Violence against Serbs during the late Ottoman era

Acts of violence were committed against ethnic Serbs, primarily by Albanians, during the final stages of the Ottoman Empire and their control of parts of the Balkans (late 19th and early 20th century).

Violence against Serbs during the late Ottoman era
Map of the borders of the Principality of Serbia and the Ottoman Empire in 1878.
Location	Rumelia, Ottoman Empire (now Balkans)
Date	19th-20th centuries
Target	Serbs
Attack type	Massacres, looting, arson, ethnic cleansing, expulsion
Perpetrators	Albanian armed bands, Ottoman Army, Turkish gendarmes, Muslim mobs
Motive	Revenge for expulsions of Albanians from the area of Niš in 1877-1878, Anti-Serb sentiment

Background

Main article: Expulsion of the Albanians 1877–1878

See also: Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878)

The Ottomans began expanding into the Balkans during the 14th century, initially as part of the Byzantine–Ottoman wars, followed by the Bulgarian–Ottoman wars, the Serbian–Ottoman wars and the Albanian-Ottoman Wars during the 14th-15th centuries. Most of the Balkans came under Ottoman control by the 16th century and were governed as part of Rumelia, corresponding to most of the modern Balkan region.

During the Serbian–Ottoman War of 1876–78, between 49,000 and 130,000 Albanian civilians were violently expelled by the Serb army from the Sanjak of Niš and fled to the Kosovo Vilayet.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Within the context of the Serbian–Ottoman Wars, the Sultan Abdul Hamid II unleashed his auxiliary troops consisting of Kosovar Albanians on the remaining Serbs before and after the Ottoman army's retreat in 1878.^[6] Albanian refugees were hostile towards Slavs, and violent acts were carried out on local Kosovo Serbs; the ethnic cleansing of the Albanians from the Sanjak of Nish is considered to be an integral aspect of the ongoing Serbian-Albanian conflict.^[7][8][5]

Acts of violence

Late 19th century

Albanian refugees from the Sanjak of Nish were very hostile to the Kosovo Serbs, resulting in an increase of violent acts perpetrated towards the Serbs.^[7] Some Serbs were ousted from their positions as merchants.^[8]

1901

Serbs in the Ottoman Empire were maltreated and accused of being Serbian agents.^[9] Panic ensued, and Serbs, primarily from the border areas fled to Serbia.^[9] Albanians who participated in the Greco-Turkish War (1897) used weapons not turned in to the authorities against the Serbs in Old Serbia.^[10] In May 1901, Albanians partially set Sjenica, Novi Pazar and Pristina on fire.^[10] The Albanians massacred Serbs around Pristina.^[11] Ibarski Kolašin (now known as North Kosovo), a forested region made up of 40 villages, largely inhabited by Serbs, where Serbian teachers and priests were active, had long irritated the Albanians and Ottoman government; Serbs were continuously maltreated in the region.^[12]

The Serbian government observed the developments in Kolašin, and did not remain idle.^[12] The situation became serious, with Serbs being smuggled arms by Serbia to defend themselves. In the summer of 1901, Albanians massacred Serbs in the Kolašin area. The atrocities prompted the Russian government to intervene at the Porte.^[10]

Reactions

Russia

Initially, the Sublime Porte did not suppress the Albanian movement nor protect the Serbs.^[9] Russia demanded that the Albanians and Turkish gendarmeries be punished and the Serbs be allowed to keep the arms for protection.^[10] The Porte answered by mass arrests and criminalizing the Albanian language.^[11] The governor (vali) was dismissed, and several other anti-Serb officials and Albanian chieftains who had been especially cruel were removed from their posts.^[13]

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary supported the Albanians and tried to downplay the massacres.^[10] The events were instrumental in the "Kolašin affair" (Serbian Cyrillic: Колашинска афера), a diplomatic conflict between Austria-Hungary, which supported the Albanians, and Serbia, which was supported by Russia.^[14]

Legacy

Ottoman defeat to Serbia alongside new geopolitical circumstances post 1878 opposed by Albanian nationalists resulted in attitudes among them that eventually supported what today is known as "ethnic cleansing" that made part of the Kosovo Serb population to leave.^[15]

