Petrit Latifi
In 1918, the paper Tiroler Land-Zeitung published an article from the Swiss-Albanian Committee protesting against Albanian lands being awarded to Serbia and Montenegro during the Treaty of Bucharest in 1918.
“A cry for help from the Albanians.
The Swiss Albanian Committee, as representatives of the numerous Ibans currently living in Switzerland, has raised urgent concerns with Germany, as well as with Prince William of Albania, in a lengthy memorandum about the absolute necessity of uniting aIbanians in an independent, rational state.
Referring to the unjust Peace of Bucharest, which awarded purely Albanian, or at least predominantly AIbanian-inhabited, territories to Serbia and Montenegro, the return of these densely populated and very fertile regions to the Principality of Albania is demanded. Their incorporation into the Albanian borders is a vital necessity for the development and cultural flourishing of Albania.
The Albanian Committee protests against any violation of territories predominantly inhabited by Albanians by the other Balkan peoples. Only through a pure separation of the Balkan peoples according to their nationality, whereby the majority of one nation would be decisive in disputed territories, could future peace and harmony among them be guaranteed.
The Albanians wished to live in peace with all their neighbors so that they could devote themselves solely to the development and cultural expansion of their country. The Albanians, too small to defend themselves and so far without any effective and obvious attackers, hoped that the Central Powers would not allow the rights of the weak to be continually trampled upon by the stronger.
Poor Albania, struggling for its freedom, appealed for help to the land of a Schiller, a Goethe, a Leibniz, a Kant, to the lands of Emperor Joseph II, pleading for the guarantee of its national existence, its national life. If the two imperial powers were to resolve the Balkan difficulties at the future peace congress according to the old German motto: “To each his own,” they would win a victory that would outshine the glory of their military victories, and the Balkans would attain a state of peace and equilibrium based on justice and the satisfaction of the legitimate aspirations of all Balkan peoples. The causes of future conflicts would then be definitively eliminated.”
Reference
Balkan Academia 