“Neither beatings with sticks, nor guns, nor cannons, nor exile, nor imprisonment, nor even death itself can shake them from their place.” The speaker was a young Albanian who had done part of his schooling in the United States. He has now returned to his country, where he is working with great diligence. He is one of the few educated people in Albania, but he aims that the next generation will not count on the fingers of the educated men and women of Albania. The above-mentioned words were preceded by these: “At the moment, from north to south and from east to west of Albania, all classes of people – Muslims and Christians alike – have a desire, almost a passion, for national education. All of them understand that, just as in the past the sword was a symbol of power, today education is the goddess of power, and they will be educated, despite persecution.”

The Albanians have become aware of their need for Western civilization and progress. But, from the first day of the adoption of the new Ottoman Constitution, the New Turks were determined that civilization should come to the Albanians only after it had passed through a Turkish and Mohammedan sieve. This program could not be accepted by the Albanians, even if the New Turks had been able to implement it. The Albanian is European: for more than two thousand years he has lived where he lives now – in the fortresses of Epirus and Illyria, across the Adriatic parallel to the heel of Italy.

In the early nineteenth century, Albanians mingled with their southern neighbors, the Greeks, and were the backbone of Greece's struggle for independence. Marko Bocari's compatriots all emigrated to Cephalonia, on the coast of Greece, but nearly 2 million more unfortunate Albanians now live under Turkish rule.
During the 125 years before the discovery of America, the proud republic of Venice had a benevolent supremacy over the Albanian cities of the coast and thus delayed Turkish domination by a century.

With the fall of Scutari in Albania and the expulsion of the Venetians by the Turks in 1748, the latter began their rule – centuries of deceit, broken trusts, and cruelty.

The result of Turkish rule can be summed up as the Albanians' deeper immersion in poverty, superstition, and bloodlust, due to the fertile terrain guaranteed by their mountainous history and primitive features. Throughout two millennia, the waves and impulses of progress have not reached the Albanians, or have bypassed them, leaving them untouched.

Revenge is still practiced

Today, as in the past, it is true that one in five highlanders is a victim of the terrible revenge that only civilization can eradicate from the life of the Albanian. To shoot a person, even secretly, is a matter of taking blood. Nothing else can restore the wounded honor. If the murderer himself is not killed, then one of the relatives must be the victim, and thus the endless chain begins. When revenge has gone too far, it can be bought off if you have enough money, or it can be stopped through some of the collectivities of the Albanian code.

No one should speak of the Albanian as a lawless man. He scrupulously applies what he knows and accepts: but these are the laws that nature and customs have given him, as well as the nature of his ancestors centuries ago, somewhat "codified" in the 15th century, although to this day they have never been put on paper. Some of the strange rules that guide his life are: Persons who are descended from a common male ancestor, through the male line, consider each other brothers, or brother and sister, and as a consequence marriage within the tribe is excluded.

Young people can swear brotherhood, and this creates a relationship that subjects both of them, along with their descendants for several generations, to the same marriage laws that also regulate blood ties. People who have the same godfather cannot marry, and there are two types of godfathers: baptismal and hair godfathers.

When a child, boy or girl, turns 2, his hair, which has not been touched by scissors until then, is ceremonially cut. The cutting is performed by the godfather, who then, if the child is Christian, leaves a lock of hair for each point of the compass, creating a cross. If he is Muslim, three locks to form a triangle. In the case of revenge, the man should not be touched if he is accompanied by a child or a woman.

Unbreakable personality

Today, the Albanian is the most picturesque personality in Europe. However, as interesting as his features is his political future. Of late there has been an Albanian national consciousness that refuses to be suppressed. Under the abnormal rule of the Turks, the various Christian races of the Empire, such as the Ottoman Armenians, the Ottoman Bulgarians, and the Ottoman Greeks, have each had their own national existence, a state within a state, though always subject to the will of the Turks.

The Albanians, though they have generally developed a kind of Muslim loyalty which gives them a quasi-solidarity with the Turks, are determined to have a national entity of their own. Although they are cursed with the backwardness which has more or less everywhere accompanied the Mohammedan faith, their leaders understand that they are not an Oriental but a Western race. That their Turko-Mohammedan features are a veneer, and that a generation with the right education will suffice to make the great leap forward and take their place among the civilized races of the Balkan peninsula.

