This is how the League of Peja was founded 122 years ago

At the end of the 19th century, the lands inhabited by Albanians were again put in danger when the Balkan neighbors of the Albanians began to actively fight to take part of the territory of Macedonia, a dispute that would lead to the Balkan Wars.

The disputed territory also included the four Albanian vilayets. Albanian patriots began preparations for the creation of a new organization to face these dangers in the fall of 1896.

The first meeting was held in March 1897 in Gjakova when the Albanian League was created. In November, another meeting was held in Peja, attended by 500 people, after which Istanbul intervened and dissolved the League. In these complicated circumstances, the efforts of the Albanian patriots to unite the entire people and to create a new union resumed, which, following the example of the League of Prizren, would lead the Albanians in the fight for the protection of the territorial integrity of Albania and for its liberation. The focus of such efforts to form a new union, just as in the years of the League of Prizren (1878-1881), was now, in 1899, again the cities of the Kosovo Vilayet and the Sanjak of Dibra, which were directly threatened by the chauvinist circles of Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro. The new Albanian League was created after a great deal of preparatory, organizational and political work that Albanian patriots within the country, led by Haxhi Zeka, and patriotic societies abroad, especially those in Bucharest and the Albanian Committee of Istanbul, did at the end of 1898 and in January 1899. During this time, large meetings of representatives of the population of the cities and surrounding areas were held, such as in Peja, Mitrovica, Prishtina, Vushtrri, Drenica and other centers of the Kosovo vilayet, where Albanians pledged their allegiance and expressed their willingness to form the league. These successive meetings of the Albanian population, as well as the intensive correspondence of Haxhi Zeka with the various centers of the vilayet of Kosovo, Shkodra, Manastir and Ioannina, show that the organizers of the League intended to call a general Albanian assembly, where delegates from all regions of Albania and of all faiths, Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox, would participate. Representatives of the population of Shkodra, Dibra, Prishtina, Pazar i Ri, as well as Southern Albania, also demanded that the assembly that was being prepared for the organization of the Albanians in a general league be called as soon as possible. During this preparatory period, the leaders of the Albanian movement also defined the program of this assembly, which, already elaborated during the time of the League of Prizren (1878-1881) and in the Albanian memoranda of 1896-1898, contained two fundamental issues: the preservation of the territorial integrity of the country and the formation of an autonomous Albania, which would include all four Albanian vilayets. The fruit of these efforts was the convocation of the Albanian National Assembly, which held its proceedings in Peja on 23-29 January 1899, attended by representatives of the nobility and population of the Kosovo vilayet, as well as special representatives of the vilayets of Monastery and Ioannina. Here, the formation of a new Albanian association was announced, which, following the example of the League of Prizren of 1878, was called the League of Peja.

Haxhi Zeka was elected Chairman of the Assembly and the Steering Committee of the League. The Assembly conducted its work in the form of close meetings, attended by a small number of delegates, or by organizing large gatherings, with 450-500 participants, representatives of different strata of the population of the Kosovo Vilayet and other Albanian Vilayets. While the 36 delegates, who enjoyed the right to vote, came from the cities of the Kosovo Vilayet and were representatives of the middle classes of citizens and peasants, teachers of semi-high schools and Turkish madrasas, local administration officials, large landowners, high officials, clergy, etc. Among them were Haxhi Zeka, Halil Hasan pasha Begolli, Myderiz Ismaili, Myderiz Abdullahu, Mufti Salihu, Bajram Curri, Myderiz Mehmet Hamdiu, Mehmet Aqifi, Zenel Beu, Ali pasha Draga from Rozaja, Ismail Haki pasha Tetova, Abdyl Halimi, Mehmet Sherifi, Myderiz Abdyli, Naxhi Mehmet Sulejmani, Mehmet Aqifi, Mehmet Tahiri, Mehmet Murati from Senica, etc. In addition to the 36 delegates of the Kosovo vilayet, who have put their signatures on the decisions of the Peja Assembly, special representatives of other Albanian vilayets, of Shkodra, Manastir and Ioannina, also participated in this gathering.

