In the publication “MONTENEGRO’S POLICY TOWARDS THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE FROM THE BERLIN CONGRESS TO THE FIRST BALKAN WAR” from 2017 we can read of certain Serbian and Montenegrin crimes and injustices against “Arnautins” (Albanians) of Mitrovica and Berane which led to chaos and conflict in 1898. This involved Bajram Curri, Haxhi Mulla Zeka, and Riza Beg (Bey):
Cited:
“Thursday to Bijelo Polje” and there “took 5–600 soldiers to clear the road, if possible, from Bijelo Polje to Berane”, because “the mail from Berane does not arrive.”
Then, Kurtović states that in addition to the one described, there is another version of the conflict in the Berane district. In this regard, he writes: “In Mitrovica, it is said that the beginning of the battle began like this: It was reported in Constantinople that the Serbs had killed several of the first beys out of blood revenge (these were Serbs from the Turkish border), so they asked what to do, the Arnauts were very angry.
Dispatches came from Constantinople to Peja and Gjakova, advising them not to launch any offensive. ‘Montenegro will not wage war’, and the emperor is in a position to wage war. The Arnauts did not even want to hear about these advices from Constantinople, but acted in their own way.”
After this, the Serbian consul expressed doubts about the truthfulness of everything he had heard: “That all that I have stated is in fact massacre and misery, cannot be completely believed, but that there is evil and human sacrifices can be claimed, without anything such dangerous rumors would not be circulating everywhere.”
From Milosav Kurtović’s report it is also seen that “six Ottoman battalions left via Mitrovica to Rozhajë for Berane”, from Thursday 4/16 June to Saturday 6/18 June.
Regarding the movement of the Montenegrin army in connection with the situation in the Berane district, Kurtović writes in his report that there is lively “talk about how Montenegro immediately sent eleven army battalions to the border near Berane”, but it is “certainly not said that this army entered into battle.”
Consul Kurtović wrote to the Serbian ambassador in Constantinople about the clashes in the Berane district a few days earlier, on 4/16 June. The information he had obtained by that date differs in many respects from the allegations he made in his report of 7/19 June. Thus, in his report of 4/16 June, he writes that there are three versions of the conflict.
Regarding the first version of the beginning of the conflict in the Berane district, the Serbian consul says the following: “One Arnautin from Rugova killed a Montenegrin. The reason for the quarrel and murder, according to a Turk, was that the Montenegrin had bought a bag of salt that Arnautin had bought, paid two paisa more and bought it back while Arnautin had gone to find a scale to measure the salt he had bought.
As soon as the Montenegrin fell, two drunk Montenegrins ran out of an inn and killed Arnautin and a little later a very respectable merchant bey. That day, as if nothing more had happened. The next day, Sunday, the Montenegrin burned three Arnautin villages, and they quickly returned the loan to them by burning two villages on the border, including Veliko Selo, which led to a battle in which about 30 were dead and wounded.”
On hearing of the clashes, Kurtović further writes, hundreds of Albanians from Gjakova and Peja, under the leadership of Haxhi Mulla Zeka, rushed to the aid of their compatriots, although “they begged by telegraph from here and from Constantinople not to interfere since the authorities would discuss the matter.”
In contrast to the report dated 7/19 June, in which he wrote that on 2/14, 3/15 and 4/16 June there were no clashes in the vicinity of Berane, Milosav Kurtović stated in his report dated 4/16 June that on 2/14 May “there was another clash in which 150 people died”, and that as a result an imperial decree was issued to “send an army to pacify the Arnauts.” On this occasion, the consul says, Constantinople engaged six army camps and two mountain batteries.
The Serbian consul also writes that “at the request of Constantinople, the Albanian chieftains Riza Bey and Bajram Curri” accepted the task of taking measures to calm the situation in the Berane district. He also states that “the Albanian beys Cemal Sherif and Murteza from Peja” were asked by the Court to quiet the people, and that they responded that they had done everything in their power to do so.”
Source
УНИВЕРЗИТЕТ У БЕОГРАДУ ФАКУЛТЕТ ПОЛИТИЧКИХ НАУКА Дарко Л. Бакић ПОЛИТИКА ЦРНЕ ГОРЕ ПРЕМА ОСМАНСКОМ ЦАРСТВУ ОД БЕРЛИНСКОГ КОНГРЕСА ДО ПРВОГ БАЛКАНСКОГ РАТА докторска дисертација Београд, 2017.
