Kachak Movement

The Kachak Movement was a series of Albanian uprisings in Albanian-populated territories in Kosovo, Macedonia and Sanxhak from 1919 to 1927. The uprisings began after the end of the First World War when Kosovo became part of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (also known as Yugoslavia). Parts of the Albanian population which resisted Yugoslav rule formed the Kachak guerrilla movement under the leadership of the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo and conducted military operations and guerrilla-style attacks against Yugoslav soldiers and administrative establishments.

In response to the rebellions, Yugoslav authorities retaliated by conducting operations against the rebels and the civilian population. During this period, many atrocities were reported against the Albanian population, which included massacres, destruction of villages and looting. It is estimated that approximately 12,000 Kosovo Albanians were killed from 1918 to 1921 alone. The Kachak Movement was finally suppressed by 1927 due to the combined efforts of Yugoslavia and Ahmet Zogu, who scattered the leaders of the Kosovo Committee and quelled the resistance of most of the Kachak bands.

Background
Before the creation of the Independent State of Albania, Kosovo had been a center of Albanian Nationalism. In 1878 the League of Prizren was formed, a political-military organization of Albanian leaders which tried to defend Albanian inhabited lands. It was also the center of the Albanian revolt of 1910 and 1912. Despite having an approximately 75% majority Albanian population, it had a roughly 25% Non-Albanian (mostly Serb) minority, who wished to join the Kingdom of Serbia.

Many Albanians in Kosovo and Albania resisted being incorporated in the often changing Yugoslav regimes, knowing that the new Yugoslav forces were the same Serbo-Montengrin troops who had committed massacres of defenseless Albanian civilians. Albanians viewed peaceful co-existence as unattainable given the terror and violence they experienced.

After World War I, Serbia suffered greatly from Austro-Hungarian occupation and Kosovo saw clashes between Albanians and Serbs. In 1918, the Allies of World War I rewarded Serbia for its effort with the formation of a Serbian-centralized Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which kept Kosovo as part of Serbia. The conditions for Kosovar Albanians deteriorated as Serbian authorities implemented assimilation tactics such as closing down Albanian language schools while encouraging Albanians to emigrate. The Kingdom promoted the settlement of Serb and Slav settlers to Kosovo, thus beginning the Yugoslav colonization of Kosovo.

Parts of the Albanian population that resisted Serbian rule in Kosovo organised a military resistance against the Yugoslav authorities and formed the Kachaks. Under the political leadership of Hasan Prishtina and Bajram Curri, the movement based itself in Shkodër and was led by the Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo organization formed on 1 May 1918. Among their demands were the re-opening of Albanian language schools, recognition of Albanian as a co-official language and autonomy, with the goal of uniting Kosovo with Albania.

Rise of the Kachak Movement
In direct response to the military repression and Serbian efforts to disarm Albanians and install Serbian mayors and local officials, Albanian Kachaks in Macedonia began to overthrow Serbian offices, attack courts and trains, and rustle cattle; in late 1918, some 10,000 animals were stolen in the Dibër region alone. Albanian Kachaks were also active around Ohrid and Manastir.

Disaffected Kosovar Albanians, who had rallied around Hasan Prishtina, formed a 'Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo' in 1918 that was based in Shkodër, with their main demand being the unification of Kosovo with Albania. The Committee predominantly consisted of Kosovar Albanian representatives of the Albanian National Awakening. On 6 May 1919, the Committee called for a general uprising in Kosovo to oppose the incorporation of Kosovo into Yugoslavia, resulting in the Kachak Movement. The best known of the Kachak leaders were Bajram Curri, Hasan Prishtina and Azem Galica. The Committee issued strict guidelines to their Kachaks, urging them to refrain from targeting, harming or mistreating unarmed Slavs, and to refrain from burning houses or churches. Instead, the Kachaks targeted the Yugoslav army and administrative buildings. The Serbian authorities regarded them as mere bandits and, in response to their rebellion, retaliated by conducting indiscriminate operations against the Kachaks as well as the civilian population.

The large-scale revolt was centred in the region of Drenica, involving around 10,000 fighters under the command of Azem Galica. Azem and the other Kachak leaders presented a set of demands to Serbian officials: they asked the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to stop killing Albanians, to recognise the Kosovo Albanians' right to self-government, and to stop both the Yugoslav colonization program of Kosovo and the military actions of Yugoslav forces on the pretext of disarmament. They also requested that Albanian schools were opened, that the Albanian language was made an official administrative language, and that the families of the Albanian rebels were no longer interned by the authorities. The Yugoslavs responded to the attempts at communication with increased violence, and an increasing number of Serbian militias and Chetnik bands were deployed. The uprising was eventually suppressed by the Yugoslav army by November of 1920, however, and many of the Kachaks fled to Shkodra.

