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84-477: The Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin assigned areas inhabited by Albanians to other states. The inability of the Porte to protect the interests of a region that was 70 percent Muslim and largely loyal forced Albanian leaders to organize their own defence and to consider the creation of an autonomous administration, as Serbia and the other Danubian Principalities had enjoyed before their independence. The league

168-456: A puppet state . Whereas in traditional Bulgarian and international historiography, Ignatyev is generally presented as a great friend of Bulgaria and an advocate of Bulgarian liberation, his diaires present him rather as a Machiavellian politician completely dedicated to furthering Russian imperialist expansion on the Balkans. Among other things, Ignatyev is found to have continuously subverted

252-585: A committee to direct the Albanians' resistance. In May the group called for a general meeting of representatives from all the areas where Albanian communities existed during that time. The Committee's members were Ali Ibra, Zija Prishtina, Sami Frashëri , Jani Vreto , Vaso Pasha , Baca Kurti Gjokaj and Abdyl Frashëri . We wholeheartedly wish to live in peace with all our neighbours, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria... We do not want and do not ask anything of them, but we are all determined to protect that which

336-599: A forced exchange. In exchange for war reparations , the Sublime Porte ceded Armenian and Georgian territories in the Caucasus to Russia, including Ardahan , Artvin , Batum , Kars , Olti , Beyazit , and Alashkert . Additionally, it ceded Northern Dobruja, which Russia handed to Romania in exchange for Southern Bessarabia (Article 19). Article 21 allowed the population living in areas conquered by Russia to sell property and immigrate to Turkey. The Treaty of Berlin kept

420-679: A revolution against the Ottoman Empire after the debacle at the Congress of Berlin and the official dissolution of the League ordered by the Ottomans who feared the League would seek total independence from the empire. The first military operation of the league was the attack against Mehmed Ali Pasha , the Ottoman marshal who would oversee the transfer of Plav-Gucia area to Montenegro. On December 4, 1879 members of

504-462: A sense of Albanian identity that would cut across religious and tribal lines. The Ottoman state briefly supported the league's claims viewing Albanian nationalism as possibly preventing further territorial losses to newly independent Balkan states. Failing to win their claims on a diplomatic level, Albanians embarked on the route of military conflict with their Balkan neighbors. The Prizren League had 30,000 armed members under its control, who launched

588-616: A similar provision. Many Adjarians left Adjara at that time. The Vilayet of Bosnia ( Bosnia and Herzegovina ) was supposed to become an autonomous province (Article 14 ). Crete , Epirus and Thessaly were to receive a limited form of local self-government (Article 15 ), while the Ottomans vouched for their earlier-given promises to handle reforms in Armenia in order to protect the Armenians from abuse (Article 16 ). The Straits—the Bosporus and

672-813: Is missing. Around 300 Muslims participated on the assembly, including delegates from Bosnia and mutasarrif ( sanjakbey ) of the Sanjak of Prizren as representative of the Ottoman authorities. Kararname is a word from Turkish language , and means decree or the government approved decision of the president. Origins of the word are Persian ; karar (gharār; قرار in Persian) meaning stability, and Name (Nāmeh; نامه in Persian) meaning letter. The Prizren Committee for National Defence delegates assembled in Prizren on June 10, 1878, and submitted an eighteen-page memorandum to Benjamin Disraeli

756-681: Is no vitality left in them.'" Since 1990, a number of historians, publicists and journalists in Bulgaria have subjected the Treaty of San Stefano and the entire policy of the Russian Empire on the Eastern question in the 19th century to critical re-evaluation and have concluded that the treaty was a "charade" crafted by the long-standing Russian ambassador to the Ottoman Empire , Count Nikolay Ignatyev , for

840-438: Is ours. The League of Prizren was created by a group of Albanian intellectuals to resist partition among neighboring Balkan states and to assert an Albanian national consciousness by uniting Albanians into a unitary linguistic and cultural nation. During the meeting in Prizren a kararname was signed by 47 beys on June 18, 1878. The document represented an initial position, mainly supported by landlords and individuals related to

