by Mark Palnikaj. Translation Petrit Latifi
Abstract
This paper examines the forced displacement of the population of Rugova in 1919 as a result of violence perpetrated by Serbian and Montenegrin forces, based on archival documents preserved in the Central State Archive of Albania (AQSH). Drawing exclusively on primary archival sources, the study documents massacres, looting, forced requisitions, sexual violence, and the mass flight of civilians from Rugova, Plava, and Gucia toward Shkodra and the Highlands of Gjakova. The paper avoids personal interpretation, allowing the documents to speak for themselves, and situates these events within the broader context of post–World War I territorial conflict and ethnic violence. The findings contribute to the historical understanding of population displacement, collective memory, and state-sponsored violence against Albanians in the early twentieth century.
The Displacement of the Population of Rugova
“Dear participants of this scientific gathering,
I consider my participation in this meeting with a modest presentation to be an act of remembrance and honor for the human suffering and tragedies caused by a population bordering the Albanians but driven by barbaric and chauvinistic orientations, which over several centuries left no crime or barbarity unused in the extermination, by barbaric methods, of the Albanian population on its own lands.
The testimonies and facts of these barbarities are today known throughout the world thanks to the means of information and thanks to some Western humanitarian organizations that stood by the Albanian people in these tragedies, as well as thanks to the memory and the graves preserved by our grandparents in these lands.
I am originally from the Highlands of Gjakova, which stood shoulder to shoulder with the population of Rugova in the most difficult moments of Serbian terror, and I carry firmly fixed in my family memory—implanted since childhood by my relatives—the bitter recollection of these massacres. These massacres are wonderfully engraved by the populations of Gashi, Krasniqe, Nikaj, Mërtur, Shala, and Shosh in their folk songs, with a chilling realism of the events that occurred in 1919, as well as in the years 1912 to 1916 in the regions of Peja and Rugova.
My modest theme is not built on the basis of memories, but on archival documents preserved in the Central State Archive of Albania regarding the horrifying events of 1919 in the surroundings of Peja and especially in Rugova. Family memories and oral data have only encouraged me to research and to bring to the attention of the younger generation those events and facts of that shocking era, which I hope will never be repeated anywhere—neither in Albania nor among any other people anywhere in the world.
In my presentation I will present archival materials, citing the sources without making any personal comments on those painful events for the population of these areas, but also for the entire Albanian people throughout their lands. The attentive reader will draw their own conclusions or will use these sources for further studies. The materials are entirely under the siglum AQSH, Fund 446; the files and pages will be indicated when citing the documents.
1. Letter Requesting Assistance by the Committee for the National Defense of Kosovo, Signed by Its Chairman Hoxha Kadri
No. 707.972
Most Honored Sir,
Acting upon a decision of our Committee of March 5, 1919, we have the honor to inform you, with hearts wounded by pain, that with the fall of Plava, Gucia, and Rugova, after heroic resistance, into the hands of our irreconcilable enemy, the population of these unfortunate regions of the homeland—those who managed to escape the cruel Serbian violence—fled in groups toward Shkodra and through the Highlands of Gjakova. Their number reaches at least 15,000 persons. All of them are in danger of perishing due to the hardship of survival.
Sir, there is no need to elaborate at length, for the wounds heroically received in patriotic deeds require healing from the nobility of the nation.
In these most dangerous and bloodiest times of the homeland, the wounded and the exhausted can be healed only through the much-praised generosity of the Albanian nation.
Therefore, we firmly believe in the generous nobility of the people of your region and request that they take under their protection those who have always known—and continue to know—how to make countless sacrifices for the honor of the nation and its cause. In order for you to understand the gravity of the duty that falls upon you in this unfortunate case, we have the honor to present to you our most special considerations.
For the Committee “National Defense of Kosovo”
Secretary — Chairman
H. Kadri
P.S. Assistance should be directed to the Presidency of the Prefecture of Shkodra, while simultaneously informing the Committee of Kosovo.
