Kosta Novaković's diary, about Serbia's crimes in Albania

Prepared and translated by: Adem Nimani

"The mood of the Albanian people towards Serbia can best be found in their favorite folk song about Skenderbeu. Two lines of that song have this content: We are neither Greek nor Serbian nor Bulgarian, but we are brave Albanians. I think that only when the Albanians forget these 500-year-old verses of the song about Skënderbeu, we can say that we have removed and erased the political mistakes of the Serbian bourgeoisie towards Albania and the hatred of the Albanians towards us. For the Albanians, we are conquerors there like any other conqueror". Kosta Novakovic was an officer in the Serbian army during the invasion of Albania in 1912-13. He was 26 years old when he spent four months in the Serbian occupying march of Albania. For criticizing the government, he was persecuted and imprisoned by the government of Nikola Pashiqi, while for his communist views he was forced to leave for Russia. In his notes from the front, Novaković described the miserable condition of the Serbian soldiers, who were sent by the Belgrade government to invade Albania. Barefoot and naked, Serbia sent its soldiers to die in the frozen mountains of Albania - all for megalomaniac expansionist goals. Novakovic wrote about all the crimes this army committed against the Albanian population. In his diary that he wrote during the First Balkan War [-1912 1913], he wrote:

When we occupy them, of course, they hate us

In October 1912, before Shëmitri, the Serbian Military Division of Shumadia gathered in Prizren. More than half of those soldiers were without proper clothing. They walked through snow and ice with torn shoes, wet and frozen feet, and spent the night in an abandoned Turkish barracks in Prizren. To warm their wet and frozen bodies, they, in most cases without any coverings, slept back to back.

Before starting the march to the sea, the army had been seized by all kinds of diseases, from rheumatism to cold feet, tuberculosis to colic. Half of the Division reported to the doctor every morning.

Where are we going to get it now? - asked the soldiers when we reached Prizren.

The next day, at sunrise, the order came.

Three units should be formed which, one after the other, should penetrate to the Albanian coast. The army commander ordered the 1st Division to leave immediately. The soldiers didn't have anything to wear, they didn't even have clothes to wear at a time when it was a harsh winter.

What's worse, those soldiers didn't even have bread to fill their bellies.

We must march, it was The order.

This is primary – the others are secondary. To carry out the order, a brigade was formed from the soldiers who chose them from the entire division. They chose those soldiers who had slightly more normal shoes and clothes. However, a third of them set out on this march without shoes and in ragged clothes. Exhausted and miserable, not a single soldier was spared from the march.

2 yellowed soldiers of the Shumadia Division set out from Prizren to invade Albania and feed the horses on the coast.

I can never forgive the supreme command of the government, for this adventure that cost us so many dead soldiers.

I don't even forgive the doctors who allowed the soldiers with rheumatism, tuberculosis, and all kinds of diseases to be sent on this march, to leave only bones in the land of Albania.

Serbian commanders were not allowed to go "to the sea", at a time when only bones remained in their bodies. It was decided by lot which battalion you would start first.

The lot fell to the 1st Battalion. This was probably because those soldiers looked older. The lot was cast by the non-commissioned officers and commanders of the detachments, who gathered those who had to march to the sea.

Before departure, he paid each soldier two to three dinars. The superiors did not mark the names of those soldiers who will march to the sea, to keep most of the money in their pockets.

The burning of villages and indiscriminate killings

The burning of villages, the destruction of houses and the beheading of Arnauts began.

We reached the village of Brut. This small village was burned and completely destroyed by the army. In two ruined, half-empty houses, they found some people, while in the other ruins of those houses there was no one alive.

The next day we again marched down the Drini, towards the Vezir Bridge.

Near the bridge we found our military guard who was standing near the nine graves of our soldiers. Nine severed heads of Albanians were left on the ground, at the feet of the buried Serbian soldiers. They were placed in that position. Those severed heads of the Arnauts, as a sign of submission, had been placed at the feet of the killed Serbian soldiers.