924-575: The Balkan Range . In turn, Austria-Hungary was given permission to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina . The treaties also envisaged Romania ceding southern Bessarabia to the Russian Empire, territorial acquisitions for Greece, etc. All researchers have noted the pronounced similarity of the clauses of the two secret treaties to the provisions of the Berlin Treaty and the stark contrast of the three to

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1008-760: The Constantinople Conference , they conclude that the culprit must be The Russian Empire. Traditionally, Bulgarian historiograhy, in line with Russian propaganda, has always cast the blame for the failure of the Conference on the go-to villain in modern Bulgarian history: the English. The vilayet autonomy proposal reflected all of the United Kingdom 's desires by splitting the autonomous territory into two and ensuring extensive international (including English) oversight of vilayet affairs, which would have prevented

1092-551: The Danube Vilayet . While the settlement of Crimean Tatars was largely problem-free, the scarcity of arable land, the sheer scale of Circassian migration and the inability of Ottoman authorities to address problems properly turned the Circassian settlement into a disaster that drove impoverished Circassians to join paramilitary (i.e., bashi-bazouk ) units or turn to banditry and crime. The Ottoman inability to restore social order

1176-764: The Dardanelles —were declared open to all neutral ships in war and peacetime (Article 24). The Circassians of the newly liberated Balkan territories, who had been settled there in 1864 following the Circassian genocide and had committed several atrocities against the Christian population of the region during the war, were to be expelled. This way, the Circassian minority in Dobruja disappeared. The Great Powers, especially British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli , were unhappy with this extension of Russian power, and Serbia feared that

1260-530: The Mediterranean . This carried the potential of Russian ships eventually using Bulgarian Mediterranean ports as naval bases, which the other Great Powers greatly disliked. A prince elected by the people, approved by the Ottoman Empire, and recognized by the Great Powers was to take the helm of the country (Article 7). A council of Bulgarian noblemen was to draft a constitution (also Article 7). (They produced

1344-580: The Ottoman Empire . The text of Kararname had 16 articles. Basically the text contained announcement that the people from the "northern and southern Albania, and Bosnia" are willing to defend the "territorial integrity" of the Ottoman Empire "by all possible means" from the troops of the Bulgaria , Serbia and Montenegro . It was signed by 47 Muslim deputies of the Prizren Committee for National Defence on June 18, 1878. Around 300 Muslims participated on

1428-642: The Reichstadt Agreement of 8 July 1876, more than half a year earlier. The agreement was reconfirmed and elaborated further in the Budapest Convention of 15 January 1877. Both treaties were kept entirely secret and envisaged a Russian war on the Ottoman Empire, with Austria-Hungary pledging neutrality. The Russian Empire, in turn, pledged not to create a large Slavic state but only two independent principalities or two autonomous Ottoman vilayets (the version varies depending on language) north and south of

1512-711: The Secret Committee for the Liberation of Albania . While it was active, the league managed to bring Albanian national interests before the Great Powers and paved the way for the League of Peja, which had greater foreign support from both Italy and the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Despite it ultimate failure, the League of Prizren accomplished a great deal. Both Montenegro and Greece received less Albanian-claimed territory than they would have otherwise received without

1596-473: The Tarnovo Constitution .) Ottoman troops were to withdraw from Bulgaria, while Russian troops would remain for two more years (Article 8). According to Philip Roeder, the Treaty of San Stefano "transformed" Bulgarian nationalism, turning it from a disunited movement into a united one. Under the treaty, Montenegro more than doubled its territory, acquiring formerly Ottoman-controlled areas including

1680-584: The Unification of Bulgaria , invited the Ottoman Sultan to reconquer Eastern Rumelia and organised a coup against the Bulgarian Prince only three decades earlier. The Bulgarian journalist Ivo Indzhev focuses on the vulnerability of modern Bulgaria to Russian propaganda, including with regard to the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine , and points out that "the myth of San Stefano" remains to this day

1764-503: The 19th-century Bulgarian bourgeoisie (e.g., Stoyan Chomakov ), which favoured gaining autonomy by working together with the Ottoman authorities, Ignatyev's work blocked both Bulgaria's "revolutionary" and "evolutionary" path of development, which made "liberation by Russia", the scenario giving Russia direct control over Bulgarian affairs, the only option left. Between 1855 and 1865, the Ottoman authorities settled 300,000 Crimean Tatar , Circassian and other Muslim Caucasian Muhacir in

