In this interesting passage from Turkish author Ahmed Cevdet Paşa book from 2021, we can read that in 1862 the Montenegrins attacked the Albanian-Ottoman kullas (fortified towers) of Maksud, Manastir and Zaim near Vranina. The author states that the locals of Vranina were Orthodox, yet the Montenegrins burned down Vranina and the day after, the village of Grabafça, suggesting that these inhabitants were in fact Albanians, both Muslim and Orthodox. The text also mentions Oso Kuka and his heroic struggle in the gun powder tower.

Cited:

“Then came the Vranine incident. The villagers of Vranine, located on the shores of Lake Shkodra and consisting of eighty households, were Orthodox and subject to the Montenegrins. Despite this, the Montenegrins came in large numbers and burned the village. They attacked the tower, which had been built in violation of customs and regulations, close to the houses, and which had to contain at least seventy or eighty people.

Because of bribery, they only had twenty active-duty soldiers and a captain inside. Although these soldiers inside made a tremendous effort and killed many bandits, the Montenegrins, frightened from all sides, planted grass and trees around the tower.

They started to burn it by putting wood in it, and Captain Osman Ağa Koka, (Oso Kuka) who was inside, set fire to the armory and was blown up along with twenty of his friends, but many Montenegrins who had embraced the tower and were in the vicinity also perished.

The Montenegrins then launched fierce attacks on the Maksud, Manastır, and Zaim towers near Vranine village. However, the active-duty soldiers inside and the artillerymen at the Manastir Tower defended and fought back effectively, saving them. However, they were severely damaged. Zaim Tower, in particular, was a small, unstructured gardener’s hut, about the size of a Monastery Tower outpost.

Of the fourteen active-duty soldiers inside, four were already ill, two were martyred, and two were wounded. The other six resisted beyond imagination. The Montenegrins even blocked the tower’s battlements with stones and broke down the gate with yataghans. However, these six soldiers, divided on either side of the gate, remained steadfast, and thus unable to enter.

However, the tower was severely damaged. Because the Maksud and Monastery towers were comparatively large and sturdy, and contained artillery, the Montenegrins were unable to force them very far. However, one of the artillerymen was wounded. As described, the active and artillerymen at the Maksud, Manastır, and Zaim towers heroically defended the area for fourteen hours before Mirliva Ahmed Pasha came to the rescue with six hundred men, and the Montenegrins were driven away.

Those of the Grabafça village who were not Karadagli loyalists could no longer remain in their positions and dispersed in all directions. The day after this Vranine incident, the Montenegrins came and burned the village of Grabafça.

As mentioned above, when the Montenegrins attacked Vranine Castle, cannons were fired from nearby towers, and the situation was reported to Shkodra and Mount Hot. If troops had been dispatched by ferry, Vranine could have been saved. Abdi Pasha initially sent a ferry to investigate the situation and then dispatched Ahmed Pasha. The Hot commanders rushed there upon hearing the cannon fire.

When Ahmed Pasha arrived, he found the Hot commanders already there. Unfortunately, by then, it was too late. This delay renewed the Shkodra residents’ hatred and distrust of Abdi Pasha. Both sides began to complain about each other. Since Abdi Pasha’s office did not refrain from exploiting him, many of the officials and council members also turned their backs on Abdi Pasha and retreated. Thus, a revolution broke out in Shkodra.

However, the council members made a pact with the people to ensure that the administration of the imperial army and the conquest of the country would not be compromised, and that no action would be taken against international agreements. Thereupon, Hacı Muhtar Ağa, the head of the council and one of the town’s most prominent figures, visited all the consulates, provided the necessary guarantees, and, in accordance with the long-standing Albanian custom, walked among them. In this regard, it was established that the Babıâli’s course of action was appropriate to the situation. If, as Abdi Pasha had suggested, the people had been punished, a dead end would have been reached.”

Sources

Yüzyılda Osmanlı Devlet Yönetimi – Tezakir (Cilt 2) (Yeditepe Yayınevi Ahmed Cevdet Paşa. 2021