| Massacres of Albanians in World War I | |
|---|---|
| Part ofWorld War I andwar crimes in World War I | |
 Young Albanian refugees on a boat in 1914 | |
| Location | Principality of Albania,Kosovo,Vardar Macedonia |
| Date | 1914–1918 |
| Target | Albanians |
Attack type | Massacres,arson,starvation,forced migration,ethnic cleansing |
| Deaths | Contemporary Albanian claim: Total: 250,000+ killed
Other estimates: |
| Victims |
|
| Perpetrators | Kingdom of Serbia,Kingdom of Montenegro,Kingdom of Bulgaria,Kingdom of Greece |
| Motive | Anti-Albanian sentiment,Islamophobia,Greater Serbia,Greater Bulgaria,Megali Idea |
ThroughoutWorld War I, a series of war crimes were committed bySerbian,Montenegrin,Greek andBulgarian troops against theAlbanian civilian population ofAlbania,Macedonia andKosovo. These atrocities followed the previousmassacres and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians committed during theBalkan Wars. In 1915, Serbian troops enacted ascorched-earth policy in Kosovo, massacring tens of thousands ofAlbanians.[4] Between 1912 and 1915, 132 Albanian villages were razed to the ground.[5][6][failed verification]
Many Albanians in the region ofKičevo were killed by Bulgarian forces between 1915-1918.[7][full citation needed][page needed] In 1916, many Albanians inŠtrpce and Načallnik starved to death or became sick as a result of Bulgarian soldiers seizing the villagers' wheat, which led to a man-madefamine.[8][9][page needed] The number of Albanians (includingcombatants) that werekilled or died during WWI due to diseases and warfare in Albania is estimated to be around 70,000, approximately 8.75% to 10% of the country's population.[2][10] Additionally, contemporary estimates from theAmerican Red Cross suggest that 150,000 died of starvation in Albania during 1915 alone.[11] In a letter to KingGeorge V, theCommittee of Kosovo claimed in 1919 that the Serbian and Montenegrin armies had killed 200,000 Albanians since theBalkan Wars, including some 100,000 Albanians killed in Kosovo from 1913 to 1915, and that Bulgarian troops had killed 50,000 Albanians from 1915 to 1918.[1] In 1921, Albanian deputies said that 85,676 Kosovo Albanians were killed since the Balkan Wars.[12]
After the Great War, Albanians in theKingdom of Yugoslavia were subject topersecution.
During the Balkan Wars, numerous atrocities were committed against the Albanian population in the territories occupied by theBalkan League, typically by Serbian and Montenegrin forces. According to contemporary accounts, around 25,000 Albanians were killed during the first half of theFirst Balkan War, before violence climaxed.[1][13][14] It is estimated that up to 120,000 or more were killed in eitherOld Serbia or in all areas occupied by theSerbian Army.[15][16][17][18][19][20] Additionally, according to Serbian documents, 281,747 Albanians above the age of six wereexpelled from Old Serbia by late 1914. This figure, however, is disputed and scholars estimate that between 60,000 and 300,000 Albanians were expelled from 1912–1913.[21][22][23] TheCarnegie Commission characterized the expulsions and massacres as an attempt to transform the ethnic structure of the regions inhabited mostly by Albanians.[24]
In 1915, the village Bytyci was attacked and the entire Ushki family was nearly eradicated, with only one survivor.[25]
In 1914, Serbian troops entered the village of Astrazubi inMalisheva and burned down 1,029 houses and killed 227 civilians, mostly women and children, although the number is believed to be higher according to Albanian sources. In the village of Banjë, the wounded were buried alive.[26]
In 1914 Serbian troops committed many atrocities inGjilan.[27]
During theSerbian armys retreat, the soldiers set fire toKamenica, 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 theTetovo-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.[28][page needed]
In the region ofPeja in 1914, Serbian troops would execute roughly 25 Albanian civilians daily.[29][page needed]
In the village ofLubishtë, Serbian troops massacred 104 men, as well as 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.[30]
In 1915, a young Albanian boy shot a Serbian soldier in the village of Dërbëcë in Tetovo. The Serbian army demanded that the village hand him over. The villagers refused which resulted in the entire village being massacred.[31][better source needed]
According toJustin McCarthy, in 1915 Serbian and Bulgarian forces entered the region ofBitola, in Kičevo andKruševo in Bitola, and burned between 19-36 villages. 503 men, 27 women and 25 children were killed, and 600 houses burned down.[32][33]
According to an article in theBoston Daily Globe, published on November 8, 1915, the Serbo-Montenegrin troops shot or bayonetted 20,000 Albanian women and children and destroyed 300 villages and 35,000 houses, leaving 330,000 people without asylum.[34] Additionally, during the conflict between Albanians andGreeks in southern Albania during 1914–1915, where Greek forces took advantage of the political instability of Albania and attempted to annex as much Albanian territory intoGreece as possible or succeed in creating theAutonomous Republic of Northern Epirus, at least 145 Albanian villages in southern Albania were looted and destroyed. Accompanying this was the destruction of 48Bektashi teqes at the hands of the Greek forces. In total, 80 per cent of the teqes in Albania were either extremely damaged or destroyed entirely during 1914–1915.[35]
