By GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS*
Part Five
Memorie.al – “Bah! Look at these barbarians!” has cried every tyrant who has driven his victim into misfortune, when he finally found it impossible to make a slave of them. The painful event of Albania has not been shown to the people of the United States of America. It had been hidden away in the land of Byron and of the great states, which have decided to erase this heroic people from the face of the earth. In the dark halls of European diplomacy for centuries, the fate of Albania has been tormented. Even now, with tears in its eyes and utterly weakened by the slavery and injustice of centuries, it stretches out its withered hands to seek justice and freedom; but still in vain. Yes, the wages of sin is death, and the righteous care of God brings forward the fact that the present evil state of Europe stems directly from that very policy which it used for Albania.
Continued from the previous issue
But the histories and accounts do not mention any foreigner who ever found himself in danger on Albanian soil; inevitably, those who did not bring with them any plot or other evil intent against the people. Generally, the hospitality of the Albanians is valued by those foreigners all the more for having visited this country with friendly intentions. In this land, by the word city we mean a place that has no more than 40,000 inhabitants.
A RICH LAND
In Albania there are large and fertile plains which could feed millions, but now they are only scratched with a wooden plow and are not worked. Most of them are covered with useless weeds where the country’s weak livestock grazes. The mines are unexcavated and unknown. Those more knowledgeable in mineralogy say that the Albanian land has coal, petroleum, iron, asphalt, and copper, but their discovery and exploitation have never been permitted.
The production of grains, corn, olives, fruit trees, and vineyards, if they were cultivated, would be very great, while fish is inexhaustible. The poor peasant, with mostly primitive tools, as well as the ox with the plow, often rented them because he had to pay, at any sacrifice, the heavy taxes, even though he was himself poor from the currents of the times, slowly abandoned the cultivation of the land, which under good tillage could yield millions, and set about guarding those few livestock he had, and the fertile land was left almost entirely as pasture.
But even his livestock is in a very poor condition; its wool, due to its coarseness, has very little value, and the breed of his livestock has never been renewed. The large quantity of hides goes to waste due to the impossibility of transport and the lack of knowledge of their preparation. Behold! What a pity! In the middle of Europe, a rich land, a fertile land, finds itself in such a state, as if in the middle of a desert!
THE PRINCIPLE OF DEVALUATION
Albania has many legends of the past, but the Turks did not allow excavations, which might have reminded this people of their former flourishing. The teaching of the Albanian language was completely forbidden in any school. Today there is no fixed alphabet, no printing presses to print newspapers and books for this people. The Turkish rules arrested and interned those whom they found, even in the mail, with books of any kind in the Albanian language.
The language of the Albanians had to remain silent for the sake of the ruler. To give them no opportunity to unite in seeking their freedom and rights, the Turks kindled and increased every day more and more enmity between families, neighborhoods, villages, and different faiths. The fanaticism and the rewards received by the local leaders were the strongest poison to embolden every evil, and they weighted the yoke and hindered progress.
The village boy born in Albania grew up completely ignorant because Turkey allowed very few schools to be opened in its own language, besides the foreign ones; so that the mind, hope, and ambition of the young Albanian might not be awakened. The poor father, overwhelmed by his poverty, could give his son only one path outside the country, by sending him to Constantinople, where he would inevitably adapt to military life, swell under a uniform with tassels, and be fed from the King’s kitchen. Nevertheless, the Turkish ruler never saw fit to awaken the Albanian boy.
EUROPE SUPPORTS TURKISH RULE
European diplomacy has always recognized the evil character of Turkish rule. To the shame of this diplomacy, this truth has been told openly, but to all these protests the Great Powers have answered: “The Albanians are a savage race.”
No man in Europe knew the people and the land of Albania better than the famous Italian, Marchese San Giuliano. With a strong pen, this gentleman has delineated the summit of cruelty with which Turkish rule humiliated and devastated a people, for whose bravery and capacity this writer has great respect.
But, as he himself says, from the diplomatic position he held, he was obliged to deny the rights of the Albanians with these words: “Therefore Italy is interested in leaving untouched the honor of the Sultan in Albania from every point of view; on the contrary, as much as possible, it will strengthen it further and will prevent anything that might cause the disappearance of his rule, or that might cause conditions which, sooner or later, might become a cause for foreign intervention or for general unrest.”
With this spirit, Europe condemned the Albanians to filthy slavery and their isolation from the outside world, to the suppression of their wealth and industry, to the ignorance that grew daily, to the fanaticism it instilled among them, to poverty, and to the suppression of their feelings.
STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM
I will not describe the long history of how the Albanians, with leagues, congresses, and rebellions in every form, have tried to eliminate their slavery. It is enough that Turkey over the centuries recognized its own incapacity and the impossibility of subjugating the highlanders. No foot of Turkish soldier dared to enter the interior of the mountains. Moreover, once when the Sultan wanted to attack Montenegro, he first obtained permission from the highlanders, and then his army was able to pass.
Europe never emerged victorious in its plans, which through treaties and alliances; it tried to erase the name of this people from among the nations. Albania did not recognize the Treaty of Berlin and is now also opposing the London Agreement. Precisely at this time while I am writing this book, Italy has occupied the coastal cities of Durrës and Vlorë, for the sole reason that it finds the people armed and who will certainly oppose their violation.
It remains to be seen whether imperialism, militarism, and navalism, things that have brought Europe to the brink of death, will preserve it or not from punishment for the sins it has committed. If the righteous judgment of humanity will bring a new universal life, peace and brotherhood, it must cast down and abolish secret diplomacy as well, which has been the violence and general hatred that has brought all the present atrocities.
It is this kind of diplomacy that kept Albania for centuries under the filthy rule of Turkey, drowned it in poverty, closed the light of civilization upon it, and on all the roads that led to this country placed the sign: “It is dangerous – keep away.” Finally, when the Turkish yoke was broken, Europe itself set to work on this country, shearing from this land the most important parts, and upon the piece that remained, it undertook to create a government so despotic in its character that even the government of Constantinople had never foreseen it.
Instead of giving the Albanians any assurance of liberty or a statute, Europe brought a Prince, an International Commission, and a foreign gendarmerie organization to rule Albania, apparently without at all considering that this people too should have a voice in its own government. This was openly absolute tyranny. / Memorie.al
*George Fred Williams (1852-1937) American diplomat, former ambassador of the United States of America to Greece and Montenegro, in the years 1913-1914.
