Massacres of Albanians in World War I

The massacres of Albanians in World War I were a series of war crimes committed by Serbian, Montenegrin and Bulgarian troops against the Albanian civil population of North Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo during the Great War. These atrocities were part of the previous massacres committed during the Balkan War. In 1915, Serbian troops practiced a "scorched earth" tacticts in Kosovo, massacring tens of thousands of Albanians. Between 1912 and 1915, 132 Albanian villages were razed to the ground. Around 50.000 Albanian civilians were killed by Bulgarian forces.

Massacres

According to an article in the Boston Daily Globe, published on November 8, 1915, the Serbo-Montenegrin troops shot or baoynetted 20,000 Albanian women and children and destroyed 300 villages and 35,000 houses, leaving 330,000 people without asylum.

Kosovo

Gjilan

In 1914 Serbian troops committed many atrocities in Gjilan.

Kamënica

During the Serbian armys retreat, the soldiers set fire to Kamënica, Selac, Gradec and Vranisht, after having slaughtered a number of peasants and carried off the women. On November 1, 1915, the soldiers placed two pieces of light artillery two hundred paces from the village of Vecali, on the Tetovo-Prizren road, and set fire to the village with these pieces of artillery, killing nearly 65 men, women and children. The rest of the peasants managed to flee. Before the bombardment of the village, the peasants had given bread to the Serbian soldiers.

Pejë

In the region of Pejë in 1914, Serbian troops would execute roughly 25 Albanian civilians daily.

Vitia

In the village of Lubishë, Serbian troops massacred 104 men, and 24 men in Julekar. In Lubishtë, the head of the Bakiya family, the old grandmother in the Metushi family and two children of the Emin family were burned alive.

Gjuzaj

In 1913, Serbian troops entered Albanian inhabited villages and bayonetted 27 unarmed men from the village of Gjuzaj when they resisted the occupation. Serbian troops also committed several atrocities in the village of Kadiaj in Fier.

Albania

Labova

On April 29, 1914, Greek troops massacred more than 220 men and boys from Hormovë inside the premises of the monastery of Saint Mary in the neighboring village of Kodra.

When General Dever's team arrived there in early May, they saw branch of an oak tree and in the bell tower of the church, next to it, two male bodies hanging. The church gate was bloody and riddled with bullets, indicating that it had been used as an execution site. Inside, the walls of the church were also smeared with blood and human remains. The whole environment around reeked of corpses. In the courtyard in front of the church, three mass graves were discovered with the bodies of 220 men, which had been superficially covered. Dutch troops reconciled a group of gypsies nearby, who removed the corpses, many of which had severed heads or dismembered skulls, to rebury them in several deep pits newly dug by them.

The report of Gen. Dever and the medical team that accompanied him severely shocked the offices of the great powers. Five years later, at the end of World War I, the Peace Conference was held in Versailles. The Greek Prime Minister E. Venizelos tried to convince the representatives of the winning powers to annex the region of Labova to Greece. The representatives of the Powers mentioned the massacred of Labova.

Panariti

On July 10, 1914, Greek troops committed a number of atrocities on the Albanian population of several villages in southern Albania in Korcë. 250 villages were destroyed and 100 000 people emigrated. In Luaras, Ersekë, 14 children were killed and in Panariti over 375 Albanians were killed. Several atrocities were committed in the region. This was documented by the Albanian Orthodox priest Costa P. Tomori Leusa.

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