In November 1915, Montenegrin troops murdered Albanian intellectuals and patriots. Others were captured and sent toCetinje and executed. Among the martyrs were publicist Moustafa Hilmi Leskoviki, head of the Albanian paper "Kombi".[36][better source needed]
The Greek army withdrew from the area after the recognition of theAlbanian independence and the delineation of the border. A provisional government ofAutonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was established in February 1914 and organized armed units who clashed with the Albanian militia. They were composed both Orthodox Albanian and Greek-speaking males aged from 15 to 55 and consisted mainly by deserters of the Greek army, many of them natives and bandits.[37] As such the area was subject to a vicious cycle of arson and looting and towns likeTepelenë,Leskovik andFrashër and many villages were burnt down completely.[38] This devastation was accompanied by the massacre of a large part the population, especially the Muslim part.[39]
On April 29, 1914, Greek troops massacred 217 men and boys fromHormovë inside the premises of the monastery of Saint Mary in the neighboring village of Kodra.[40][41][42][43]
Before the First World War, in 1914 based on reports by journalist and Albanian national activistKristo Dako in May 1914 Greek forces committed atrocities in thedistrict of Korçë. According to him hundreds ofMuslim homes were destroyed and removed theAlbanian Christian population from multiple villages. In the process, many civilians were massacred, including Christians. Roughly 20,000refugees were created in and aroundKorçë.[44]
AfterGreek military groups entered Korçë in 1914 under the guise of desertion, they began to loot the shops and homes of Muslim Albanians, as well as committing murders and rapes; Albanian armed groups, including that ofKajo Babjeni, immediately responded by resuming their military activities and eventually forced the Greeks to retreat from the city. After the French army occupied Korçë on 18 October 1916, local Albanian leaders includingSali Butka,Themistokli Gërmenji and Kajo Babjeni coordinated their efforts and took measures to protect against the further fragmentation of Albanian lands; they created the Committee of Defense (Komiteti i Mbrojtjes), surrounded the city with their forces and began negotiations with the French that ultimately culminated in the creation of theAutonomous Province of Korçë.[45]
In 1920,Hasan Prishtina collected information about the atrocities committed on the Albanian civil population by the Serbian troops in 1918-1920. He reported this to the British government that 20,000 men and 1,500 women were massacred, as well as 168 villages razed to the ground, with 4,769 houses burned down.[46]
In 1918, Serbian forces entered Albanian villages with the intent of disarming them resulting in a number of villages being burned.[47][48] As a result, more atrocities were committed between 1918-1941 bythe Kingdom of Yugoslavia against the Albanian population.
According to Serbian Social Democrat politician Kosta Novakovic, from October 1912 to the end of 1913, the Serbo-Montenegrin regime exterminated more than 120,000 Albanians of all ages, and forcibly expelled more than 50,000 Albanians to the Ottoman Empire and Albania.
During the Balkan wars, in total '120,000 Albanians were exterminated', hundreds of villages' were shelled by artillery and 'a large number of them were burned down' across Kosova and Macedonia. The figures do not include people killed in present-day Albania and the devastated houses, villages and towns that Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers left behind when they were eventually forced to retreat.'
As the unrest reached a fever pitch, Orthodox Greek villagers formed paramilitary bands to counter pro-Albanian groups. These Orthodox bands were composed of both Albanian and Greek-speaking males ages 15 to 55 ... although some members of the Greek army did join the movement, many of those soldiers originated from the region.
The Greek army occupied the region in December, and a provisional government was established in February 1914. Its 'army' was composed mainly of deserters and bandits, who were pitted against Albanian militias, thereby subjecting the territory to a vicious cycle of arson, hostage-taking and looting. Towns like Tepelenë/Tepeleni, Frashër/Frasari and Lefkovik/Leskovik, and many villages were burned to their foundations.
Një pjesë e konsiderueshme e fshatrave të prefekturës së Gjirokastrës, Leskovikut, Skraparit e Korçës u dogjën e u rrënuan plotësisht, ndërsa një pjesë e madhe e popullsisë, veçanerisht asaj myslimane, u masakrua. Qytetet e Tepelenës dhe të Leskovikut u shkatërruan.
Të dielën, në 27 prill, në fshatin Homovë u përkujtua 100-vjetori i masakrës së burrave të atij fshati këtu e një shekull më parë. Pikërisht, në 29 prill 1914, bandat e ushtarëve dhe të andartëve grekë masakruan 220 burra e djem hormovitë brenda ambienteve të manastirit të Shën Mërisë, mbi fshatin Kodër.