The revenge for our slain soldiers was savage. The self-proclaimed avengers, a lieutenant and 14 soldiers had written the names of their slain soldiers on a piece of paper and left them on each one's grave. The severed heads of the Albanians were buried at the feet of the killed Serbian soldiers. The watchman at the bridge explained to us about this revenge.

We had recommended the villagers to bring food, and when they brought the food they killed them and cut off their heads, said the soldier who was guarding there.

Murder and robbery, "brave with two hearts"

When we crossed the Drini, we found an unfortunate arnaut with a flock of sheep near the road. When he tried to protect the flock from the plundering army, he was killed and his entire flock was taken away to be slaughtered for meat.

"We give you our word of honor that we will not conquer you"! - they told the Albanians.

Both Albanian men and women believed in the Serbian army, that this army was not coming as a conqueror and subjugator, but to follow the Turkish army, which the Arnauts also hated.

Prenk Bibë Doda, a chieftain of Mirdita tribe, commander of some four thousand compatriots, released pe and allowed the march of our military units, according to the agreement we had made. They had given it to the Arbanians the word of honor that we did not come to subjugate and conquer Albania, but to liberate it.

The commander of the first unit, Buliqi, promoted to the rank of colonel, gave the speech of honor to the Albanian Bajraktar.

Prenk Bibë Doda, if this agreement was not reached, would declare war on the Serbian army.

Then, our exhausted soldiers lay down by the roadside to rest.

It occurred to me how tired and exhausted they were; the soldiers would no longer be able to stand up. Many of these soldiers came to the next inn, but not all. Some had stayed in Albanian homes for recovery and rest. The Arnauts had taken care of them, they had fed and warmed them until they got the spirit to continue on their way.

We photographed scenes from the nature of that place.

It was a hilly, stony, desert land. Of the agricultural crops, only corn and rarely any vegetables could be grown there.

Rocky Albania has poor soil and could not provide food for itself or its livestock, let alone for the Serbian soldiers. The small fields they had were surrounded by stones to prevent the rainwater from taking away the little that they had on the surface.

The state we saw can only be understood by those who live there.

Those fields were usually close to the houses for security against theft. Even the cattle were kept close to where they slept so that no one would steal them.

The houses are built of stone, some close to each other that look like a neighborhood or a village.

Those wicked fields can barely hold that many people. Every time they are separated, someone leaves there to find some place where he can build a hut to live. Even where it is placed, it must clean that piece of dirt from the stones.

The one who passes by here for the first time, may also notice some field or meadow in the form of a beautifully worked terrace on a hill from where you can see the whole village arranged with these small fields, one on top of the other. They are watered carefully in such a way that the water does not take with it the few that they have brought there from afar.

This kind of contrast in a rocky place with green fields and meadows can awaken the feeling of something beautiful in any visitor. The scenery seemed beautiful to us too, maybe because we were there from "Zori". These views can surely catch the eye of anyone who happens to be there.

The Arnauts were not impressed by this sight

This sight for them was good, but not beautiful, as the Arnauts said. Surely, this sight did not impress them with the work they had done. Anyone who passes by, notices this beautiful place, but not to stop and stay and live longer.

It seems that those people have matured with that life.

Until we reached the Albanian coast, I saw only one man with a slightly fuller stature. All the other people we saw were only skinned, from the living conditions they live in going down and up through those coasts.

Apparently, their daily wanderings have conditioned them to cope with these living conditions. For every day they make that journey by walking or bringing some load on horseback.

Bread is the main food for them, namely bread is all the food they have.

The conquest of Lezha

Only after two or three cannon shots, Lezha surrendered to the Division of Drin, which bore the name Albania [Albania].

The Malaysian soldiers who were with us looted Lezha. Then, we got sick from typhus and colic.

On the upper side of Lezha was the castle from which the sea could be seen. I put some tents on the lower side of the castle, where there was a field of olives. At that bad time, when almost all the trees were cut down, our officers did not remember to stop the army from cutting down the olive trees. Not knowing their value, our soldiers cut down many olive trees without asking.

