Petrit

In 1913, Belgrade ordered their army to systematically exterminate Albanians in what we today would call genocide. In a newspaper article from 1912 we can read:

“Before withdrawing from Albania, the Serbs had horribly devastated the country and murdered several villages, including their entire populations, women and children. The Serbian troops cited an order from Belgrade that the entire Albanian population was to be systematically exterminated!”¹

“The “Trentino” publishes a letter from Archbishop Marconi of Theodosiopolis, in which the reports about the atrocities committed by the Serbs and Montenegrins in Albania are confirmed in full and in every detail. Thus, in the Kossowo district, 20,000 Albanians, including 4,000 women and children, were massacred; in the Chilone district, 29 Albanian villages were destroyed, in Uesküb 12, in Djakowa 24, Prizrend 32, etc.”²

Montenegrin forces also planned a genocidal massacre of Albanians after it was decided that Shkodër remain in Albania.

“Vienna, May 14. Seven thousand Montenegrin troops stationed in and near Scutari, enraged at the decision of King Nicholas to give up the Albanian city at the demand of the powers, are threatening to mutiny and commence a massacre of Albanians.”³

Serbs murdered children and all Albanian males over the age of 18 between Mitrovica and and Lesku in 1912

“I was generally told: As soon as the war is over, for example, the testimony of the Catholic priests in all the towns between Mitrovica and Uskub will be used as documentary evidence to prove that the Serbs, on higher orders, murdered all men over 18, but also many women and children, often in the most horrific manner.

Furthermore, it was said that the Albanians in the hospital in Uskib had begged the sisters to leave them in the house, as they would be immediately slaughtered outside. Until now, the entire European press had always taken a loving interest in the Albanians. They accused Turkey of resisting reforms and felt pity for the Albanian mountain people. Now, as the world reverberates with the atrocities committed against the Albanian population by Serbian troops, the European newspapers are silent”.⁴

Atrocities reported in Sanxhak

“On November 16, the Austrian-Hungarian consul in Mitrowitz, Ladislaus von Tahy, arrived in Budapest, fleeing Serbian attempts at internment, and also had reports of atrocities against the Albanians in Sandzak and Kosovo.”⁵

Genocidal atrocities also in 1914

“Monastir, April 3. Serbian komitachis are committing bloody atrocities against the Albanian and Bulgarian population in New Serbia. Especially around Kumanovo, the population is being systematically massacred by Serbian gangs. According to reliable reports, 156 Albanians and Bulgarians have been murdered in Kumanovo by the end of March. The non-Serbian population is defenseless against these atrocities”⁶

References

1. https://digital.tessmann.it/tessmannDigital/digitisedJournalsArchive/page/journal/62992/1/02.11.1913/356158/5/filterId-62992%01356158%014432691-query-albanische-filterIssueDate-%5B01.01.1912+TO+31.12.1940%5D-filterF_type-.html ↩︎
2. https://digital.tessmann.it/tessmannDigital/digitisedJournalsArchive/page/journal/62994/1/12.04.1913/357081/3/filterId-62994%01357081%014442241-query-albanische-filterIssueDate-%5B01.01.1912+TO+31.12.1940%5D-filterF_type-.html ↩︎
3. https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=CAB19130515.1.1&srpos=615&e=——191-en-20–601–txt-txIN-Albanian——— ↩︎
4. https://bc.wbp.lodz.pl/Content/50423/NeueLodzerZeitung1912nr525.pdf ↩︎
5. https://www.google.com.cy/books/edition/%C3%96sterreichische_monatsschrift_f%C3%BCr_den/W2E9AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Serbische+Grausamkeiten+albanesen&dq=Serbische+Grausamkeiten+albanesen&printsec=frontcover ↩︎
6. https://digital.tessmann.it/tessmannDigital/digitisedJournalsArchive/page/journal/62980/1/03.04.1914/329341/7/filterId-62980%01329341%014151817-query-serbische+gr%C3%A4ueltaten+albanische-filterIssueDate-%5B10.05.1805+TO+10.05.1940%5D-filterF_type-.html ↩︎