1877–78 expulsions of Albanians
| Expulsion of Albanians 1877–1878 | |
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| Location | Sanjak of Niş (now southern Serbia), Sanjak of İşkodra (partially in contemporary Montenegro), Ottoman Empire |
| Date | 1877–1878 |
| Target | mainly Albanians, Albanian houses and Muslim religious buildings |
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Attack type
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Ethnic cleansingExpulsion, Forced migration |
| Victims | Between 30,000 to 70,000 Albanians became refugees. |
| Perpetrators | Serbian army, Montenegrin army |
| Motive | Anti-Albanian sentiment, Serbian expansionism |
The Expulsion of Albanians 1877–1878 refers to events of forced migration of Albanian populations from areas that became incorporated into the Principality of Serbia and Principality of Montenegro in 1878. These wars, alongside the larger Russo-Ottoman War (1877–78) war ended in defeat and substantial territorial losses for the Ottoman Empire which was formalised at the Congress of Berlin.
On the eve of conflict between Montenegro and the Ottomans (1876–1878), a substantial Albanian population resided in the Sanjak of İşkodra. In the Montenegrin-Ottoman war that ensured, strong resistance in the towns of Podgorica and Spuž toward Montenegrin forces was followed by the expulsion of their Albanian and Slavic Muslim populations which resettled in Shkodër.
On the eve of conflict between Serbia and the Ottomans (1876–1878), a substantial, at times compact and mainly rural Albanian population alongside some urban Turks (some of Albanian heritage) lived with Serbs within the Sanjak of Niş. Throughout the course of the war, the Albanian population depending on the area reacted differently to incoming Serbian forces by either offering resistance and/or fleeing toward nearby mountains and Ottoman Kosovo. While most of these Albanians were expelled by Serbian forces, a small presence was allowed to remain in the Jablanica valley where their descendants live today. Serbs from Lab moved to Serbia during and after the first round of hostilities in 1876, while incoming Albanian refugees thereafter 1878 repopulated their villages. Albanian refugees also settled alongside the north-eastern Ottoman-Serbian border, in urban areas and in over 30 settlements located in central and south-eastern Kosovo. Ottoman authorities had difficulties accommodating to the needs of the refugees and they were hostile to the local Serbian population committing revenge attacks. The expulsion of the Albanian population from these regions was done in a manner that today would be classed as ethnic cleansing. These Albanian refugees and their descendant populations became known in Albanian as Muhaxhir; plural: Muhaxhirë, a generic word for Muslim refugees (borrowed from Ottoman Turkish: Muhacir and derived from Arabic: Muhajir). The events of this period generated the emergence of the Serbian-Albanian conflict and tense relations between both peoples.
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