Italy proclaims a protectorate over Albania

On 3 June 1917 at Gjirokastër (Italian: Argirocastro) in southern Albania, General Giacinto Ferrero, commander of the Italian troops in the country, read a proclamation to the whole Albanian nation before an assembly of Albanian notables. In the name of King Victor Emmanuel III he proclaimed “the unity and independence of all Albania under the aegis and protection of the Kingdom of Italy”. The date was chosen with care: it was the anniversary of the granting of the Statuto Albertino, the festival of Italian constitutional liberties. Ferrero knew Albania well: at the turn of 1915 and 1916 he had commanded the brigade that defended Durrës against the Austrians.

What the proclamation promised

According to the text published in the New York monthly Current History, the Albanians were henceforth to have their own government, army, courts and schools, staffed by Albanians alone, and to enjoy freely the fruits of their labour. The proclamation recalled that the sea divided Italy and Albania but also united them, and called on all Albanians, including those in exile, to rally “under the banners of Albania and Italy”. The British Annual Register summarised it more briefly: Albania was to have complete freedom in internal affairs, but its foreign relations were to remain under Italian supervision. It also stressed that Italy had acted alone, not on behalf of the whole Entente.

This was not merely an empty declaration. The Italians then held the whole south of the country. They had occupied Vlorë as early as December 1914; in 1916 they extended their occupation to Northern Epirus, with Gjirokastër and the port of Sarandë, taking the region from Greek administration; and in the winter of 1917 their outposts linked up with the left wing of the Allied armies in Macedonia. The north and centre of Albania, roughly two-thirds of the country, were occupied by Austria-Hungary, while at Korçë the French had proclaimed an autonomous republic under their own protection in December 1916. At the beginning of 1917 Austria-Hungary had promised the Albanians a similar autonomy under its protectorate. Italy, which had long regarded Albania as its sphere of influence, did not want to be left behind.

Surprised allies

The proclamation was above all the work of the foreign minister, Sidney Sonnino. Neither Britain nor France had been warned of it. On 11 June in the House of Commons the under-secretary of state, Lord Robert Cecil, admitted that he knew of its scope only what the press had reported. Asked whether it covered Epirus, he replied that the population there was mixed, partly Albanian and partly Greek, and that in his view the proclamation handed nobody over to Italy but merely proclaimed the independence of Albania under Italian protection. Asked whether the Allies had been consulted, he asked for time to reply. According to Current History, the Russian foreign minister Mikhail Tereshchenko demanded an explanation from Rome of what exactly the word “protectorate” meant, while in Paris it was explained that Italian protection should be understood only as a means of driving Austrian influence out of Albania.

The displeasure also had deeper causes. In the secret Treaty of London of April 1915 the Entente had promised Italy Vlorë and a protectorate only over a small state in central Albania, and had allowed Serbia, Montenegro and Greece to count on the remaining parts of the country. The proclamation of “all Albania” dashed those hopes, especially the Greek claims to Northern Epirus. Nor did it delight the Albanians themselves. The national newspaper Dielli, published in America, wrote on 8 June that Austria and Italy were quarrelling over the right to protect Albania, while the Albanians wanted real independence, not the fate of a vassal country. The dispute even reached the government in Rome: according to the American New International Year Book, three ministers, a republican and two reformist socialists, protested that Sonnino had proclaimed the protectorate without the formal consent of the whole cabinet.

What came next

Five days later the Italians crossed the Greek border and occupied Ioannina in Epirus, which only increased Greek and French mistrust. Sonnino tried to reassure the Allies. In a speech in the Chamber of Deputies, which the Annual Register dates to 20 June, he gave assurances that Italy had no aim in Albania other than defending it against interference by third states, that it guaranteed Albania complete freedom in internal affairs, and that the exact frontiers would be fixed by the peace conference. The Italian protectorate nevertheless remained a unilateral declaration. The Italians stayed in Albania until 1920, when after the fighting for Vlorë they renounced the protectorate and withdrew from the country, keeping only the island of Sazan.