by Msc Belisar Jezerci. Translation Petrit Latifi

Summary

This text describes the forced religious conversions imposed on the Albanian population in Plav, Guci, and surrounding areas in 1913 following the Montenegrin military occupation. Under the authority of King Nikola Petrović, Catholic and Muslim Albanians were ordered to convert to Slavic Orthodoxy within ten days, under threat of death. Despite attempts by church authorities to halt the movement, mass conversions were carried out through violence, intimidation, and public humiliation. Eyewitness accounts describe soldiers, priests, and officials coordinating the process, using terror and symbolic degradation. These events, marked by atrocities and coercion, represent a profound human tragedy and a stark example of religious persecution and ethnic oppression in the region.

On March 13, 1914, the newspaper published an article saying:

“Immediately after the new territories were liberated, the population presented itself to the Serbian-Montenegrin authorities with a request to be allowed to convert from the Catholic and Muslim religions to the Orthodox one. The authorities discouraged the people from such a step, instructing them to endure until the situation was regulated.

The government, seeing that such a movement among the people had taken on great proportions, allowed the Archbishop of Prizren to go to Gjakova and, with his authority, prevent the people from such a step. The population did not want to listen to the Archbishop, but in his presence declared that it was converting to Slavic Orthodoxy”. A serious tragedy occurred in 1913 in the Baran Valley and many villages around it.

The penetration of the Montenegrin army into Plav and Guci as well as other Albanian territories was characterized by excessive atrocities and oppression against the Albanians that rarely occur in human history. In the name of God and King Nikola Petrovic, the Montenegrin “liberating” military authorities ordered that the Catholic and Muslim Albanian population must necessarily change their religion and convert to the Slavic Orthodox faith.

The decree came into force on March 15, 1913 and had to be implemented within ten days. On March 15, 1913, the Albanian population of Plav and Guci marked its most terrible day. An eyewitness describes the implementation of King Nicholas’ decree thus: “One Sunday terror and horror gripped the local Albanian population of the Plav and Guci provinces. Montenegrin soldiers with bayonets fixed to their weapons were seen in every neighborhood of the city and in the villages since the early hours of the morning.

The military order was that all Albanians of all ages should concentrate in designated fields in Plav on the Zal Field and in Guci on the Begliku Field. The Montenegrin kasnecs chanted the slogan “Dan osvet”: “Ilji krshkenje, ili mushketu”. (It is the day of revenge, either change your religion or accept death).

The guards stood armed. Numerous priests and abbots, as well as some of the civil and military authorities, organized the conversion. Each family presented themselves before the stands, where the priests and abbots stood. The abbots sprinkled the young Serb with holy water, while the gendarmes put a black cap on his head and threw his white cap to the ground.

For the Albanian, as the elders said, it was more bitter and indignant to remove the white cap from his head and put on a black cap than to change his religion. Above the church gate was written in Cyrillic letters the slogan: ” Nova crkva za nove srbe slobodni u vjeru”, which means “new church for new Serbs who voluntarily convert to the true Christian religion”.