Persecution of Albanians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The persecution of Albanians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia included mass killings, executions, burning of villages, looting, rape, torture, imprisonments, deportation and forced expulsions of Albanians carried out by military and paramilitary forces throughout the reign of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[1] These atrocities followed the previous massacres of Albanians in World War I and massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars carried out by Serbian, Montenegrin and Yugoslav forces.
According to historian Miranda Vickers, between 200,000 and 300,000 Albanians were expelled from Yugoslavia during the interwar period, while Noel Malcolm estimates the number is between 90,000 and 150,000. Hakif Bajrami [sq] estimated that around 240,000 Albanians were deported from Kosovo from 1918 to 1941.[2]
Tens of thousands of Albanians were killed in Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro during the interwar period. Approximately 60,000–77,000 Albanians were killed from 1918 to 1921.[1][3][4] According to Haki Demolli, 80,000 Albanians were killed by 1940.[5]
Background
Many Albanians in Kosovo and Albania resisted being incorporated in the often changing Yugoslav regimes, knowing that the new Yugoslav forces were the same Serbo-Montengrin troops who had committed massacres of defenseless civilians. Albanians viewed peaceful co-existence as unattainable given the terror and violence they experienced.[6][7]
After World War I, Serbia suffered greatly from Austro-Hungarian occupation and Kosovo saw clashes between Albanians and Serbs. In 1918, the Allies of World War I rewarded Serbia for its effort with the formation of a Serbian-centralized Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which kept Kosovo as part of Serbia. The conditions for Kosovar Albanians deteriorated as Serbian authorities implemented assimilation tactics such as closing down Albanian language schools while encouraging Albanians to emigrate.The Kingdom promoted the settlement of Serb and Slav settlers to Kosovo, thus beginning the Yugoslav colonization of Kosovo.[6]
Parts of the Albanian population that resisted Serbian rule in Kosovo began military maneuvers and formed the Kachak movement. Under the political leadership of Hasan Prishtina and Bajram Curri, the movement based itself in Shkodër and was led by the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo organization.[8] Among their demands were the re-opening of Albanian language schools, recognition of Albanian as a co-official language and autonomy,[8] with the goal of uniting Kosovo with Albania.[9] The Kachaks engaged in uprisings, targeting Serbian army and administrative formations but forbade its members from targeting unarmed Serbs and churches.[8][10] The Serbian authorities regarded them as mere bandits and in response to their rebellion, retaliated by conducting operations against them as well as the civilian population.[8] In 1919, a large-scale revolt in Drenica involving 10,000 people instigated by Azem Galica was quelled by the Yugoslav army.[10] By 1924, military confrontations between Albanians and Serbs ended as the Kachak movement was effectively suppressed.[8]
Massacres
Kosovo
Qypevë
On May 28, 1919, Serbian forces massacred 22 Albanians, and a 2-year old child in the region of Qypevë, in the Damanek and Bubël region. A young Albanian named Halili i Vogel "Little Halil" survived.[11]
Gurabardhi and Zatriq
In June 1919, the Serbian chetniks led by Colonel Katanic, Babic and Stanko assaulted the village of Llapusha, allegedly in pursuit of kachaks who were residing in the mountains of Gurabardhi. The inhabitants were massacred. The Serbian detachment had just arrived after the massacre in Zatriq where 27 Albanians were bayonetted and one of the village elders was beaten to death and another had his eyes gouged out.[12]
Konjuhi massacre
In 1924, Yugoslav forces entered the village of the Albanian Konjuhi family and massacred the entire family.[13]
Mitrovica
In 1924 two villages were destroyed and 300 families killed.[14] Between 1919 and 1921, around 1,330 Albanians were killed in Mitrovica.[15]
Prishtina
According to an Albanian newspaper, in the province of Pristina, the Serbian troops had killed 4,600 people, imprisoned 3,659 people, beaten 353 people, destroyed 1,346 houses and looted 2,190 houses.[16]
Dubnica
Under the orders of commander Petrovic and Prefect Likic, he village of Dubnica was surrounded and burned on 10 Feburary 1924. The Yugoslav authorities massacred 25 people: 10 women, 8 children under eight-years, and 6 men over fifty.[17]
Rugova
In 1919, Yugoslav forces committed many atrocities in Rugova. From 25 December 1918 to early March 1919 around 842 Albanians were killed including women, elderly, children, and infants.[1][18]
Keqekolle
In January 1921, Yugoslav forces committed many atrocities on the Albanian civil population of Keqekollë and Prapashticë.[19][20]
Dushakjë
