User talk:Don macedone

Skopje in Albanian hands
Skopje was briefly in Bulgarian hands after the March 1878 Treaty of San Stefano, but it was immediately returned to the Ottoman Empire at the Congress of Berlin that same year.

On 11 August 1912, the independent Albanian army "liberated" Skopje, which was known at the time by its Ottoman name: "Üsküp". You can read about it on page 273 of Jacques, Edwin E. (1994) The Albanians: an ethnic history from prehistoric times to the present McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina, ISBN 0-89950-932-0. See also, Jelavich, Barbara (1983) History of the Balkans: Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press, New York, page 89, ISBN 0-521-27459-1. The Serbs occupied Skopje in October after the Battle of Kumanovo. As you can see on the April 1913 map little of Albania (just around Vlora) was left un-occupied by either Greece, Serbia, or Montenegro. (Note that Skopje is Uskub on the map.) Undoubtedly because of the various occupations, the Treaty of London (1913) boundaries left a significant number of Albanian communities outside the new state of Albania, including Skopje. In 1914 during the Second Balkan War Skopje was briefly occupied by Bulgaria. See map of contested area.(Note that Skopje is Uskub on the map.) But it was returned to Serbia in the Treaty of Bucharest. Note that Albania lost land to both Greece and Montenegro in the Treaty of Bucharest, see map of changes from Treaty of London to Treaty of Bucharest. So during the unrest following World War I in 1918-1920, during which Albania eventually decided upon a republican form of government, there was much discussion of demanding added territory, including Skopje, which town was in Serbian hands at the time. Since the very existence of Albania was in the balance, the Albanians decided on a less radical approach for negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. See Principality of Albania for some detail on the state of Albanian politics at the time. Note that Albanian irredentist guerrillas were operating in both Serbia and Montenegro at the time. --Bejnar (talk) 20:23, 18 October 2009 (UTC)