Editions. ISBN 978-1-84097-035-7. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
29. "Shqiptari nuk e ka zakon ta shes shqiptarin:Ja cfarë kishte ndodhur në vitin 1915 në fshatin Debërcë". StrugaLajm.
30. Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922. March 1, 1996. p.183
31. "Eshtrat në shtëpinë e Ali Ahmetit: ja çfarë shkruan Justin McCarthy mbi masakrat serbo-bullgare në Kërçovë 54455-kot-655". Retrieved 12 August 2023.
32. Skopiansky, M.D. Les atrocités serbes d'après les témoignages américains, anglais, français, italiens, russes, serbes, suisses, etc., etc (PDF) (Les atrocités commises par les Serbes dans l'Albanie septentrionale après l'amnistie accordée en octobre dernier (Extrait (lu Corriere delle Puglie, quotidien paraissant à Bari (Italie) ed.). Ancien rédacteur du Journal Macédonien « La Patrie ». BIBLIOTHÈQUE DES PEUPLES BALKANIQUES. 1. pp. 115–116. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
33. Elsie, Robert (2021). The Albanian Bektashi : the history and culture of a dervish order in the Balkans. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 9780755636464.
34. Skopiansky, M.D. Les atrocités serbes d'après les témoignages américains, anglais, français, italiens, russes, serbes, suisses, etc., etc (PDF) (Les atrocités commises par les Serbes dans l'Albanie septentrionale après l'amnistie accordée en octobre dernier (Extrait (lu Corriere delle Puglie, quotidien paraissant à Bari (Italie), année XXVIe, N' 354, du 21 décembre 1913.) ed.). Ancien rédacteur du Journal Macédonien « La Patrie ». BIBLIOTHÈQUE DES PEUPLES BALKANIQUES. 1. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
35. Kinley, Christopher (3 September 2021). "The Balkan War in Epirus: Religious Identity and the Continuity of Conflict". Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. 23 (5): 667–683. doi:10.1080/19448953.2021.1935077. ISSN 1944-8953. As the unrest reached a fever pitch, Orthodox Greek villagers formed paramilitary bands to counter pro-Albanian groups. These Orthodox bands were composed of both Albanian and Greek-speaking males ages 15 to 55 ... although some members of the Greek army did join the movement, many of those soldiers originated from the region.
36. Liakos, Antonis; Doumanis, Nicholas (2023). The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, 20th and Early 21st Centuries: Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries. Edinburgh University Press. p. 35. doi:10.1515/9781474410830. ISBN 978-1-4744-1084-7.The Greek army occupied the region in December, and a provisional government was established in February 1914. Its ‘army’ was composed mainly of deserters and bandits, who were pitted against Albanian militias, thereby subjecting the territory to a vicious cycle of arson, hostage-taking and looting. Towns like Tepelenë/Tepeleni, Frashër/Frasari and Lefkovik/Leskovik, and many villages were burned to their foundations.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
37. Dushku, Ledia. "Principata shqiptare dhe qëndrimi i Greqisë (Mars-Prill 1914)". Studime Historike (in Albanian). 1–2 (2011). Qendra e Studimeve Albanologjike: 115. Një pjesë e konsiderueshme e fshatrave të prefekturës së Gjirokastrës, Leskovikut, Skraparit e Korçës u dogjën e u rrënuan plotësisht, ndërsa një pjesë e madhe e popullsisë, veçanerisht asaj myslimane, u masakrua. Qytetet e Tepelenës dhe të Leskovikut u shkatërruan.
38. "1915 | Mid'hat bey Frashëri: The Epirus Question - the Martyrdom of a People". www.albanianhistory.net.
39. Destani, Bejtullah D. (2003). Ethnic Minorities in the Balkan States, 1860-1971: 1914-1923. Archive Editions. ISBN 978-1-84097-035-7. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
40. Swire, Joseph (1937). King Zog's Albania. Liveright. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
41. Pëllumb Xhufi. "Te kisha në Kodër, ku u masakruan 220 burra e djem hormovitë" (in Albanian). Të dielën, në 27 prill, në fshatin Homovë u përkujtua 100-vjetori i masakrës së burrave të atij fshati këtu e një shekull më parë. Pikërisht, në 29 prill 1914, bandat e ushtarëve dhe të andartëve grekë masakruan 220 burra e djem hormovitë brenda ambienteve të manastirit të Shën Mërisë, mbi fshatin Kodër.
42. Elsie, Robert. "1914 Christo Dako: Terrible Greek Atrocities in the District of Kortcha". albanianhistory.net.
43. Zotaj, Bernard (November 2021). "ÇETAT KRYENGRITËSE SHQIPTARE GJATË LUFTËS SË PARË BOTËRORE" (PDF). Revista Ushtarake (2): 195.
44. Nicholson 2013, p. 6:The only significant exceptions were two groups of families, each from a single village, both of which had been the sites of massacres (Kotani, 2003:92, 98) a handful of families from the mountains of the south west, and several traders all from the same village. In all but the last there were apparent links of kinship. In the first case, refugees from the village of Panarit in the hills in the South-East, 13 families,75 people in all, were located in or close to three hamlets in neighbouring villages, from which the others could be reached on foot within an hour or so.
45. "PANARITI PËRKUJTON 100 VJETORIN E MASAKRËS GREKE". Korçë County Press Office.
46. "Kur Hasan Prishtina u tregonte britanikëve krimet serbe në Kosovë: Janë vra 20, 000 burra e 1,500 gra". Nacionale.
47. JANJETOVIĆ, Zoran, 2005, Deca careva, pastorčad kraljeva : nacionalne manjine u Jugoslaviji 1918-1941, Belgrade: INIS.
48. "Massacres in Dismembered Yugoslavia, 1941-1945 | Sciences Po Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network". www.sciencespo.fr. 25 January 2016.

Sources

• Nicholson, Beryl (2013). "Accommodating the internally displaced in south-central Albania in 1918". New Issues in Refugee Research. UNHCR.