From VEPROR HASANI
Part Four
Memorie.al / On the morning of December 5, 1912, according to the allafrënga calendar, or December 18 according to the allaturka calendar, a terrible piece of news spread: the Greek armies had entered Devoll and were advancing towards Korçë. They were burning, killing, and destroying everything in their path. The Greek divisions were led by a colonel named Dhamiano. The Muslims of the villages of Devoll were seized by panic. All the horror was about to fall upon them. They decided to leave their homes and set out for Korçë, thinking that perhaps there they would be safer. Nothing was certain, but they had no other solution. They waited for darkness to fall. The accounts of that night, as dawn broke on December 6/19 are among the most harrowing. Those who took to the road were many. They could not take anything with them.
Continued from previous issue
He accepted the armistice. He hoped that during this time, reinforcements would arrive from Devoll and Qafa e Qarrit. If that happened, then he could break the armistice whenever he wanted. They decided to go out together into the street and give the signal for peace. The Bishop was accompanied by Vasil Singjello, Dr. K. Noçka, Efrim Gjini, and the doctor from the Greek hospital, Athanas Ikonomi. They entered one of the tanneries in the market and drank the armistice coffee.
Unfortunately, the armistice lasted only a few hours. The andartë (Greek irregulars) provoked again. From this action of theirs, Vasil Gjoni met his death. He was among several others who advanced with weapons towards the Church of St. George. The lack of a supreme commander was creating confusion. No one else was taking the place of Jorgji Sulo. This situation angered the custodian of the Greek hospital, Andhrea Papadhaqi. He took out his insignia, the symbol of the Greek crown, left them at the Metropolis, and assumed leadership of the insurgents.
The andartë finally had a commander. They would be led by a hospital custodian! Before dawn on the second day of the uprising, Papadhaqi sent 30 soldiers from the “sacred battalion” to Bilisht to find out once and for all why the andartë were not coming. At dawn on Friday (the second day of the uprising), news arrived from Devoll: The andartë would be present in Korçë by midday. The Ierolohitë (“sacred battalions”) were ready to celebrate this news, but at that moment, bad news arrived.
A letter signed by Abdyl Ypi and the Dutch officers had arrived at the Metropolis. They demanded that the soldiers of the “sacred battalions” hand over their weapons, as otherwise they would be punished. The Ierolohitë of Korçë did not obey. How could they surrender now, when 1,000 andartë were coming to their aid from Devoll, led by an old Greek officer! But midday passed, night fell, and no andartë were coming. The Albanians continued to take control of other parts of the city. The government of Durrës ordered the siege of the city of Korçë.
The siege was carried out, and all the Grecomans (pro-Greek Albanians) who were caught armed would be declared prisoners of war. The andartë of Devoll appeared alive on the third day of the uprising, Saturday April 22/4, 1914. The Greek captain Mavraza had managed to find about 120 people, street ruffians, ragtag fellows gathered from here and there, but they were not meant for bravery and rifles. Upon arriving at the bank of the Shëndëllia, machine-gun fire was heard. Their arrival announced itself, but that was all. Then nothing more was heard, as if they had all died suddenly.
They had come for show. They descended into the city silently, and only when they entered the Metropolis did they start shouting: “Long live autonomy! Long live Greece!” Stavro Samaraj brought them a Greek flag and they raised it on the balcony of Bishop Germanos. Then they went out to fight, but Captain Mavraza suffered the same fate as Jorgji Sulo; he was wounded in the shoulder from the start and did not get up again to give courage to the Ierolohitë. He fled back the way he had come, together with the andartë he had gathered from the roads of Devoll.
While both sides were attacking each other, from time to time the andartë who were tasked with executing people who had openly come out against Greece continued to kill people. This was something they knew how to do much better than fighting face-to-face. Captain Niko, from Thrace in Greece, along with several others, entered the Vlach quarter and began executing its people.
Nikolla Çekani, Papallambro Ballamaçi, his brother Sotiri, Vangjel Babajano, Vasil Tabaku, and Nikolla Andrea Çika, a 12-year-old child, were killed. Vasil Facja, who saw with his own eyes what horrors one experienced before being killed, took his own life before the brave men of the Captain from Thrace could reach his house.
“This second act of brutality by the Greek andartë against the Vlachs of Korçë greatly angered the government of Romania, which protested officially and severely, and diplomatic ties and friendship between the two governments would have been cut for a trifle had the Greek government not given satisfaction to the Romanian government. Moreover, it was forced, seeing that the Romanian people had raised up against the Greeks, to break off the marriage engagement it was preparing with the family of Constantine, whose daughter was to be betrothed to the crown prince of Romania.” (Petro Harrizi, “The Chronographic History of Korçë”)
By the end of the third day, the andartë were almost hopeless. Korçë would never be ruled by them. Even the hospital custodian Andhrea Papadhaqi abandoned his role as supreme commander. He too fled to Bilisht. The Ierolohitë were left again without a captain. All the news they received was disheartening. The forces of former deputy Gaqo Busho had been broken by the brave men of Captain Kajua. The army of 400 men under Doctor Harisiadis had also been routed by the vetëdashës (forces of the government of Korçë) and the residents of Mborje.
