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===Killing of Hasan Riza Pasha===
===Killing of Hasan Riza Pasha===
On January 30, 1913, the Ottoman commander, Riza Pasha, was assassinated in an ambush by two servants of Esad Pasha, as he left Esad's house after dining with him.<ref name="HRP">{{cite book|title=Hasan Riza Pasha: Mbrojtës i Shkodrës në Luftën Ballkanike, 1912-1913|last=Ulli|first=Prenk|coauthors=|year=1995|publisher=Albin|location=[[Shkodër]], [[Albania]]|page=26|url=http://books.google.nl/books?id=ccUzHAAACAAJ&dq=Hasan+Riza+Pasha&hl=nl&ei=lx32TfXBGomZOuzuiLYH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA|accessdate=2011-06-13}}</ref> Riza Pasha wanted to continue to defend the besieged city but Esad Pasha wanted a free hand in his secret negotiations with Montenegrins, which were done through the counsel of Russia in Shkodër. Esad Pasha's plan was to hand over Shkodër as the price for their support for his attempt to proclaim himself as a King of Albania.<ref>Pearson, Owen. ''Albania and King Zog: independence, republic and monarchy 1908-1939''. I.B.Tauris. 2004. ISBN 1845110137 p. 38</ref><ref name="HRP"/>
On January 30, 1913, the Ottoman commander, Riza Pasha, was assassinated in an ambush by Osman Bali and Mehmet Kavaja,<ref name="MV">{{cite book|title=The Albanians: a modern history|isbn=1860645410|last=Vickers|first=Miranda|year=1999|publisher=I.B.Tauris|location=[[Londen]]|page=71|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=IzI0uOZ2j6gC&pg=PA72&dq=''Essad+Pasha''+Shkod%C3%ABr&hl=nl&ei=-Pb2TfWEOoufOv6BkbQK&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false|accessdate=2011-06-14}}</ref> two servants of Esad Pasha, as he left Esad's house after dining with him.<ref name="HRP">{{cite book|title=Hasan Riza Pasha: Mbrojtës i Shkodrës në Luftën Ballkanike, 1912-1913|last=Ulli|first=Prenk|coauthors=|year=1995|publisher=Albin|location=[[Shkodër]], [[Albania]]|page=26|url=http://books.google.nl/books?id=ccUzHAAACAAJ&dq=Hasan+Riza+Pasha&hl=nl&ei=lx32TfXBGomZOuzuiLYH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA|accessdate=2011-06-13}}</ref> Riza Pasha wanted to continue to defend the besieged city but Esad Pasha wanted a free hand in his secret negotiations with Montenegrins, which were done through the counsel of Russia in Shkodër. Esad Pasha's plan was to hand over Shkodër as the price for their support for his attempt to proclaim himself as a King of Albania.<ref>Pearson, Owen. ''Albania and King Zog: independence, republic and monarchy 1908-1939''. I.B.Tauris. 2004. ISBN 1845110137 p. 38</ref><ref name="HRP"/>


===Surrender===
===Surrender===

Revision as of 06:00, 14 June 2011

Template:Systemic bias

Siege of Shkoder
Part of the First Balkan War

Clockwise from top left: Flags of Great Powers on Shkodër fortress; Ottoman forces defending Shkodër; Montenegrin flag on Shkoder fortress; Captured flagstandard of Montenegrin forces showed by Turkish and Albanian forces; Albanian voulanteer force shooting from a tree; Albanian officers possing with confiscated Montenegrin Ammo
DateOctober 28, 1912 – April 23, 1913[1]
Location
near Işkodra, Scutari Province, Ottoman Empire[dn 1]
(present day Shkodër, Albania)
Result Montenegrin/Serbian victory[2]
Esad Pasha Toptani signed the final surrender protcol on April 23, 1913[1].
A Peace treaty signed by Esad Pasha and King Nikola[3]
Belligerents
 Ottoman Empire
Albania
Voulanteer force		  Montenegro
 Serbia
Commanders and leaders
Ottoman Empire Hasan Riza Pasha †
Ottoman Empire Esad Pasha Toptani[4]		 Kingdom of Montenegro King Nikola
Kingdom of Montenegro Prince Danilo
Strength
5,000 Ottoman Empire
10,000 Albanian volunteers		 25,000 Montenegrins
Three Serbian Divisions (30,000)
Casualties and losses
Heavy 8,000 Montenegrins
22,000 Serbians [5][6]

The Siege of Shkodër[citation needed], Siege of Shkoder[7], Siege of Shkodra (Albanian: Lufta e Shkodrës, Serbian: Опсада Скадра) or Defence of Shkodra[8] (Turkish: İşkodra Müdafaası[9] or İşkodra Savunması[10]) also known as Siege of Scutari took place from October 28, 1912 to April 23, 1913, between forces of the Montenegro and Serbia against forces of the Ottoman Empire and the Provisional Government of Albania.