Neutral Zone of Junik
In April 1921, Azem Galica returned to Kosovo to revive the Kachak Movement. As a calculated act of provocation, the Yugoslav government had interned the families of suspected Kachaks to camps in central Serbia during the spring of 1921, which intensified the resistance. In July 1921, the Kosova Committee submitted a document to the League of Nations in which they reported Serbian atrocities against Albanians and identified the victims. They recorded that Serbian forces killed 12,371 people in Kosovo, imprisoned 22,110 and burnt down roughly 6,000 houses.

The Neutral Zone of Junik was established in November 1921 by the authority of the League of Nations following constant border disputes between Albania and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the frequent military intrusion from the Yugoslav side since 1918 into the Albanian side as well as continuous skirmishes between the Albanian guerrillas and Yugoslavian army. Most of the Kachak bands based themselves in the Neutral Zone, and some of the other political figures involved in the Kosovo Committee, such as Hasan Prishtina, also relocated to Junik.

The Kachaks were primarily concerned with self-government and preserving their traditional way of life. The Kanun - a set of traditional Albanian customary law codes - prevailed as the legislative basis of the Neutral Zone of Junik, which was a deeply traditional area and consisted of multiple clan leaders. The Kosova Committee functioned more as a link to the state of Albania, whilst everyday life in the Neutral Zone followed more traditional customs.

Despite the Kachak Movement's popularity amongst Albanians, it was not only opposed by the Yugoslav government, but also by Ahmet Bej Zogu and his supporters. In 1922, Zog - who was at this time Minister of the Interior in Albania and a known opponent of the Kosova Committee, began to disarm Albanian Highlander tribes in the north of the country as well as those within the Neutral Zone of Junik. Zogu also gave orders to the relevant administrative bodies of the state to attack the Neutral Zone and to liquidate the Kachaks wherever they found them, but particularly in Junik.

In March of 1922, Bajram Curri, Hasan Prishtina and Elez Isufi led an unsuccessful attempt at overthrowing Zog, who eventually became the Prime Minister of Albania on 2 December 1922. His quarrels with the leaders of the Kosovar Albanians made him a fierce opponent of the Kachak Movement, and of Kosova in particular. Zog's ascension to power resulted in the end of Albanian governmental support for Kosova, and he gradually assassinated the leaders of the Kosova Committee or drove them into exile. In January of 1923, Curri and Prishtina led another unsuccessful attempt at overthrowing Zog; in between these two unsuccessful attempts, Zogu entered into a secret agreement with the Yugoslavs, promising to destroy the Kachak bands among other things. Azem Galica and his main force of around 1,000 Kachaks were betrayed to the Yugoslavs by Zogu's regime. In January 1923, Zog's forces, in coordination with the Yugoslavs, invaded the Neutral Zone of Junik; the Kachaks left the zone and moved further into Kosovo, and the area was ceded to the Yugoslavs.

Jusuf Mehonja, an anti-Yugoslav Albanian leader from Sanxhak, led çeta bands in the lower Sanxhak area, including Novi Pazar, Rožaje, Sjenica, Kolašin and Bihor from 1924 onwards.

During the course of the Kachak Movement, the Yugoslavs attempted to pacify the Albanians of Kosovo using armed Chetnik bands and colonists, but ultimately, it was the international pressure and the lack of support from the Zogist regime of Albania that finally sapped the Kachak Movement.

The Kachak Movement was finally defeated in 1927. The leaders of the Albanian resistance either fell in battle, such as Azem Galica in 1924, or were murdered and assassinated by the Zogist regime of Albania, such as Hasan Prishtina and Bajram Curri. The Kosova Committee was broken apart by the Zogist regime, and Kosovo remained in the hands of the Yugoslavs.

Aftermath
According to Sabrina P. Ramet, approximately 12,000 Albanians were killed in Kosovo between 1918 and 1921. Some accounts state that between the years 1912-1920, 150,000 Albanians were driven out of Kosovo by the Serbs. In July of 1921, the Kosovo Committee recorded that the Serbs had killed 12,371 Kosovar Albanians and imprisoned over 22,000 more. More than 6,000 Albanians (mainly civilians) were killed by Yugoslav forces in 1919 alone, accompanied by the destruction of 3,873 homes and the expulsion of 30,000-40,000 Albanians from Kosovo who were forced to flee to Albania.

Following the Kachak revolts, the colonization of Kosovo would be intensified by the Yugoslav authorities and some 58,263 Serbian colonists would settle in Kosovo. In the Second World War, Kosovo was made part of Albania, and during the occupation of Kosovo, 70,000-100,000 Serbians were deported or forced to flee by the Albanian authorities. Albanian authorities also targeted Yugoslav colonists while simultaneously bringing 72,000 Albanian colonists to Kosovo from Albania.