Summary
In August–September 1909, the people of Luma rose against the Young Turk Ottoman regime. Led by Ramadan Zaskoci, around 700–800 rebels prepared to present demands in Prizren but sent a peaceful commission instead.
Istanbul responded with a brutal expedition under Xhavit Pasha, who invaded Luma with infantry and artillery. His forces burned villages, destroyed towers, disarmed locals, and carried out mass reprisals, leaving many homeless.
Luma fighters repeatedly attacked the Ottomans, inflicting heavy casualties (Turkish sources reported ~1,000 dead). Despite destruction and executions, the rebels resisted fiercely. Xhavit Pasha failed to crush the uprising and withdrew without victory, marking the expedition as a failure.
(The Uprising of which very little is known)
At the end of August and the beginning of September, the movement spread to Luma and Podrima, in the Sanjak of Prizren. The people of Luma, like the majority of the population of the Sanjak of Prizren, had fought for the proclamation of the Turkish constitution in July 1908.
On 3 and 4 September 1909, about 700–800 rebels from Luma, led by Ramadan Zaskoci, prepared to enter Prizren to present their demands to the mutasarrif.
To avoid armed conflict with the Prizren garrison, which was ready to resist, the rebels agreed to disperse and send a commission of 20–30 people to Prizren. This commission would present peaceful demands to be forwarded also to the Albanian deputies in parliament.
However, Istanbul launched a new military campaign against the Albanians. On 6 September 1909, Xhavit Pasha, at the head of 8 infantry battalions and 2 mountain artillery batteries, set out from Mitrovica toward Prizren.
From Prizren, Xhavit Pasha, leading 5 battalions, advanced into Luma, where he burned and destroyed entire villages, leaving the people of Luma without homes or property. To escape the massacres, the population of Luma withdrew to Has and other mountainous areas beyond the Drin River.
But after being attacked by Luma rebels west of Prizren, Xhavit Pasha, having destroyed the villages of Luma with artillery, withdrew again to Prizren, where around 3,500 soldiers with two mountain batteries were now concentrated.
To get out of the difficult situation, the Turkish pasha sent from Skopje the Albanian deputy Nexhip Bey Draga, one of the leaders of the club in that city and known for his patriotic feelings.
Nexhip Draga, like many other Albanian intellectuals, considered armed resistance against the Young Turk regime premature. He therefore entered into negotiations with the people of Luma and convinced them not to oppose Xhavit Pasha’s troops.
On 11 September, Xhavit Pasha, at the head of 5 battalions and one mountain battery, advanced once again into Luma. The people of Luma did not hide their dissatisfaction, yet they maintained calm for a time. His army occupied the village of Bicaj, the center of the Luma kaimakamlik, and began disarming the inhabitants.
On 15 September, when the army headed toward Kolesian, it was attacked along the way by the rebels, who killed and wounded several soldiers and forced it to return to Bicaj, where it carried out severe reprisals.
According to Xhavit Pasha’s reports, the rebels left 100 dead in this clash, while Bicaj was destroyed by artillery fire that leveled 37 towers to the ground.
On 16 September, as the Ottoman army continued its expedition south of Bicaj, it was attacked in the forests of Kolesian by the rebels. After a short skirmish, the rebels withdrew to the mountainous area.
Here too, Xhavit Pasha completely destroyed the village of Kolesian, including the tower of the Luma leader Islam Spahiu, as well as the surrounding villages: Nangë, Bushat, Gabricë, Mamëz, Pobreg, and others. During these clashes, the other leader of the uprising, Ramadan Zaskoci, was also wounded.
All the rebels who had been arrested during the fighting and imprisoned in the barracks of Bicaj were shot without trial. The people were impoverished to such an extent that, as Turkish participants in the expedition admitted, “only their souls remained, which they gave away without regret.”
Xhavit Pasha failed to advance toward the Drin as planned, because on 19 September he was attacked again in Kolesian by the rebels, who this time inflicted even heavier losses and forced him to retreat to Prizren. Together with the army, the people also expelled the Ottoman administrative officials and judges of the Bicaj kaimakamlik.
The Albanian press, relying on the testimonies of Turkish soldiers who participated in these battles, wrote that in Luma alone Xhavit Pasha left around 1,000 soldiers dead (“Dielli”, Boston, 24 September 1909: “Without Compliments”). It is difficult to determine the exact losses of the rebels, but judging from consular reports of the time and Xhavit Pasha’s own data, it is concluded that the rebels suffered around 300–500 dead, including 8–10 commanders.
In an interview given on 20 September 1909 to the newspaper “Le Progrès de Salonique”, Xhavit Pasha declared that the aim of the expedition was “to liquidate some Albanian rebels.” However, he found it difficult to justify the massive and barbaric persecutions he carried out during the military campaign in Luma and other parts of Northern Albania.
These actions, as reported to his government by the Italian consul in Skopje, were carried out “with the old methods of Turkish barbarism, which the Turks had not forgotten.” This brutality of the Young Turks was also expressed by Xhavit Pasha when he told English, French, and other journalists that “he would not rest until he crushed the heads of the Albanians.”
Despite these atrocities, Xhavit Pasha failed to crush Albanian resistance and withstand their attacks. Consequently, he did not leave Luma as a victor. State personalities of the time then reached the conclusion that his expedition had suffered defeat.
