Siege of Scutari (1912–1913)

Siege of Shkoder
Part of the First Balkan War
Montenegrin flag on Shkoder fortress.
Date October 28, 1912 – April 23, 1913 Location near Shkodër, Albania Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Provisional Government of Albania	Montenegro Serbia
Commanders and leaders
Hasan Riza Pasha † Esad Pasha Toptani	King Nikola 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

The Siege of Shkodër also known as Siege of Scutari (also referred to as the Battle of Shkodër) 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. Shkodër had long been a territorial ambition of Montenegro, although its inhabitants were overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians.

Battle

The siege started on October 28, 1912. The attack was originally carried out by the Montenegrin army commanded by Prince Danilo. However, his forces encountered stiff resistance, and the Serbian army sent large reinforcements to the aid of 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. 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. 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. 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.

Aftermath

Flags of Great Powers on Shkodër fortress.

Turkish forces

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. 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. 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.

Notes

footnotes

citations

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

• Serbian occupation of Albania
• Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars