A 120th anniversary of the Pec League is marked

In honor of this day, different activities will develop.

Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj will pay tribute to the monument and tower of Haxhi Zeka in Pec. The Vetevendosje Movement will also hold several activities in the town of Pec.

How did it come to be forming the Pec League?

At the end of the 19th century, lands inhabited by Albanians were put at risk, as Balkan neighbours began actively aggressively to invade Macedonia's territories, which would lead to Balkan Wars. The controversial territory included four Albanian villas.

Albanian Patriots began preparations for the creation of a new organisation to cope with these dangers in the fall of 1896. The first meeting was held in March 1897, in Gjakova when the Albanian Covenant was established. In November another meeting was held in Pec, where 500 attended after which Istanbul intervened and distributed the Testament.

Under these complex circumstances, Albanian settlers' efforts to unite all the people and establish a new link, which, according to the example of the Prizren League, would lead Albanians in the fight for protecting Albania's entire land and liberation.

The wine of such efforts for forming a new link, as in the years of Prizren League (1878-1881) even now, in 1899, again became Kosovo's villa towns and the Dibra sanja, which threatened directly from the circles of Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

The new Albanian union was established after a major feasibility, organisational and political work -- which Albanian natives within the country, led by Haxhi Zeka and patriotic societies abroad, especially those of Bucharest and the Albanian Istanbul Committee, did in late 1898 and in January 1899. During this time, extensive meetings were held by representatives of the city and district population, such as Pec, Mitrovica, Pristina, Vushtrri, Drenica and other Kosovo villa centres, where Albanians pledged and expressed readiness to form the link.

These successive meetings of the Albanian population, as well as the intense correspondence of Haxhi Zeka with the various centres of Kosovo villas, Shkodra, Monastery and Janina, show that the League organisers intended to call an Albanian general assembly, where delegates from all regions of Albania and all faiths, Muslims, Catholic and Orthodox.

Representatives of Shkodra's population, Debar, Pristina, the New Pazar, as well as South Albania, also demanded that the assembly, which was preparing for the organisation of Albanians in a general relationship, be called as soon as possible.

At this period of preparation, the leaders of the Albanian movement also determined the programme of this assembly, which, already processed since the time of the Prizren League (1878-1881) and in the Albanian memorandums of 1896-1898, contained two fundamental issues: preserving the country's territorial integrity and forming an autonomous Albania, including all four Albanian villas.

The result of these efforts was the call of the Albanian National Assembly, which held its work in Pec on January 23rd-29th of 1899, attended by representatives of Kosovo's elite and population of villas, as well as special representatives of the monasteries and Janina villas. The formation of the new Albanian connection was announced here, which, according to the example of Prizren League of 1878, was called the League of Pec. Parliament Speaker and League Steering Committee was elected Haxhi Zeka.

The Assembly carried out its works in the form of close meetings, attended by a small number of delegates, or by organising wide gatherings, with 450-500 participants, representatives of different layers of Kosovo's villa population and other Albanian villas. While the 36 delegates, who enjoyed the vote's right, came from the towns of Kosovo's villas and were representatives of the civic and rural middle class, teachers of semi-medical schools and Turkish middle school, local administration officials, large ciders, senior officials, clergymen, etc. Among them were Haxhi Zeka, Halil Hasan saw Begoli, Myderiz Ismaili, Myderiz Abdullah, Mufti Salihu, Bajram Curri, Myderiz Mehmet Hamdiu, Mehmet Aqifi, Zeel Beu, Ali pasat Draga from Rozhaja, Ismail Haki Pasha Tetovo, Abdil Halimi, Mehmet Halimi, Mehmet Abdilili, Meder Abdali, Nahmet Sulejmani, Mehmet Atafi, Mehmet Meraj, Mehmet Mati from Senica etc.

In addition to 36 Kosovo villa delegates, who have placed their signatures on the Peja Assembly decisions, special representatives of other Albanian villas, Shkodra, the Monastery and Iana participated in the gathering. The Dibra Sandzak of the monastery's villa was represented by Selim Russia, the prominent intellectual and native of the three. Many delegates from the towns of the Shkodra villa, the monasteries and Janina, who could not go to the Peja Assembly because of the obstacles posed by Ottoman authorities, announced to the Parliament that they approve of its decisions and that they preserve the right to participate in the Albanian League.

The January 1899 Assembly was named by its organizers as a first, preliminary rally to be followed by a more general Albanian assembly or convention.

The Pec Assembly made important decisions for the further development of the Albanian National Movement, such as the 11-point Resolution (Carnamija) and the 12-point Act of Besa, which were approved at the closed-door meeting of the Assembly on January 28th and were publicly announced on January 29, 1899.

In the decisions of the Parliament, the formation of the League was proclaimed, or, as it was called in Resolute, Itifak, and Besa was placed among Albanians. The connection was seen as a unique national and general organisation that would unite all Albanians, yaga and tobacco, Muslims and Christians in its bosom. To achieve this union, blood feuds, hostilities, and disputes were decided to be prohibited, and strict penalties were envisioned for both these and other actions that violated public order.

The link defined as Albania's primary first-hand duty to protect Albania's territorial integrity against any attempt Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece would take to fragment Albanian lands. The Assembly particularly highlighted the danger of annexing the Albanian villas of Kosovo and the monastery and expressed readiness to mobilise all Albanians in the event the country was attacked by any side and especially if these villas were attacked, which neighboring states and the Great Powers included in the so-called Macedonia. In the event of the war, it was set to become such a division of Albanian forces, which would protect the homeland -- those of Pristina's Sanjak, of the New Pazar and Debar -- would guard the northeast borders against Serbia, the forces of Peja, Plava and Shkodra, the border with Montenegro, and those of the Janina (South Albania) villa would oppose Greece.

Under these conditions the League of Albanian National Movement overall suffered serious losses, which led to their decline and the struggle for Albania's autonomy.

At the end of 1900, the Pec League was printed without having been able to fulfill the duties of the Albanian National Movement. However, it left a deep impression on the consciences of the people and exerted a powerful influence on further organisation of the armed struggle against Ottoman rulers.