Prior to the Balkan Wars (1912–13), Kosovo Serb community leader Janjićije Popović stated that the wars of 1876–1878 "tripled" the hatred of Turks and Albanians, especially that of the refugee population from the Sanjak of Niš toward Serbs by committing acts of violence against them.^[5]

References

1. Pllana, Emin (1985). "Les raisons de la manière de l'exode des refugies albanais du territoire du sandjak de Nish a Kosove (1878–1878) [The reasons for the manner of the exodus of Albanian refugees from the territory of the Sanjak of Niš to Kosovo (1878–1878)]". Studia Albanica. 1: 189–190.
2. Rizaj, Skënder (1981). "Nënte Dokumente angleze mbi Lidhjen Shqiptare të Prizrenit (1878–1880) [Nine English documents about the League of Prizren (1878–1880)]". Gjurmine Albanologjike (Seria e Shkencave Historike). 10: 198.
3. Şimşir, Bilal N, (1968). Rumeli’den Türk göçleri. Emigrations turques des Balkans [Turkish emigrations from the Balkans]. Vol I. Belgeler-Documents. p. 737.
4. Elsie, Robert (2010). Historical Dictionary of Kosovo. Scarecrow Press. p. XXXII. ISBN 9780333666128.
5. Stefanović, Djordje (2005). "Seeing the Albanians through Serbian eyes: The Inventors of the Tradition of Intolerance and their Critics, 1804–1939". European History Quarterly. 35 (3): 469. doi:10.1177/0265691405054219. hdl:2440/124622. S2CID 144497487. "In 1878, following a series of Christian uprisings against the Ottoman Empire, the Russo-Turkish War, and the Berlin Congress, Serbia gained complete independence, as well as new territories in the Toplica and Kosanica regions adjacent to Kosovo. These two regions had a sizable Albanian population which the Serbian government decided to deport."; p.470. "The ‘cleansing’ of Toplica and Kosanica would have long-term negative effects on Serbian-Albanian relations. The Albanians expelled from these regions moved over the new border to Kosovo, where the Ottoman authorities forced the Serb population out of the border region and settled the refugees there. Janjićije Popović, a Kosovo Serb community leader in the period prior to the Balkan Wars, noted that after the 1876–8 wars, the hatred of the Turks and Albanians towards the Serbs ‘tripled’. A number of Albanian refugees from Toplica region, radicalized by their experience, engaged in retaliatory violence against the Serbian minority in Kosovo... The 1878 cleansing was a turning point because it was the first gross and large-scale injustice committed by Serbian forces against the Albanians. From that point onward, both ethnic groups had recent experiences of massive victimization that could be used to justify ‘revenge’ attacks. Furthermore, Muslim Albanians had every reason to resist the incorporation into the Serbian state."
6. Lampe 2000, p. 55"Before and after the army's withdrawal, the new Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, unleashed Kosovar Albanian auxiliaries on the remaining Serbs."
7. Frantz, Eva Anne (2009). "Violence and its Impact on Loyalty and Identity Formation in Late Ottoman Kosovo: Muslims and Christians in a Period of Reform and Transformation". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 29 (4): 460–461. doi:10.1080/13602000903411366. S2CID 143499467. "In consequence of the Russian-Ottoman war, a violent expulsion of nearly the entire Muslim, predominantly Albanian-speaking, population was carried out in the sanjak of Niš and Toplica during the winter of 1877-1878 by the Serbian troops. This was one major factor encouraging further violence, but also contributing greatly to the formation of the League of Prizren. The league was created in an opposing reaction to the Treaty of San Stefano and the Congress of Berlin and is generally regarded as the beginning of the Albanian national movement. The displaced persons (Alb. muhaxhirë, Turk. muhacir, Serb. muhadžir) took refuge predominantly in the eastern parts of Kosovo. The Austro-Hungarian consul Jelinek reported in April of 1878.... The account shows that these displaced persons (muhaxhirë) were highly hostile to the local Slav population.... Violent acts of Muslims against Christians, in the first place against Orthodox but also against Catholics, accelerated. This can he explained by the fears of the Muslim population in Kosovo that were stimulated by expulsions of large Muslim population groups in other parts of the Balkans in consequence of the wars in the nineteenth century in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated and new Balkan states were founded. The latter pursued a policy of ethnic homogenisation expelling large Muslim population groups."; p. 467. "Clewing (as well as Müller) sees the expulsions of 1877 – 1878 as a crucial reason for the culmination of the interethnic relations in Kosovo and 1878 as the epoch year in the Albanian-Serbian conflict history."