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1848-479: The 60 member board of the League of Prizren, led by Abdyl Bey Frashëri, sent a letter to the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin, asking for the settling of Albanian issues resulting from the Turkish War. The memorandum was ignored by the congress, which recognized the competing claims of Serbia and Bulgaria to territories surrendered by the Ottoman Empire over those of the Albanians. The League of Prizren feared that

1932-451: The Albanians under control. Albanian diplomatic and military efforts were successful in wresting control of Epirus , however some lands were still ceded to Greece by 1881. The Great Powers decided in 1881 to cede Greece Thessaly and the district of Arta . In areas like Kastoria, Prilep, Bitola and Veles where an Albanian population was present, the local Bulgarian movement of the day was defeated when armed Bulgarian groups were repelled by

2016-462: The Albanians would not win in their claims to Epirus over Greece, and organized an armed resistance in Gusinje, Shkodra, Prizren, and Yanina. The San Stefano treaty was later superseded by the Treaty of Berlin at the insistence of Austria-Hungary and Britain. This latter treaty, however, recognized the rival claims of other nations in the region over those of the Albanians. The Congress of Berlin ignored

2100-504: The British representative at the Congress of Berlin , on June 13, 1878. The Kararname represents an initial position, mainly supported by landlords and individuals related to the Ottoman administration, which is also reflected in an early name of the group (The Committee of True Muslims, Albanian : Komiteti i Myslimanëve të Vërtetë ). The text of the kararname composed on the first meeting of

2184-723: The Central Committee for the Defense of Rights of the Albanian Nation. The Treaty of San Stefano triggered profound anxiety among the Albanians and Bosniaks, and it spurred their leaders to organize a defense of the lands they inhabited. In the spring of 1877, influential Albanians in Constantinople  – including Abdyl Frashëri , the Albanian national movement's leading figure during its early years – organized

2268-619: The Constantinople Conference for the creation of two autonomous Bulgarian vilayets and taking into account Ignatyev's own memos in his 1875–1878 Diaries, among other things, his allegation that " The Ottoman Sultan trusts the Russian ambassador fully " (pp. 72–73), the insistence that " the Bulgarians... should be turned into an obedient tool of Russian policy and into our permanent allies by annihilating any option for them to cross to

2352-469: The League of Prizren who opposed Bulgarian geopolitical aims. The Ottoman Empire sought to suppress the League and they dispatched an army led by Ottoman commander Dervish Pasha, that by April 1881 had captured Prizren and crushed the resistance at the Battle of Ulcinj . The leaders of the league and their families were either killed or arrested and deported. Faced with growing international pressure to "pacify"

2436-411: The Ottoman Empire to negotiate a solution to their border dispute. The Albanians' successful resistance to the treaty forced the Great Powers to return Gusinje and Plav to the Ottoman Empire and grant Montenegro the mostly Albanian-populated coastal town of Ulcinj . There the Albanians refused to surrender. Finally, the Great Powers blockaded Ulcinj by sea and pressured the Ottoman authorities to bring

2520-699: The Ottoman Empire, which was faced with the realities of having to withdraw yet again from its occupied territories in the Balkans. The League of Prizren received funding, the highest quality weaponry, and diplomatic support from the Porte, which established the Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights in Constantinople in 1877. The Ottoman Empire continued to crumble after the Congress of Berlin and Sultan Abdül Hamid II resorted to repression to maintain order. The authorities strove without success to control

2604-613: The Ottoman administration. In Article 1 of this document, these Albanian leaders restated their intention to preserve and maintain the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans by supporting the Porte and "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania". Article 6 of the same document restated the hostility of the Albanians to the independence of both Bulgaria and Serbia . "We should not allow foreign armies to tread on our land. We should not recognize Bulgaria's name. If Serbia does not leave peacefully

