The Operational Headquarters of "Kosmet", ordered by the General Staff of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, with the aim of disintegrating the core of the Albanian resistance in Kosovo, during the months of March-April 1945, forcibly mobilized Albanians to send them to the second so-called "Adriatic" front in the north-west of Yugoslavia. The scriptwriters of the Tivar Massacre, for sending the Albanian mobilizers to the north-west parts of Yugoslavia, had chosen the route: Prizren - Kukës - Shkodër - Tivar - Dubrovnik - Rijeka. For this front, they mobilized Albanians from Vushtrri, Besiana (former Podujeva), Prishtina, Kaçanik, Ferizaj, Gjilan, Lipjan, Shtimja, Theranda, Burimi, Peja, Gjakova, Rahovec, Sharri, Prizren.

According to the memories of the elders who experienced this violent mobilization, the Albanian mobilized were initially gathered in the district and municipal centers and then, organized into military units, commanded by Albanian officers, they traveled to the general mobilization center (in the military barracks) in Prizren. After settling in, the mobilized Albanians would be disarmed, with the excuse that they would take their weapons to Croatia and Slovenia!

The disarmament sent a bad signal to them and rightly raised suspicions that some kind of extermination scenario was being prepared behind the scenes. This psychosis deepened even further when the Albanian officers were also disarmed and the XXVII Brigade of the Serbian 46th Division, known for terrorizing the Albanian people in the past months, was tasked with escorting them.

Agreement between the Yugoslav UNC and the Albanian UNC: The 3rd and 5th Brigades from Albania, for the cleansing of Kosovo from the resistance groups

In the second half of 1944, while the Allied forces (American-British-Russian), were advancing on all fronts of the war against the Hitlerite army, the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav National Liberation Army, taking advantage of the created circumstances, at the beginning of September of that year, the UNÇJ Main Headquarters for “Kosovo and Metohija”, degraded it to the Operational Headquarters and on September 14, subordinated it to the UNÇJ Main Headquarters for Serbia. And surprisingly, in the name of the Operational Headquarters of “Kosmet”, combat preparations will begin ostensibly for the liberation of Kosovo and other Albanian territories, or in reality, the Supreme Headquarters of the UNÇJ had as its goal their re-occupation.

In the autumn of that year, the Supreme Headquarters of the UNÇJ led by Josip Broz Tito, in the name of internationalism, will make an agreement with the Russian Red Army, then with the Bulgarian forces, and on September 2, 1944, also with the General Staff of the UNÇ of Albania, to conduct joint military operations against German forces in Yugoslavia...!

As the German army retreated from many fronts of the war, the idea of ​​the Supreme Headquarters of the German army to strengthen the front line in the Balkans became unfeasible and in these circumstances the German "E" army, which was stationed in Greece, received the order to withdraw from this region. The withdrawal will take place through Macedonia, Kosovo and Sandzak, and then move to Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a northerly direction.

Army "E" was surprisingly not hindered (despite the propaganda made by UNÇJ strategists), but passed with very few losses in the north-west of Yugoslavia, while the fiercest fighting in Kosovo will be carried out by the Slavic-communist brigades, supposedly "against the forces of the National Defense of Ethnic Albania and the Albanian gangs that are reigning in Kosovo."

To argue this position, we are referring to the letter of Miladin Popovic, which, on behalf of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, he sent to all political commissars in Kosovo. In the letter, among other things, Miladin Popovic writes: "Although Kosovo and Metohija are free of invaders, we do not rule over the entire territory. The obstacle is the armed gangs that spread chauvinism. Now we have the inalienable duty of cleansing Kosovo and Metohija from these gangs.

The gangs must be liquidated energetically and mercilessly. The lands of those who do not surrender by the specified deadline will be considered state-owned, and this (confiscation – my remark Sh.B.) will be carried out by the headquarters (of the UNÇJ, - my remark Sh.B.). In the villages where resistance has been shown, the organizers must be found and handed over to the military court, which will immediately try them and disarm the villagers…”!