Background

In 1912 the Balkan League consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria had jointly declared war against the Ottoman Empire. Montenegro mobilized her forces and prepared to attack the Ottoman forces in Albania directly to the south of her. It also enlisted the support of Catholic Albanian tribes across the border who had been fighting the Turkish armies for centuries.[11] Shkodër had long been a territorial ambition of Montenegro, although its inhabitants were overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians.

Start of the war

General Hasan Riza, gave on 8 October 1912 the news that Montenegro declared war on Turkey and that its troops where crossing the border between Montenegro and Albania. Two hours after the news the Montenegrin troops, as expected, been directed to Shkodra. At noon Hasan Riza Pasha in his headquarters gathered all his commanders and told them:

The city will soon be surrounded, but this city will not fall into the hands of Montenegrins. Shkodra is our fate or our grave, but not our shame. Today we have five thousand troops, but over 20 thousand others are coming to our assistance. As of today begins an uphill battle, that none of us knows how long it will last

— Hasan Riza Pasha, during the orginasation of the defence of Shkodër, [12]

When the Montenegrins crossed the border, only 10 thousand volunteers from Mirdite, led by General Essad Toptani managed to enter the city. Two thousand soldiers from Mat, who where led by the 17 years old boy Ahmet Bey Zogolli, were trapped by the Serbs in the Lezhë, while the Turkish troops, led by General Mahmoud Jella Hajra, that where located in Berat, where trapped in the field of Myzeqe from a attack Serbo-Bulgarian army. Hasan Riza Pasha did not expect other reinforcements of the current 15 thousand combatants in the city which had to face more than 25 thousand Montenegrins and an 30 thousand Serbs.[12]

After the declaration of independence in 1912 the people of Shkodër withstood the siege for seven months of the Montenegrin and Serbian armies, because they wanted to invade the city and its surrounding region. In totall 36,000 shell were dropped on the city but still the city did not fall into the hand of the invading armies. The idea that Turkey is sfilitej from domestic problems and that there will not defend her possessions in the Balkans, became apparent. The idea after the attack was that Russia advised them to conquer as much territory as possible, with the idea that the Conference of Ambassadors, which was expected to meet in December to decide the extent of their boundaries in all lands that were under control.[12]

Battle

The siege started on October 28, 1912. The attack was originally carried out by the Montenegrin army under commanded of Prince Danilo. However, his forces encountered stiff resistance, and the Serbian army sent large reinforcements to the help their Montenegrin allies. The combined Turkish and Albanian defenders led by Hasan Riza Pasha and his lieutenant Esad Pasha Toptani, resisted for seven months and through skillful defenses, managed to inflict a heavy toll on the besiegers.[11]

Killing of Hasan Riza Pasha

On January 30, 1913, the Ottoman commander, Riza Pasha, was assassinated in an ambush by Osman Bali and Mehmet Kavaja,[13] two servants of Esad Pasha, as he left Esad's house after dining with him.[12] Riza Pasha wanted to continue to defend the besieged city but Esad Pasha wanted a free hand in his secret negotiations with Montenegrins, which were done through the counsel of Russia in Shkodër. Esad Pasha's plan was to hand over Shkodër as the price for their support for his attempt to proclaim himself as a King of Albania.[14][12]

Surrender

On April 21, 1913, Esad Pasha made the official proposal to surrender the city to Montenegrin General Vukotic. On April 23, his proposal was accepted and he was allowed to leave the city with full military honors and with all of his troops, except heavy guns. He also received a sum of 10,000 sterlings from the Montenegrin King.[15] And Essad Pasha signed the final surrender protcol[1] with the Montenegrins[16]

Aftermath

The Rozafa Castle which was surrounded by invading forces
Caricature shows Albania defending itself from neighboring countries. Montenegro is represented as monkey, Greece as a leopard and Serbia as a snake. Text on Albanian: "Flee from me! Bloodsucker Beasts!"

