Preservation of American Hellenic History
Preservation of American Hellenic History
by Jason C. Mavrovitis
Peace was unknown in the Balkans during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Each ethnicity's claim to Macedonia and the zeal of all to rid themselves of their Turkish overlords made for a complex armed struggle. Guerilla warfare was rampant in Macedonia, Epirus and Thrace. In 1908 Albanian nationalism sparked a revolution that by 1912 gained the Albanian people home-rule with the right to establish schools and publish newspapers. It also confirmed the 1878 boundary of Ottoman territory, which favored the Albanian population in the vilayets of Scutari, Janina, Monastir and Kossovo.(77) Neighboring states coveted all four vilayets: Scutari ~ by the Montenegrins; Janina ~ by the Greeks; Monastir and Kossovo ~ by Bulgars, Serbs and Greeks.
A secret Balkan coalition of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, the "League," had ambition to rid Macedonia of Turks and to divide the spoils. In the First Balkan War of 1912 the Turks lost. The result: Albania became a nation with less territory than it had coveted, and the Island of Crete united with Greece.
Dividing the spoils was more problematic than the League had hoped. In 1913, Serbia, Greece, Romania and Montenegro fought Bulgaria for territory in the Second Balkan War. In the end, Serbia and Greece shared Macedonia. [map / 78]
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