According to the UNÇJ-UNÇSH agreement, in early October 1944, the III and V Brigades of the 1st Corps of the National Liberation Army of Albania would be deployed to Kosovo. On October 17, 1944, the Bulgarian 2nd Army also set off for Kosovo, while there (Kosovo) and in other ethnic Albanian areas in Macedonia and Montenegro, units of the 13th Corps of the UNÇJ (the 22nd, 24th, 25th and 46th Serbian Divisions), the 41st Macedonian Division, the 9th Montenegrin Brigade and all the UNÇJ brigades for “Kosovo and Metohija” had completed preparations for the offensive.

The military operations of these forces began the offensive in three directions: 1. Kursumli – Përpallac – Podujevë – Prishtina; 2. Lebanë – Medvedja – Prishtina; and 3. Bujanovac – Gjilan-Prishtina.

The establishment of military administration in Kosovo and the forced mobilization of Albanians in March 1945

The III and V brigades of the 1st Corps of the Albanian UNC helped establish the Yugoslav military administration. At a time when the Yugoslav forces were carrying out the bloodiest operations in Drenica, on February 8, 1945, the Supreme Commander of the UNCJ, Josif Broz Tito, by special order no. 31, established the military administration in Kosovo. For this decision, Tito, on February 7 in Belgrade, had a meeting with the Serbian military: Savo Drelevič, Gjuro Medenica and Krsto Filipović, to whom he spoke about the role that the Military Administration should play in Kosovo.

With this order, all power in Kosovo would be transferred to a certain group of Serbian-Montenegrin military personnel, who would exercise political, executive and judicial power. On this occasion, changes occurred in the entire structure of the command cadres. At the head of the military power, namely the New Operational Headquarters, the former chief of the First Army, Colonel Savo Drelevich, was appointed, replacing Fadil Hoxha, who remained his deputy.

Lieutenant Colonel Dušan Vukotic was appointed Chief of Staff (until then he was deputy commander of the 46th Yugoslav Division), Stevo Dobërkovic (sent by the Serbian central headquarters) was appointed Chief of the Rear, while Lieutenant Colonel Gjuro Medenica was appointed Political Commissar. On February 10, 1945, this command carried out a complete reorganization of the army, forming the Artillery, Cavalry, and Signal Divisions, the Brigade Operations Group, the 46th and 52nd Divisions, etc. This military occupation machine in Kosovo, taking all measures to “cleanse” the terrain from the “remnants of fascism” and “counter-revolutionaries”, killed and massacred thousands of Albanians in every corner of Kosovo.

Especially after the establishment of the military regime in Kosovo, to suppress and defeat the insurgent elements, the Operational Headquarters, ordered by the Supreme Headquarters of the UNÇJ, began the mobilization of Albanians to send them to the Trieste and Istra fronts (in the north-west of Yugoslavia), although the mobilization of Albanians had begun as early as the end of December 1944 (with their sending to the Srem front, in the north of Serbia). On 11.03.1945, a demonstration of women was organized in Gjakova, against the forced mobilization of their sons, brothers and husbands.

The bloody journey of the echelons (groups)

The first killings took place at midnight on March 26-27, during an open-air rest in Kukës. The first echelon, consisting of 3.700 people, left on March 24, 1945, and after 5-6 days arrived in Tivar, where it was handed over to the units of the 9th Yugoslav Division. During the journey, until they were handed over at the designated place, the mobilized people were brutally mistreated by Serbo-Montenegrin criminals.

The Albanian mobilized from Tivar will leave for Istria, where they will initially stop for a few days to rest on the island of Čiovo near Trogir. And during those days, during the passage on an old ship, from the island to Trogir, about 65 people drowned, of whom 29 were from Kačanik alone. The second echelon, consisting of 4.700 people, left two days later (on March 26), under the escort of the forces of the XXVII Brigade and on March 30, 1945 in Shkodra, it was handed over to the Montenegrin X Brigade.

During the four-day march on the Prizren-Zhur-Kukës-Pukë-Shkodër route, despite the great fatigue and exhaustion from the long journey, the mobilized were mistreated and beaten and in many places many of them were killed, during the rest period, while crossing rivers or while one of them was trying to quench his thirst at the water sources. The first murders took place at midnight on March 26-27, 1945, during a rest period under the open sky in Kukës. On this occasion, the most authoritative people among the mobilized were killed, they were the superiors of the military units, those Albanians who commanded during the march, from the municipal centers to the military barracks in Prizren.