8. Müller, Dietmar (2009). "Orientalism and Nation: Jews and Muslims as Alterity in Southeastern Europe in the Age of Nation-States, 1878–1941". East Central Europe. 36 (1): 63–99. doi:10.1163/187633009x411485. "For Serbia the war of 1878, where the Serbians fought side by side with Russian and Romanian troops against the Ottoman Empire, and the Berlin Congress were of central importance, as in the Romanian case. The beginning of a new quality of the Serbian-Albanian history of conflict was marked by the expulsion of Albanian Muslims from Niš Sandžak which was part and parcel of the fighting (Clewing 2000 : 45ff.; Jagodić 1998; Pllana 1985). Driving out the Albanians from the annexed territory, now called "New Serbia," was a result of collaboration between regular troops and guerrilla forces, and it was done in a manner which can be characterized as ethnic cleansing, since the victims were not only the combatants, but also virtually any civilian regardless of their attitude towards the Serbians (Müller 2005b). The majority of the refugees settled in neighboring Kosovo where they shed their bitter feelings on the local Serbs and ousted some of them from merchant positions, thereby enlarging the area of Serbian-Albanian conflict and intensifying it."
9. Stojančević 1990, p. 113.
10. Skendi, Stavro (2015). The Albanian National Awakening. Princeton University Press. pp. 201, 293. ISBN 9781400847761. In order to hamper the extension of the Macedonian movement, the Turks could rely on the Albanians, who were hostile to Slavs. In May 1901 Albanian bands pillaged and partly set fire to Novi Pazar, Sjenica and Prishtinë. They attacked the Slavs everywhere. The Serbian population suffered most, because of their proximity to the Albanians. The Albanians occupied Kolašin and massacred a considerable number of Serbs. Following this, Russia intervened and demanded that the Albanian raiders and the Turkish gendarmes be punished while the "Christian" population be permiited to keep the necessary arms for protection. Astria-Hungary on the other hand, tried to attenuate the effect of the Kolašin massacre... The Kosovars who took part in the Greco-Turkish War now used against the Serbs in Old Serbia the arms which they did not deliver to the Turkish authorities. In 1901 the situation became grave. The Serbs began to smuggle arms to their compatriots with which to defend themselves. In the summer of 1901, the Kolašin "massacre of Serbs" took place, which compelled Russia to intervene at the Porte..
11. Iain King; Whit Mason (2006). Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo. Cornell University Press. p. 30. ISBN 0-8014-4539-6.
12. Stojančević 1990, p. 114.
13. Stojančević 1990, p. 115.
14. Институт за српску културу (Лепосавић) (2006). Duhovnost pisane kulture Srba u kontekstu kulture balkanskih Slovena: naučni skup, Leposavić 25. decembar 2006. Institut za srpsku kulturu. pp. 188–193. ISBN 9788682797715.
15. Little 2007, p. 125"In time the Albanian nationalists became more overtly anti-Christian, eventually advocating something what today would be called "ethnic cleansing," an alarming movement that encouraged many Serbs to leave Kosovo."

Sources

• Božić, Sofija (2014). Istorija i geografija: susreti i prožimanja [History and geography: meetings and permeations]. SANU. pp. 289–290. ISBN 978-86-7005-125-6.
• Stojančević, Vladimir (1990). Srbija i Albanci u XIX i početkom XX veka: ciklus predavanja 10-25. novembar 1987. Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti. ISBN 9788670250949. (in English)
• Institut za savremenu istoriju (2007). Gerila na Balkanu (in Serbian). Tokyo: Institute for Disarmament and Peace Studies. (in Serbian)
• Lampe, John R. (28 March 2000). Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77401-7.
• Little, David (2007). Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85358-3.

Further reading

• Zarković, Vesna (2008). Афера у Ибарском Колашину 1901-1902. године. Institut za Srpsku Kulturu. ISBN 978-86-82797-81-4.