The Sanjak of Dibra of the Vilayet of Manastir was represented by Selim Rusi, a prominent intellectual and patriot of this region. Many delegates from the cities of the Vilayet of Shkodra, Manastir and Ioannina, who could not go to the Assembly of Peja due to the obstacles that were raised by the Ottoman authorities, informed the Assembly that they approved its decisions and that they retained the right to participate in the Albanian League. The Assembly of January 1899 was called by its organizers as a first, preliminary gathering, which would be followed by a more general Albanian assembly or congress. The Assembly of Peja took important decisions for the further development of the Albanian National Movement, such as the 11-point Resolution (Kararname) and the 12-point Act of Besa, which were adopted in a closed-door meeting of the Assembly on January 28 and were publicly announced on January 29, 1899. The decisions of the Assembly announced the formation of the League or, as it was called in the Resolution, the Ittifaq and established the Besa among the Albanians. The League was seen as a general and unique national organization, which would unite all Albanians, Ghegs and Tosks, Muslims and Christians. In order to achieve this unity, it was decided to prohibit blood feuds, hostilities and quarrels and strict punishments were foreseen for these, as well as for other actions that violated public order. The League defined as its primary task the protection of the territorial integrity of Albania against any attempt that Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece would undertake to divide Albanian lands.

The Assembly particularly emphasized the danger of annexation of the Albanian vilayets of Kosovo and Manastir and expressed its readiness to mobilize all Albanians in case the homeland was attacked from any side, and especially in case these vilayets were attacked, which the neighboring states and the Great Powers included in the so-called Macedonia. In the event of war, it was decided to make such a division of the Albanian forces that would defend the homeland: those of the sandjak of Pristina, Pazar i Ri and Dibra would guard the northeastern borders against Serbia, the forces of Peja, Plav and Shkodra the border with Montenegro and those of the vilayet of Ioannina (Southern Albania) would oppose Greece. But the Sublime Porte, which was trying to preserve the inviolability of the Ottoman Empire, was also interested in the fight for the protection of the territorial integrity of Albania. Albanian patriots took advantage of this interest of Istanbul, to organize, through a legal activity, the people and to unite them in a new connection, which took on the protection of the entirety of the Albanian territories. Therefore, with the phrases “for loyalty to the Sultan”, “for the readiness to live within the framework of his power”, which were included in the introduction of the Resolution of the Peja Assembly, the leaders of the League did not at all intend to perpetuate Ottoman rule in Albania, but to express their intentions to protect the territorial integrity of Albania, to prevent it from passing from Ottoman rule, which was in decay and was going day by day towards the end, under a new and even more dangerous captivity of the Balkan states or of any of the European powers. In the Resolution of the Peja Assembly, a clearly defined distinction was made between the Ottoman Empire, the “Ottoman state” and the “homeland of the Albanians”, Albania. The League's volunteer forces, as stated in this document, would be used precisely for the defense of the "Albanian homeland", "in the event of an attack on Macedonia (where the Balkan states also included the Albanian vilayets of Kosovo and Manastir) and on our homeland".