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2688-425: The Ottoman authorities supported the League of Prizren, but the Sublime Porte pressed the delegates to declare themselves to be first and foremost Ottomans rather than Albanians. Some delegates, led by Sheikh Mustafa Ruhi Efendi of Kalkandelen , supported this position and advocated emphasizing Muslim solidarity and the defense of Muslim lands, including present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina . This initial position of

2772-524: The Ottoman central government. This proposal, presented by the Prizren League to the sultan, was echoed in an October 1880 assembly in Dibra, which called for Albania's unification. Prominent figures, including Xhemal Bey, Abdul Bey Frashëri, and Dervish Mustafa Efendi, worked to rally support and foster unity across northern and southern Albania. In January 1881, Sulejman Vokshi of Gjakova led League troops in

2856-605: The Ottomans' co-operation by assuring them that any territory they would lose in a potential war would be far smaller than the territory of the two autonomous vilayets, which largely overlapped with the borders of the Bulgarian Exarchate . Indeed, the Principality of Bulgaria created after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) covered less than 40% of the territory of the autonomous vilayets. In that connection, several of

2940-762: The Ottomans. Albanians who were loyal to the empire supported the Sublime Porte's military intervention. In April 1881, Dervish Pasha's 10,000 men captured Prizren and later crushed the resistance at Ulcinj. The League of Prizren's leaders and their families were arrested and deported. Frashëri, who originally received a death sentence, was imprisoned until 1885 and exiled until his death seven years later. Formidable barriers frustrated Albanian leaders' efforts to instill in their people an Albanian rather than an Ottoman identity. Divided into four vilayets, Albanians had no common geographical or political nerve center. The Albanians' religious differences forced nationalist leaders to give

3024-416: The Prizren and the southern branch. The Prizren branch was led by Iljas Dibra and it had representatives from the areas of Kırçova ( Kicevo ), Kalkandelen ( Tetovo ), Priştine ( Prishtina ), Mitroviça ( Mitrovica ), Vıçıtırın ( Vushtrri ), Üsküp ( Skopje ), Gilan ( Gjilan ), Manastır ( Bitola ), Debre ( Debar ) and Gostivar . The southern branch, led by Abdyl Frashëri consisted of sixteen representatives from

3108-613: The Reichstadt and Budapest Treaties or Count Ignatyev's Diaries, the Bulgarian statesman and long-standing Prime Minister Stefan Stambolov held similar beliefs as early as the 1880s. He considered the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) to be an attempt by Tsarist Russia to turn Bulgaria into a protectorate and preferred a union with Romania or even a dual Bulgarian-Turkish state to further involvement with Russia. The circumstances leading to

3192-556: The Russo-Romanian pre-war treaties that guaranteed the integrity of Romanian territory. Austria-Hungary was disappointed with the treaty as it failed to expand its influence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Albanians , dwelling in provinces controlled by the Ottoman Empire, objected to what they considered a significant loss of their territory to Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro and realized they would have to organize nationally to attract

3276-765: The Russo-Turkish war, the incoming Serb army expelled most of the Muslim Albanian population from the Toplica and Niš regions into Kosovo, triggering the emergence of what became the League of Prizren (1878–1881) as a response to the Great Eastern Crisis . Influenced by these events the Local Councils for National Salvation merged into a single coordination body. The Albanians, on December 12, 1877 established in Istanbul

3360-509: The Serbs declared war on Ottoman Empire, as did Montenegro. Both were supported by the Russian Army and spread their attacks across the northern parts of Albania. The Albanians were unable to defend several regions and cities in the northeast and northwest of Albania. Upon occupation of these lands, the Ottoman administrators (of mainly Albanian origin) fled the territories and/or were expelled. During

3444-523: The Treaty of San Stefano, which recognised the independence and/or territorial claims of Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia. After the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–1878. Albanian leaders from Peja , Gjakova , Gusinje , Luma , and from Debar and Tetovo met in Vardar Macedonia to discuss the development of what would only later be regarded as a national platform. The group of proto-nationalists received all manner of material and financial support from

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3528-539: The ability to exercise judgement at critical junctures in their history. In particular, Aleksandar Tatsov, Yanko Gochev, Plamen Tzvetkov and Alexander Yordanov have referred to the Balkan Wars in which the false belief of several successive Russophile cabinets that "Russia will help Bulgaria because it did so in San Stefano" essentially made the country's entire future dependent on a foreign power that had anathemised

