Albanian reaction to the 1878 San Stefano Treaty  

Publication of the 1878 San Stefano Treaty’s articles caused great unrest and dissatisfaction among the Albanian people.[6] From that time onward, a movement just for improvement of the social conditions of Albanians living in the Ottoman Empire was transformed into the Albanian national movement (rooted in Islamic tradition), requiring either the creation of a politically autonomous province of Albania within the Ottoman Empire or an independent Albanian national state (based on Islamic tradition).[7]

The Northeast and East Albania experienced massive unrest and protests against the San Stefano Treaty that were addressed to the Great European Powers.[8] In April 1878, Albanians from the city of Debar sent a telegram to the British and Austro-Hungarian ambassadors to the Ottoman Empire, Layard and Zichy, respectively, protesting against the annexation of Debar by a newly projected San Stefano Bulgarian principality. It was emphasized in the telegram that the people from Debar are Albanians, but not Bulgarians.

Furthermore, according to the protest memo, the district of Debar encompassed 220,000 Muslims and 10,000 Christians; all were allegedly only ethnic Albanians.[9] Finally, it urged that the Great European Powers should not allow (Christian Orthodox) Bulgaria to annex the Debar region; instead, it should be left in the Ottoman Empire (as a “national” state of all Muslim Albanians).[10]

Similarly, Albanians from the city of Scodra and the Northwest Albania asked the Austro-Hungarian authority to foil the inclusion of “Albanian” territories into Montenegro (whose independence was recognized by the Berlin Congress in 1878).[11] The Albanians from several districts in Kosovo-Metochia (Prizren, Ðakovica, Pec) protested in a memorandum to Vienna against the partition of “their” lands between Serbia and Montenegro.[12]

On May 08, 1878 when “…today, we learned from the newspapers that the Ottoman government, unable to resist the pressure of Russia, has been obliged to accept our annexation by the Montenegrins…” a protest of Albanian population of Scodra, Podgorica, Spuž, Žabljak, Tivat, Ulcinj, Gruda, Kelmend, Hot, and Kastrat was addressed to the ambassador of France in Istanbul against the annexation of “Albanian” lands by the Principality of Montenegro.[13]

Albanian people from North Albania and Kosovo-Metochia, either Muslims or Roman Catholics, started to organize their own self-defense detachments (territorial militia) and local committees against the incorporation of these territories into either Serbia or Montenegro. Another task of those committees was to help the Albanian “refugees” from the areas already taken by the Serbs and Montenegrins, according to the San Stefano Treaty.[14]

Thus, for example, on June 26, 1878 from Priština was issued a protest of 6,200 Albanian emigrants, allegedly “expelled” from the districts of Niš, Leskovac, Prokuplje, and Kuršumlija, addressed to the 1878 Berlin Congress against the mass murders and rapes committed by Serbia’s army and Bulgarian military units.[15] However, the majority of those Albanian “refugees” left these territories voluntarily as they, as Muslims, did not want to live in the Christian state, either Bulgaria or Serbia, after the San Stefano Treaty. The same happened after the 1878 Berlin Congress, with large numbers of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Muslims who emigrated to the Ottoman Empire even before the army of Austria-Hungary reached their homes without any intention to expel them.

In essence, such official protests by the Albanians were much more a way of propaganda work but not reality on the ground, at least not to the extent presented. The fact was that the majority of (Muslim) Albanian “refugees” in fact voluntarily left those lands ascribed by the Russian-Ottoman Treaty of San Stefano to a Greater Bulgaria (or later to Serbia by the Berlin Congress) because Muslims cannot, in principle, live under a non-Muslim government (in which they were not in political power and control over their social order and life).

1878 Berlin Congress

The Russian-Turkish peace in San Stefano, signed on March 03, 1878, heralded the emergence of a large Bulgarian state under Russian patronage and influence, though formally within the Ottoman Empire. This peace treaty would ensure Russia’s supremacy both in the East Balkans and over the Straits (Bosphorus and Dardanelles). Therefore, to curtail Russian influence in the East Balkans and the Straits, the great Western European powers (on the formal initiative of Bismarck’s Germany) organized the Berlin Congress (June 15 to July 15, 1878) and tried to smooth out their mutual disputes and jointly act against Russia. The main goal of the Berlin Congress was a total revision of the San Stefano Peace Treaty to the detriment of Russia and for preserving as much as possible the possessions of the Ottoman Empire in Europe.