The taking of Shkodër removed the only obstacle for the Serbian advance in the remainder of Ottoman Albania. By November 1912 the country had declared independence but was yet to be recognized by anyone. The Serbian army eventually occupied most of northern and central Albania stopping north of the town of Vlorë. They also managed to trap the remains of the Army of Vardar in what was left of Albania proper, but were not able to force them to surrender.[11] However, when the war was over, the Great Powers did not award the city to the Kingdom of Montenegro which was compelled to evacuate it in May 1913, in accordance with the London Conference of Ambassadors. The army's withdrawal was forced when a small naval flotilla of British and Italian gunboats moved up the Bojana river and across the Adriatic coastline.[6] The Kingdom of Montenegro also later took Metohija, an area of Kosovo-Kosmet. They were involved of several massacres of Albanians, along with their Serbian counterparts.

Cultural influences

Albanian novelist Ndoc Nikaj wrote a historical novel titled Shkodra e rrethueme ("Shkodra under siege") in 1913[17].

Notes

footnotes
  1. ^ As the capital of the Ottoman Vilayet of Scutari this city was in the hands of the Turks until April,1913., Viscount James Bryce Bryce, Holland Thompson, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, The Book of History: The Events of 1918. The Armistice and Peace Treaties, The Grolier society, 1921, p. 1125.
citations
  1. ^ a b c Edward J. Erickson, Defeat in Detail, The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912–1913, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN 9780275978884, p. 312.
  2. ^ Somel, Selçuk Akşin. Historical dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Scarecrow Press Inc. 2003. lxvi.
  3. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=IzI0uOZ2j6gC&pg=PA71&dq=%22siege+of+Shkoder%22&hl=en&ei=5Cr1TYeABMTOsga1x-GaBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Provided%20he%20%5BEssad%5D%22&f=false
  4. ^ The second in command of the Işkodra Corps, Edward J. Erickson, Defeat in Detail, The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912–1913, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN 9780275978884, p. 237.
  5. ^ Lufta e Shkodrës. Shkodër: Uli. 1954. p. 301. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ a b Edith Durham, The Struggle for Scutari (Turk, Slav, and Albanian). Edward Arnold. 1914.
  7. ^ Miranda Vickers, The Albanians: A Modern History, I.B.Tauris, 1999, ISBN 9781860645419, p. 71.
  8. ^ Robert Elsie, Centre for Albanian Studies, Albanian Literature: A Short History, I.B.Tauris, 2005, ISBN 9781845110314, p. 63.
  9. ^ Abdurrahman Nafiz, Kiramettin, 1912-1913 Balkan Harbinde İşkodra Müdafaası, İstanbul Askerî Matbaa, 1933. Template:Tr icon
  10. ^ Genelkurmay Askeri Tarih ve Stratejik Etüt Başkanlığı, İşkodra Savunması ve Hasan Rıza Paşa, Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 1987. Template:Tr icon
  11. ^ a b c Vlora, bej Eqerem. Lebenserinnerungen ("Memoirs"). Munich. 1968 and 1973.
  12. ^ a b c d e Ulli, Prenk (1995). Hasan Riza Pasha: Mbrojtës i Shkodrës në Luftën Ballkanike, 1912-1913. Shkodër, Albania: Albin. pp. 34–40. Retrieved 2011-06-13. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) Cite error: The named reference "HRP" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  13. ^ Vickers, Miranda (1999). Essad+Pasha+Shkod%C3%ABr&hl=nl&ei=-Pb2TfWEOoufOv6BkbQK&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false The Albanians: a modern history. Londen: I.B.Tauris. p. 71. ISBN 1860645410. Retrieved 2011-06-14.
  14. ^ Pearson, Owen. Albania and King Zog: independence, republic and monarchy 1908-1939. I.B.Tauris. 2004. ISBN 1845110137 p. 38
  15. ^ Pearson, Owen. Albania and King Zog: independence, republic and monarchy 1908-1939. I.B.Tauris. 2004. ISBN 1845110137 p. 41
  16. ^ Edwin E. Jacques, The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present, McFarland, 1995, ISBN 9780899509327, p. 344.
  17. ^ Robert Elsie, Centre for Albanian Studies, Albanian Literature: A Short History, I.B.Tauris, 2005, ISBN 9781845110314, p. 89.

References

  • Somel, Selçuk Akşin, Historical dictionary of the Ottoman Empire, (Scarecrow Press Inc., 2003).
  • Eqerem bej Vlora, Lebenserinnerungen ('Memoirs'), Munich 1968, 1973.
  • Edith Durham, The Struggle for Scutari (Turk, Slav, and Albanian), (Edward Arnold, 1914)
  • Edith Durham, Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle, (Adamant Media Corporation, April 20, 2005)

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Siege of Scutari (1912–1913).

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