3612-482: The areas of Kolonjë , Korçë , Arta , Berat , Parga , Gjirokastër , Përmet , Paramythia , Filiates , Margariti , Vlorë , Tepelenë and Delvinë . In these regions the movement was primarily Muslim, due to the fact that most of the Orthodox population was under Greek influence. On the other hand, in the northern regions both Muslim and Catholic populations supported the objectives of the League of Prizren. At first

3696-584: The arrangement because it awarded Russia a predominant position in the Balkans and thereby upset the European balance of power . A peace conference to settle the dispute was held later in the year in Berlin. The overall situation influenced Albanians to organize themselves as the Local Councils for National Salvation with the aim to protect the Albanian populated lands. By the end of 1877 the issue of defending territorial integrity had become difficult. On December 13, 1877,

3780-501: The assembly, including delegates from Bosnia and mutasarrif ( sanjakbey ) of the Sanjak of Prizren as representative of the central authorities, and no delegates from Scutari Vilayet . Kararname served to promote a new agenda of Albanian National Awakening composed by Abdyl Frashëri on a key assembly of landowners at the Bektashi monastery of his native village of Frashër , and adopted by League of Prizren on November 27, 1878. It

3864-595: The assistance of foreign powers seeking to neutralize Russia's influence in the region. The implications of the treaty led to the formation of the League of Prizren . In the "Salisbury Circular" of 1 April 1878, the British Foreign Secretary Robert Cecil , made clear his and his government's objections to the Treaty of San Stefano and the favorable position in which it left Russia. According to British historian A. J. P. Taylor , writing in 1954: "If

3948-408: The authors have also noted the unwillingness of the Russian administration to refer to the Bulgarians by their national name and to instead call them "Slavs" and "Orthodox Christians" before the war and the subsequent use of designations such as "Russian-Danubian Province" , "Balkan Province" , "occupation fund" and "occupation" until the terms of the Berlin Treaty defined the organisation of

4032-445: The autonomous territories from becoming Russian puppets. Thus, the vilayet autonomy proposal of the United Kingdom confirmed the veracity of Russian propaganda. The inability to subjugate the Bulgarians to its long-term goals and policy and the desire to keep Western influence out of the Balkans are argued to be the very reasons for Russia's unwillingness to commit to the proposals of the Conference. A war would have drastically reduced

4116-416: The capture of Skopje and Prishtina. In February, the League's forces captured Dibra and forced the Ottoman administration to withdraw. Guided by the autonomous movement, the League rejected Ottoman authority and sought complete secession from the Porte. In August 1878, the Congress of Berlin ordered a commission to trace a border between the Ottoman Empire and Montenegro. The congress also directed Greece and

4200-553: The cities of Nikšić , Podgorica , and Bar (Article 1), and the Ottoman Empire recognized its independence (Article 2). Serbia gained the cities of Niš and Leskovac in Moravian Serbia and became independent (Article 3). Turkey recognized the independence of Romania (Article 5) while the latter gained Northern Dobruja from Russia (to which it was transferred from the Ottoman Empire) and ceded Southern Bessarabia in

4284-491: The city of Prizren, (Kosova then Ottoman Empire ). Around 300 Muslims participated on the assembly, including delegates from Bosnia and the mutasarrif (administrator of sanjak) of Prizren as representative of the central authorities, and no delegates from Scutari Vilayet . The delegates set up a standing organization, the League of Prizren, under the direction of a central committee that had the power to impose taxes and raise an army. The league of Prizren consisted of two branches:

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4368-435: The conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 . It was signed at San Stefano , then a village west of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), on 3 March  [ O.S. 19 February] 1878 by Count Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatiev and Aleksandr Nelidov on behalf of the Russian Empire and by Foreign Minister Saffet Pasha and Ambassador to Germany Sadullah Bey on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. According to

