Albanian revolt of 1912

Prelude

The main reasons for all these revolts were changes for Albanians introduced by the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), including tax increases, conscription for Albanians in the Ottoman army, and the disarming of the Albanian civil population.{{cite web |access-date=January 9, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725223246/http://www.dedgjoluli.org/history1911uprising.php |archive-date=July 25, 2011

Albanians were not the only group to start a rebellion against the CUP government. There were insurgencies in Syria and on the Arab peninsula.{{cite web | access-date = January 9, 2011

The first major Albanian revolt in 1910 led by Isa Boletini and Idriz Seferi was supported by Bulgaria and Montenegro.{{cite book | author-link = Vladimir Ćorović | access-date = January 9, 2011 | orig-year = 1997 | chapter-url = http://www.rastko.rs/rastko-bl/istorija/corovic/istorija/7_20_l.html | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101230183632/http://rastko.rs/rastko-bl/istorija/corovic/istorija/index_l.html| archive-date= December 30, 2010 | url-status= live}} After two weeks of fierce fighting the Albanian rebels and Isa Boletini withdrew to the Drenicë region,while Idriz Seferi withdrew with his remaining soldiers to the Karadak region, where he continued his resistance. Sultan Mehmed V visited Pristina in June 1911 and declared an amnesty for all of those who had participated in the revolt, except for the ones who had committed murder.{{cite book | author-link = Stanford J. Shaw | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AIET_7ji7YAC&q=demands+of+albanian+rebels+1912&pg=PA293 | access-date = January 10, 2011 | orig-year = 1977

1. The establishment of Albanian schools.
2. Military service was to be restricted to the territory of Kosovo Vilayet.
3. Suspension of all conscription and taxes for two years.
4. Appointment of government officials who speak the Albanian language.

At the end of 1911 a group of Albanian Members, led by Ismail Qemali, started a debate in the Ottoman parliament. They requested additional rights for Albanians in the cultural and administrative spheres.{{cite web | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110927060403/http://www.omda.bg/imir/studies/alban_id28.html | archive-date = September 27, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011

In January 1912, Hasan Prishtina, an Albanian deputy in the Ottoman parliament, publicly warned MPs that the policy of the CUP government would lead to a revolution in Albania. After that speech Qemali proposed a meeting with Prishtina. They met the same evening in Prishtina's house and agreed to organize an Albanian uprising.{{cite book | author-link = Hasan Prishtina |trans-title=Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010454/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1921_3.html | archive-date = July 23, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011 | author-mask = Hasan Prishtina |trans-title=Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010454/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1921_3.html | archive-date = July 23, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011

Events

It was decided that Ismail Qemali should organize the delivery of 15,000 Mauser rifles to the Kosovo Vilayet via the Kingdom of Montenegro.{{cite book |trans-title=Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010454/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1921_3.html | archive-date = July 23, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011 | author-link = Hasan Prishtina |trans-title=Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010454/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1921_3.html | archive-date = July 23, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011 | author-link = Hasan Prishtina |trans-title=Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010454/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1921_3.html | archive-date = July 23, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011

The revolt started in the western part of Kosovo Vilayet{{cite book |trans-title=Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010454/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1921_3.html | archive-date = July 23, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011 |trans-title=Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010454/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1921_3.html | archive-date = July 23, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011

Albanian soldiers and officers deserted the Ottoman military service and joined the insurgents.{{cite book | author-link = Dimitrije Bogdanović | access-date = January 9, 2011 | orig-year = 1984 | chapter-url = http://www.kosovo.net/sk/rastko-kosovo/istorija/knjiga_o_kosovu/bogdanovic-kosovo_2.html | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110131025058/http://kosovo.net/sk/rastko-kosovo/istorija/knjiga_o_kosovu/index.html| archive-date= January 31, 2011 | url-status= live}}

List of demands

The Albanian rebels in Kosovo Vilayet demanded a number of actions from the Young Turk administration. These demands were printed in emigrant newspapers published in Bulgaria in the middle of March 1912, including the appointment of Albanians in government administration, schools with Albanian as the medium of instruction, and the restriction of Albanians' conscription in the Ottoman Army to the Kosovo Vilayet.{{cite book | author-link = Dimitrije Bogdanović |trans-title=Books about Kosovo | access-date = January 9, 2011 | orig-year = 1984 | chapter-url = http://www.kosovo.net/sk/rastko-kosovo/istorija/knjiga_o_kosovu/bogdanovic-kosovo_2.html | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110131025058/http://kosovo.net/sk/rastko-kosovo/istorija/knjiga_o_kosovu/index.html| archive-date= January 31, 2011 | url-status= live}}

Albanian rebels were divided; some supported the CUP government, others the Freedom and Accord Party, while some even wished to return to Abdul Hamid's autocracy.{{cite book | author-link = Stanford J. Shaw | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AIET_7ji7YAC&q=demands+of+albanian+rebels+1912&pg=PA293 | access-date = January 10, 2011 | orig-year = 1977

On 9 August 1912, Albanian rebels presented a new list of demands (the so-called list of Fourteen Points), related to a hypothetical Albanian Vilayet, that can be summarized as follows:

• an autonomous system of administration and justice in four vilayets populated with Albanians (Albanian Vilayet),
• Albanians to perform military service only in the four principally-Albanian vilayets, except in time of war,
• employment of officials who knew local language and customs (though not necessarily Albanians),
• new lycées and agricultural schools in the bigger districts,
• reorganization and modernization of the religious schools and the use of the Albanian language in secular schools,
• freedom to establish private schools and societies,
• the development of trade, agriculture and public works,
• general amnesty for all the Albanians involved in the revolt,
• court martial of those Ottoman officers who had attempted to suppress the revolt.

The Ottoman government ended the Albanian revolts by accepting all demands (ignoring only the last) on 4 September 1912.{{cite book | author-link = Stanford J. Shaw | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AIET_7ji7YAC&q=demands+of+albanian+rebels+1912&pg=PA293 | access-date = January 10, 2011 | orig-year = 1977 | author-link = Hasan Prishtina |trans-title=Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723010454/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1921_3.html | archive-date = July 23, 2011 | url-status = dead | access-date = January 10, 2011

Aftermath

The success of the Albanian Revolt and news from the Italo-Turkish War sent a strong signal to the neighboring countries that the Ottoman Empire was weak.{{cite book |last = Warrander |url-access = registration

References

References

1. (2004). "Mapping Macedonia: Idea and Identity". Greenwood Publishing Group.
2. Taru Bahl. "Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World". (2003). Anmol publications PVT. Ltd.. (March 2023)
3. "In the Balkan wars, Muslim Albanians generally fought against the Ottoman Empire, then governed by the Young Turks, an aggressively nationalist revolutionary group. As Malcolm writes, the Albanian Muslims "pulled down the columns of the Ottoman Empire upon their own head." The wars were marked by terrible atrocities on all sides, setting the tone for the horrors of the twentieth century."".
4. "Marrja e Grykës së Kaçanikut".
5. Clayer, Nathalie. (2007). "Aux origines du nationalisme albanais: La naissance d'une nation majoritairement musulmane en Europe". Karthala Editions.
6. Glenny, Misha. ''The Balkans 1804–1999: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804–1999''. p. 228