FEUILLETON Americans, Serbs, and Albanians in the Balkan Wars and World War I (1)

Writing for Kosovo Kosovo Online: Dragan Bisenic, a journalist

"Three Americans, Ambassador Moses, and the Balkan destiny"

Right after the creation of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communists enthusiastically declared Albanians as the most mature people for communism. They claimed that Albanians already had a developed "Soviet organization" in their tribes, so there was no need to develop it separately after the revolution but only to further refine it.

This was attested by the leader of Serbian socialists, Dr. Zivko Topalovic, in his booklet "In the Middle East", published in Belgrade in 1924.

This was just one of the perspectives that foreign powers had on the future and survival of the newly established Albanian state, in whose formation foreign actions in the Balkans played a decisive role before the immediate collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. The decisive blow to the expulsion of the Turkish Empire from the Balkans was dealt by the First and Second Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913, which simultaneously defined the policy of the "Balkan League" that was created on the platform of "The Balkans for the Balkan Peoples".

The year 1912 was full of events in Rumelia. Under pressure from the Albanian insurgents, the Porte agreed to allow a higher degree of autonomy for four vilayets in the western Balkans (Kosovo, Scutari, Janina, and Bitola) and they were consolidated into one vilayet, called the Albanian Vilayet, based on a special decision of the parliament, in which the Albanians would once again have more rights compared to the Christians inhabiting these four vilayets. This continued the treatment of Christians as second-class citizens, which was one of the reasons for the start of the First Balkan War for the member states of the Balkan League.

Due to the outbreak of the First Balkan War, the agreement to establish this vilayet and to grant privileged status to the Albanians again was never realized because it was not confirmed by a parliamentary decision. This vilayet was known as the Albanian Vilayet, even though the Albanians did not constitute the majority of the population in the territory that included all four of the Western Balkan vilayets of the Ottoman Empire. In October 1912, the Balkan states, following their national aspirations, jointly attacked the Ottoman Empire and, in the following months, divided the whole of Rumelia, the territory of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, including those populated by the Albanians.

Concessions to the Albanians

After the Italian attack on Tripoli and Cyrenaica, the Porte was forced to promise certain autonomy and greater rights to the Albanians in August 1912 due to increased military engagement. This was because the Porte needed the support of the Muslim Albanians in potential conflicts with the Christian Balkan states. Since it was shown that the appeals of Serbia and Bulgaria to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early August 1912 to influence the Ottoman Empire to prevent the re-disenfranchisement of the Christian inhabitants of the Balkan vilayets of the Ottoman Empire in relation to the Albanians were in vain, the Balkan allies concluded that the problem could not be resolved diplomatically. Hence, the First Balkan War began with an ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire to immediately declare reforms under the supervision of the Balkan states and to protect the vulnerable Christians.

In November, with the outbreak of the First Balkan War, the Albanians declared the creation of an independent Albania, which included present-day Albania and the Serbian autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija. Albanian claims to Kosovo and Metohija were always based on the positions of the Prizren League. This argumentation was reiterated by the Albanian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, where the then Prime Minister of Albania, Turhan Pasha Permeti, participated.

The Balkan League was the result of a connected process in the development of Balkan states, but it, too, did not arise independently of external influence.

New information about the US role in the formation of the Balkan League can be found in the correspondence of the wife of Serbian diplomat Slavko Grujic, an American named Mabel Dunlop Grujic, with the longtime editor of the "Foreign Affairs" magazine since its inception, Hamilton Fish Armstrong. In a letter dated November 17, 1950, he reveals that three women, all American, and the US Ambassador in Athens at the time, George Moses, played an important role in the rebellion of the Balkan peoples against the Turkish conqueror.

Moses served as an MP from April 5, 1909, to September 30, 1912. He was also accredited as a diplomatic agent in Bulgaria. Before that, he was the editor and chief editor of the "Concord Evening Monitor" newspaper from 1892 to 1918. He had been trying to become an envoy in Greece since 1905 through Senators Jacob Gallinger and William Chandler, but he was only appointed to that position in 1909 by President Taft.

In her letter of November 17, 1950, recalling the meeting from 1912, Mabel Grujic notes that the "first successful attempt by Balkan peoples to unite in order to drive the Turks from the Balkans was made by the then US Envoy in Athens, George Moses". She testifies that Moses told her this when he completed his diplomatic mission.

At that time, as Mabel Grujic points out, it coincided that the wife of the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs was an American, as was the wife of the Bulgarian Ambassador in Athens, and also the wife of the Serbian Chargé d'Affaires in London, and herself. Moses proposed this arrangement to the Montenegrin Prince since he was the US Envoy in Cetinje at that time.

Bismarck's message to the Russians

Russia only intervened when the war began, stating that it alone must decide the division of territories after the war.

Turkey then attacked Bulgaria and Serbia at their existing borders. England, France, and Italy remained neutral and quickly accepted the "fait accompli" in speeches in London and Bucharest, after Bulgaria's attack on Serbia and Greece, as it had failed to obtain any part of the Macedonian territory it desired.

At that moment, she states that it was Bismarck who pointed out to Russia that its future lay in the Far East, after becoming an empire that reserved the Balkans for itself. Germany sought to form an alliance with the Ottoman Empire.

The First Balkan Uprising began in Bosnia, leading to the Congress of Berlin where Austria-Hungary was given a mandate over Bosnia and Herzegovina for 25 years. When that mandate expired, Austria-Hungary formally annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. Turkey responded with the Young Turk Revolution, promising to protect the province from Austria-Hungary, which was the promise of all the great powers.

However, the population of these provinces, as well as Macedonia and Crete, continued to resist.

"Mr. Moses saw this as a prelude to future atrocities and advised the Balkan states to prepare for war against Turkey", Mabel Grujic notes.

In support of this, she states that two of her American friends in high government positions told her that the unity of Balkan states was necessary.

The first to do so was US Secretary of State John Hay when they met in Paris in 1904.

Wondering whether his initiative was individual or came from Washington, she says she is sure it was approved in Washington, specifically by then-President William Taft.

Next was the American Professor, the first editor-in-chief of the Foreign Affairs magazine, Archibald Cary Coolidge, who, when they met in Paris in 1906 while he was teaching at the Sorbonne, told her that "the Balkan countries must unite".

Feuilleton, "Americans, Serbs, and Albanians in the Balkan Wars and World War I" will be continued tomorrow