The expression of the Assembly's loyalty to the Islamic religion, which was also included in the Resolution, was undoubtedly the result of the influence of the Islamic religion on the Albanian Muslim population. It cannot be denied the negative impact that such a statement exerted on efforts to unify Albanians regardless of religion, even more so when the Sultan's government encouraged Muslim fanaticism to divide the Albanians. However, these expressions did not affect the basic content of the Resolution, which embodied the intention of the patriots to unite, under the leadership of the League, all Albanians, Muslims and Christians. Therefore, the Albanian press of the time, especially Faik Konica's "Albania" magazine, opposing the views of those who intended to present the Assembly of Peja as a "Muslim religious congress", called it "a national assembly, which was held in Albania, where it was discussed in the Albanian language about the means for the protection of the Albanian territory, which had a truly national character and would, as a result, strengthen the idea of ​​the Albanian homeland". In the Assembly of Peja, especially in its secret meetings, as it was predicted, the issue of Albania's autonomy was also discussed. It was concluded that the League would seek autonomy and, as a first step towards it, would be the appointment of Haxhi Zeka as an independent governor of Albania, to establish a separate national administration and to form an Albanian army under the sovereignty of the Sultan . But, on the one hand, the external danger, which threatened the whole of Albania, and, on the other hand, the presence in the Assembly of Peja, alongside the supporters of autonomy grouped around Haxhi Zeke, also of representatives of conservative, pro-Sultanist forces, such as Halil Pashë Begolli, Zejnel Efendiu, Zajmet e Pejës, Ismail Haki Pasha, etc., who opposed any change in the relations of the Albanians with Istanbul, made the demand for autonomy not formulated openly and not included in the Resolution of that Assembly. However, the Resolution of the Assembly of Peja of January 1899 expressed the intention of the Albanians to self-govern their country, provided for the implementation of such measures, which would gradually lead to the establishment of an autonomous status for the four Albanian vilayets. In the Resolution, it was foreseen that the League would extend its activity to the Albanian vilayets of Kosovo, Shkodra, Manastir and Ioannina, where its committees would be formed. The organization of the League as an Albanian institution, with reconciliation and security committees that were set up in different cities of Albania, expressed the Albanians' intentions for an autonomous administration, especially to achieve national unity itself and to organize the defense of the homeland. Of particular importance was the creation of the Albanian army by the League, in whose ranks immediately after the Assembly more than 15 thousand volunteers entered. Such voluntary military units, composed of thousands of people, were decided to be formed in the assemblies and gatherings that were held in the vilayets and other Albanian sanjaks. It was decided that the commanders of all military troops in Albania and in the border provinces would be Albanians. In the Resolution of the Assembly it was also requested to concentrate in the hands of the committees of the League such powers of local government bodies as the fight against revenge, the reconciliation of blood, the prohibition of misdeeds, the securing of public peace, the punishment of those who would commit acts violence against the citizens, including the Turkish officials who would oppress the people and do injustice. The Committees of the League would undertake to protect the rights of all the inhabitants of Albania, regardless of religion and province. In these demands of the Resolution, the intention of the League to concentrate state power in the hands of its committees was openly expressed. The Austrian consul in Shkodër, Ippen, seeing in the decisions of the Assembly of Peja the Albanians' aspirations for autonomy, only four days after the end of his work wrote to Vienna that they are similar to the demands of the League of Prizren (1878-1881) and that rely on the same program. The resolution approved in the Assembly of Peja is not its only act. On January 29, 1899, on the day when this Assembly closed its work and announced its decisions, an Albanian Executive Committee based in Bucharest, which was aware of the work of the Peja Assembly and cooperated with its organizers, published in Turkish the call "The way to salvation is in Besa-Besan!". The call was drafted by Dervish Hima. The title of the call, the time when it was published and its content prove that it was specially drafted for the Assembly of Peja and constituted in itself a programmatic document of the new League. The central idea