In 1921, there was a massacre carried out by Serbo-Montenegrin military and paramilitary chetniks against the Albanian population in the village of Jabllanica in the region of Dushkajë. The perpetrators were Kosta Pećanac, Milić Krstić, Spire Dobrosavlević, Arseni Qirković, Gal Milenko, Nikodim Grujici and Novë Gilici. 63 civilians were killed during the day.[21]
Peja
In Peja 1,563 Albanians were massacred and 714 homes were destroyed from 1919 and 1921.[15]
Prizren
There were roughly 4,600 killed in Prizren along with 2,194 homes torched between 1919 and 1921.[15]
Ferizaj
From 1919 to 1921, around 1,694 people were massacred in Ferizaj.[15]
Podgur
On December 15, 1919, a Montenegrin detachment of chetniks tried to disarm an Albanian tradesmen in the village of Podgur, which resulted in 138 houses being burned down and 400 being pillaged. Additionally, women, children, and elderly men were massacred.[22][1]
Montenegro
Hoti
On December 25, 1919, the Montenegrin commander Savo Pjetri arrived at Hoti in the region of Kushë in Gjytetzë with his army. 72 Albanians were arrested and sent to Prekaliaj, kept all night and then executed the following morning, and thrown in a mass grave, hoping to hide the crime.[23][24] On December 7, 2019, a memorial was held for the victims by relatives of the Hoti in the USA.[25][26]
Plav and Gusinje
On March 25, 1919, the Kosovo Committee sent a report in French to the British Forign office reporting that between February 17–23, 1919, Serbo-Montenegrin troops massacred the population of Plav and Gusinje.[27] The Yugoslav authorities massacred 333 women, children, and elderly men by March of 1919.[1]
Rožaje
In the month of February in 1917, Serbo-Montenegrin troops massacred 700 Albanians in Rožaje and 800 in the region of Gjakova, and used artillery to destroy 15 villages in Rugova.[1]
Historicity
According to the Albanian newspaper "Dajti" from November 7, 1924, and data retrieved from the Archives of the National Defense Committee of Kosovo, between 1918 and 1921, multiple massacres have occurred against the Albanian population.[28][29][30]
The United States Department of State reported widespread massacres in Montenegro in May of 1919. Information was obtained by Albanian refugees in Shkodër, collected by Lieutenant Colonel Sherman Miles. The massacred had ended and Montenegro was "entirely cleared" of Albanians two months prior to his visit to the province. According to Albanian refugees, around 30,000 Albanians were killed in Montenegro by May 1919. The British Mission in Shkodër, however, placed this figure at 18,000–25,000.[1]
In July 1919 the French consul in Skopje reported 9 massacres with 30,000–40,000 victims and that the Albanian primary schools had been closed down again and replaced by Serbian schools.[3]
Around 35,000 Albanians fled to Shkodër as a result of the atrocities.[31] According to Sabrina P. Ramet, approximately 12,000 Albanians were killed in Kosovo between 1918 and 1921, which coincides with the Albanian claim that 12,346 people were killed.[32][4][33] More than 6,000 Albanians were killed by Yugoslav forces in January and February in 1919.[34] Around 2,000 'Albanian patriots' were killed in Kosovo between 1919 and 1924. This number rose to 3,000 between 1924 and 1927.[35]
According to Kosovo Albanian politician Haki Demolli, 80,000 Albanians were "exterminated" in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by 1940.[5]
International reactions
The Swiss paper La Jeune République published an article on September 25, 1921, by Louis Rochard, mentioning the Yugoslav atrocities on the Albanian population.[36]
In June 1919, the Italian Commander Piacentini sent a telegram reporting that the Serbian troops “burned villages and massacred women and children".[37]
References
1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Department of State, United States (1947). Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 740–741. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
2. ^ Rama, Shinasi (2019). Nation Failure, Ethnic Elites, and Balance of Power: The International Administration of Kosova. Springer. p. 107. ISBN 978-3030051921. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
3. ^ Jump up to: a b Aggression against Yugoslavia correspondence. Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. 2000. ISBN 978-86-80763-91-0. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
4. ^ Jump up to: a b Ramet, Sabrina Petra (19 February 2018). Balkan Babel: The Disintegration Of Yugoslavia From The Death Of Tito To The Fall Of Milosevic, Fourth Edition (more than 12,000 Kosovar Albanians were killed by Serbian forces between 1918 and 1921, when pacification was more ... ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-97503-5. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
5. ^ Jump up to: a b Demolli, Haki (2002). Terrorizmi. Prishtina: Law Faculty Prishtina. “based on the national secret files, in the period 1918-40 around 80,000 Albanians were exterminated, between 1944 and 1950, 49,000 Albanians were killed by the communist Yugoslav forces, and in the period 1981-97, 221 Albanians were killed by the Serbian police and military forces. During these periods hundred of thousands of Albanians have been forcibly displaced towards Turkey and Western European countries.”
