Serbs in central Albania

The British chronology of the war records under 4 July 1915 that Serbian troops occupied Durrës, the seat of the government of Esad Pasha Toptani. Under 17 July it adds that the Serbs left the town at the request of the Italian government, and under 31 August that they occupied it again. We have found no confirmation of any of these reports. The British expert on Albania Joseph Swire wrote in 1929 that the Serbs took control of the whole central part of the country, but by agreement with Esad and for fear of complications with Italy did not enter Durrës. This is confirmed by Italian diplomatic documents from the summer of 1915.

An expedition against the insurgents

From the autumn of 1914 the authority of Esad, backed by the Serbs, had been shrinking under the pressure of Muslim insurgents from central Albania. By the spring of 1915 it was confined almost to Durrës itself, besieged from the landward side. The town was protected mainly by the artillery of Italian warships lying in the bay. In May Haxhi Qamili took the lead of the insurgents. The Kingdom of Serbia explained that armed bands, supported by Austrian and Young Turk agents, were raiding its territory from the Albanian mountains. Although the Entente advised against intervention, at the turn of May and June more than 20,000 Serbian soldiers entered Albania from three directions.

The insurgents tried to put up resistance on the passes near Qukës, but were routed. Within a dozen or so days the Serbs took Pogradec, Elbasan, Tirana and Kavajë, which lies about 20 kilometres from Durrës, and raised the siege of the town. They handed Haxhi Qamili and other leaders of the revolt over to Esad, whose court sentenced them to death. Haxhi Qamili was hanged in Durrës in mid-August. To pacify the country the Serbs formed a special Albanian detachment. According to Italian and Serbian sources, the commander in Tirana and Elbasan was Colonel Petar Mišić.

The line at Durrës

The Serbian troops, however, stopped at the gates of the town. When the Italian government protested against the expedition, the Prime Minister, Nikola Pašić, gave assurances that this was a temporary action and that Serbia had no intention of occupying Durrës. For Rome the town was of special importance. Under the secret Treaty of London the coast with Durrës was to be neutralised, and central Albania was to become a small state, in practice dependent on Italy. There was an Italian legation in Durrës, and Esad, although he owed his survival to the Serbs, also courted Rome’s favour.

Esad’s alliance with Belgrade was in any case very close. On 28 June in Tirana he signed with the Serbian Minister of the Interior a secret agreement on a union of the two states with a common army, customs, national bank and representation abroad. Esad was to be recognised as Prince of Albania. As early as the end of June, however, the Italian minister in Durrës reported that the Serbs were not admitting Esad’s officials to Tirana and Elbasan and were installing their own there.

A dispute that lasted until the autumn

Italian documents from July and August speak only of Serbian troops in Tirana and Elbasan. On 11 July the Italian ambassador in Paris listed that the Greeks were reaching Berat, the Montenegrins were in Scutari and the Serbs in Elbasan and Tirana. On 20 July a Serbian official assured the Italian minister that the troops would soon withdraw from both towns. As late as 29 July the Foreign Minister, Sidney Sonnino, feared that Serbia might occupy Durrës by advancing from Tirana, “which it already occupies”. Durrës therefore remained outside Serbian occupation.

The Serbs held central Albania until the autumn, when the attack by the Germans, Austrians and Bulgarians forced them to withdraw their troops. A few weeks later, however, the remnants of the whole Serbian army reached Durrës; in the winter of 1915 they had retreated across the Albanian mountains to the Adriatic, and from there they were evacuated by Allied ships.