It's war, so no one asks for any value, they said. In order to warm themselves, the soldiers thoughtlessly cut down any tree wood they saw. They slaughtered for meat any animal they happened to see.

The starving soldiers looted every person, house or family they came across. For every Serbian soldier, life was sweeter than that of the Arbanas who killed him. It's war, they said. For a piece of bread, the Albanian, the master of the house, who left behind many orphaned children, was killed.

Lezha was important for the Serbs and was expected to be the first "Serbian city on the coast". Until then, it was imagined to build the coastal railway in Shengjin.

From the place where we were stationed, for the first time I saw the sunrise over the sea.

From the east and south, Serbia and Greece pressed to conquer as much territory as possible inside Albania. All this was being done for the personal interests of the power circles of these two states. Even in this state, all parts of Albania aimed at resistance. They also wanted to gain independence to live better.

I think the arnauts lack the joining of forces

They looked very distraught. If they were to unite, that would mean they could get what they want, but right now they are far from united.

I am emphasizing once again, that from all that we see and experience every day, any invasion of this country will normally bring the resistance of the Arbanians.

All that the Serbian army has brought here for the Albanian people is their awakening to join the war against the invaders.

One day this will happen and Arnauts will now unite against their Serbian enemy. The loss of independence will surely one day encourage these people to do the proper work of organizing a state.

What is happening now is a great pain, but the people of Arban are not to blame for this. The fear of losing independence is an important factor and this factor will bring the only way of protection from the external enemy, it will bring a strong union, a state-forming union

The beginning of the military occupation

Upon reaching Albania, for the Serbian army the question was not whether Albania will be Serbian or not! The government of Belgrade resolved this issue immediately!

Now the only question was how much land of Albania will Serbia get; up to Tirana or up to Shkumbin, where by chance it would border with Greece, which would take the other half of the Albanian land.

All military superiors, from both sides, agreed with this solution. This conclusion can be drawn from the order of the Serbian Supreme Command, which already considered Albania only as a Serbian region. This conclusion was firmly rooted in all the high and low ranking Serbian superiors of the Albania Division. This disposition of theirs, if not so hostile, is seen by their vocabulary. Everyone talks about the impossible resistance of Albania. In the end, those people were not for trial, as the Serbian government told them this and the Supreme Command conveyed it to the soldiers, who should instill this conviction in the Albanian population.

The army considered that that land is ours and should remain ours. This is what happens in war, they said. The army started the administration over Albania to establish normal conditions and circumstances, if they could be called that. It is logical to prepare the population for a new regime, which will benefit; from this regime and to show them how "the Serbian army has come to liberate them and not to enslave them", and not as spoken and heard especially by the Arbanians.

The order to burn, kill and roast

Neither the Supreme Command nor the Serbian Government had any plan or goal that could be called normal.

The Serbian leaders (poglavars) openly said: let me go wherever I go. During this time we must take care to establish some order. To supply troops, to watch strictly for any manifestation of discontent from the populace, and to put down that eventual rebellion brutally with blood. Not a single individual who resists against the Serbian occupier should be spared and the entire village should be burned, wherever a rifle crack is heard.

The officers were given the written order by which all those who fall short of the required brutality will be punished.

Chetniks were blessed by the Serbian church before and after each massacre

Units of Serbian committees were sent to the smaller settlements. These units acted savagely against the population, completely free, without any responsibility. They attacked with all severity wherever they noticed any hostile disposition towards our army. At the same time, those soldiers who lacked the rigor of implementing orders were also evidenced. The superiors of those units that had committed the most brutal massacres and robberies were proposed for recognition. .

Military administration by hanging

The military regime rushed in with all its ferocity. These reprisals were carried out by non-commissioned officers and officers with barracks psychology: narrow-minded people without a grain of morality.

They were unscrupulous towards people of other nationalities, without any criteria, as to what they dare and what they dare not do. Even if it happened that the commander of a unit, out of fear or tenderness, adhered to some rule not to do anything resembling military administration, this would not be good for him. Wherever the foot of the Serbian soldier has set foot, the power and administration of the Serbian army, the people of Arban have preserved the best memories; black for the Serbian army.

