| Balli Kombëtar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | |
| Dates of operation | 1942–1945 |
| Dissolved | 1945 |
| Active regions | Albania,Kosovo, western parts ofNorth Macedonia,Chameria, parts ofMontenegro,Preševo Valley andSandžak |
| Ideology | Albanian nationalism Greater Albania Fascism (Factions)[1][2][3][4] Anti-communism Anti-Greek sentiment Anti-Serb sentiment Republicanism Conservatism Agrarian socialism |
| Political position | Big tent[5] |
| Size | 35,000–50,000[6] |
| Part of | Kingdom of Albania in personal union with Italy (1939–1943) andAlbanian kingdom (1943-44) |
| Allies |  Albanian Partisans (1942–1943) Italy(varied) Germany (1944) |
| Opponents | Italy(varied)Albanian Partisans (1943–1945) Yugoslav Partisans EDES/EAM Chetniks |
| Battles and wars | |
Succeeded by "Free Albania" National Committee | |
TheBalli Kombëtar (literallyNational Front) was anAlbanian nationalist,[2][3][4][7]collaborationist,[2][8] andanti-communist resistance movement during theSecond World War.[9][10][11][12] It was led byAli Këlcyra and byMidhat Frashëri.[13] The movement was formed by members from the landowning elite, liberal nationalists opposed tocommunism, and other sectors of society in Albania.[14][15][16]
Themotto of the Balli Kombëtar was:Shqipëria Shqiptarëve, Vdekje Tradhëtarëve (Albania to the Albanians, Death to the Traitors).[17] Eventually, the Balli Kombëtar joined theNazi Germany-establishedpuppet government as part of theGerman occupation of Albania and fought as an ally against communist guerrilla groups.[18][19] The Balli Kombëtar engaged in significant acts of terror culminating in atrocities committed against Serb and Greek civilians.[20][21][page needed][22][better source needed][23]
Although Këlcyra and Frashëri had initiated opposition actions against the Italian authorities almost from the beginning ofthe fascist occupation in 1939, they had practically not developed any military organization for open struggle against the invader. Albanian nationalists from the end of 1942 began an irregular fight against the Italian garrisons.[24]
The Balli Kombëtar was officially founded in November 1942 by joining the efforts of a series of nationalists. It tried to find an agreement with the Albanian partisans of communist affiliation, led byEnver Hoxha and grouped in the "Movement of National Liberation" (LANÇ, for its acronym in Albanian), trying to attract them to the nationalist cause. However, the Balli Kombëtar condemned any cooperation of the LNC with the Yugoslav partisans, whom it considered natural enemies of Albania, which would soon be a deal breaker.
WithItaly on the brink of defeat in 1943, the AlbanianNational Liberation Movement (LANÇ) and the Balli Kombëtar organized a meeting in the village of Mukje. The Balli Kombëtar entered into a fragile alliance with the communist-led LANÇ, and acted as a resistance group against the Italians.[25] Following theMukje Agreement, the vague mutual tolerance that had existed between the Ballists and LANÇ quickly evaporated. TheAllies too could not guarantee thatKosovo would be a part of Albania,[26] because they stood for the restoration of occupied nations under their borders as they existed prior toWorld War II.
Despite their lukewarm attitude towards the Allies, the Ballists feared that an Allied victory in the war might well result in LANÇ victory and communist control of Albania.[27][page needed] Their lukewarm attitude towards the British was also fostered by their desire to preserve the occupied united Albanian state under the borders drawn by the Italians in 1941, for they bitterly opposed and dreaded the loss of Kosovo and Debar to Yugoslavia once again, and feared that the Allies in their support of the Greeks might prevent them from claimingChameria and deprive them of their southern provinces ofKorçe andGjirokaster, the heartland of their liberation movement.[27][page needed] They regarded the Yugoslavs and theGreeks as their real enemies.[27][page needed]
The Mukje Agreement immediately triggered a hostile reaction from the Yugoslav representative in Albania,Svetozar Vukmanoviċ. He denounced the agreement and put pressure on the LANÇ to repute it immediately,[28][page needed] and Yugoslav Communist leaderMilovan Đilas subsequently described the Balli Kombëtar as "Albanian Fascists".[3]
The Balli Kombëtar, which had fought against the Italians, were threatened by the superior forces of the LANÇ and theYugoslav Partisans, who were backed by the Allies.[29][page needed] In the autumn of 1943,Nazi Germany occupied all of Albania after Italy was defeated. Fearing reprisals from larger forces, the Balli Kombëtar made a deal with the Germans and formed a "neutral government" inTirana which continued its war with the LANÇ and the Yugoslav Partisans.[30][31][32]
Safet Butka, a hardline Albanian nationalist, tried at various times to cooperate with the Communist-dominated Liberation Front (LANÇ). By January 1943, in Southern Albania, some Partisan units fought alongside the Balli Kombëtar during theBattle of Gjorm where they defeated and routed the Italian troops.[33] In February 1943, he organized a meeting with communist-led LANÇ representatives and an agreement for cooperation was reached in March 1943. He also made another local agreement in August 1943 and was one of the initiators and supporters of the Mukje agreement.[34] The communist-led LANÇ had demanded that Kosovo be ceded to Albania after the war. TheLANÇ met with the Ballists in August 1943, agreeing upon the establishment ofGreater Albania.[35][36] The agreement was however short-lived.[36] The agreement was the denounced by Albanian communists. In the south of Albania, the rivalry between the Communists and the Balli Kombëtar heated up. The Communists almost immediately repudiated the Mukaj agreement, and fearing the British might open a second front in the Balkans and lend their support to the Ballists, they issued orders that the Balli Kombëtar be eliminated wherever it was found.[37] These factors contributed to members of the Balli Kombëtar forming a strong hatred for the Communists.
