Violence against Serbs during the late Ottoman era

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Violence against Serbs during the late Ottoman era
Serbophobia

Violence against Serbs during the late Ottoman era refers to acts of violence 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).

Background

Main article:
Expulsion of the Albanians 1877–1878
See also: Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878)

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-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.

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

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. ISBN 9780333666128
    .
  5. ^
    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. ^
    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. ^
    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. ^ a b c Stojančević 1990, p. 113.
  10. ^
    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. ^
    ISBN 0-8014-4539-6
    .
  12. ^ a b Stojančević 1990, p. 114.
  13. ^ Stojančević 1990, p. 115.
  14. 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

Further reading
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