Original article by Mustafa Spahiq, Sarajevo. Translation and editing by Petrit Latifi

Abstract:

This paper provides a historical overview of major episodes of violence, displacement, and persecution directed against Muslim populations in the Balkan region from the late seventeenth century to the end of the twentieth century. Drawing on secondary sources and historical accounts, it outlines a sequence of conflicts and demographic shifts that affected Muslim communities during periods of Ottoman retreat, Balkan state formation, and interethnic conflict. While some of these episodes have been described as genocidal in nature by certain authors, this article presents them more broadly as instances of targeted mass violence and social transformation within the context of competing national, religious, and imperial interests.

Mustafa Spahiq writes:

“The first genocide against the Muslims of the Balkans occurred in the year 584 (the author here probably marked the year according to the Muslim calendar – Sh.V.) after the First Crusade and lasted from 1683 to 1699. It was the first major genocide of a collective Muslim tragedy, which occurred during and after the Great War of Vienna between the Turkish Kingdom and Austria.

Since the Turks in that war lost all their property and power in Hungary, Slavonia, Lika, Krbava, Dalmatia and the Bay of Kotor, all Muslims who could not withdraw in time from these countries and regions to Bosnia and other countries south of the Sava and Danube rivers were very soon, like the Muslims of Spain two centuries ago, killed, persecuted, assimilated and converted to the Christian religion.

The fundamental initiator of all these actions was the Church. It was guided by the church dogmas extraecclesiam nulla sallus – there is no salvation outside the church and salvation is only within it and extraecclesiam nulla propheta – there is no prophecy, truth, goodness, justice and true relationship with God outside church sermons. This is the church-religious reason for the Crusades, the Inquisition and the genocide against all non-Christians.

Just as two centuries ago, what had happened in Spain, where all the material objects and objects of Islamic sacral and civilizational culture, such as cemeteries, tombs, tekkes, kutubhans, hamams, bezistans, imarets, musafirhanes, clock towers, mosques, madrasas, sebian-mejtepes, caravanserais and inns were ruined and destroyed, now the same happened in the lands of Hungary, Slavonia, Lika, Udbina, Krbava, Dalmatia and Boki Kotor.

The Muslims and all their sacred objects could not be preserved and protected for only 16 years of Christian occupation (1683-1689) by the fact that 160 years earlier, from 1526 to 1683, when the Ottomans ruled the same countries and regions, Christians were guaranteed and provided with all human, religious, cultural and property rights.

Instead of expressing any gratitude and tolerance towards Muslims, the Christians of those countries, in the name of religion and love, applied the old pagan-pharaonic principles to the end and without reservation: Cuius regio eius religio – whose is the state, his is also the religion, as if they were the creators of the world, and not God.

The first genocide

For the first genocide against Muslims, especially against conversion to Christianity, the most precise and uncontested information is provided by the archives of Dalmatia, Slavonia and Lika. For the first genocide against Muslims, it is important to note that Turkey and Austria fought, while the victims were Bosnian Muslims.

The second genocide

The second genocide against Muslims occurred during the transition from the 17th to the 18th century, precisely in 1711, on the eve of Christmas. That night, the so-called Turkosha Investigation was carried out, when approximately 1,000 Muslims, who according to the testimonies heard at the time lived in the area of ​​”Old Montenegro”, which consisted of a total of four districts centered in Cetinje.

They were killed or persecuted in Nikšić and in the village of Tugjemile in Bari. The strategist, the main promoter and the agent of the second genocide against Muslims, now on the territory of Montenegro, was again the Church, but not the Catholic one, but the Orthodox one.

For this assertion there are two undisputed pieces of evidence: first, the Turkosha Inquisition, in fact the genocide against Muslims, took place on the eve of Christmas, that is, during the greatest and holiest holiday of Christians, and, second, that event or the “Turkosha Inquisition” was also sung by the bishop-dignitary and the greatest church writer, Petri II Petrovic Njegoš in The Crown of the Mountains.

With this, he set the idealized epic basis and paradigm for all subsequent genocides against Muslims of Serbia, Sandzak, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, Njegoš, as the greatest Serbo-Montenegrin writer and bishop, or the bearer of numerous ecclesiastical and secular powers in power, also glorified genocide or international crimes and transformed them into higher deeds, by which it is understood that in a conscious manner, with intent and planning, the complete or partial destruction of religious, national, ethnic and racial groups was carried out. The motive for committing the genocide was the desire for plunder and enslavement, hatred of religion, race, nation and “wrong” thoughts.

The third genocide

The third genocide against the Muslims of the Balkans, which the historian and The famous Serbian diplomat Stojan Novakovic recorded it as the general extermination of Muslim Turks by the people, which took place in the lands of Serbia between 1804 and 1820, as a result of the First and Second Serbian Uprisings.

So, since the beginning of the 19th century, Serbia and Montenegro wanted to form their own national states by uprooting, persecuting and killing Muslims and always expanding them to their detriment. In this way, the genocide and destruction of Muslims was a constant and strategic goal in the politics of Serbia and Montenegro throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Alongside the Orthodox Church, which had played the leading role since the second genocide, historians and politicians joined it in the third genocide against Muslims, of course including writers such as Njegoš.

The fourth genocide

The fourth genocide against the Muslims of the Balkans occurred during the period between 1830-1867, as a result of the Hati-Sherif and its annexation in 1833, after which Serbia gained the status of an autonomous vassal of the principality within the Ottoman Empire, but also the opportunity to displace and persecute the Muslims of Užice, Šabac, Sokol and Belgrade, which was achieved during the years 1862 and 1867. All the Muslims of the Porte were settled in Bosnia and two new centers of settlement were built for them – Lower and Upper Azizija, respectively Bosanski Shamci and Orashje.