After forming the collaborator government, the Ballists pressed hard against the Communists.[27][page needed] They destroyed a fairly large Communist partisan group southwest of Tirana.[27][page needed] By the Fall of 1943 the Ballists, assisted by German forces, were also involved in vicious fighting against theNorthern Epirus Liberation Front in Southern Albania. This Greek Nationalist group was destroyed during these clashes and was eliminated as a fighting force.[38]
Withthe Grand Alliance established, the Germans began losing the war. This also affected the situation in Albania as the Germans could not supply the Ballists.[citation needed] With the current situation favouring the Communists, the partisans began a full-scale attack on the Balli Kombëtar. British liaison officers in Albania noted that the Communists were using the arms they received to fight fellow Albanians far more than to harass the Germans.[37][better source needed] The west noted that the Communists could not have won without the supplies and armaments from the British, America and Yugoslavia,[37] and that the LANÇ were not afraid of murdering their own countrymen.[39]
The Ballists in Kosovo and Vardar region rose to prominence following the capitulation of Italy in September 1943. They seizedStruga andDebar from the Italians on 9 September 1943, taking much of the military equipment left behind.[40] Following the establishment of theAlbanian Kingdom, leading members of the Balli Kombetar from Kosovo became involved in forming the new government. On 6 November 1943,Berlin announced that the regents and the assembly had formed a government headed by Kosovar AlbanianRexhep Mitrovica,[41] who had joined the Balli Kombëtar resistance movement in 1942 and spent much of the Italian period in prison in Porto Romano nearDurrës.[42] Mitrovica's cabinet, most of whom had credentials as nationalists as well as some German or Austrian connection, includedXhafer Deva.[43] Deva, a leading Ballist also from Kosovo, was appointed Minister of the Interior in the Government ofRexhep Mitrovica and collaborated with the Germans to oppose the spread of Communist forces in the north,[44] effectively giving him direct command over the forces of the new government.[45] The fighting in Kosovo took on an ethnic and ideological basis with the Albanian Balli Kombetar forces fighting the predominantly SerbPartisans.
In Vardar Macedonia, when it was a part of the independent state of Albania, the German and Ballist forces had occasional skirmishes with Yugoslav partisans.Kicevo, which remained in the hands of Macedonian and Albanian Partisan units following the capitulation of Italy,[40] was attacked by the Ballists ofXhem Hasa in early November 1943. After 7 days of fierce fighting, the Partisans were defeated and forced to retreat from the city.[46][page needed]Fiqri Dine,Xhem Hasa and Hysni Dema, as well as three German Majors, also directed military campaigns against the Albanian and Yugoslav partisans.[47] When Maqellarë, midway between Debar and Peshkopi, was recaptured by the Fifth Partisan Brigade, the Germans with the assistance of the Ballist forces of Xhem Hasa launched an attack from Debar, defeating the partisans.[48] The main centres of the Balli Kombëtar in these regions wereKosovska Mitrovica,Drenica andTetovo. It was noted that the Balli Kombëtar in these regions were more aggressive than the Ballists of Albania.[49] With the tables now turned in their favour many Ballists saw an opportunity to take their revenge upon their Serbian neighbours for the suffering they had endured over previous two decades, burning perhaps as many as 30,000 houses belonging to Serbs andMontenegrins.[49] Most vulnerable to these attacks were Serbs who had settled in Kosovo in theinterwar period.[49]
