Translated by Nexha Gjema. Information gathered from the Radničke novine”, May 27, 1914. Translated to english by Petrit Latifi.

Reading the bourgeois press, which as if with one voice and with special instructions writes about the Albanians (Arnauts) as a lazy and thieving people, a people who are accustomed to living off the sweat of others, one simply has to remain shocked when one comes into personal contact with this people and passes the places where they live, and is convinced that everything that our bourgeois press says about the Albanians (Arnauts) as a nation is all a lie, and the opposite is true.

From personal verifications I have reached the following conclusions:

Albanians (Arnauts) are a working people. To be convinced of this, it was enough to travel, even by train, through the Kaçanik Gorge and see the modern road that was cut through the gorge, through the rocks and that was made by the hand of that “barbarian” people. In addition, it was enough to see every piece of land, where there is no rock and stone, and if it is on a hill, beautifully cultivated and planted.

From the railway station ‘Vučji Do’ through Kaçanik to Ferizaj, the entire area is mainly inhabited by the Albanian nation and nowhere, absolutely nowhere, did I see abandoned and uncultivated land. Moreover, on the flat terrain, the fields are connected by river and stream islands, especially by canals directed and crisscrossed through the fields, creating a primitive but very good irrigation system, so that even in the case of the longest absence of rain, the crops have enough moisture.

Albanians (Arnauts) in this part of Kosovo are also an honest people.

This is evidenced by the presence of dozens of wealthy Serbian merchants, who even during the time of the Turkish administration held the entire Ferizaj market in their hands. Ferizaj is a trading center where all the import and export of Prizren, Gjakova and Kaçanik is gathered, and yet, except for the three Catholic Arnauts, the others are only Serbian merchants.

If the Albanians (Arnauts) were as our bourgeois press describes them, no Serbian merchant could survive, much less have the entire market in their hands. This is especially true considering the fact that this entire area is inhabited mainly by Arnauts.

That the Albanians (Arnauts) are not thieves is the best evidence of the Arnaut rebellion and the occupation of Skopje, when no one lacked not only a head or a lock of hair from the head, but not a single bun from the oven. In that rebellion, according to the stories of the inhabitants of Skopje, there were also poor Arnauts, even barefoot, but none of them took anything from anyone by force or “requisition”.

Meanwhile, with the arrival of our army and our authorities, things remain the same, but to our detriment, much worse.

While under the Turkish administration, the Serbs could freely develop their trade and sell their goods to the Turks and Arnauts for their golden liras, our military authorities, with a “requisition”, which will never be paid, took from the Arnauts everything that could be taken, wheat, corn, cattle, in a word, everything they found in the field and in the house.

While under the Turks and among the Albanians (Arnauts) every Serb could perform any work in the municipality and in the district for a maximum of 20 groschen, today an Arnaut cannot enter the municipality or district without a golden medzheda.

How honest the work of our authorities is, the best proof is the wealth of Marko Despotović, the mayor of the municipality, who in a year and a half, in an “honest” way, has acquired more wealth than any Albanian in Ferizaj.

While the Serbs paid the Turks a tenth of all crops as taxes, today the Albanians (Albanians) pay, one might say, half, not from the crops, but from all their wealth. The best proof that this is true is the tax set for the village of Stari Kaçanik, near Ferizaj, where no villager pays less than 100 dinars.

Although there are many families in this village who have nothing else outside the house and yard and who support themselves with manual labor, there is still no house exempt from the tax. And is it any wonder then that many families sell their property for 200-3000 dinars and flee their homes.

Although I could believe that today’s sporadic rebellions of the Arnauts are the result of the unlimited looting and violence that our “culture makers” commit against them, I was still surprised when a lieutenant of the 18th regiment confirmed this to me on the train with these words:
“Not even a week goes by that the municipal authorities from the Arnaut districts do not send us a report:

The Albanians (Arnauts) have rebelled, send a military unit. We go with one or two infantry companies and 2-3 cannons to the respective village, but everything is quiet there. We call some Arnauts and they tell us something like this: There were some shots from this and that house.

But the residents of the house shot at some guards and foresters who wanted to rape the women. We ask them: where are those who shot, they answer us: They have fled into the forest, and only the children and women are left in the house. Let us go to those houses and be convinced of the truthfulness of the Arnauts’ complaints”.

Let the Albanians (Arnauts) and all citizens of the new Serbia be given a just democratic constitutional regime, let them be given full municipal self-government and freedom of movement and trade, let them not be burdened with various regular and irregular taxes; let them be guaranteed the honor of their homes and personal and property security by official and unofficial state and municipal guards of order, labor and law, and soon the whole world will be convinced that today’s “savage” Albanians (Arnauts) are much more honest and cultured than their conquerors and culture-makers.

Reference

Radničke novine”, May 27, 1914.