6. ^ Jump up to: a b Geldenhuys, D. (22 April 2009). Contested States in World Politics. Springer. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-0-230-23418-5. Retrieved 19 August 2023. “[...] of the state to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (meaning South Slavs) in 1929 brought no respite for the persecuted Albanians. The retribution to which they were subjected (including massacres) continued the now familiar cycle of grievous”
7. ^ Bytyçi, Enver (1 April 2015). Coercive Diplomacy of NATO in Kosovo. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4438-7668-1. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Lenhard, Hamza (2022). Politics of Ethnic Accommodation: Decentralization, Local Governance, and Minorities in Kosovo. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 62. ISBN 9783643912251.
9. ^ Tasić, Dmitar (2020). Paramilitarism in the Balkans: Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania, 1917-1924. Oxford University Press. p. 161. ISBN 9780198858324.
10. ^ Jump up to: a b Robert Elsie (November 15, 2010), Historical Dictionary of Kosovo, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, vol. 79 (2 ed.), Scarecrow Press, p. 64, ISBN 978-0810872318
11. ^ "Pjesë të zgjedhura nga thesari popullor i Turjakës". DRINI.us (in Albanian). 25 January 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
12. ^ Jetish Kadishani "Masakra e Gurbardhit" (The Massacre of Gurabardhi). Bujku, Prishtina. August 28, 1997, p-8.
13. ^ Pllanaj and Emin Kabashi, Prof. Dr. Nusret (2001). The Terror of Invading Serbia over Albanians 1844-1999. Prishtina: Arkivi Shtetëror i Kosovës. ISBN 9951404006. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
14. ^ The Practice of Bourgeois Class Justice in the Struggle Against the Revolutionary Movement of the Workers, the National Minorities and the Colonial and Semi-colonial Peoples. Mopr Publishing House. 1928. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
15. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Pllana, Nusret; Kabashi, Emin (2001). Der Terror der Besatzungsmacht Serbien gegen die Albaner (in Albanian) (1918-1921, sont tues beaucoup d'albanais ainsi que leurs maisons brulees. Dans la prefecture de Peja 1563 personnes tuees et 714 maisons brulees; a Mitrovica 1330 personnes et 42 maisons brulees. ed.). Arkivi Shtetëror i Kosovës. p. 33. ISBN 978-9951-404-00-6. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
16. ^ (Faksimile të marra nga gazeta “ Dajti”, emri i gazetës dhe një tabelë, ku tregohen mizoritë e serbëve mbi shqiptarët më 1918-1921). (Translation: (Facsimiles taken from the newspaper "Dajti", the name of the newspaper and a table, showing the atrocities of Serbs on Albanians in 1918-1921). Albanian paper "Dajti". Title: Summary of the atrocities of the Serbian forces in Kosovo (October 15, 1918-June 1, 1921). The number killed in Pristina: 4,600. Inmate casualties: 3,569. (Extracted from the Archive of the Kosovo Committee). Volume 53. "Sold wherever you want".