Not incompatible with the new Albanian nationalism – it may even be its reason – is the fact that the Albanian is one of the most individualistic members of the human race. If he had not been so, he would have long ago lost his identity, merging with the various peoples who have come to surround the Albanian mountains over the ages. Despite the constant attacks of the Romans, Goths, Serbs and Bulgarians and 350 years of Turkish domination, the Albanian has preserved his invincible individuality.

Crispi, the Italian statesman, was of Albanian descent. He was a member of the large colony of Albanians in Sicily and southern Italy, whose ancestors, nearly a hundred thousand, emigrated when Turkey invaded Albania. Even today, the Albanians of Italy preserve their ancestry.

The unwillingness or inability of Albanians to change their individuality is tragically reflected in the continued existence of the Albanian tribal system and the perpetual strife between the tribes.

As a result, Albania has not been able to present a united front against a common enemy. Only one great national unifying hero has emerged for the Albanians – Skanderbeg. He died in 1467, after winning 21 battles against the Turks. His death left Albania leaderless, and the brave Albanians, who knew no loyalty or law beyond that of family and clan, fell under the rule of Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople. Mehmed was able to suppress, but not subjugate, the Albanians.

Even later sultans have failed to fulfill this great desire. The best they could do was to make them their own, and until the last day of Abdyl Hamit's tyranny, the Albanians were treated as a special people. Hamit bought their loyalty by not taxing them, by curbing military recruitment, and by selecting the best of these rugged mountaineers as his personal bodyguards.

The Young Turks were ruthless

When, after 1908, the Young Turks had adopted their Constitution and were trying with great difficulty to bring order to the Ottoman Empire, the treatment of Albania was one of the most delicate problems. It should have been done more carefully.

Through delicate handling, the fulfillment of promises, and the display of a just sympathy for the aspirations of an ignorant but very capable race, the Young Turks would have been able to erect and strengthen in the province of Albania an impenetrable barrier to European aggression.

Instead, they have followed a course that has been aptly described by the Constantinople correspondent of the London Times as the steamroller policy. Ignoring the advice of every experienced politician, the Young Turks rushed to “treat” the Albanians as they had done with the ignorant Turkish peasants of Asia Minor. No other strategy could have been more misguided and more doomed to failure. The first signs of opposition were already apparent in the autumn of 1909, but it was not until the spring of 1910 that a revolt assumed serious proportions.

On April 5 of that year, Muslim Albanians in the northeastern corner of Albania took up arms against the government. For a few days the rebels held Kaçanik, but 50 Turkish troops were immediately sent to the region and the movement was crushed. It had a local character and lacked organization. Albania as a whole was not its goal.

However, the Young Turks thought it was time to teach the rebellious Albanians a lesson. The troops that had been assembled to crush the uprising marched across Albania. One division went west, to Shkodra. They traversed mountain roads that for generations had been closed to anyone traveling accompanied by a Turkish soldier, because the Albanians did not like the uniform of Turkish authority. But now the mountaineers, caught by surprise, would disarm.

After the crushing defeat of their outnumbered brothers, faced with machine guns – an unusual horror for ordinary Albanians – there was no hope of resistance. Their weapons – their pride and possessions – were taken away, and the Albanians were “taught a cruel lesson”. Another division of Turkish forces marched south and penetrated the peaceful valleys of Albania.

In Elbasan, the intellectual leaders of New Albania had opened a normal school. They were trying to prepare Albanians to become teachers of their ignorant compatriots throughout the country. They used the Albanian language and, according to a vote of an Albanian congress a year earlier, they wrote this language – a European language – in Latin letters.

Under Abdul Hamid, any attempt to write or teach in Albanian was suppressed. Only in the Austrian and Italian mission schools in northern Albania, where Austrian and Italian propaganda was offered, and outside the Sultan's surveillance, had it been possible for Albanians to study in their own language.

As for an alphabet, Austrian politicians who support the missionary work of Austrian priests and never cease to advance Austrian schemes, looked with suspicion at a future for Albania, whose leaders educated in Italy or Austria would be united by a common language and alphabet. Thus, a long alphabet was created and offered to children in Austrian mission schools. / Memorie.al