Albania during the Balkan Wars

Albania during the Balkan Wars
Part of Balkan Wars
Date8 October 1912 – 21 February 1914
Location
Result

Albanian Declaration of Independence

Belligerents

Independent Albania

  • Albanian Militias
Supported by: Austro-Hungarian Empire

Balkan League

 Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Ismail Qemali
Hasan Prishtina
Isa Boletini
Idriz Seferi
Azem Galica
Çerçiz Topulli
Peter I
Nicholas I
George I
Božidar Janković
Ottoman Empire Mehmed V
Strength

As many as 63,000[1]

  • 5,000 Albanians in Scutari
  • 6,000 Albanians around Lumë
  • 6,000 Albanians around Debar
  • 2,000 Albanians in Caraleva
Over 100,000s soldiers Over 50,000s soldiers
Casualties and losses
up to 100,000 killed or died inside of Albania and over 120,000 killed in total[2][3][4][5]
60,000–300,000 expelled (by 1914)[6]

Independent Albania was proclaimed on 28 November 1912. This chapter of Albanian history was shrouded in controversy and conflict as the larger part of the self-proclaimed region had found itself controlled by the Balkan League states: Serbia, Montenegro and Greece from the time of the declaration until the period of recognition when Albania relinquished many of the lands originally included in the declared state. Since the proclamation of the state in November 1912, the Provisional Government of Albania asserted its control over a small part of central Albania including the important cities of Vlorë and Berat.

  1. ^ Hall 2002, pp. 46–47.
  2. ^ Geshov, Ivan Evstratiev (1919). La genèse de la guerre mondiale: la débâcle de l'alliance balkanique (in French) (as for example that of the Serbian deputy Triša Kaclerovićh, who, in an article published in 1917 by the International Bulletin, affirms that in 1912-1913 120,000 Albanians were massacred by the Serbian army ed.). P. Haupt. p. 64. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  3. ^ Rifati, Fitim (2021). "Kryengritjet shqiptare në Kosovë si alternativë çlirimi nga sundimi serbo-malazez (1913-1914)" (PDF). Journal of Balkan Studies. 1: 84. doi:10.51331/A004. 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.
  4. ^ Trix, Frances (2017). Urban Muslim Migrants in Istanbul: Identity and Trauma Among Balkan Immigrants. Bloomsbury. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-78453-609-1. not including an estimated 100,000 dead in Albania
  5. ^ Ke, Jing. "Change the Hostile Other into Ingroup Partner: On the Albanian-Serb Relations" (PDF). Kosovo Public Policy Center: 83.
  6. ^ Štěpánek, Václav (2010). Problem of colonization of Kosovo and Metohija in 1918–1945 (PDF) (in Czech). p. 88.