The military command, in the first step it took, set up triangles of death everywhere, where they executed sentences by hanging on the rope to frighten as many people as possible. The military superiors did not even think of undertaking any other method of solving the problems, when they had in front of them the order for these punitive measures; Hanging on a rope. They did not answer to anyone for this punishment, because it is war, they said.

If someone makes a mistake, kill them so they don't make the same mistake again.

The army does not have time to wait for the improvement of the convict, but for the improvement of the other one close to him who could make a mistake. Let fear reign, let every living man tremble before them, this was the main principle of most of the commanders of the Serbian execution squads.

Tribute and misuse of the budget

So that no one says that I have not written the truth in this diary, I am writing some examples:

As soon as the military power arrived in Albania (some by order of the Commander of the Albania Division and some without his order), they began to collect taxes and tribute from the people, just as they had foreseen in the beginning, according to a certain sample of the Turkish power that had been before. Although those sums of money seemed small and insufficient for the army, they were impossible for the poor population from whom they were extorted. This was happening in a time of war when there was no work activity. These taxes, to those who collected them, were small, but when collected, they increased to considerable sums for individuals who had no responsibility to record them in writing in any register or army treasurer's book.

There was money, but it was not spent on the army

In our division, in some inexplicable way, some austerity was applied.

Of the 20 dinars worth of gold that the army took for the road, a total of four to five thousand dinars had been spent during the march, while the other amount had been saved, and they had done this with the lives of people, with their health and with the strength they had left. superiors.

Hungry army, without clothes

During the march, the soldiers dragged their feet. Half of them walked barefoot, their feet frozen from the cold. Even those who had torn shoes, their toes were numb and visible from afar. Most also lacked bread. Before the departure, and for two days of the march, the soldiers had eaten five loaves each. At first the bread had filled their bellies and strengthened their legs, but this was their misfortune, for they had to go five days more without bread.

Corruption and bribery, as in the past and today

At first, in the first moments of fear, the tribute rally went very well. People thought that with tax they are buying their life. Thus, large sums of money were collected which were collected by the low-ranking officers and handed over to the high-ranking ones of the Albania Division in Durrës.

Passing from hand to hand, the amount of that money was reduced and as a result of this reduction, all the soldiers were convinced of the suspicious enrichment of a large number of officers, which fact the people also understood. The compromise of the commander of the Albania Division, who retired because this problem was written on many postcards of the soldiers sent by the post office of Durrës, was made public.

The soldiers, in their postcards, had also written about many bad things that happened there at the front, and those postcards were made public.

The Serbian soldiers themselves were saying this, and can you guess what the Arnauts said and thought about this Serbian army which killed them and robbed them of that money?!

In many cases, due to the forced coercion to pay the tax, the Serbian army went so far as to cause uprisings of the population.

The uprising of the poor village of Zhej, between Tirana and Kruja, a village that had 25 houses, was caused by the commander of the execution squad, a certain Captain Petroviqi, commander of the Serbian army in Kruja. He collected taxes by force. The Arnauts attacked four soldiers who had gone to collect the tax by force, but on that occasion the villagers had killed one soldier and wounded another. The next day, all those villagers, with children and women, had moved somewhere in Mat, the province that had all taken up arms.

When two detachments of the Serbian army headed towards Mati with a cannon and a machine gun, from Tirana towards the insurgents, they never looked back. When the villagers heard that the army was heading towards them, they fled from their homes.

Captain Petrović and the hanging gallows in Kruja

When we talk about the squad commander in Kruja, then we must emphasize that there were many death sentences, shooting, and especially hanging on a rope.

There is no greater humiliation for an Albanian man than being slapped or anything else when he has no way to defend himself. There is no more humiliating death sentence for the Albanian than hanging him on a rope.

These frequent punishments in Kruja had a very bad effect on the inhabitants of the city and its surroundings, but also on all of Mati.

