The Albanian issue in the prism of diplomacy and British public opinion

From: Enis Sulstarova

Daut Dauti's book "Britain and the Albanian issue during the fall of the Ottoman Empire, 1878-1914" is added to the rich library of studies on the National Renaissance period. The special feature of Dout's book is the interweaving in his analysis of British foreign policy (in relation to other powers) on the "Question of the East", with British domestic policy and with public perceptions in this country on the peoples of the Balkans and on Albanians in particular.

No state conducts foreign policy without some public participation. If we keep in mind that in the last decades of the century XIX and at the beginning of the century. XX, Britain had the largest empire in the world, which meant that its interests extended to all continents, and that it was simultaneously the oldest and most developed democracy in Europe, then it becomes clear that public opinion in this country had an important role in determining foreign policy. It is known that public opinion is not stable, but fluctuating and especially influenced by politicians and famous journalists who amplify their voice through the media.

For the period in question, the role of the press was extraordinary, because it informed the public about the events in the world, conveyed to it information about different peoples around the world and about their level of civilization. Debate on foreign policy took place in the press based on perceptions created about the history and culture of the peoples living in different areas of the world where British rule and influence was exercised.

In Dauti's book, the debates of the political wings on the Ottoman Empire are related to the perceptions of British travelers and scholars who showed interest in the peoples and national issues in the Balkans. To our knowledge, these two topics have generally been treated separately, both by foreign and Albanian authors. Thus, Maria Todorova's well-known book "Imaginary Balkan" focuses on the perceptions of travelers and the press and less on the politics of the great powers about the Ottoman Empire.

There are some studies by Albanian authors on the activity of Ed Durham and Abrij Hërbërt [AubreyHerbert] on the Albanian issue, but naturally they do not deal extensively with the political debate in Great Britain. We can say that Katerina Fleming in the book "Muslim Bonaparte" managed to integrate the policy of Great Britain and France towards Ali Pasha Tepelena with the image of this ruler in the West, created from travelogues and literary fiction.

Dauti's book opens with the image of Albania created by the British public in the decades that preceded the Berlin Congress and the role of Great Britain in this congress, especially its lack of interest in the Albanian nation, which it sees as also related to the scarce and exotic knowledge that the British public had for Albanians. However, as the author rightly notes, the biggest blow to the Albanian national rights was given by the coming to power of the liberals led by Gladstone. The latter turned the oppression of the Balkan Christians by "Ottoman despotism" into a moral crusade to oppose the pro-Ottoman policy of Benjamin Disraeli's conservatives.

Thus, whenever the "Eastern Question" came up in the British public debate, the suffering of the Christians of the Balkans was treated under this rubric. Even when the Albanians were distinguished as a separate people, they are often seen as obedient subjects of the Sultan or as allies of the Turks to keep the Christians under the yoke. Religious identities have played an important role in the development of Balkan nationalisms and in the support that European powers gave them. Although Albanian nationalists elevated national identity above language and ancestry, to British policy-makers and public opinion they are seen as a predominantly Muslim population. As the author also notes, we have the paradox that the British conservatives, traditionally more connected to the Christian faith, favored the Albanians, because they were in favor of preserving the Ottoman rule in the Balkans, while the liberals, for whom it was expected that religion was not so much a part of the political consideration , on the contrary, supported the Christians of the Balkans in every case (p. 16).

The situation remained like this even after the Congress of Berlin. The Albanian issue began to be treated as part of the Macedonian issue, where the irredentisms of the Balkan states clashed and the interests of Austria-Hungary and Russia were mixed. Several times in the book it is mentioned that the preservation of the territories of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans was of interest to the British Empire for two reasons: the first was to prevent the exit of Russia or a large Slavic state in the Bosphorus Straits and the second was to avoid exasperating relations with Muslims of India. The mention of India in diplomatic reports dealing with Muslim Albanians is an interesting topic to explore further from the perspective of postcolonial studies.

Also, public opinion during the "Eastern Crisis" continued to sympathize with the South Slavs and Greeks, but someone like Artur Evëns was nevertheless interested in the Albanian past and informed the British public about the antiquity and characteristics of the Albanian people. British experts created the Balkans Committee to influence British foreign policy, and within it Durham and Hërbërti were advocates of the Albanian national issue, for the solution of which autonomy was proposed. The competition between Britain and Germany and the rapprochement of Austria-Hungary with the latter, determined to some extent the British approach to the Albanians on the eve and during the Balkan War. The public found in Serbia the cause of freedom, as it had found in Greece decades ago.

For their part, the Young Turks created the illusion that they would be able to reform the empire and that they would fulfill some of the national aspirations of the Albanians. In these conditions, the Albanian movement in the years 1911-1912 had no support from British foreign policy, even though leaders like Ismail Qemali and Hasan Prishtina hoped that their demands would be well received by British diplomats. Durham and Hërbërti, at the head of the Albanian Committee, continued tirelessly to present the Albanian interests to the government and the media, with some success in terms of the acceptance of the new Albanian state, but without getting Britain to engage on the side of the Albanians and it was opposed to powers like Russia and France, which were clearly in favor of the dismemberment of the Albanian territories by the winners of the Balkan War.

Historians and the interested Albanian public already have an accurate overview of the approach of international diplomacy to the Albanian issue during the years of the National Renaissance, thanks to a number of qualitative studies. However, Dauti's book is a welcome contribution to Albanian historiography, due to the methodology followed and the research of archival sources unused before, which enrich the information and complete the panorama even better. The characteristic feature that we pointed out from the beginning, i.e. the interweaving of public debate with diplomatic reports, makes reading enjoyable and introduces the reader to the atmosphere of the time. The book is dynamic: the scenes where diplomacy and politics take place change time and time again, once in London, then in Istanbul, and then in Ioannina, Skopje, Manastir, Shkodër. The discourse used by the author, which is fluent and clear. The only flaw we have noticed is the poor scientific and linguistic editing. It is disturbing, even irritating, when in an ambitious scientific publication there are words like "schoolchildren" instead of "researchers", or "Patriarchate" instead of "Patricana". We hope that in later editions these errors will be corrected. /sign/