contained in this document is that of the union of all Albanians, Ghega and Toska, Muslim and Christian, under the leadership of the League or Besa-Besa. "What will save our nation and our homeland," says the appeal, "is unity, a general Covenant, a Besa-Besa". The main demand was the extension of the League to the vilayets of Shkodra, Kosovo, Manastir and Ioannina, "which form the country called Albania", their unification under the leadership of the League, the calling of a General Assembly or an Eldership was required , which would adopt a statute (regular) or a special constitution for the administration of the united vilayets. The implementation of these requirements would lead to the formation of a single Albanian territorial-administrative unit, governed by the Albanians themselves, while the League would turn into a general organization, clothed with state attributes. Among the first and most necessary measures for the nation, which the Albanian League had to fulfill, was the opening of Albanian schools and the closing of foreign schools, "which had turned into a nest of intrigues", the formation of the Albanian army or a national guard , reconciliation of blood, development of agriculture, transport, etc. The implementation by the League of such demands would lead hand in hand to the fulfillment of the basic program of the Albanian National Movement, to the preservation of the entirety of the Albanian territories and to their unification in an autonomous state. Although the Assembly of Peja exceeded the "allowed" goals (it showed the intentions of the Albanians for the self-government of the country), the High Gate in the first days after the formation of the League did not dare to openly oppose it and did not take immediate military measures to suppress her. This position was undoubtedly dictated by Istanbul's interest in the mobilization of Albanian military forces in the fight against the risk of an attack from abroad on European Turkey. Porta was forced to act temporarily like this because it was not able to immediately suppress the League that relied on armed Albanians. But a few days after the meeting of Peja, with the extension of its committees to other cities and with the expansion and deepening of their national activity, the contradictions of the High Gate with the Albanians became aggravated and it changed its attitude towards the League. Being also under the pressure of Russia and Austria-Hungary, who saw the Albanian movement as a danger to disrupt the status quo in the Balkans, the Sultan's government issued a series of ordinances to disarm the Albanians and destroy the League. As early as February 1899, the sultan ordered the governors of Shkodra and Kosovo not to allow any meeting of Albanians in the future and to stop any attempt by the League to organize its assemblies. In the first phase, the sultan, in order to paralyze the League, instead of military force, used the policy of division, inciting against it some of the representatives of the conservative party with Turkoman tendencies. Porta relied especially on Riza bey Kryeziu, who had opposed the League from the beginning. But the resistance of the Albanians made these first efforts of the High Gate fail. In the fall of 1899, the national movement, led by the Albanian League of Peja, entered a new phase, the war against the Ottoman administration as a whole began to establish an Albanian administration. This war was intertwined with the armed resistance of the masses against the attempts of the Sublime Porte to dissolve the League committees and to restore the authority of the Ottoman state bodies in the areas where the League governed. Although this resistance did not extend to all of Albania, it was an attempt to fulfill the program of the League and of the national movement as a whole, for the formation of an autonomous Albania. The main center of this movement became the sanjak of Dibra. In September 1899, the Sublime Porte undertook a series of measures here, such as the restoration of the Ottoman courts, suppressed by the League, etc., which were intended to strip the Dibra Committee of state powers and finally annihilate it. These oppressive measures of the government caused the outbreak of the popular uprising, led by the Committee of the League for Dibra. On October 17, thousands of highlanders came down from the villages and joined the civilian population of Dibra and other centers of this sanjak. The rebels expelled the Ottoman officials, isolated the treasurer, and seized the post and telegraph. In addition to Selim Rusi, Nurçe Pustina and other leaders of the Committee, Hamdi Ohri, who had just been released from exile after the persistent request of the League, was also involved in the organization of the armed resistance in this Sanjak. For four months, from the end of October 1899 to January 1900, the actual power in the Sanjak of Dibra was concentrated in