In October 1944, as the German Army began retreating through Kosovo, fierce battles between the Germans and the Partisans broke out. After the Germans had been driven out, Tito ordered the collection of weapons in Kosovo and the arrest of prominent Albanians. The order was not well received and, combined with passions felt about Kosovo, inflamed an insurrection.[50] On 2 December 1944, anti-communist Albanians from the Drenica region attacked the Trepca mining complex and other targets. Numbering at most 2,000 men, these anti-communists managed to hold off a Partisan force of 30,000 troops for two months.[50] Similarly inKičevo,Gostivar andTetovo, the remaining Ballists tried to remain in control of the region after the Yugoslav Partisans announced victory.[51] Now "an armed uprising of massive proportions" broke out in Kosovo led by the Balli Kombëtar (which still had around 9,000 men under arms at the time), which aimed to resist incorporation of Kosovo into communist Yugoslavia.[50] It was only in July 1945 that the Yugoslav Partisans were able to put down the uprising and establish their control over Kosovo.[50]
Parts ofMontenegro and the Sandžak were annexed into Albania in 1941. The cities includedBijelo Polje,Tutin,Plav, Gusinje, Rozaje andUlcinj. Some of theYugoslav Muslims that lived in these regions sided with the Albanians.Acif Hadziahmetovic, former mayor ofNovi Pazar and member ofNexhip Draga's party, and Ballist forces underShaban Polluzha successfully repelled the combinedChetnik-Yugoslav Partisan forces back fromNovi Pazar, and crushed their stronghold inBanja.[52] Novi Pazar remained under the control ofAcif Hadziahmetovic who was a member of the nationalist Balli Kombëtar movement, right up until December 1944. During this time the region between Ballist held Novi Pazar and Chetnik controlledRaška, witnessed constant fighting between the Albanians, Yugoslav Muslims and Serbs in the narrow valley that separates the two towns.[53]
Balli Kombëtar was also active in northwestern Greece, in particular in a region referred to by Albanians asChameria. Administration of the Thesprotia prefecture was handed over to the Albanians, although this region was not officially annexed into the Albanian kingdom. The "Balli Kombëtar Çam" (Cham National Front), founded in 1943 by Nuri Dino, received full German support since they were willing to fight both Albanian and Greek Communist Partisans.[54] These units were used in anti-partisan operations in Greece codenamedAugustus. By the time OperationAugustus ended, a larger numberChams were recruited for armed support. Their support was appreciated by the Germans: Lt Colonel Josef Remold remarked that "with their knowledge of the surrounding area, they have proved their value in the scouting missions". On several occasions, these scouting missions engagedEDES units in combat.[55] On 27 September (1943), combined German and Cham forces launched large scale operation in villages north of Paramythia: Eleftherochori, Seliani, Semelika, Aghios Nikolaos. In this operation the Cham contingent numbered 150 men, and, according to German Major Stöckert, "performed very well".[56]
Under the idea of creating a racially pure Greater Albania, the Balli Kombëtar enacted campaigns of terror against Serb civilians in Kosovo and Montenegro.[21][page needed][22][better source needed]. Following the founding of theSecond League of Prizren, the Balli Kombëtar combined with theSS Skanderbeg division massacred thousands of Serbs and expelled between 10,000 and 100,000 Serb civilians from the region.[57][58][59] In October 1943 during a large-scale German offensive in southernAlbania, the Balli Kombëtar in conjunction with German troops attacked Greek villages and committed numerous atrocities including burning villages and executing civilians.[23]
Between 1941 and 1944, 20.000 ca.Macedonians due to Ballistic atrocities, fled from Western Macedonia, especially fromReka andTetovo region, toSkopje andBitola, thenBulgaria.[60][page needed][need quotation to verify]
The Balli Kombëtar was revived in Albania as a political party in the early 1990s. Founded under the leadership ofAbas Ermenji, a surviving Ballist, who escaped from Albania when the communists declared victory in 1945.[61] In 1996 it won 5 percent of the popular vote and two seats in parliament.[61] It has since declined. In the 2001 elections it was part of theUnion for Victory (Bashkimi për Fitoren) coalition which received 37.1% of the vote and 46 members of parliament.
The National Front has chapters in Kosovo, led by Sylejman Daka & in North Macedonia, led by Vebi Xhemaili.