Even when the commander of Kruja once sent a platoon of soldiers with an officer to burn the houses of some Arnauts who were armed, before the platoon arrived the Arnauts had left and joined the armed units of Mati.

Armed Arnauts in Mat attacked that platoon of Serbian soldiers and killed and routed them all. After two or three days, a Serbian firing squad entered Kruja as a sign of revenge, but suffered many losses.

It was a gift from God that we were in Tirana

In Tirana, gallows were not used, since the task of disarming was assigned to a tactical officer, and thus there were no uprisings, no rebellions, no attacks. And not only that.

The tribes around Kruja, who were armed, before we got there, sent a message to the Serbian commander of Tirana that they want to talk with him about handing over their weapons. Since this was not within the competence of the commander of Tirana, they were recommended to turn to him in Kruja, which they did not dare to do. There were several cases when those people who had returned to their homes and surrendered their weapons with the word given by the Serbs that nothing will happen to them, they got through as if they were not.

Those who surrendered their weapons were immediately hanged or shot by the Serbian army.

This example served other Albanians not to surrender to Krujë. This had a great impact especially in the province of Mati, which once decided for peace, hoping that the military regime will be temporary and that nothing can be achieved with conflict.

According to an agreement of the form: We give him the Serbian word of honor, Mati would temporarily recognize our power and people would return to their homes, but when they saw what happened to those Arnauts who had surrendered, no one surrendered.

Thus, Mati remained with a weapon in his hand throughout our stay in Albania, ready to counter the attack of the Serbian army there. Mati no longer trusted the Serbian army and considered that it is better to preserve the independence of the country. That province was prepared for defense and not for attack.

The population was kept under fear and uncertainty

Although in the circles of the Serbian army it was decided that Albania would be Serbian, the population was kept under fear and expectation of something that they did not know what it would be.

If you were told this today, the next day you would be told something else.

All this caused distrust among the population towards our army.

Orthodox Greeks and Arnauts began to cool off from the first enthusiasm of liberation, waiting for the benefits of the new administration of the Serbian conqueror. They soon regretted the demonstration they organized for our reception in Tirana, Durrës and Kavajë, and criticized us for not telling them to refrain, so as not to be seen by the Albanians who were offended by our arrival there.

The first victim, but not the only one of this anger of the Albanians, was the Greek Leonida Mineo from Kavaja who was the mayor of the municipality and who had violently collected a lot of money from the Albanians and handed it over to the military authorities.

Albanians killed Leonida Mateo among Kavaje.

In addition to him, several Orthodox Greeks and Albanians were also killed, also compromised by their association with the Serbian soldiers and the military power, which many times was completely false.

Serbia supported the Beylers and did not deal with the poor at all

The poor were left far away from our military power. Even in Albania, as everywhere in the world, according to the rule in occupied lands, at first the rich layers of the country become loyal to the conqueror. Those layers, almost as a rule, first help the new regime. In order for them to be loyal to the new regime, the Serbian military regime had to provide them with the wealth to be loyal. All those beylers who with their previous political work were so compromised before the Albanian mass, had fled before the arrival of the Serbian army. The remaining Agalars probably now lived more safely under the regime of the Serbian army.

Why were the middle class and the poor not satisfied?

The Serbian army didn't even have anything to give to the poor to be playful. Even the behavior of the Serbian army towards them was terrible, compared to the Serbian attitude towards the rich and the poor. The new government did not give anything to the poor. The mere fact of how the rich were faring with the invading Serbian army was enough to make all of us poor people hate it. They, under this new regime, about which we have spoken and written, understood equality as the disappearance of the privileges of the Beylers and the correction of all the injustices that the Beylers had done to them throughout the Turkish occupation.

Chetniks see only the booty and the knife

The military units had established their own regime and one can guess what regime this was. Squads of Serbian murderous committees operated freely. A low-ranking officer, with one, two or three platoons, or with a company, administered a country where he was sent to rule with medieval laws. That officer has not even been able to imagine himself in the position of the people, a people so poor that this superior has come there not by luck but by terror.

