That the relations between Serbs and Albanians, as two neighboring peoples who have coexisted under different rulers in different periods, have been good, that they have cooperated and fought together against the common enemy, this has been shown throughout the history of these two peoples.
Therefore, the negative perception towards each other has not been the same as it is in more recent times. The negative perception towards Albanians, in culture, literature and science and the Serbian church, took off in the last quarter of the 19th century, especially after the Congress of Berlin (1878), when Serbia was recognized as an independent state, but which had ambitions and claims to expand its territory, through conquests.
Since the Congress of Berlin left Bosnia-Herzegovina under the rule of Austria-Hungary, Serbia oriented its territorial, conquest claims towards the south, to take Kosovo and the North of Albania, with access to the sea, which it achieved in the Balkan War, but which it could not maintain for long. He also led its invasion of Macedonia.
The rise of national consciousness, the movement of Albanians for independence and an ethnic state, which culminated in the Albanian League of Prizren (1878) and then with the formation of the Albanian (semi-)state (1912), caused the figure of the Albanian to take on a different appearance in the political, cultural, educational, scientific, and ecclesiastical circles of Serbia – that of an enemy against the Serbs and Serbia and a collaborator with Turkey.
The entire propaganda machinery: songs, folk epics, the press, state and church propaganda, the press, researched and fabricated their own stories about the worst characteristics of the figure of the Albanian. The cases of cooperation and contribution of Albanians in the war against the common enemy – the Ottoman Empire, were either denied or were silenced as if they had never existed. This also happened with the denial of the Albanian identity of Jani Kondo, who was a decisive figure in the liberation of Belgrade from the Serbian uprising in 1806, and in the victory at the Battle of Lloznica (1807).
Who was Jani Kondo ?
In the textbook for the fourth grade of elementary school, Istorija Srbije ( History of Serbia), by the author Mihajlo Jović, published in 1882, which has had more than twenty reprints and revisions and was in use in the Serbian educational system until 1944, – there is talk about the cooperation of Albanians in the war against the Ottoman invaders. In this context, in the first edition and reprint (1882, 1886, respectively), in the chapter on the First Serbian Uprising, the Albanian Jani Kondo is mentioned as a decisive figure in the conquest of the fortress and the liberation of Belgrade (1806) and in the victory in the Battle of Loznica (1807).
“Several times the Serbs attacked it, but they could not take it. Then the Serbs came an Arnaut from the Turkish army, named Kondo. Kondo was very brave and knew all the ways to the city walls. He took with him a good Serbian brave, Uzun Mirko, and with five other friends, he passed during the night, on the eve of November 30, beyond the walls and entered and opened the gate to the Serbs.”
I could not find this part of the book on the History of Serbia in the 1896 reprint, nor in subsequent editions, says the author of his book: “Figura Albanca u srpskoj kulturi” (The Figure of the Albanian in Serbian Culture), Aleksandar Pavllović, published by the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade, 2019. (An essay on Jani Kondo, titled: “Kondo the Albanian – Liberator of Belgrade”, was also published by the same author in the bilingual book-brochure “When Albanians and Serbs Loved – When Serbs and Albanians Loved”, published by the Columbus Institute, Prishtina, 2020. The writing
The author Pavlović, citing various sources, says that Kondo Bimbaši, from Epirus, with his fellow countrymen who were in the Turkish army, went over to the Serbian side. His crossing with the soldiers, who knew Turkish, made it possible to deceive the Turkish guards and the rebels in the fortified city of Belgrade.
This author says that Vuk Karadžić wrote an epic song about Jani Kondo, the Albanian, whom he praises as braver than Marko Kraljević, because he had received five wounds in his body, but continued to fight. It is said that he was killed in the Battle of Loznica (1807). There he was buried at the gate of the Tronoše monastery.
One version of his death is that he died in 1813, but this version is less reliable than that of his murder in the Battle of Loznica (1807). Because, it makes no sense that he died in 1813. In fact, in one place it is said that Kondo was born in 1873, and that he died at the age of 24, which coincides with the year of the Battle of Loznica (1807).
Petrit Imam also speaks about Kondo’s Albanian affiliation, in his book “Serbs and Albanians in the Centuries”, saying that he was an Orthodox Albanian from Epirus, and that he was the commander of the “Epirot Brigade” in the Turkish army.
Surprisingly, even a Serbian nationalist historian, Vladimir Stojančević, in a book published by ASShA (1994), says, among other things: “among the Serbian insurgents was Kondo-bajraktari, an Orthodox Albanian from the border of Toskëria and Epirus, and that with Kondo even more of his compatriots went over to the Serbs.”
But, says Pavlovic, since we are used to thinking of Albanians only as enemies, Kondo’s Albanian origin is no longer mentioned. It has either been relativized: as a Christian in the Turkish army, or his identity has been changed, calling him Bulgarian or Greek, Cincar and what not, except that his Albanian identity is not mentioned. Even in the English, Bulgarian and Greek Wikipedias, Kondo’s Albanian identity is not given, but is assimilated by other nations.
A street in Belgrade is named “Konda Bimbaš – around 1775 – 1813), and the text under his name on the sign reads: “Christian in the Turkish army, during the siege of Belgrade by the insurgents in 1806. At the crucial moment he switched to the Serbian side and with his comrades opened the Sava Gate to the insurgents.”
With the euphemism “Christian in the Turkish army”, they wanted to hide from the citizens the national identity and merit of an Albanian for the liberation of Belgrade.
Meanwhile, on the memorial tablet for Kondo, in the Tronoshe Monastery of Loznica, it is written: “ Here near the church, Kondo Bimbasha is buried. Hero of many battles during the First Serbian Uprising, with special merit for the liberation of Belgrade in 1806 and for the great victory of the insurgent army in the Battle of Loznica.” (Here near the church, Kondo Bimbasha is also buried.
Brave of many battles during the First Serbian Uprising, with special merit for the liberation of Belgrade in 1806 and for the great victory of the insurgent army in the Battle of Loznica). Not a single word comes out of this tablet about the Albanian origin of Jani Kondo, the man most deserving of the liberation of Belgrade from Ottoman rule in 1806.
Yes, after all, even the leader of the Uprising, Karadjorgje Petroviqi, was of more distant Albanian descent, from the Kuçës of Kelmend, in Northern Albania. This is argued by the authors Milorad Bosnjak and Slobodan Jakovlević in their book “Skrivena istorija – Karadjordjevici ” (Hidden History – Karadjordjevic).
Thus, Albanian blood has been shed for centuries for the liberation and formation of states of other nations: Serbian, Greek, Romanian, Arab, and they have gone “like a dog in a grapevine”, that no one recognizes their merits or mentions their ethnicity. And this is how all those who work, engage and sacrifice for foreign interests, and not for the interests of their own nation, will go through!
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