4452-536: The decree (the Book of Decisions ) signed by 47 Muslim deputies from the districts of Prizren , Yakova (present-day Gjakova), Ipek (present-day Peć ), Gucia , Yeni Pazar (present-day Novi Pazar ), Sjenica , Pljevlja , Mitrovica , Vučitrn , Pristina , Gnjilane , Skopje , Kalkandelen (present-day Tetovo ), Kičevo , Gostivar , and Lower Dibra (present-day Peshkopi ) and Upper Dibra (present-day Debar ) on June 18, 1878. The original text, written on Ottoman Turkish ,

4536-401: The eastern Balkans. The Albanians' fear that the lands they inhabited would be partitioned among Montenegro , Serbia , Bulgaria , and Greece fueled the rise of resistance. The first postwar treaty, the abortive Treaty of San Stefano signed on March 3, 1878, assigned areas claimed by the League of Prizren to Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary and the United Kingdom blocked

4620-602: The enemy side " (pp. 51–53) and that " the Austrian and Turkish Slavs must be our allies and tools of our policy towards Germany " (pp. 51–53), the warning that " if the nations that rebelled against the Turks fall under Western rather than our influence, the situation on the Balkans will become far more untenable for Russia than it is now " (p. 58), etc. and after analysing the Great Power that would benefit most from sabotaging

4704-405: The enlarged Bulgaria envisioned by the treaty alarmed neighboring states as well as France and the United Kingdom. As a result, the enlargement was never implemented, being superseded by the Treaty of Berlin following the Congress of the same name that took place three months later. The treaty established the autonomous self-governing Principality of Bulgaria , with a Christian government and

4788-466: The establishment of Greater Bulgaria would harm its interests in the former and remaining Ottoman territories. These reasons prompted the Great Powers to obtain a revision of the treaty at the Congress of Berlin , and substitute it with the Treaty of Berlin . Romania, which had contributed significantly to the Russian victory in the war, was extremely disappointed by the treaty, and the Romanian public perceived some of its stipulations as Russia breaking

4872-475: The future Bulgarian Principality and gave the Russian occupation corps explicit deadlines for retreat. In particular, Indzhev , Doychev and Yordanov have opined that if the Russian troops had not been forced in Berlin to withdraw, they would have never left. Numerous authors conclude that the carefully crafted myth of San Stefano has caused lasting harm to Bulgarian statehood by making Bulgarians vulnerable to Russian propaganda and depriving them of

4956-488: The illegally occupied countries, we should send bashibazouks (akindjias) and strive until the end to liberate these regions, including Montenegro." On the first meeting of the league the decision memorandum ( kararname ) said nothing explicitly about reforms, schools, autonomy or the union of the Albanian population within one vilayet. It was at first not an appeal for Albanian independence , or even autonomy within Ottoman Empire but, as proposed by Pashko Vasa , simply

5040-488: The league participated in the Battle of Novšiće and defeated Montenegrin forces who tried to take control over Plav and Gusinje . After the breakout of open war the League took over control from the Ottomans in the Kosovo towns of Vushtrri , Peja , Mitrovica , Prizren and Gjakova . In 1880, northeastern Albanian delegates proposed creating an autonomous Albanian province, with Monastir or Ohrid as its capital, locally appointed officials, and partial revenue allocation to

5124-640: The league the various uprisings were local in character and occurred mostly in the northern regions and especially in the Vilayet of Kosovo . The imperial authorities disbanded a successor organisation, the League of Peja (Besa-Besë) founded in 1897, executed its president Haxhi Zeka in 1902, and banned Albanian-language books and correspondence. In Macedonia, where Bulgarian -, Greek -, and Serbian -backed guerrillas were fighting Ottoman authorities and one another for control, Muslim Albanians suffered attacks, and Albanian guerrilla groups retaliated. In 1905 Albanian leaders meeting in Monastir (Bitola) established

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5208-495: The league was not based on the nationalistic but the religious solidarity. It said nothing about the reforms, nothing about the schools, nothing about the autonomy or about the union of the Albanian population within one, Albanian vilayet . The participants wanted to return to the status quo before the start of Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 . The main aim was to defend from immediate dangers. Soon that position changed radically and resulted in demands of autonomy and open war against