the hands of the Albanians, led by the League Committee, while the government and local authorities were left with no power. On November 6, on behalf of the Albanian Educational Committee of Dibra, which acted as an organ of the Albanian League, a memorandum was sent to the sultan, in which it was requested to establish Albanian schools in this Sanjak. The memorandum was signed by Shyqri Çoku (grandson of Iljaz Pasha of Dibra), Hamdi Ohri and other patriots, a total of 31 people. Since this request was also not approved by the government, on December 8 the insurgents resumed their actions, attacked the headquarters of the local administration, expelled the Ottoman armies from the city or isolated them in barracks. In Debar, 1 armed Albanians were also concentrated, who came down from the Lower Debar Highlands, from Mati, from Luma and from Selishta. Taking heart from the insurgent movement in Kosovo, which at this time included Pristina, Peja, Gjakova and Drenica, the population of Debar expanded its actions. In the first week of December, 3-000 insurgents were gathered here, who took control of almost all the neighborhoods of the city. The Sultan was forced to make concessions to the Dibra rebels, withdraw the Ottoman court officials and recognize the judicial power established by the League, while in February he also dismissed the governor of the Dibra sanjak. At a time of anti-Ottoman resistance, the Dibra patriots Selim Rusi, Hamdi Ohri, Halit Bërzeshta, etc., in collaboration with Haxhi Zeka, continued their efforts to extend the term of the League, to strengthen its power in this sanjak and to convene a General Assembly. But, due to the persecution of the Ottoman authorities, the efforts made in November 1899 to hold a general meeting of the League in the Sanjak of Dibra did not yield results. On February 16, before the Dibra uprising had yet ended, the Kosovar patriots, led by Idriz Gjakova, one of the most influential patriots in this region, organized a powerful demonstration in Skopje, which turned into an armed uprising. The insurgents demanded the dismissal of the governor of Kosovo, Mehmet Hafiz Pasha, the mayor, and other officials of the Ottoman administration in Skopje. Albanian patriots aimed to turn Skopje, the capital of the Kosovo vilayet, into the hearth of the Albanian National Movement as a whole and, through the uprising they organized in this city, to fulfill its autonomist demands. For this purpose, the Skopje Committee was formed, which emerged from the uprising and was responsible for its leadership. The rebels of Skopje, as well as other parts of Albania, put forward as their basic demand the autonomy of Albania under the sovereignty of the Sultan. At the beginning of March, 2 armed Albanians gathered in Skopje, who opposed the Ottoman armies, which were defending the headquarters of the local administration. The Albanian insurgents were joined by the Slavic-Macedonian population of Skopje. The dismissal by the sultan on March 13, 1900 of the governor of Kosovo, Mehmet Hafiz Pasha, although it constituted a victory for the Kosovo insurgents, could not bring about the fulfillment of the national program of the Albanian movement. The Sublime Porte, although it had declared an amnesty, arrested on March 18 the leaders of the Skopje uprising, Idriz Gjakova, Haxhi Rauf and others, who were sent to Bitlis. These measures led to another demonstration, organized on March 20, attended by 3 people; they demanded the immediate release of Idriz Gjakova and other leaders of the uprising. The demonstrations that broke out in Skopje in March 1900 continued uninterrupted until the autumn of that year. In the last days of February and early March, resistance against the Ottoman administration spread to Mitrovica and the Drenica region. The Reconciliation Committee of the Albanian League for Mitrovica and Drenica was placed at the head of this movement. Also at the end of February and the beginning of March, armed clashes occurred in the districts of Pristina, where hundreds of insurgents, who had descended from Çiçavica, clashed with Ottoman troops at the entrance to the city. The people demanded the removal of the treasurer and other Ottoman officials from Pristina. The movement also included the sandjak of Prizren, where the Muslim and Catholic population rose up, also demanding the removal of the treasurer and other officials. In Prizren, Besa was revived and it was decided to hold a general gathering to consolidate the Albanian League. The repressive measures of the Sublime Porte and the introduction of a new tax increase caused the anti-Ottoman movement to erupt (in March 1900) in Mitrovica, Senica and Pazar i Ri, which continued until the summer of that year, when it took the form of an armed uprising. In July-August, an uprising broke out in Peja and Gjakova, which forced the government to dismiss the governor of the Peja sanjak. In