The fifth genocide

The fifth genocide against Muslims, mainly against Albanians and Turks, occurred in the territory of “Serbia and Montenegro” (the quotation marks are the translators’, since they were Albanian territories) between the years 1876-1878. After the uprising in Herzegovina, influenced and led with the help of Serbia and Montenegro, came the Congress of Berlin (1878), after whose decisions the hitherto autonomous principalities of Serbia and Montenegro achieved full state independence, but also greatly expanded their territories.

Thus, the territories of Serbia expanded towards the territory of Niš, Pirot, Toplica and Vranje, while Montenegro expanded into the territory of Herzegovina. From all these districts and regions, Muslims immediately and completely began to be exterminated, despite the fact that Serbia, in accordance with the decisions of the Congress of Berlin, had pledged to respect religious freedoms and all the rights of Muslims.

Although with this act the areas of today’s southern Serbia were completely deserted and left without inhabitants, especially agriculture, which was greatly damaged, however the hatred and hostility towards Muslims was even greater and stronger than any other exploitation and interest.

During the period from 1862 to 1878, that is, within just sixteen years, several hundred mosques, many clock towers, guesthouses, imarets, caravanserais, inns, bezistans, sebiles and kutubhanes disappeared, such as in Belgrade, Shapce, Uzice, Sokoli, Niš, Pirot, Prokuplje and Vranje, just as two incomplete centuries ago, what had happened in the territories of Hungary, Lika, Kordun, Udbina, Dalmatia and Boka. Thus, two genocides by two different enemies, but with completely similar consequences, occurred during different time periods in just sixteen years.

The sixth genocide

The sixth genocide of the Muslims of the Balkans (1878-1910) was a consequence of the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since Austria-Hungary, as the last legal state that ruled in the last 130 years and that guaranteed all citizens religious-spiritual, physical-biological freedoms and material property rights, Muslims initially opposed the Austro-Hungarian occupation with all the means at their disposal.

Immediately after and during the occupation, they began to intensively migrate to Turkey, Sandzak, Kosovo and Macedonia, where Turkish rule still existed. This led to the depopulation and radical reduction of the number of the Muslim population from the total number of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the 1879 census, Muslims constituted almost 39% of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the share of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s inhabitants in 1910 had fallen to a total of 32%.

The seventh genocide

The seventh genocide (1912-1913) against Balkan Muslims in Sandžak and Montenegro, as well as the violent attempts to convert Muslims in Plav and Guci, is a direct consequence of the First and Second Balkan Wars. That period was the seventh genocide against Balkan Muslims, the first against the Muslims of Sandžak, because there was no power to protect them there.

The eigth genocide

The eighth genocide (1918-1941) against the Muslims of the Balkans lasted from the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 until the destruction of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941. The lives of Muslims in the first Yugoslavia had no value. The Muslims of Sandžak and eastern Herzegovina were particularly exposed to genocide.

Thus, in the village of Šahović in the Bjelopoje district of Sandžak, on November 7, 1924, about 600 Muslims without any motive, guilt or reason were killed. In Herzegovina, during the twenties, the king’s committees, with the order, plan and system, committed more than three thousand extrajudicial killings, which were known about, but whose perpetrators were not revealed. Of course, the victims were Muslims. These murders and horrors influenced the change of the ethnic picture of eastern Herzegovina to the detriment of Muslims and in favor of Serbs and Montenegrins.

The ninth genocide

The ninth genocide against Muslims in the Balkans lasted from 1941 to 1945. According to the research so far by Kovačević, Žerjavić, Dedijer and Miletić, the Second World War claimed 103,000 Muslim lives or 8.1% of the total Muslim population of that time. In most cases, the victimized Muslims found themselves in front of the bayonets of neighboring Chetniks, who killed them on the doorstep, in the yard or in the field.

In the first ten genocides, Muslims never opposed their massacrers and criminals with weapons. On the contrary, from 1683 to 1992, a full 309 years, we have been waiting for our massacrers and criminals to finally tell us: “We will forgive you for massacring and killing you and in the future we will have mercy on you”. But such a thing has never happened and this has been our greatest illusion, mistake and self-deception.

The tenth genocide

The tenth and last genocide, the largest and most merciless against the Muslims of the Balkans in Bosnia and Kosovo has been going on since 1992. It differs in many ways from the previous nine genocides. Of all the previous genocides, in terms of scale, it is the most ruthless, the most brutal, the most widespread and the most profound.

It was warned half a year ago and now it is still taking place before the eyes of the whole world and under the supervision of the UN, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, under the security staff of the European Union, etc. This is the first genocide against Muslims, in which, in a way, Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia participate simultaneously and together.

In the nine previous genocides, Serbia and Croatia have never committed genocide simultaneously and jointly against Muslims. However, despite all the victims, persecutions and massacres, Muslims in the tenth genocide, for the first time as a people and organized through the army, police, state and politics, are trying by all means to oppose the Chetniks and Ustashas in every way, with the argument that they understand and respect.”

Conclusion

Historical evidence indicates that Muslim populations in the Balkans experienced repeated waves of displacement, violence, and cultural suppression over several centuries. These processes were shaped by shifting imperial borders, nationalist ideologies, and religious divisions. A balanced scholarly assessment requires distinguishing between the structural causes of violence and its later political interpretations.

Reference

Taken from “POVIJEST ISLAMA”, seventh complete edition, Sarajevo, 2008, pp. 399-402.

Original article

https://gazetaimpakt.com/dhjete-gjenocide-mbi-myslimanet-e-ballkanit/