Midhat Frashëri believed that Albanian provinces under the Ottoman Empire wereunfairly partitioned during World War I amongst Yugoslavia and Greece.[62] AfterWorld War II, Midhat Frashëri began advocating for aGreater Albania. When Midhat Frashëri formed the Balli Kombëtar, it was based on his nationalist ideas and the old ideologies of his fatherAbdyl Frashëri,Ymer Prizreni andPashko Vasa, and the natural progression of theAlbanian Vilayet. The works ofFranz Nopcsa,Johann Georg von Hahn andMilan Šufflay, helped strengthen the nationalists' cause.[63][64] The Balli Kombëtar believed that Albanians were "Aryans of Illyrian heritage".[65] This helped gaining support by the Nazis.[65] The party had also a strongagrarian socialist wing, which gained the leadership of the party after the war with its leaderAbaz Ermenji, and also Zef Pali, Halil Maçi andVasil Andoni.[5]
The original objectives of Balli Kombëtar were set out in 1942 in the following ten-point program, also known as the "Decalogue":[66]
TheDecalogue states:[67]
- We are fighting for the red and black flag, for the defence of the rights of the Albanian people
- We are fighting for a democratic, ethnic and free Albania with a modern society
- We are fighting for an Albania in which freedom of speech and thought will prevail
- We are fighting for an Albania with a proper economic and social balance so that there will be no more exploiters and exploited, that is to say, so that no one will live at the expense of his fellow man, so that there will be no farmers without enough land to live on, so that there will be no blue and white-collar workers without housing and security, i.e. we are fighting for a stable Albania with a thoroughly reformed economic system in accordance with the wishes and needs of the Albanian people
- We are fighting for an Albania in which the suppressed talents of all strata of the population will come to light, be supported and flourish with the help of Albanian schooling
- We are fighting for an Albania in which all positive contributions will be properly appreciated, independent of age, region or faith
- We are fighting to create an Albania run by people who have not been compromised, by Albanians who have done their utmost at every time and under all conditions for the salvation and welfare of their country, by competent and honest working men
- We are fighting for an Albania that, in a strict and exemplary manner, will punish all anti-patriots, traitors, lackeys, troublemakers, speculators and spies; for an Albania in which there will be no place for hypocrites, sycophants, feudal oppressors and anyone who hinders the development and progress of our renascent country
- We are fighting to harmonize and unite the creative energies of the nation, to create an intellectual and spiritual union of all Albanians
- We are fighting to mobilize all the vital forces of the nation against the occupiers in order to realize the ideals ofBalli Kombëtar
After World War II ended, the Balli Kombëtar were defeated by Yugoslav and Albanian communists. The Ballists were so thoroughly discredited by their collaboration with the Nazis that there was no chance of them having a role in postwar Albania, though it took until 1945 to finish them off. Ironically, the Ballists' decision to work with the Nazis brought about the one thing they had sought to prevent – a Communist-dominated government. Balli Kombëtar fighters fled theBalkans to Austria, the United States, Australia,Switzerland andSouth America. The Ballists who did not escape were executed. An organization was set up in exile.
Many Ballists that managed to escape Albania subsequently set up theCIA backedFree Albania Committee, aimed at organising the Albanian diaspora to overthrow Enver Hoxha's Communist regime in Albania. Starting in 1949 British and American trained Albanian fighters (consisting of men from Balli Kombëtar and the monarchist movement, known asLegaliteti) were parachuted into Albania with the aim of organizing a popular revolt against Hoxha, marking the start of theAlbanian Subversion.[68] The operation failed, thanks in no small part to infamous double agentKim Philby, who leaked crucial details of the plan to the communist authorities who were consequently able to intercept many of the fighters upon arrival.[69] The subversion cost the lives of at least 300 men and for a long time was one of the most carefully concealed secrets of the Cold War.
In 1950, the Balli Kombëtar (in-exile) was divided into two wings, one Agrarian headed byAbas Ermenji, and one headed byAli Këlcyra.[70]
Tetovo was once the largest Balli Kombëtar base inAlbania and still has strong ties with the name. The Tetovo-based football clubKF Shkendija has a large support firm called theBallistët. They are known in the media in North Macedonia for their use of hardline nationalistic rhetorics in football matches.[71] The most notable Ballist leader in Macedonia wasXhem Hasa fromGostivar. A statue of him has been erected inSimnica, just south of Gostivar, by local Albanians.[72]
In Early 1944, a Kosovar contingent of the Albanian nationalist Balli Kombetar as well as Nazis' hastily formed Skanderbeg SS Division had conducted a reign of terror against any Serbs they found in Kosovo and Montenegro, forcing another 10,000 to flee.
Balli Kombetar, however, preferred German rule to Italian and, believing that only the Germans would allow Kosovo to remain Albanian after the war, began to collaborate.
When he realized he would not obtain the consent of the Central Committee of the CPY for the creation of a Great Albania, Enver Hoxha organized a conference with representatives of the pro-fascist nationalistic Balli Kom- betar in Muka on ...
Albanian communists joined forces with the Balli Kombetar, an active Kosovo Albanian nationalist organization. Nevertheless, the agreement reached in the village of Mukaj on 2 August 1943 turned out to be a short-lived one.
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