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Authorities
of the Ottoman Empire
strove without success to control the political situation in the empire's
Albanian-populated lands, arresting suspected nationalist activists. When the
sultan refused Albanian demands for unification of the four Albanian-populated
vilayets, Albanian leaders reorganized the Prizren League (probably as the
Pec League in 1889) and incited uprisings
that brought the Albanian lands, especially Kosovo, to near anarchy. The
imperial authorities again disbanded the Albanian league in 1897, executed its
president in 1902, and banned Albanian- language books and correspondence. In
Macedonia, where Bulgarian, Greek, and Serbian backed terrorists were fighting
Ottoman authorities and one another for control, Muslim Albanians suffered
attacks, and Albanian guerrilla groups retaliated. In 1906 Albanian leaders
meeting in Bitola established the secret Committee for the Liberation of Albania
and began an active guerrilla campaign in the south against the Ottomans and Greeks. A year later, Albanian guerrillas assassinated Korçë's Greek Orthodox
metropolitan. Many Albanians assisted the Young Turks uprising of 1908, hoping that it would gain their people autonomy within the empire.
The Young Turks, however, were set on maintaining the empire and not interested in making concessions to the myriad nationalist groups within its borders. |