5292-422: The league, based on the religious solidarity of the landlords and the people connected with the Ottoman administration and the religious authorities, was the reason for naming the league The Committee of the Real Muslims ( Albanian : Komiteti i Myslimanëve të Vërtetë ). Other representatives, under Frashëri's leadership, focused on working toward Albanian autonomy and establishing and Albanian state by creating

5376-427: The memorandum from the league with German chancellor Otto von Bismarck even proclaiming that an Albanian nation did not exist and that Albania was "just a geographic notion". Bismarck showed his disdain for excessive involvement in Balkan affairs, saying "The whole Balkan is not worth the healthy bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier." The congress ceded to Montenegro the cities of Bar and Podgorica and areas around

5460-436: The most developed of the areas claimed by the League, Gjirokastër , Berat , and Vlorë  – where schools conducted classes either in Turkish or in Greek. The League of Prizren was among the most obvious Albanian reactions to the dramatic withdrawal of the Albanians' imperial patrons, the Ottoman Empire, after almost four centuries of dominance in the Balkans. The aftermath of the Russo-Turkish war of 1878 produced

5544-399: The most effective tool for generating pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiment in Bulgarian society. Finally, Tsvetkov bluntly states that unless Bulgarian society overcomes what he refers to as "its San Stefano inferiority complex" and "self-degrading Russophilia " , he is not optimistic about the future of the country. In that connection, quite notably and despite being unaware of either

5628-459: The mountain towns of Gusinje and Plav , which Albanian leaders considered Albanian territory. Serbia also gained some territory with an Albanian population. The latter, the vast majority of whom were loyal to the empire, vehemently opposed the territorial losses. On June 10, 1878, about eighty delegates, mostly Muslim religious leaders, clan chiefs, and other influential people from the Ottoman vilayets of Kosovo, Monastir and Yanina , met in

5712-455: The national movement a purely secular character that alienated religious leaders. The most significant factor uniting the Albanians, their spoken language, lacked a standard literary form and even a standard alphabet. Each of the three available choices, the Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic scripts, implied different political and religious orientations opposed by one or another element of the population. In 1878 there were no Albanian-language schools in

5796-480: The official Russian position, by signing the treaty, Russia had never intended anything more than a temporary rough draft, so as to enable a final settlement with the other Great Powers. The treaty provided for the establishment of an autonomous Principality of Bulgaria following almost 500 years of Ottoman rule in the Bulgarian lands. Bulgarians celebrate the day the treaty was signed, 3 March  [ O.S. 19 February] 1878, as Liberation Day . However,

5880-405: The organized protest. This was the first step toward a national organization. Treaty of San Stefano The 1878 Preliminary Treaty of San Stefano ( Russian : Сан-Стефанский мир ; Peace of San-Stefano, Сан-Стефанский мирный договор ; Peace treaty of San-Stefano, Turkish : Ayastefanos Muahedesi or Ayastefanos Antlaşması ) was a treaty between the Russian and Ottoman empires at

5964-402: The political situation in the empire's Albanian-populated lands, arresting suspected nationalist activists. When the sultan refused Albanian demands for unification of the four Albanian-populated vilayets, Albanian leaders reorganized the League of Prizren and incited uprisings that brought the region, especially Kosovo , to near anarchy. During the twenty five years that followed the abolition of

6048-414: The purpose of securing Russian interests in Bulgaria and fomenting lasting anti-Western sentiment in Bulgarian society. Drawing on the texts of the 1876 Reichstadt Agreement , the 1877 Budapest Convention , various correspondence during the time period and particularly Count Ignatyev's own unfiltered thoughts in his diaries, all researchers draw the conclusion that the Russian Empire's only ambition

6132-457: The refractory Albanians, the sultan dispatched a large army under Dervish Turgut Pasha to suppress the League of Prizren and deliver Ulcinj to Montenegro . This culminated in conflict between the League and the innumerable forces of the Ottomans, particularly the Battle of Slivova , in which a small, poorly-armed force of Albanian resistance fighters were defeated by an Ottoman expeditionary force of 20 battalions, albeit not without great cost for

