Partition of Albania

The Partition of Albania (Albanian: Copëtimi i Shqipërisë) is a term used for the partition of the Albanian state, which proclaimed its independence on 28 November 1912. The delination of the newly established Principality of Albania under the terms of the London Conference of 1912-1913 (29 July 1913) and the Ambassadors of the six Great Powers of that time (Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Italy) left Albanian and non-Albanian populations on both sides of the border. Representatives of the Albanian national movement viewed this as partition of claimed Albanian-inhabited territories, also territories contained in a proposed Albanian Vilayet.

After the establishment of the Albanian state, there were plans to further partition Albania during World War I; however, Albania was not partitioned and maintained its independent existence. Additional plans of partition were negotiated during and after World War II.

The 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War severely contracted the Ottoman possessions in the Balkan Peninsula, leaving the empire with only a precarious hold on Macedonia and the western Balkans. Albanians had been under Ottoman Empire since 1479 with the fall of Shkodër. The region claimed by Albanian national leader was ethnically heterogeneous, consisting of large areas inhabited also by Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbians, Turks and Aromanians, though Sami Frashëri (or Şemseddin Sami) claimed that Albanians were the majority of the population in the four vilayets of İşkodra, Yannina, Monastir and Kosovo. The first postwar treaty, the abortive Treaty of San Stefano signed on 3 March 1878, assigned Albanian-populated lands to Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary and the United Kingdom blocked the arrangement because it awarded Russia a predominant position in the Balkans and thereby upset the European balance of power. A peace conference to settle the dispute was held later in the year in Berlin. The Congress of Berlin ceded to Montenegro the cities of Bar and Podgorica and areas around the mountain villages of Gusinje and Plav, which Albanian leaders considered Albanian territory,and viewed this as a partition of Albanian-inhabited territories. In February 1879, the Powers insisted that the Porte give up the Albanian-claimed areas of Plava, Podgorica, Gucia and Ulcinj, and withdraw all Ottoman troops from the disputed zones.

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