Here is how the end of the fighting is narrated by two vetëdashës brothers (gendarmes of the Albanian government), Qerim and Feti Butka: “The war continued without interruption for five days and five nights. The news had begun to spread quickly. The word also reached the commanders of the Albanian bands. The first to enter Korçë was Captain Kajua. ‘Arise!’ he had told his brave men, ‘the andartë are trying to seize Korçë from us.’ His brave men together with Kajua approached Korçë from above, at the place called ‘Vreshtat’. The andartë and the Greek soldiers were stunned. Who was attacking them from this side? The confusion was great. Fear and panic gripped them one after another. They rushed hastily downwards to escape Kajua’s fire, but again they faced a heavy hail of bullets. Agush Çaushi with his band, who had just arrived from Starova, had blocked their way. They had little time to think. Their only chance of escape was to slip silently towards the Kolonja road.
A large number of them rushed towards that path, but they would soon realize they were heading towards death. The band of Sali Butka, led by his son Gani Butka, had arrived. That moment remained unforgettable. As soon as the andartë heard of Sali Butka’s band, they were petrified. They had heard his name before. Each one of them began thinking only of his own head. They tried to break through towards Mborje, where the city cemetery is today, with the aim of escaping towards the Greek border, but even this attempt proved impossible.
The band of Zalo Prodani had cut off their way. The first line of andartë was felled by the bullets of this band. At that very moment, a crowd of andartë started shooting from the Church of St. Thanasi. Perhaps they too had envisioned a possible encirclement. All the rifle muzzles were turned that way. Shortly afterwards, a great explosion was heard and the Church of St. Thanasi was engulfed in flames. It burned down completely.
Perhaps the Greek priests had placed the Greek army’s ammunition there. After many efforts, the war ended. The number of prisoners was large. They came out with their hands up, one after another. That same day, a commission was set up under the direction of Prefect Pandeli Vangjeli, Sub-prefect Abdyl Ypi, Major Snellen Van Vallenhoven, and Kristo Floqi, who were to judge all those who had killed innocent people.”
No one knew exactly what had happened. The preliminary information of the newspaper “Koha” made known that the Albanians had lost 26 dead, among them Papallambro Ballamaçi, his brother Sotiri, and 6 other Vlachs. There were 17 wounded. On the outskirts of the city, another 30 dead were found residents of villages who had come out to defend Korçë; 8 women were found executed as well; 3 of them had been slaughtered because they were known as women with strong national sentiments.
Another 8 women were wounded. The andartë had apparently been waging war against women, the elderly, children, and old ladies. This news stirred up a crowd of armed people. They wanted revenge as soon as possible. “We will burn the houses of the Grecomans!” was their cry. No doubt it could have happened that way, but Sub-prefect Abdyl Ypi stood before them: “No,” he told them, “they are not Greeks, they are our brothers; one day they will understand what homeland and patriots mean.”
Ypi’s words managed to push back the enraged crowd. But the number of dead had been much larger. Only one day later was the truth discovered. According to Petro Harrizi, the dead numbered 112 people. 43 from Korçë alone, the rest were residents who had come from the villages. Arrests of the guilty people, the organizers of the bloodshed, were about to begin.
On Monday, the last day of the uprising, April 24/6, 1914, after dark, the American consul, Major Harold Sherwood Spencer, and the Dutch officers, Captain Jetze Doorman, Major Snellen van Vollenhoven, and Captain Leopold de Ghilard, arrested Bishop Germanos, whom they took to the government building accompanied by the Ikonom Papa Josifi and his servant, Dhimitër Tallabaku. Together with Bishop Germanos, Vasil Singjello, Efrim Gjini, Vasil Kondi, Jani Spiceri, Onço Ballauri, and three doctors – Llambi Dardha, Papadhopuli, and K. Polena – were also arrested.
Like the Bishop, they too were taken to the government building. After midnight, Bishop Germanos was sent towards Elbasan. Germanos’ only request was to take Anastasia with him. His request was granted. The Bishop was taken into custody by the Dutch officer Reimers. Together with Anastasia, they were taken to Elbasan in the same horse-drawn cart, accompanied by a second cart carrying the other arrested leaders.
After a few days, the other aforementioned arrested persons, including Efrim Gjini, were also taken to Elbasan. Arrests continued over the following days; locals and foreigners, people who worked secretly for the “whores” of the Greek agency, were arrested.
We are ending this narrative here with a short paragraph written by Petro Harrizi in his book, “The Chronographic History of Korçë”, p. 89, where it is written: “How peace was made among the combatants, how all the insurgents were forced to raise the white flag in their homes, and how the country was pacified in this manner, the Government first undertook to take care of burying the dead who had been left uncovered, there where they had been killed, because no one dared to go outside.”
While on page 91, it continues: “Thereafter, the Albanian Government began to look after the tranquility of the people and public safety, sending out patrols at night composed of Albanian vetëdashës in Varosh or of Muslims in Kasaba. In Varosh, Muslims, Gegs or locals, also came out to guard, but always under the command of Albanian vetëdashës.
An order was also given to light lanterns at night. Those who were stubborn and did not light them were punished, and thus they began to comply with the orders of the Government. … On the balcony of the Metropolis, the Albanian flag was hoisted and flew.” / Memorie.al