On the evening of March 27, 1945, this echelon arrived in Fushë-Arrëz and according to a well-prepared scenario, the Serbo-Montenegrin executioners, during their break (at midnight on March 27-28, 1945) under the open sky while sleeping (in their sleep), cruelly killed about 120-140 people and their bodies were thrown into a ditch. After these adventures, from Shkodra under the escort of the Montenegrins - at noon on April 1, 1945, they arrived in Tivar. On that fateful day, a mobilization of Serbo-Montenegrin soldiers could be seen on the streets of the city, who looked with contempt at the long column of Albanians.

This column was stopped in the city center (by order), supposedly to rest, and in the meantime, a scuffle occurred between the guard and four Albanians, who were prevented from drinking water at a nearby well. From this conflict, the ordered soldiers poured a barrage of bullets into the bodies of the Albanians, killing several of them. The tense situation, on purpose (to start the prepared plot), pushed the mass of Albanians to lie on the ground, while that space was targeted by rifles and machine guns that were placed on every corner of the streets, windows and terraces of houses, and on the rocks of the surrounding hills.

During the months of March-April 1945, 16.423 Albanians were deported from Kosovo via the Prizren-Kukës-Shkodër-Tivar road (to the Adriatic Front), while around 4.600 others were sent from the Albanian areas of Macedonia. Meanwhile, in January 1945, around 18.500 Albanians were mobilized to the Northern Front (Srem) as part of the “Kosmet” Brigades and 5000 others from Macedonia. From these figures it results that during the months of January-April 1945, around 44.523 Albanians were forcibly mobilized from Kosovo and other ethnic areas, for the so-called “Srem” and “Adriatic” fronts.

Mobilizing perpetrators to eradicate crime

In order to lose the traces of this cruel act, all Serbian-Montenegrin military units, citizens and workers of this nationality were mobilized and with trucks, wagons, carts, etc., during the entire night of April 1 and 2, they carried the corpses and the wounded (together!!!) and transported them towards the old city of Tivat, to a place (abyss), between the rocks of the coast. The corpses of the Albanians were first burned and then thrown into the abyss, while the rest will be buried…!!!

According to archival sources, it turns out that in Tivar, on April 1, 1945, about 1700 Albanians were killed and massacred, although the memories of the witnesses who experienced this massacre show that this number could be much higher. This tragic event for the Albanian people, although it happened far from the public opinion at the time, was clearly prepared by the head of the Yugoslav leadership, although later Aleksandër Ranković and company would try to describe this event as a “serious incident caused by the fault of the Albanians themselves”!

The UNÇJ's barbarism against the Albanian people

During these bloody operations, these forces committed the most heinous crimes known to human history against the Albanian population, as well as confiscated, looted, burned and ruthlessly destroyed their property. During this period, 47.300 Albanians were killed and massacred in the most cruel ways.

Thus, in:

1. Gjilan, 7854 people were killed.
2. Pristina, 3.675.
3. Drenica, 4.820.
4. Mitrovica, 1.970.
5. Peja, 3.540.
6. Ferizaj, 1.260.
7. Podujevo, 1.670.
8. Prizren, 1.200.
9. Gjakova, 800.
10. Rahovec, 750.
11. Suhareka, 420.
12. Dragash, 500.
13. Presevo, 690.
14. Skopje, 1.450.
15. Tetovo, 4100.
16. Gostivar, 715.
17. Kičevo, 490.
18. Sanjak, (Jeni Pazar), 1.410,
19. Kumanovo, 780.
20. Tutin, 900.
21. Bihar, 3820.
22. Plavë and Guci, 710.
23. Ulcinj, 515.
24. Tivara and Dalmatia, 2.600 Albanians.

In this situation, all the property of the murdered Albanians was confiscated, destroyed or looted by the Serbian colonists, who had returned according to the directives of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party./ Memory.al