With the end of the First Balkan War (1914-1918), the greed of the Balkan states reached colonial levels by completely occupying the Albanian territories. These ambitions of small Balkan states with large claims resurfaced openly in 1919 with their neo-colonial demands presented to the Paris Peace Conference. These claims were rejected again in June 1921, when the Ambassadors’ Conference, for the second time according to the mandate received from their governments, examined the Albanian question and decided on the re-establishment of Albania with its political borders.
Italy had occupied Vlora. Serbia, which had declared in January 1920 that it renounced any territorial claims on Albania, instead incited Montenegro (under King Nicholas of Cetinje) to demand the occupation of the highlands above Shkodër under the pretext of strategic needs. According to Montenegrin banditry, the London border of 1913 needed to be re-examined. Montenegro’s sole aim was to sever Albania’s main arteries.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria this time, like Serbia, stayed aside from their raids toward Albanian lands, but Serbia urged Greece to demand and occupy Korçë and all the southern zones of Albania located between Lake Ohrid and Prespa. From there, the Greeks followed the 1913 London demarcation line up to Mount Gramoz (Gramos), advancing from the south and ending their claims at the Gulf of Preveza.
These are the true (though greatly reduced) ethnic borders that Natural Albania demands and will always demand, because these borders—without any equivocation—are simply the unreal borders of London Albania. Despite all these grim historical events that destroyed and massacred the population of the Albanian state over the centuries, its ethnos managed to preserve and nostalgically protect its national and linguistic individuality.
At that time (1878-1913), within these natural borders lived two and a half million Albanians, with a large majority of up to 80% in those heterogeneous (mixed) settlements with Slavic-Serbian and Greek populations. Even in this mixture, the Albanian percentage rose above 90% and up to 95%, especially in Albanian regions such as Pejë, Gjakovë, Prizren, and Çamëria.
Albania’s borders began to be annulled and erased for the first time with the territorial concessions made by the Congress of Berlin in 1878, favoring the hegemonic and colonialist interests of Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. The London Ambassadors’ Conference of 1913 was also no favor to the Albanian ethnos; like the previous congresses, it legalized our national tragedy by trading our territories in favor of the Pan-Slavic Balkan states. Due to the irregularity of the London Ambassadors’ Conference’s stance, more than one and a half million Albanian inhabitants were left outside Albania’s natural borders.
The Paris Peace Conference (or the League of Nations at Versailles in 1919), initiated by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, aimed to preserve world peace. Thirty-two states joined this League, including the Provisional Government of Albania under Ismail Qemal. Wilson defended it under all circumstances, but the insatiable appetites of the great European powers ignored his word and resumed their expansionist plans for the redivision and partitioning of Natural Albania.
Even during the European war, there was talk of partitioning Albania in favor of the interests of small Balkan states—but with major neo-colonial demands from Pan-Slavic states like Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece—as a supposed reward for their participation in the anticipated war against Austria-Hungary.
This proposal for the further partitioning of Albanian lands on November 23, 1914, was promoted by Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov, who opposed Italy’s request to continue recognizing Albania’s independence based on the London Pact ambassadors’ discussions. This fact was later revealed in the secret publications of documents in the “Black Book” of the Bolshevik government of V.I. Lenin in Russia.
This proposal for partitioning Albania was repeated at the Supreme Council in Paris (Versailles meeting) on January 13, 1919, where Clemenceau presented a plan to divide Albania between Yugoslavia (which would take all of Northern Albania with Shkodër and the Albanian coast up to Shëngjin) and Greece (which would receive the southern part with Gjirokastër and Korçë). This proposal was also discussed at the London Ambassadors’ Conference regarding new concessions of Southern Albania to Greece as a reward for renouncing Izmir…
The publication of the content of the secret Treaty of London by Bolshevik Russia revealed to the Albanian people the true plans of the Entente powers, and primarily of Italy, toward Albania. Its publication, as the newspaper Dielli wrote in March 1918, was “eyes for the blind and ears for the deaf.”
The content of the Treaty of London, evaluated as “the shroud of Albania,” aroused a powerful wave of indignation in the country and among Albanian colonies abroad, followed by energetic protests. In an open letter addressed on behalf of the Pan-Albanian Federation “Vatra” in January 1918 to the English newspaper The Manchester Guardian, the secret Treaty of London was described as “one of the darkest international acts that can be mentioned.” The letter concludes with the words:
“The Great Powers forget the healthy vitality of the Albanians, who have resisted powerful empires for centuries and whose motto has always been: Struggle for freedom at any cost until success is achieved.”
The publication of the Treaty of London was a heavy blow to the two Entente powers that had occupied Albanian territories, especially to Italy. It worried the Albanians and at the same time gave them a new weapon to unmask and strike the imperialist and chauvinist policy of neighboring states and their supporters, while also increasing vigilance against the enemies of the homeland.
The Italian military authorities in the occupation zone tried to reduce the concern caused by the publication of the Treaty of London. The command of the Italian XVI Corps in Albania on February 21, 1918, instructed prefectures and sub-prefectures to carry out propaganda in favor of Italy, claiming that the treaty had supposedly undergone later changes that the Bolsheviks did not publish on purpose.
However, these measures could not deceive Albanian public opinion. Protests against the Treaty of London continued.
“Albanians want freedom and will fight for the freedom of self-government against Italy, Serbia, Greece, as well as against Austria, or against any other occupying force.”
The Italian government, in order to more easily realize its predatory plans against Albania, intensified efforts to divide the Albanian national movement and recruit tools of its policy from the ranks of Albania’s ruling classes. In line with these goals, Italian government propaganda from the end of the war widely circulated the slogan that there existed a “community of interests” between Italy and Albania, since by “defending” Albania from the greed of neighboring Balkan states, Italy was simultaneously “defending” itself. Consequently, Italy was supposedly the “natural protector” of Albania.