That superior knows that he has the duty of temporary administration in that country and therefore does not even try to approach the people and is convinced by so many examples of the behavior of high-ranking officers. He is convinced that he has a cause against everyone; uncle and rifle.

The Serbian committees considered that they have authorization for everything. When it falls to them to administer a country, you can imagine what can happen to those people left in their hands. With the very fact that those Serbian commies volunteered to kill and loot, it is known what they do. They separated them from the large units of regular troops, and thus became invisible in order to plunder and kill whenever they wanted.

These undisciplined commies even in times of peace take the life of anyone - even for no reason. After all those crimes, they no longer remain human and see nothing behind them but loot and knives.

Chetnik criminal tradition

In general, I do not understand, much less explain why those units of Chetnik committees were formed during the war. We had the chance to see even further, what they did, starting from Merdari to Lumë. What role did the committees play? Their actions have brought us more harm than good. The burning of houses and fodder, the indiscriminate and wanton killings and looting, the assesses have not contributed to our operations, especially when it comes to the rear.

Let's mention only Pečin on the river Shkumbin, where the committees ruled for a while. Because of a skirmish before we entered Peč, before we occupied it, and because six Serbian commies were killed there (since detachments were formed from soldiers who had volunteered to be part of those detachments) killed several hundred Arnauts. Although those soldiers had been killed during the fighting, each of these captains considered it their duty to avenge their slain comrades. And they did it that way by killing as many Arnauts as possible.

Carnage without human feelings

One cringes when you hear those people talk quite normally about slaughtering Arnauts. You do not regret why in this war man has lost all sense of his being in general.

He is not going into details one by one, in those details that prove how the war has erased their memory and any normal reasoning, except for the fear of death.

Crime without any responsibility, independent criminal activity

Again, I ask why the Serbian army, even after the war against the Turks, continued to form those murderous criminal gangs that operated freely even at the beginning of the war against the Bulgarians in Skopje, Veles, Kumanovo and elsewhere, when the military leaders had seen that those gangs are completely unnecessary for military operations and that they only aim to morally harm the army and the people from which they came.

Europe kicked us out of there at home

When we were forced to leave, the graves remained as our only experience of the "work" we had done. We had only opened graves.

The warships of the European powers blockaded Shengjin and Durrës, waiting for our departure from Albania. The Serbian army immediately retreated and for 15 days we were loaded onto the ship in Durrës, with all the loot we had, looted things and cattle. And when they were all loaded, there was nothing left in Albania that anyone could talk about for the Serbs, except the graves, many graves scattered all over the place.

They said: We have never waged a war of conquest

The Serbian army, with all that it did, has never found the strength to use the true power of the Albanian people, who aim to live a little better than before. The Serbian army was not invited there to help that people, but went to subjugate them. But this Serbian army did not even think of witnessing something that could be called good for the Albanian people. The Serbian army did not even try to gain some sympathy from the Albanian people.

We occupy them and they hate us

Leaving Durrës, I was sorry to leave that land in which I have seen at the same time so many examples of bravery, but also poverty and misery without limits. Talking on the ship with an officer, about our departure, we came to the point where we started talking about Albania's past. Even the superior spoke as I thought and it seemed to me that he was reading my every thought. That officer said that the Albanians hated us as much as they had hated the Turks who had left before.

It is a matter of time when the Albanians will forget our crimes there. This is entirely a matter of Serbian state policy, whether it will be able to speed up this oblivion. For us Serbs, the Turks were savage before, but 500 years have passed in order not to forget this history and their injustice. Serbia should aim that this hatred of the Albanians towards us does not last 500 years and that they forget their enmity towards us and do not consider us enemies.

Why conflict and not alliance?

Why didn't the Serbs help the independence of the Albanian state?

Why didn't we make them friends, when we needed that friendship so much, the lack of which will hinder us for a long time and, by hindering us, the Albanians also hinder themselves.

Why don't our power circles think about creating friendship in the future? /Telegraph/

Source: Novaković, Kosta, Četiri meceta u middle Albania [Four months in central Albania], Borba, Book 7, 1914.