Serb projects

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IMPLEMENTATION OF SERBIAN PROJECTS ON EXPULSIONS OF ALBANIANS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY




1.Albanian Ethnic Territories in Nineteenth Century
To the majority of the peoples in the Balkans the nineteenth century presented a period of endeavours and struggles for national freedom, independence and emancipation. However, in that time, in the minds of some of these peoples greater state aspirations began to be born and were manifested to the detriment of the being and territories of their neighbours. The Albanians and the land where they lived were the target of such invading intentions for quite a long period. These aspirations became stronger particularly during and after the Eastern Crisis (1875-1878) through propagandistic campaigns, and later through occupations and ethnic cleansing of these territories. This is witnessed by historical sources of the time, various ethno-graphic documents and special historiography documents.
The very important geostrategic position, abundant in natural resources, fertile soil and other favourable climate conditions of the Albanian land made them an object of permanent interests of Serbian and Greek circles.
The Albanian coast, one of the most attractive in this region, that was about 500 kilometres long, had many isles, ports and cities with developed crafts and economy.
In addition to it, the continental part of the Albanian land had fertile soil in Dukagjin and Kosova, and the regions of Toplica, Kosanica, Presheva, Kumanova, Shkup (Skopje), Tetova, Kërçova, Arta and Janina

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According to the facts presented by Lord Broughton (1809), the Albanian land extended between 39 and 43 (geographical parallels) and between 17 and 20 (geographi-cal meridians), covering in this way a surface of 62,500 square kilometres.

By some students of Balkan questions, the extension of the Albanians was witnessed to have been up to Niš, Leskovac and Vranje in the north; to Kumanova, Përlep and Manastir in the east; to Konitza, Janina and Preveza in the south.

This region, according to Sami Frashëri, embraced a surface of 70,000 km2, and according to an Italian study it was 80,000 square kilometres.

5.Within this space (in the vilayets of Shkodra, Kosova, Manastir and Janina), the population, consisting of the Albanians in the greatest majority, lived under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, that had a character of an ethnically compact territory, and was fairly called Albania (Arnavutluk) by many authors writing about their travels, and by some scholars and diplomats of the time. That Albania, although without any special political or administrative character, maintained its simple Albanian and compact physiognomy and opposed to the Slavonic and Greek intentions and threats. However, the space of the Albanian land was not threatened by the Slavonic and Greek aspirations only. After the Eastern Crisis, the Ottoman Empire experienced its natural collapse. Facing its multiple internal contradictions and pressures exerted by big powers from outside, it made its efforts in vain to avoid its decomposition by various new administrative reforms. In this way, many forms of military, political and administrative organisation took place on the Albanian land. Administrative divisions and revisions, undoubtedly harmed the interests of the Albanian people heavily, since the political and ethnic unit of Albania was denied in that way.

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The well-known scholar and albanologist, Georg von Hahn, when writing on the natural (geographic and ethnic) border of Albania, claimed that the border extended from Montenegro in the north to the bay of Arta in the south, i.e., from north of Tivar (Bar) to the cape of Preveza, pointing out that the Albanians inhabited the whole central region that extended from the north end of the Lake of Shkodra up to Niš.
The same author, in a later work of his (1866), underlined that the River of Morava was the one that divided the Albanian land from the Slavonic one, emphasising that the Albanians had an incontestable majority in Fusha e Kosovës and along the river of Vardar in Shkup.11 Gabriel Louis Jaray also admitted that the Albanian element fulfilled a large space in the Vilayet of Manastir, and the whole Vilayet of Kosova, to the bank of Vardar in Shkup. He said of Shkup that “it is one of the vanguard castles of the Albanians and one of their main cities�. According to the facts that he refers to, it comes out that Shkup had 45,000 inhabitants, of whom 25,000 were Muslims, almost all Albanians, 10-15,000 Bulgarians, 3,000 Serbs and 2,000 Jews. Whereas, he qualified Peja, Gjakova and Prizren as fully Albanian cities.

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The Greek consul in Shkodra, Epaminondas Mavro-matis (1879-1881), in his published reports (1884) said that Albania included these parts - regions seen from the ethnographic aspect:
1. South Albania, that extended to Parga;
2. Central Albania, extending between Shkumbin and Mat;
3. Upper Albania, extending between Mat and Montenegro;
4. The north-eastern Part and 5. Western Macedonia.
The north-eastern region extended to the part that was given to Serbia by the Congress of Berlin, as well as to Prizren, Gjakova, Peja, Kalkandelen (Tetova), Luma, Prishtina, Gjilan, Vushtria, Mitrovica, Novi-Pazar, Shkup and Kumonaova. Western Macedonia inhabited by the Albanians included: Prilep, Ohri, Kërçova, Kostur, Follorina, Kolonja and Korça, that had a population of 220,000 inhabitants, of whom 140,000 were of the Islamic and 80,000 of Orthodox religion.

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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.

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.�

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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.

[The Journeyman]

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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 .

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.
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.
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.
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'
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.

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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.
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
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.
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
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.

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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.

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.

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.