League of Prizren
The League of Prizren was an association of Albanian intellectuals founded in 1878 in what is now Kosovar Prizren , with the aim of using political and military pressure to apply political and military pressure to the division of Albanians inhabited areas under Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia, as provided for in the Peace of San Stefano prevent. In addition, she strove to unite the four Ottoman Vilayets Janina, Monastir, Shkodra and Kosova into an administrative unit
Emergence
After the Treaty of San Stefano, local Albanian defense committees spontaneously formed in the Vilayets of Shkodra, Kosova and Monastir. On June 10, 1878, over 300 Albanian delegates gathered in Prizren to take action against the cession of Albanian territories to neighboring states. The assembly established the Albanian League , also called the League of Prizren . The league's foreign policy goals were to prevent the ceding of territories, the return of the occupied Ottoman territories, the sending of a delegation to the Berlin Congress and autonomy for the areas inhabited by Albanians within the Ottoman Empire. One of their first steps was to draw up a memorandum to the Earl of Beaconsfield , the British representative at the Berlin Congress. In it they formulated:
“Just as we are not and do not want to be Turks, so we shall oppose with all our might anyone who would like to turn us in Slavs or Austrians or Greeks. We want to be Albanians. "
“Just as we are not or do not want to be Turks, we will oppose with all our strength anyone who wants to make us Slavs, Austrians or Greeks. We want to be Albanians. "
While the territories occupied by the Kingdom of Serbia were surrendered, the League troops defended the territories that had been assigned to the Principality of Montenegro and the cities of Janina and Preveza in the Epirus region claimed by the Kingdom of Greece .
Members
The main members of the league included Abdyl Frashëri , Sulejman Vokshi , Pashko Vasa , Idriz Seferi , Isa Boletini , Ymer Prizreni and many more. Frashëri was named president of the league, chairman of the foreign commission and foreign representative of Albanian interests. Vokshi took over the finance commission and Vasa was Frashëri's deputy abroad.
Fight against Montenegrin territorial claims
.jpg)
As early as August 1878, the Ottoman representative of the commission that was supposed to determine the new Montenegrin-Ottoman border was murdered by angry Albanians in Gjakova . Montenegro demanded the evacuation of the border by Ottoman troops in 1879, although the exact border had not yet been drawn. When the Ottoman troops withdrew, League troops under Ali Pasha Gucia occupied the city of Gucia . After fighting in the winter of 1879/80 - including the Battle of Nokšić - the Principality of Montenegro had to give up its claims to Plava and Gucia after defeats . Instead of this area, Montenegro was given a strip of land on the Cijevna , which, however, was also occupied by Albanians after the withdrawal of the Turks. After around 10,000 Albanians had gathered in the area, the great powers asked the Turkish government either to enforce the cession of the Cijevna area or to cede the city of Ulqin with a coastal strip to Montenegro. After international pressure, the Turkish government decided to cede Ulqin and captured the city in November against the resistance of the League. On November 26th, Montenegrin troops finally moved into the coastal city.
Busting
Since the league could not prevent the cession of Albanian populated areas, it began to concentrate on enforcing domestic political demands. These had been presented by the north-east Banan league leaders in Prizren and primarily campaigned for an autonomous province of the Albanian parts of the country with Albanian officials. For this purpose, the four Vilâyets Yanya (today's city of Ioannina ), Kosova , Manastır and İşkodra (today's city of Shkodra ) should be united in one province, and the Albanian language should be introduced as the administrative language . The choice of the Welsh of this province should be made by the Sultan , the provincial income should for the most part remain in the province. In October 1880 these points were also adopted by representatives from all over Albania in the city of Dibra .
After these reform proposals had failed due to the resistance of centralist circles, the League Committee took over the governance and administration of Vilayet Kosovo by the spring of 1881 . The Turkish government responded by dispatching troops who arrested the league members and interned them in distant provinces. League president Abdyl Frashëri was even sentenced to death , but his sentence was later moderated. The rule of the league was thus finally destroyed and the result was increased cultural emancipation, which was, however, also repeatedly accompanied by local unrest.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Miranda Vickers: The Albanians. A modern history. London / New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-78076-695-9 , pp. 27-29
literature
- Peter Bartl : Albania. From the Middle Ages to the present. Regensburg 1995, ISBN 3-7917-1451-1 .
- Peter Bartl: The Albanian Muslims at the time of the national independence movement (1878-1912). Wiesbaden 1968.
- Peter Bartl: The League of Prizren in the light of Vatican files. (Archives of the Congregation for Propaganda) . In: Südost-Forschungen , 47 (1988) pp. 145-186.
- Skendi Stavro: The Albanian National Awaking 1878-1912. Princeton, New Jersey 1967, ISBN 0-691-05100-3 .