6216-653: The right to keep an army. Though still de jure tributary to the Ottomans, the Principality de facto functioned as an independent nation. Its territory included the plain between the Danube and the Balkan mountain range ( Stara Planina ), the region of Sofia , Pirot and Vranje in the Morava valley, Northern Thrace , parts of Eastern Thrace and nearly all of Macedonia (Article 6). Bulgaria would thus have had direct access to

6300-454: The signing of the Treaty of San Stefano are depicted in Boris Akunin 's historical novel The Turkish Gambit . Akunin in general sticks to known historical facts, though he attributes some acts to fictional characters such as his recurrent protaginist Erast Fandorin . Kararname (League of Prizren) The Kararname ("Decree") of Prizren Committee for National Defence is the name of

6384-714: The struggle for an independent Bulgarian Church in the 1860s and the 1870s, the success of which played a crucial role in Bulgarian nation-building . He is further implicated to have advocated for the hanging of the founder of the Bulgarian Internal Revolutionary Organisation (IRO), Vasil Levski , before the Ottoman authorities attempted to make the IRO, which was hostile to any foreign involvement, more amenable to Russian desires. Indzhev, in particular, notes that by eliminating IRO's ideologue and leader, hellbent on liberation "by own means" and maligning

6468-419: The territorial provisions of the Treaty of San Stefano. They infer that the Russian Empire never had any actual intent to implement it. However, in particular, Indzhev , Doychev, Gochev and Yordanov do not draw the line here. After comparing the dates of signing of the Budapest Convention (15 January 1877) and Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha 's refusal (18 January 1877) to accede to the Great Powers' proposal at

6552-465: The territory of the future Bulgarian state but also given Russia free rein to dictate Bulgarian affairs. Russia's intent to go to war as early as July 1876, as stipulated in the Reichstadt Agreement , is adduced as a further argument that the Constantinople Conference was an obstacle, rather than a solution, to the Bulgarian Crisis for Russia. Indzhev and Gochev hypothesise that Ignatyev secured

6636-402: The treaty of San Stefano had been maintained, both the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary might have survived to the present day. The British, except for Beaconsfield [Disraeli] in his wilder moments, had expected less and were therefore less disappointed. Salisbury wrote at the end of 1878 'We shall set up a rickety sort of Turkish rule again south of the Balkans. But it is a mere respite. There

6720-561: The unification of all claimed territory within one vilayet. The participants wanted to return to the status quo before the start of Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 . The main aim was to defend from immediate dangers. Soon that position changed radically and resulted in demands of autonomy and open war against the Ottoman Empire as formulated by Abdyl Frashëri. Just as we are not and do not want to be Turks, so we shall oppose with all our might anyone who would like to turn us into Slavs or Austrians or Greeks, we want to be Albanians. In July 1878,

6804-461: The union of the Albanian population within one vilayet, but under the influence of Abdyl Frashëri , that initial position changed radically and resulted in demands for an independent Albanian state and open war against the Ottoman Empire. The 1877–78 Russo-Turkish War dealt a decisive blow to Ottoman power in the Balkan Peninsula, leaving the empire with only a precarious hold on Albania and

6888-562: Was a direct cause of the Bulgarian April Uprising of 1876 , whose bloody suppression generated widespread indignation and condemnation in Europe. Most Great Powers were still deliberating what action to take and eventually reached agreement to convene the Constantinople Conference in late December 1876, when the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary had already apportioned the Ottoman holdings in Europe for themselves by virtue of

6972-427: Was established at a meeting of 47 Ottoman beys . The initial position of the league was presented in the document known as Kararname . With that document, Albanian leaders emphasized their intention to establish autonomy within the Ottoman Empire by supporting the Porte and "to struggle in arms to defend the wholeness of the territories of Albania". The document said nothing explicitly about reforms, schools, autonomy or

7056-700: Was to conquer the Turkish Straits , in continuation of Catherine the Great 's Greek Plan . They argue that the " Bulgarian Question " and the liberation of the Bulgarians were used only as a political ruse and a stepping stone to Constantinople . As indicated in Ignatyev's Diaries, if the Russian plan had succeeded, Bulgarians would have ultimately been placed under Russian control by either subjecting them to direct Russian or indirect Serbian rule or ruling them as

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