Response, No. 708.705, February 28, 1919
We have received with honor the reply of Your Excellency. We observe the miserable world with the impartiality with which a being from the planet Mars would observe it through a telescope of wonder; therefore, our appeals come from a sincere heart, and as such we ask that they be given due importance.
Shkodra once opened its generous bosom to 150,000 Serbian soldiers and civilians who fled from the barbaric German-Austrian storm in 1915, and it sheltered and fed them for nearly two and a half months. Today, in Shkodra there are about 5,000 unfortunate refugees whom Shkodra is unable to feed and shelter for a long period. Your Excellency is aware of this. We despair when we think that Shkodra may collapse under such a heavy burden.
Nevertheless, we hope that through the justice of the Great Powers—in which justice we trust—the refugees who have taken shelter in Shkodra and in the Highlands of Gjakova will soon return to their own homes under the guarantee of those Powers, being “rescued from the misery in which they find themselves,” compensated for their looted and burned property. Such a just measure would save from death thousands of victims of Slavic barbarism scattered throughout Shkodra and the Highlands of Gjakova. Otherwise, for those miserable people there remains no place on this earth except to drown in Lake Shkodra.
The report given to Your Excellency by the honorable Serbian Commander, claiming that the Albanians attacked first, is based on official Serbian deceptions intended to conceal their criminality. The Serbs and Montenegrins, who emerged as brigades and bands as offspring of Pan-Slavism and Russian policy, have proven very adept at hiding or distorting the crimes and barbarities they have committed since their very existence.
[The document continues with detailed refutations, enumerating massacres, looting, rapes, forced requisitions, and military operations carried out in Podgorica, Tregovishtë, Akovë, Plava, Gucia, Rugova, and surrounding villages; it describes named victims, numbers of livestock stolen, civilians murdered, women violated, villages burned, and systematic terror against the Albanian population, arguing that Albanian resistance was purely defensive.]
The people of Plava and Gucia, having understood for more than three and a half months the intentions and conduct of the Montenegrins and Serbs, rose to defend their lands, their lives, and their women and children from the traps prepared in advance.
A single investigation would suffice to reveal who the true instigators of this situation are. Therefore, from the noble sentiments of Your Excellency, we request urgent measures to return the unfortunate refugees to their homes under the guarantee of the Great Powers, to save them from death, and to place those regions, until the time of peace, under an international administration, obliging the perpetrators to compensate the damages.
Certified as Identical to the Original
Director of the Directorate of Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the People’s Republic of Albania
Major General
(Veli Dedi)
Shkodra, 31 August 1919
Letters of the Committee “National Defense of Kosovo” (Extraordinary Center)
To the Presidency of the Club of the Albanian Colony, Istanbul
(Shkodra, 6 November 1919)
The Committee has been working tirelessly for ten months to secure a truly free Albania within its ethnic borders and to inform the official and unofficial world of all actions against Albania and the Albanians by their enemies. We ask you to convene a general assembly and to take all necessary measures to financially support the Committee’s treasury as much and as soon as possible. Never has the Albanian had a better opportunity to prove his loyalty to the homeland and to the ancestral lands.
To Father Dedes, Parish Priest of the Church of Shala
The Committee issues a series of urgent instructions regarding organization, communication, armed resistance if necessary, and diplomatic coordination, emphasizing unity, preparedness, and the belief that Serbian diplomacy is discredited and that political victory is possible.
Petition from the Leaders of Plava and Gucia (February 1919)
The intentions of the Serbs and Montenegrins toward Plava and Gucia are well known. Despite promises by the Great Powers, they surround us, cut off communications, loot property, imprison and torture civilians, and aim to enslave and annihilate us. We urgently request that you intervene to open the road, halt the criminal intentions of the Serbo-Montenegrins, and place our regions under an international decision.
Signed on behalf of all:
From the leaders of Plava — Hasan Aga Feri, Shaqir Halili, Shaban Beu Ismail Hysejni
From the leaders of Gucia — Shelko Ajdin Aga, Sejdi Zuka
Mark Palnikaj, Peja, 16 February 2019.
Balkan Academia 