Massacres of Albanians in World War I
The massacres of Albanians in World War I were a series of war crimes committed by Serbian, Montenegrin, Greek and Bulgarian troops against the Albanian civil population of Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo during and immediately before the Great War. These atrocities followed the previous massacres committed during the Balkan Wars. In 1915, Serbian troops enacted a scorched-earth policy in Kosovo, massacring tens of thousands of Albanians.[1] Between 1912 and 1915, 132 Albanian villages were razed to the ground.[2][3]
Massacres of Albanians in World War I
1914–1918
Committee of Kosovo claim:
- c. 250,000 (excluding those killed by Greeks)
Albanian Deputy claim:
- 85,676 killed in Kosovo (1913–1921)
- 330,000 homeless by November 1915
- 20,000 refugees from Korça
Many Albanians in the region of Kičevo were killed by Bulgarian forces between 1915-1918.[4] In 1916, many Albanians in Štrpce and Načallnik starved to death or became sick as a result of the Bulgarian soldiers collecting the villagers wheat which led to a man-made famine.[5][6] The number of Albanians (including combatants) that were killed or died during WWI in Albania is estimated to be around 70,000, approximately 8.75% to 10% of the country's population.[7][8] In a letter to King George V, the Committee of Kosovo claimed in 1919 that the Serbian and Montenegrin armies had killed 200,000 Albanians since the Balkan Wars, including some 100,000 Albanians killed in Kosovo from 1913 to 1915, and that Bulgarian troops had killed 50,000 Albanians throughout the War.[9] In 1921, Albanian deputies claimed that 85,676 Kosovo Albanians were killed since the Balkan Wars.[10]
After the Great War, Albanians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were subject to persecution.
Kosovo[edit]
Astrazubi[edit]
In 1914, Serbian troops entered the village of Astrazubi in Malisheva and burned down 1,029 houses and killed 227 civilians, mostly women and children, although the number is believed to be higher according to Albanian sources. In the village of Banjë, the wounded were buried alive.[24]
Kamënica[edit]
During the Serbian armys retreat, the soldiers set fire to Kamenica, Selac, Gradec and Vranisht, after having slaughtered a number of peasants and carried off the women. On November 1, 1915, the soldiers placed two pieces of light artillery two hundred paces from the village of Vecali, on the Tetovo-Prizren road, and set fire to the village with these pieces of artillery, killing nearly 65 men, women and children. The rest of the peasants managed to flee. Before the bombardment of the village, the peasants had given bread to the Serbian soldiers.[26]