According to the published book “Lufta Shqiptaro Turke në shekullin e XV” from 1968 there were many atrocities committed on the Albanians by invading Ottoman forces through out the centuries. In the city of Çidhna near the Drin, Ottoman leader Caliph Fatih ordered his troops to massacre the population, resulting in around 20,000 Albanians being killed.

According to British historian Noel Malcolm several atrocities in Albanian towns are described in detail. The representative of the British government in Edirne mentioned that the Tartars caused great damage to the population of Kosovo. Town like Prishtina, Vushtrri, Peja, Trepça, Prizren, and many other provinces were emptied.

The atrocities were also documented by old Turkish chroniclers like Ahmedi (Ahmedi (1334-1413), Shukrullah (1386-1459), Oruçi, Mehmet Neshri, Tursuni, Kevami, Idriz Bitlisi(? – 1520), Kemal Pashazade (1468-1534), Hoxha Sadeddin (1536-1599) ), and Ali (1541-1600).

Quotes from Ottoman chroniclers in the years of 1466-1467

“Only jinn, such as the inhabitants of these countries can climb those mountains from where those accursed kaffirs shoot with poisoned arrows“.

– Turkish analyst Tursun-Bey.

“On the order of the Padishah, whoever was taken alive was killed mercilessly, the country was horribly looted, the women and children were taken captive.”

– The chronicler Qemal Pashë-Zade.

Caliph Fatihu’s Byzantine chronicler, Kritobulus of Imbrosi, writes:
“The Albanians preferred death to falling into the hands of the Turks. Some Illyrians, seeing that they were being pursued by the Turks and after finding no place to shelter, threw themselves down from the rocks, into the space of the streams and were killed.”

The conquest movements are described as follows in Hodja Sadeddin Efendi’s ‘Tâcü’t-Tevarih’:

“After meeting with able gentlemen and valuable viziers, an edict of incursion into Albania and Bosnia was issued, as the sultan’s decision was made. By appointing Timurtaş Bey as the head of the great army, he sent him to this region for the first time. Timurtaş Bey first moved to Albania and after conquering some castles on the way, he released raiders into the country. The sons and daughters of the Albanian tribe, who are unmatched in beauty and sweetness, fell into the hands of the veterans, and each veteran took a fairy-faced coy in his neck and achieved his desire with various spoils.”

We can also read the following:
“The sending of Rumelian dilavers to the land of Albania with Sinan Bey, who was their beylerbey, in 1431 is counted from this sentence. Sinan Bey took the war path with the gentlemen next to him and waved the roller standard. When Serhade reached the Albanian lands, he dispersed raiders. They took their children as captives and returned to the encampment of the Islamic soldiers, rejoicing with plentiful booty. There were so many captured young men and boys, and radiant moon-faced bells, that the encampment turned into a place where spirits gather, as if it were the Day of Judgment, and a paradise that gives joy and peace.”

As a result of the Ottoman persecution of Albanians, many fled to Italy or to the mountains where the tribal culture began.

References

“Turko-Ottoman genocide on Albanians and the enduring”. Link

“What did the Turks themselves write about the atrocities on the Albanians”. Pamfleti. Published by the editors. Link

The Albanians under Ottoman Rule: The Classic Period of Arnavutluk, 1500–1800. Authors Bernd J. Fischer and Oliver Jens Schmitt. 2022. Link

Analyzing the Albanians and Albania from the Ottoman perspective. Link