The main result of the Berlin Congress was that Russia was forced to greatly reduce its demands in the Balkans. Thus, Austria-Hungary got the right to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina, Great Britain got Cyprus, while Germany strengthened its influence in the Balkans and later in the entire Ottoman Empire by realizing its imperial policy of penetration to the East (Drang nach Osten). Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro gained formal independence and territorial expansion as did Greece, while two Bulgarias were formed on the territory of the Bulgarian people at the expense of the Russian project of a Greater Bulgaria from San Stefano.

As for the Albanians, they got nothing even though they demanded the protection of their national rights to certain territories. The leader and host of the Berlin Congress, Otto von Bismarck, said that Europe had not heard of the Albanian people! The Berlin Congress was the last major international meeting where only European statesmen gathered.[16] however, even after 1878, the Balkans remained the focus of crisis in Europe until the First World War.

Endnotes:

6] Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris, “Ceccaldi to Waddington, April 27th, 1878”, ? 213, Turquie, Correspondance politique des consuls, Scutari, 1878-1879, Vol. XXI.

7] On the strong confessional-political division and even religious wars between the Albanians later on in 1915, see in [Pollo S., Puto A., Histoire d’Albania des origines á nos jours, Roanne, 1974, 183-186; ?????? ?., ???????? ?????????????? ????????, ???????: ?????? ?? ?????????? ???????? ? ?????? ???????????, 2012, 159-161].

8] An academic concept of a Great Power is defined as a state “deemed to rank amongst the most powerful in a hierarchical state-system. The criteria that define a great power are subject to dispute, but four are often identified. (1) Great powers are in the first rank of military powers, having the capacity to maintain their own security and, potentially, to influence other powers. (2) They are economically powerful states… (3) They have global, and not merely regional, spheres of interest. (4) They adopt a ‘forward’ foreign policy and have actual, and not merely potential, impact on international affairs” [Heywood A., Global Politics, New York-London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, 7].

9] The numbers of people of the Debar district was drastically exaggerated. The ethnic Albanians have not been the only districts’ inhabitants.

10] Parliamentary Papers, series “Accounts and Papers”, “Layard to Salisbury, Therapia, May 4th, 1878, Vol. LXXXIII, Turkey, ? 41, London, 1878, 60-61; Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris, “Ceccaldi to Waddington, Scutari, May 4th, 1878”, ? 214, Turquie, Correspondance politique des consuls, Scutari, 1878-1879, Vol. XXI.

11] Novotny A., Österreich, die Türkei und das Balkan-problem im Jahre des Berliner Kongresses, Graz-Köln, 1957, 246.

12] Ibid, 37, 247-253; Parliamentary Papers, series “Accounts and Papers”, 1878, Vol. LXXXI, Turkey, ? 45, London, 1878, 35-36.

13] Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris, French Embassy at the Sublime Porte, Turkey, Vol. 417, 51-54, Supplement to the Report ? 96 (original in French); Pollo S., Pulaha S., (eds.), Pages of the Albanian National Renaissance, 1878-1912, Tirana, 1978, 12-13.

14] Parliamentary Papers, series “Accounts and Papers”, “Green to Salisbury, May 3rd, 1878”, Vol. LXXXIII, Turkey, ? 40, London, 1878, 60; Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris, “Ceccaldi to Waddington, Scutari, May 4th, 1878”, ? 214, Turquie, Correspondance politique des consuls, Scutari, 1878-1879, Vol. XXI; Ibid, a copy of telegram signed by the Montenegrin Prince Nikola I Petrovic-Njegoš, Cetinje, June 5th, 1878, as annexe ? 1 to Dèpêche, June 9th, 1878, ? 218.

15] Politisches Archiv des Auswartigen Amtes, Bonn, Turkey 129, Vol. 2, The Acts of the Congress of Berlin, 2, 1878, document ? 110 (telegram); Pollo S, Pulaha S., (eds.), The Albanian League of Prizren, 1878-1881. Documents, Vol. I, Tirana, 1878, 73-74.

16] Mitchel Beazley (ed.), Ilustrovana enciklopedija Istorija, Vol. 2, 1984, 190 (original title: The Joy of Knowledge Encyclopaedia, 1976).

(Concluded)