In 1912, Serbia armed Albanians to fight the Turks. But at the same time,ran a publicity campaign complaining about Albanian lawlessness against a “defenseless Serb population”.
“In early 1912 Serbian officials had offered arms to
the Albanians under the strict condition that they must then
act only under Serbia’s instructions. But as the summer
wore on the conditions were relaxed, as Belgrade realized
that it could benefit from almost any way that the weapons
were used: at the same time as it was arming Albanians, it
was running a publicity campaign complaining of Albanian
‘lawlessness’ against a defenceless Serb population.
Serbian agents had several meetings with Bajram Curri,
and Nexhip Draga also visited Belgrade. But the main
contact was with Isa Boletin, who was known to be well
disposed towards Serbs: various Serbian envoys were sent
to parley with him, including the notorious Colonel Apis of
the nationalist ‘Black Hand’ movement. Large quantities of
weapons were delivered to Boletin in August and
September 1912, and it was also rumoured that Serbia paid
him a large monthly subsidy; but, as events would show, his
honour was not so easily bought.”
Reference
Kosovo : a short history, Noel Malcolm. p. 370