June, the Sublime Porte sent numerous armies, commanded by Shemsi Pasha, which passed through Skopje to Mitrovica and from there to Pazar i Ri and Senica. Only in the northern part of the province of Kosovo were concentrated 14 battalions of soldiers, 8 horsemen and 000 cannons, who brutally suppressed the uprising in Senica and Pazarin e Ri. 573 leaders and activists of the Albanian National Movement were arrested, imprisoned and exiled in this region. The repressive measures of Shemsi Pasha caused the expansion of the armed movement in Pazarin e Ri. The petition sent to the sultan at the end of August 1900, signed by 2 insurgents from the New Bazaar, demanded the release of political prisoners and the removal of Ottoman administration officials. In the summer of that year, armed conflicts broke out in the Gjilan district, south of Pristina; anti-Ottoman resistance strengthened in Skopje, Ferizaj, Mitrovica, Mat, Debar and other places in the vilayets of Kosovo and Manastir. In these circumstances, the sultan was forced to remove Shemsi Pasha from the vilayet of Kosovo, to dismiss the mayor of the New Pazar and to remove the tax surcharge on all the sanjaks of Kosovo. However, the conflicts of the Albanians with the Ottoman authorities in the Kosovo vilayet continued until September 1900. In the spring of 1900, taking advantage of the situation created after the outbreak of uprisings in Debar and Kosovo, Haxhi Zeka made a new attempt to convene another Albanian assembly, where the autonomy of Albania would be demanded. For this, as early as March 1900, he went to Dibër, where the ideas of the League were still strong. In the talks that took place in Diber, it was concluded that Besa should be established for a long time, at least for a period of five years. At the end of April, Haxhi Zeka managed to hold in Fushë-Kosovo, near Pristina, a meeting of representatives of the population of Pristina, Peja, Mitrovica, Skopje, Tetova, Gjilan, Rozhaja, Shkodra, Has, Gjakova , Dibra, Senica and New Pazar. Here the issues related to the Albanian National Movement were discussed and it was decided to call the new General Assembly, which would be held in Prizren or some other city. But this time too, the Albanian patriots were unable to convene the General Assembly, due to the obstacles posed by the governor of Kosovo, Reshat Pasha. Even the sultan, when he learned that the Assembly would present national demands, ordered the Albanian governors not to allow it to be held. Likewise, the efforts made by the Dibra patriots in the months of April-June 1900 to strengthen and expand the Albanian League also failed. The sultan's government, also encouraged by the Great Powers, which had been liberated by the Macedonian movement, which had already collapsed, opposed every demand of the Albanians and launched an open attack against the national movement in Albania. In September 1900, the Sublime Porte deployed 40 soldiers against the vilayet of Kosovo alone. Istanbul directed the main blow against the popular resistance in Skopje, Tetovo, Dibër, Prishtina, Gjakova, Mitrovica and other centers. The newly appointed commander of the gendarmerie of the vilayet capital, Mehmet Pasha, was charged with suppressing the uprising in Skopje. After the clashes that took place in Skopje on September 15, the Ottoman army command arrested 30 more activists of the Albanian movement. In November, one of the leaders of the Skopje uprising, Haxhi Raufi, was arrested, along with 22 of his followers. Terror and arrests in Skopje continued until the end of 1900. From Skopje, Mehmet Pasha headed to Tetovo and from there to Debar, where he also took harsh measures to suppress popular resistance and disperse the League committees. To suppress the uprising in the cities of Kosovo, the sultan again sent Shemsi Pasha, who at the head of numerous Ottoman armies, during the months of November-December 1900, initially struck at the insurgents of Prizren and dissolved the League Committee of this sanjak. From here, Shemsi Pasha was sent to Pristina, Peja, Gjakova, Mitrovica and other centers. To establish "order and peace" he suppressed the Albanian movement wherever he set foot. These measures, along with some partial concessions that were made to the insurgents and along with the gifts of posts that were given to conservative and Turkoman leaders, temporarily improved the positions of the Ottoman Empire in the vilayets of Kosovo and Bitola. In these conditions, the League and the Albanian National Movement as a whole suffered heavy losses, which led to their downfall and the struggle for Albania's autonomy. At the end of 1900, the League of Peja was suppressed without being able to fulfill the tasks of the Albanian National Movement. However, it left deep impressions on the people's conscience and exerted a powerful influence on the further organization of the armed struggle against the Ottoman rulers.