A group of 14 Albanian politicians who had stayed in Switzerland during the war joined the Italian government’s platform. Among them were Turhan Pasha Përmeti, Syrja Bey Vlora, Visarion Dodani, Eqrem Bey Libohova, Dr. Gaqi Adhamidhi, etc. Other politicians such as Mehdi Frashëri and Mustafa Kruja, who were in Italy, called on Albanian political “leaders” to gather in Rome.
The great danger threatening the country at that time was deeply felt by the entire Albanian people, who immediately mobilized to secure Albania’s independence and territorial integrity. The organizers of this movement were patriotic bourgeois intellectuals, who generally led political organizations and the national Albanian press inside and outside the country.
At the end of the war, the secret committee created in Shkodër in 1915 began to activate and expand its illegal activity. Members of this committee formed on November 7, 1918, the “National Defense of Kosovo” committee, based in Shkodër, which began operating illegally. Both committees, which cooperated closely, set themselves the task of fighting for the national liberation of the country.
The “National Defense of Kosovo” committee, which mainly included political exiles from Kosovo in Albania, set itself the special task of fighting for the salvation of Kosovo and the Dukagjin Plateau and their unification with Albania. In various cities of the country, other patriotic clubs and societies also began to activate in political life under the leadership of progressive elements such as Avni Rustemi, Halim Xhelo, etc.
A broad activity for the defense of Albania’s independence and territorial integrity was carried out during this period by the Pan-Albanian Federation “Vatra” and the “National Political Party” in the USA, as well as other Albanian colonies abroad (Romania, Turkey, etc.).
At the next Paris Peace Conference, the Albanian question was considered only from the point of view of Italo-Yugoslav contradictions. However, in this conference of discussions held in Pallanza, Albania was saved from this hegemonic combination. From this meeting, it was clearly seen how Albanian national rights, with the end of the European war, were being trampled and denigrated, and efforts were being made to cut off the ethnic territories of Natural Albania.
At that time, Albania had remained without any supporter. The only small support came from Italy, but this European power had withdrawn its support because it also claimed to occupy Vlora. Because it was one of the largest straits needed by Italy to face attacks and defend against other European powers.
The decision on setting the demarcation lines of the borders was completed only when the borders of the Serbs and Greeks had been set. The Albanian question was not taken into consideration at all, because it was thought that the ethnic territory of Albania should be given to Serbia and Greece.
Those Albanian lands that suited these neo-colonialist predators were preferred for this unfair division of Albanian territory, and from the remaining part, a mutilated Albania would be formed by these Pan-Slavic hyenas. At the Peace Conference on March 7, 1919, the Albanian delegation announced that the Commission for Albanian affairs and demands had not dealt with the Albanian question at all, but had dealt with Greece’s claims on Albanian lands.
Furthermore, the issue of ratifying the ethnic Albanian territories of Çamëria, which had been occupied by the Greeks, was not taken into account at all. In addition, the Albanian delegation demanded a plebiscite in all nationally Albanian territories unjustly seized by Serbs and Greeks. Later, on December 26, 1919, the Albanian request presented by Monsignor Bumçi revealed that there was no support for Albania’s national rights.
Much greater importance was given to the economic-military demands and reasons of Serbia and Greece, simply because of the confession of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece, this was used to justify new cuts to Albanian territories. Unfortunately, those reasonable calls and voices of the Albanians were not taken into account at all.
Population Statistics Section (extensive data from the article):
In the time of the general inspector and ethnographer Hysen Halim Pasha, the population of the Kosovo Vilayet was 1,063,666 inhabitants, of whom 754,631 were Albanians.
According to other statistics from a few months before the Turco-Balkan wars (1875-1912), the Kosovo Vilayet had 1,134,499 inhabitants, of whom 829,756 were Muslim Albanians, 226,528 Serbs (18.80%), etc.
Detailed breakdowns by prefectures (Pejë, Gjakovë, Prizren, Mitrovica, Prishtina, etc.) show overwhelming Albanian majorities in most areas (often 70-96%).
Austro-Hungarian statistics also confirm high Albanian percentages (e.g., Pejë 83.1%, Gjakovë 96.1%, Prizren ~77-96%, etc.).
The article discusses maps from the Bulgarian Cartographic Institute (1903) and French military publications (1916) that confirm the Albanian ethnic character of these regions.
It criticizes Serbian efforts to minimize or deny the Albanian population by labeling Muslim Albanians as “Turks” and presents counter-arguments based on language, customs, tribes (Krasniqe, Shala, Shosh, etc.), and physical features.
Massacres and Destruction:
The article details mass killings, burned villages, and expulsions by Serbian-Montenegrin forces. For example, in various prefectures: thousands killed and hundreds of houses burned in Prizren, Pejë, Prishtina, etc., with totals exceeding 12,000 Albanians killed and 650 settlements destroyed in one period.
It also references earlier massacres (1875-1878) in the regions of Niš and Toplica with tens of thousands killed or expelled, and continued repression afterward.
Conclusion and Author Note:
The author (a former political prisoner and chairman of the Association of Muhaxhirë for Eastern Kosovo, based in Presheva) argues that threats from Serbia forced Albania into alliance with Italy (1926-1927). He emphasizes ongoing dangers to Albanian territories and identity.
Source
https://tupalla.com/wp/coptimi-i-tokave-shqiptare-gjat-viteve-1914-1918-dhe-popullsia-e-saj/
