Written by: Sabedin Sherifi
Only about 35 years after the expulsion of Albanians from the Sandzak of Niš, a portion of Kosovo Albanians faced another wave of violence, killings, and displacement. This time, the tragedy did not occur in Niš, Leskovac, Vranje, Prokuplje and Kuršumli, but in the land where many of the emigrants had found refuge after the expulsion of 1877–1878. In the fall of 1912, the Balkan Wars brought the Serbian army to Kosovo and the areas around Gjilan.
With the establishment of the new government, arrests, murders, burning of houses, looting and displacement of the Albanian population began.
Gjilan and the surrounding area were involved in this turbulent period.
Documents, later collected evidence, and historical literature mention a large number of villages where Albanians faced violence.
Among them are Bresalci, Llashtica, Zhegra, Makreshi, Malisheva, Përlepnica, Livoçi, Velekinca, Sllakovci, Vërbica e Zhegoci, Zhegoci, Pogragja, Pidiqi, Myqybaba, Haxhaj, Kurexhaj, Smira, Lubishta, Goshica, Vërbani, Tërsteniku, Komogllava, Gjylekar, Mogilla, Cërnica, Stanishori, Nasalja and many other settlements.
Behind these village names lie family histories. In some places there were murders, in others houses and properties were burned, while in many cases people were arrested, taken from their homes and never returned.
The exact location of the graves of some of the victims is still unknown today.
One of the areas where evidence speaks of large-scale violence was Karadak in Gjilan.
Depca, Myqybaba, Caravajka, Peçena and Kurexhaj are mentioned in the testimonies about the events of that time.
One of the most serious episodes is related to the Peçena Hill, where, according to published evidence, over 140 men from several villages in Karadak were gathered and killed.
In Gruhali, 18 people are reported killed, while in Pidic, there are reports of burning of houses, stables, barns and residents’ property.
The violence did not only affect the men who participated in the resistance. Testimonies from this period also mention women, children, and the elderly.
For many families, after the murder of their husbands, survival became even more difficult. Homes were left without heads of household, lands without workers, and families without protectors.
Bresalci also preserves names from this period. In the sources for the events of 1912, Murat Bilalli is mentioned, connected to Idriz Seferi’s circle.
Rrustem Mehmet Haziri and Adem Ali Halimi are also mentioned. According to published testimonies, they were shot and their families took their bodies for burial.
The gravesite of some of the murdered is unknown today.
In Smyrna, local sources give different figures for the victims.
One of them mentions 83 people shot in a place called Bjashkalle, while another contemporary testimony gives a different number.
These discrepancies are important to note, because the casualty figures for 1912–1914 are not always the same in the sources.
However, various testimonies agree that Smyrna was among the places severely affected.
Lubishta is also mentioned in sources for this period. According to published data, around 95 people were killed, shot or disappeared.
Other sources provide different figures and specific episodes of violence.
This shows that complete documentation of victims still requires comparing local sources with contemporary documents.
In Goshica, about 50 people are mentioned as killed, in Tërstenik about 60–66 victims, while in Vërban more than 20. In Komogllavë, about 50 victims are given.
There are also different figures for Mogilë. In Gjylekar, dozens of houses were reported to have been burned. Some testimonies also mention cases of murders of women, the elderly, and children.
But the history of this period cannot be written with numbers alone. Behind every number was a name, a family, and a house.
When a source says that dozens of people were killed, behind that figure are fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands who never returned to their families.
The city of Gjilan was not left out of these developments either. After the establishment of the new government, there were arrests, murders, and pressure on the Albanian population.
The change of power brought a new administrative, military and political reality. For the Albanian population of the city and its surroundings, insecurity became part of daily life.
But the killings and violence were only one side of this tragedy. After them came displacement.
When a house was burned, when land was confiscated, when the head of the family was killed, or when the family feared arrest, the escape route often became the only way to escape.
Some families fled to Albania, while many others made their way to the territories of the Ottoman Empire and then to Turkey.
Others were relocated to different areas of Kosovo.
Here the history of 1912 is connected to that of 1877–1878.
Many of the Albanian families living in Kosovo in 1912 were descendants of the Muhajirs who came from the Sandzak of Niš.
They had experienced deportation once. They had left their homes and lands in Niš, Leskovac, Vranje, Prokuplje, Kuršumli and other villages.
They had come to Kosovo, built new homes, started families, and started life from scratch.
Then, just a generation later, some of them found themselves facing displacement again.
They were no longer leaving the Sandzak of Niš. They were leaving the places where they had found refuge.
For some Albanian families, this meant two migrations within one generation.
This is why the years 1912–1914 have a special place in the memory of Albanian families in Gjilan and the surrounding area.
Their history is not just a history of changing borders and powers. It is a history of people who lost their homes, land, relatives, and the graves of their ancestors.
From Bresalci to Llashtica, from Smira to Lubishte, from Zhegra to Karadak, from Pidiqi to Myqybaba, from Vërbica e Zhegoci to Zhegoc, from Pogragja to Cërnica, from Goshica to Tërstenik and Komogllavë, the names of the villages preserve the memory of a time when many Albanian families faced murder, burning and displacement.
Today, more than a century later, the challenge is to ensure that this story does not remain just in numbers.
The names of the victims, the names of the families, the names of the settlements and the places where the events took place must be sought. Family testimonies must be compared with archival documents and reports of the time. Only in this way can the complete history of Gjilan and the surrounding area in the years 1912–1914 be reconstructed.
The first wave had expelled them from the Sandzak of Niš. The second wave found them in Kosovo. For some families, the path of displacement was repeated once again.
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