Prizren League
The four Ottoman vilayets clearly divided (The Vilayet of İşkodra, Yannina, Monastir and Kosovo as proposed by the League of Prizren for full autonomy).
|
|
| Formation | 10 June 1878 |
|---|---|
| Founder | 44 Albanian beys |
| Extinction | April 1881 |
The League of Prizren (Albanian: Besëlidhja e Prizrenit), officially the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation (Albanian: Lidhja për mbrojtjen e të drejtave te kombit Shqiptar), was an Albanian political organization officially founded on June 10, 1878 in the old town of Prizren, in the Kosova Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire.
The treaties of San Stefano and Berlin, both assigned areas that were also inhabited by Albanians to other states. The inability of the Porte to protect the interests of a region that was 70 percent Muslim and largely loyal forced the Albanian leaders not only to organize their defense, but also to consider creation of an autonomous administration, like those Serbia and the other Danubian Principalities had enjoyed before their independence.
The league was established at the meeting of 47 Ottoman beys. An initial position of the league was presented in the document known as Kararname. With this document Albanian leaders emphasized their intention to preserve and maintain the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans by supporting the porte, and "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania". Although it said nothing about the reforms, schools, autonomy or about the union of the Albanian population within one vilayet, under influence of Abdyl Frashëri, this initial position has changed radically and resulted in demands of autonomy of Albanians and open war against the Ottoman Empire.
The 1877–78 Russo-Turkish War dealt a decisive blow to Ottoman power in the Balkan Peninsula, leaving the empire with only a precarious hold on Albania and eastern Balkans. The Albanians' fear that the lands they inhabited would be partitioned among Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece fueled the rise of resistance. The first postwar treaty, the abortive Treaty of San Stefano signed on 3 March 1878, assigned areas claimed by the League of Prizren to Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria.Austria-Hungary and the United Kingdom blocked the arrangement because it awarded Russia a predominant position in the Balkans and thereby upset the European balance of power. A peace conference to settle the dispute was held later in the year in Berlin.
...
Wikipedia